Palm Cove Mackerel

[Maxl]

Did a little bit of lure throwing off the palm cove pier this morning and caught a couple small trevs and this mackerel on light gear, 16lb leader 8lb braid, was wondering if it was a little Spanish mackerel or a school mackerel? I’m thinking it might be a little Spanish.

[bookwa]

I’m thinking scaley mackerel-   Excellent marlin bait, and just the right size!

[jenno64]

Great catch!

 

I was up there in July and it was blowing a gale for 3 days...water was very murky and only small sharks were being taken on bait!

[Maxl]

43 minutes ago, jenno64 said:

Great catch!

 

I was up there in July and it was blowing a gale for 3 days...water was very murky and only small sharks were being taken on bait!

Haha yeah after I caught it a bunch of ppl came up to me saying how it was the first good fish they’ve seen caught since they’ve been there (over 5 days) other than sharks and catfish. So I think I got pretty lucky with the water clarity, but also light tackle soft plastic fishing doesn’t seem to be super popular up here landbased, most people use bait or if anything just a little halco twisty or divers, so the little plastics definitely give you an advantage up here since most people don’t use them.

This is when the tough Sydney landbased lure fishing pays off 😂

Edited October 5, 2023 by nal

[Little_Flatty]

Well done! My experience at palm cove was very similar to Rob’s. Did you have wire? If you didn’t, you were very lucky to land that fish!

When I was at Fraser Island, I lost almost an entire Plano tray of lures to mackerel, then when I finally got hold of wire, there wasn’t one in sight!

[Maxl]

42 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

Well done! My experience at palm cove was very similar to Rob’s. Did you have wire? If you didn’t, you were very lucky to land that fish!

When I was at Fraser Island, I lost almost an entire Plano tray of lures to mackerel, then when I finally got hold of wire, there wasn’t one in sight!

Nope no wire just straight to 16lb leader with a 2.5inch baitjunkie minnow, probably was pretty luck especially so that the mackerel didn’t fully engulf the tiny lure, was my first time trying the jetty so I was hoping for anything and definitely not expecting a little mackerel.

Glad my experience has been a little better than yours haha

[Larkin]

Nice mackerel! 👍
Would have been a good fight on the light gear! 

[Little_Flatty]

3 hours ago, nal said:

Nope no wire just straight to 16lb leader with a 2.5inch baitjunkie minnow, probably was pretty luck especially so that the mackerel didn’t fully engulf the tiny lure, was my first time trying the jetty so I was hoping for anything and definitely not expecting a little mackerel.

Glad my experience has been a little better than yours haha

Yep...lucky!

It seems it can get windy there, seems like you didn't just luck out on the fish, you lucked out on the weather too. Hope you get a bit longer to fish while you are there.

[Toilor]

How good would it be if we had more of these fishing platforms in regional NSW.  Definitely looks like a Spanish Mackerel, great land-based catch!!

[minnowm]

Def looks like a spanish mackerel but regardless of whether it's spanish or school mackerel, it's a great catch! Nice job !!

[whiskey299]

Nice catch Max!

[Fried Rice]

20 hours ago, Toilor said:

How good would it be if we had more of these fishing platforms in regional NSW.  Definitely looks like a Spanish Mackerel, great land-based catch!!

You've got that right mate.

[Maxl]

On 10/6/2023 at 12:45 PM, whiskey299 said:

Nice catch Max!

Thanks Bradley!

[bookwa]

Check out a pic of a scaly mackerel— also known as a shark mackerel.