It’s July and I still haven’t caught my first mackerel of the year. The boat bobbed around the reefs at the Atlantic opening of Milford Haven. I dangled my favoured white mackerel feathers. In place of a weight I am experimenting with heavy jigs. Not cheap, and the big hooks threaten expensive tackle losses, but I’m hoping they’ll bag some cod too.
With only a few pollack to show for our morning’s effort, we anchored up in a small bay. Using squid as bait, I was hoping for a ray. Inevitably, dogfish were the only fish to find the bait.
After lunch, the automated winch raised the anchor and we headed back into the main channel. I’ve always felt that mackerel were more of an ‘afternoon fish’ so I was feeling optimistic. Sure enough, I was straight into a string of them. One was even impaled by the giant hooks of the jig.
A solitary greater sandeel rounded off the day.
Total Catch:
- 3 Pollack
- 4 Lesser Spotted Dogfish
- 5 Mackerel
- 1 Greater Sandeel
A Fishing Diary 