Mackerel on the fly - 14 July 2002

There is more than one way to skin a cat so they say and there is more than one way to catch mackerel.

I'd come across a venue near Folkestone, called the Warren, which I thought would be ideal for a spot of saltwater fly fishing. During WW2, a huge concrete apron was built against the base of the cliffs between Folkestone and Dover to facilitate the loading of ammunition on to warships. This flat surface covers an area at least 70 metres wide and runs for over 250 metres along the coastline.

East Wear bay and the Warren

On a normal high tide of approx 6 metres, the sea comes almost level with the apron. In normal conditions some waves come over the top, but are not a problem. In such conditions, you can expect at least 5 hours of fly fishable tide here.

The concrete apron.                   Some four hours before high tide.

High tide was around 13.20 hrs and I was late getting there, so missed a couple of hours fishing.

Speaking to the owner of the tackle shop in the harbour area, I learnt that big shoals of mackerel were coming in lately and that some holidaymakers were taking big bass on free-lined mackerel flappers.

The mackerel baits are simply filleted from half way down the body to the tail either side of the bone, leaving the guts in and the fillets free to flap about.

I bought a few joey mackerel as baits and headed for the bay.

I can see you are puzzled now, so I will explain. I came prepared for all eventualities and brought a spinning rod and beachcaster, in addition to the fly rod. If the bass were close in, I would try for them first.

When I reached the apron, there were four other anglers there. Not a problem as there is a lot of room. I cast out a free-lined joey and waited as the first wave of mackerel swept a horde of fleeing whitebait past us. This happened several times and I tried just leaving the bait to waft about in the wave-action, then spinning it back slowly, but got no response in 45 minutes. The other anglers were targeting the mackerel, but not connecting with any yet.

Seeing hundreds of mackerel porpoising past me time and again proved too irresistible. I swapped rods and tied on a home tied clouser minnow pattern with glued on goggle eyes.

As another wave of attacking mackerel drove towards me, I cast beyond them and twitched my fly back. No response. I cast again and this time stripped it back after allowing it to sink a couple of feet.

Bang! It felt like a big bass and bent the rod over before stripping line for thirty metres.

Now this was exciting stuff. The fish ran several times before I got it to surface. I couldn't believe it. It was a mackerel and it was barely .67kg (1.1/2 lb).

I landed it on a wave breaking over the apron. I was using a Greys Esox pike fly fishing rod rated #10 coupled with an old Cortland #9 floating line and Rimfly reel. This rod has a lot of backbone and I was amazed at the power of these small pelagic fish.

Now I know the bass usually lie below the shoals and pick off the mackerel from there. I did think about trying for them using another clouser minnow with a heavier set of dumbbell eyes, but for now I was hooked on mackerel on the fly.

The most successful time was casting into the middle of the feeding frenzy, when dozens of whitebait would throw themselves onto the apron to escape their predators, but sometimes I picked off stray mackerel when things were quiet.

The first six mackerel

Soon after catching my second fish, a voice from behind me said "I bet they fight better than rainbow trout pound for pound" An old chap with a dog was watching me and was simply fascinated. From our subsequent conversation, he was clearly a fly fisherman, but had never seen it attempted for mackerel.

He was a bit like that Harry Enfield character… "You don't want to do it like that." Unfortunately he was usually right, so I suffered his advice with good grace.

He hung around for over two hours, getting more and more excited and although I offered him the rod, he refused initially. After about the 7^th fish, he couldn't stand it any more and begged me to let him play the next one after I hooked it. I think he was well and truly hooked as he wanted to fish with it a bit longer. I was happy to let him as my wrist was beginning to ache from the unfamiliar heavy rod.

After half an hour he handed back the rod, thoroughly delighted. He had always fished with his 40 year old split cane rod for trout, but I think we have both been converted to salt water flyfishing too.

I continued for another half hour and continued catching and even improving my casting. A local man joined me to catch his supper and told me he had never seen anyone else fly fishing there before. Again he was fascinated and had a go at it.

I compared notes with all the other anglers there and the conclusion was that it is a very effective method of catching mackerel, getting takes more frequently than other methods, but not as productive as casting out a lead weight with several feathered hooks. The fly pattern is not really important either, except that you do need to get the fly down quickly and a lead head or lead body will help do that. I kept the same pattern on and it survived the ordeal with just the loss of it's goggle eyes.

I kept 8 fish as I was meeting friends that afternoon for a BBQ on the beach beside the apron. They were fabulous and nothing was wasted. I'd caught 12 fish and lost a few others in 2 1/2 hours.

I might go back next weekend and make a serious bid for the bass.

For tying instructions for the Clouser Minnow, this site gives good illustrated instructions:

http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/angling/protalk/rowley/philsbox/clouser/minnow.phtml

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