what cheap fishing rod + is there any point!
Discussion
am on a serious health kick at the mo and will be going to parents in south devon soon. they always moan at the price of fish but i could live off just fish there so...
if i bought a cheap rod could i go sea fishing? can you do it from the shore / cliff? if so any recommendations on what to get - needs to be as cheap as possible - is there much diff between the cheap stuff and expensive for what I need?
im dreaming of endless bbq'd mackerel!!
ta
if i bought a cheap rod could i go sea fishing? can you do it from the shore / cliff? if so any recommendations on what to get - needs to be as cheap as possible - is there much diff between the cheap stuff and expensive for what I need?
im dreaming of endless bbq'd mackerel!!
ta
I live in Dawlish, and do a bit of fishing.
A cheap light rod will catch more mackerel than you will need, no problem at all. The missus and I have a couple of small telescopics we use when we get chance. It is still a bit early for the mackerel to start shoaling, and in fact, they don't do it every year. It doesn't mean they aren't there, just means you don't know exactly where to cast your spinner.
As long as you don't go nuts, a cheap rod and reel shouldn't set you back more than £30-£40.
Enjoy.
A cheap light rod will catch more mackerel than you will need, no problem at all. The missus and I have a couple of small telescopics we use when we get chance. It is still a bit early for the mackerel to start shoaling, and in fact, they don't do it every year. It doesn't mean they aren't there, just means you don't know exactly where to cast your spinner.
As long as you don't go nuts, a cheap rod and reel shouldn't set you back more than £30-£40.
Enjoy.
philthy said:
I live in Dawlish, and do a bit of fishing.
A cheap light rod will catch more mackerel than you will need, no problem at all. The missus and I have a couple of small telescopics we use when we get chance. It is still a bit early for the mackerel to start shoaling, and in fact, they don't do it every year. It doesn't mean they aren't there, just means you don't know exactly where to cast your spinner.
As long as you don't go nuts, a cheap rod and reel shouldn't set you back more than £30-£40.
Enjoy.
i spent my summer holidays of my youth in dawlish as my folks had a pad there! used to love playing by the river and on the beach. do you do it from the beach or from a boat / pier?A cheap light rod will catch more mackerel than you will need, no problem at all. The missus and I have a couple of small telescopics we use when we get chance. It is still a bit early for the mackerel to start shoaling, and in fact, they don't do it every year. It doesn't mean they aren't there, just means you don't know exactly where to cast your spinner.
As long as you don't go nuts, a cheap rod and reel shouldn't set you back more than £30-£40.
Enjoy.
If it's just Mackerel you want, a walk up and down the sea wall is all you'll need to do. Look out for other fishermen catching, and join in. If you fancy catching something a bit trickier, and more exotic, go and use live sand eels as bait from Teignmouth point, and you stand a very good chance of catching sea bass. You won't need a different rod/reel for this. Fish light, say using 7-10lb breaking strain line, and have fun. If you want to increase the chance of catching something bigger, book yourself on a boat.
If you have never seen the water "boil" with mackerel when they are in a feeding frenzy, you'll enjoy it for certain
Don't be tempted to use feathers when it is like this, as you will catch 6 fish at a time, which believe it or not, is quite a pain in the arse to deal with on a crowded wall 
If you have never seen the water "boil" with mackerel when they are in a feeding frenzy, you'll enjoy it for certain
Don't be tempted to use feathers when it is like this, as you will catch 6 fish at a time, which believe it or not, is quite a pain in the arse to deal with on a crowded wall philthy said:
If it's just Mackerel you want, a walk up and down the sea wall is all you'll need to do. Look out for other fishermen catching, and join in. If you fancy catching something a bit trickier, and more exotic, go and use live sand eels as bait from Teignmouth point, and you stand a very good chance of catching sea bass. You won't need a different rod/reel for this. Fish light, say using 7-10lb breaking strain line, and have fun. If you want to increase the chance of catching something bigger, book yourself on a boat.
