by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: February 14, 2009

It is often claimed by sea anglers that mackerel are suicidal and will go for any bait offered to them. I have even caught mackerel on bare hooks! The reason is quite simply that mackerel are tempted by bright colours and when they see same flashing in the water, they automatically believe it to be food.

The best bait for mackerel is therefore something bright and shiny. The bare hook method described above may be attempted and will work on occasion but it is always better to use some form of attractant. I recall on occasions being out on a boat fishing when we have run out of our supply of bait or appropriate lures and tempted mackerel to our hooks with aluminium foil in which our sandwiches were wrapped or even foil torn out of a cigarette packet.

The most common bait or lure used, however, to tempt mackerel are the custom made mackerel feathers. These are traces containing anything from three to six or seven 1.0 or 2.0 hooks with feathers of various colours attached to each of them. It is a worthwhile exercise when fishing for mackerel with these traces to note whether any particular colour of feather is attracting the fish. This can vary from day to day and location to location and I would presume it is something to do with the sea conditions and the way in which the light is refracted.

Hokeye lures have become very popular in sea fishing in recent years for attracting a large number of species, including mackerel. These are essentially found on traces in the same way as the feathers are above. They are small pieces of foil and feather designed to resemble small fish in the water. These too will attract a lot of mackerel.

When fishing for most species of fish, particularly in the sea, it is almost always advisable to use fresh bait. Mackerel, however, are the one species where I would probably argue the opposite. Why waste fresh bait on a species which are so readily tempted by artificial lures? Yes, they will take it very successfully in almost any form you present it, but using fresh bait for mackerel is essentially just a waste of same.

There are actually occasions when the voracity of mackerel in tackling any form of bait - even mackerel flesh! - can be extremely annoying and this is when we have already perhaps caught our desired quota of mackerel for the day, are using some of same as bait and are now attempting to catch the bigger, bottom feeding fish. As mackerel tend to be found mid-water, they will often take the bait intended to sink below them. There is no foolproof way of avoiding this happening but the best tip for helping to avoid it is to use heavier lead weights than normal in the hope that the bait will sink fast enough that either the mackerel don't see it or don't reach it in time.

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