If you have never seen the water "boil" with mackerel when they are in a feeding frenzy, you'll enjoy it for certain Don't be tempted to use feathers when it is like this, as you will catch 6 fish at a time, which believe it or not, is quite a pain in the arse to deal with on a crowded wall
When I was a lad mackerel fishing I'd cast a trace of six feathers out on 15lb breaking strain line.If you have never seen the water "boil" with mackerel when they are in a feeding frenzy, you'll enjoy it for certain
Don't be tempted to use feathers when it is like this, as you will catch 6 fish at a time, which believe it or not, is quite a pain in the arse to deal with on a crowded wall It isn't sport like that - it's harvesting. When the sea boils and you just yank 'em in over and over again it's quite something.
Mackeral on the BBQ - yum.
theyre near dartmouth but if i come up to dawlish way will give u a shoutloltolhurst said:
how do u kill the fish as im a bit squemish! smack their head on a rock or let them suffocate? rather they didnt suffer
Don't leave them to suffocate . . . sounds a bit gross, but index finger in the mouth, thumb on top of the neck and break the neck. Similar motion to pulling the ring pull off a can of Coke. Quick and humane.If you're catching ANY oily fish (eg mackerel), fillet them as soon as poss and get them on ice . . . their flesh starts to degrade as soon as they're despatched and you'll end up with a mushy, not particularly nice meal if you leave them in the sun, unfilleted, for half the day.
Oh, not that I'm preaching, only catch as many as you're willing to eat in the next couple of days as well. They're not suitable for freezing and I often see people struggling back to their car with enough mackerel to feed their whole street. You know damn well on seeing that, that the majority of them will end up binned . . . which I find just plain wrong.
loltolhurst said:
how do u kill the fish as im a bit squemish! smack their head on a rock or let them suffocate? rather they didnt suffer
Mackerel will expire pretty quickly anyway once out of the water. Pull them off the hook and tuck them straight into a bag out of sight - if you think you are squeamish I can assure you the General Public are the worst sort of f
king hypocritical s you have ever met - they will bh and moan at you at the very thought of you catching and killing mackerel to eat and then go and buy an enormous round of fish suppers from the Chippy that evening without even wondering if they are wrong. s, the lot of them.No need to whack the mackerel or anything like that - just pop 'em into the bag. They'll be done in moments anyway.
dangerousB said:
loltolhurst said:
how do u kill the fish as im a bit squemish! smack their head on a rock or let them suffocate? rather they didnt suffer
Don't leave them to suffocate . . . sounds a bit gross, but index finger in the mouth, thumb on top of the neck and break the neck. Similar motion to pulling the ring pull off a can of Coke. Quick and humane.If you're catching ANY oily fish (eg mackerel), fillet them as soon as poss and get them on ice . . . their flesh starts to degrade as soon as they're despatched and you'll end up with a mushy, not particularly nice meal if you leave them in the sun, unfilleted, for half the day.
Oh, not that I'm preaching, only catch as many as you're willing to eat in the next couple of days as well. They're not suitable for freezing and I often see people struggling back to their car with enough mackerel to feed their whole street. You know damn well on seeing that, that the majority of them will end up binned . . . which I find just plain wrong.
But they don't survive long anyway.
dangerousB said:
loltolhurst said:
how do u kill the fish as im a bit squemish! smack their head on a rock or let them suffocate? rather they didnt suffer
Don't leave them to suffocate . . . sounds a bit gross, but index finger in the mouth, thumb on top of the neck and break the neck. Similar motion to pulling the ring pull off a can of Coke. Quick and humane.If you're catching ANY oily fish (eg mackerel), fillet them as soon as poss and get them on ice . . . their flesh starts to degrade as soon as they're despatched and you'll end up with a mushy, not particularly nice meal if you leave them in the sun, unfilleted, for half the day.
Oh, not that I'm preaching, only catch as many as you're willing to eat in the next couple of days as well. They're not suitable for freezing and I often see people struggling back to their car with enough mackerel to feed their whole street. You know damn well on seeing that, that the majority of them will end up binned . . . which I find just plain wrong.
When I first went sea fishing it was in Ireland and the rod we used was a 10 euro job from the local newsagents, for catching Mackerel it was all you needed. The only other tools we used were a small knife and a screwdriver. The knife was for cutting up bait, you don't need much and you can always use sliced up Mackrel if need be, we used to catch a mackerel kill it and then use it for bait the rest of the evening. The screwdriver was used to get hooks out and give the fish a quick knock to kill them.
loltolhurst said:
dangerousB said:
loltolhurst said:
how do u kill the fish as im a bit squemish! smack their head on a rock or let them suffocate? rather they didnt suffer
Don't leave them to suffocate . . . sounds a bit gross, but index finger in the mouth, thumb on top of the neck and break the neck. Similar motion to pulling the ring pull off a can of Coke. Quick and humane.If you're catching ANY oily fish (eg mackerel), fillet them as soon as poss and get them on ice . . . their flesh starts to degrade as soon as they're despatched and you'll end up with a mushy, not particularly nice meal if you leave them in the sun, unfilleted, for half the day.
Oh, not that I'm preaching, only catch as many as you're willing to eat in the next couple of days as well. They're not suitable for freezing and I often see people struggling back to their car with enough mackerel to feed their whole street. You know damn well on seeing that, that the majority of them will end up binned . . . which I find just plain wrong.
You certainly could use a bucket of sea water and gut them when you get back in that time frame and it probably wouldn't too much difference to the quality, but the quicker they're gutted the better really.
As far as the smoked mackerel pate goes, that's a top way to prepare them. Get a smoker for about 70 quid or just make your own. Bloody lovely!
I think as someone said above you get enough kit for £40 easily. I used to fish regularly for mackerel and all I had was one rod, one reel, some line, a spinner and a folding knife. I would do some research on the spinner though because where I fished everyone in the know used the same one and it worked. I could easily catch about 10-15 mackerel in an hour. That's why it's easy to end up with way more than you need! I once sold mine to a restaurant when I ended up with 22 unwanted mackerel for 50p each which was enough to keep me happy at 15 years old.
My method when it came to killing was a bit unconvential. I would reel the fish in then really yank it out the water so that it went high (about 15ft) above the pier then crashed back down and died. Most of the time the hook fell out in the bang as an added bonus.
My method when it came to killing was a bit unconvential. I would reel the fish in then really yank it out the water so that it went high (about 15ft) above the pier then crashed back down and died. Most of the time the hook fell out in the bang as an added bonus.
My dad, brother-in-law & nephew went to Wales (I think) for a bit of fishing last year. My nephew (being 6 at the time) soon got bored & wanted to join in so his dad snapped a long thin branch from a nearby bush, tied some line around the end & put a hook with a maggot on it. He ended up catching loads with it (roaches mainly) while his dad caught fk all with a proper rod
Not sure what baring that has on anything in this thread but I thought it was funny
k all with a proper rodNot sure what baring that has on anything in this thread but I thought it was funny
loltolhurst said:
am on a serious health kick at the mo and will be going to parents in south devon soon. they always moan at the price of fish but i could live off just fish there so...
if i bought a cheap rod could i go sea fishing? can you do it from the shore / cliff? if so any recommendations on what to get - needs to be as cheap as possible - is there much diff between the cheap stuff and expensive for what I need?
im dreaming of endless bbq'd mackerel!!
ta
Did you ever get a haul ?!?!if i bought a cheap rod could i go sea fishing? can you do it from the shore / cliff? if so any recommendations on what to get - needs to be as cheap as possible - is there much diff between the cheap stuff and expensive for what I need?
im dreaming of endless bbq'd mackerel!!
ta
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