 This species would have to be one of the toughest fish in the ocean when it comes to wear and tear on terminal tackle. While it might run second in the speed race when up against its similar looking rival the wahoo, it was definitely at the front of the line when the piscatorial god handed out dentures!
This fish will easily sever mono trace line up to 600 pounds, some strands of wire and dissect wooden lures at an alarming rate. Human fingers are easily amputated and there is not much that is safe from these fangs, with the exception of Halco Lures.
For a mackerel lure to be successful it requires a number of attributes. Firstly it must be capable of being towed in rough seas to a speed of around 10 knots. It must track straight and not ’blow out’ through the surface. Secondly its towing and hook anchorages must be sturdy. The high speed collision between the jaws of a mackerel swimming at 60 kilometres an hour and a solid lure is enough to bend and twist these points on an artificial, to the point where it will not swim again. Thirdly, it must be puncture proof. Mackerel water is no place for splintering wood or frail hollow bodies. I have a preference to hollow lures that float. This has come about due to the fact that when amongst a hot mackerel bite, one’s line is sometimes severed by other mackerels in the school as it glistens in the light or as it creates a small ’rooster tail’ when it cuts through the surface being dragged by a fast fish. The lure, should it still be free swimming at the time of loss, will often float to the surface. The fourth most important point is that the lure must have tough hardware. Extra strong split rings and robust hooks must be the order of the day if one is to remain attached to one of these speedsters.
The Halco lure has all of these attributes and with a range of sizes and colours in its stable for all species of mackerel, it is a name hard to go past when gearing up for mackerel fishing.
Similar in their patterns to surface feeding tuna, these fish will react quickly to a chrome or gold Twisty lure cast amongst the school. The optimum place to lob to the lure is on the edge of the school so that any knots and swivels on the terminal end of the rig, likely to create bubbles on retrieval, are not dragged amongst the rampaging fish. This will surely induce a cut off and loss of lure.
Wire is the order of the day on any mackerel lure. Shiny wire, bright brass swivels and bulky knots with long tag ends will create bubbles and induce a premature loss of a lure. Cut your losses immediately and use a Halco wire trace that has been coloured flat black specifically for this reason. A circular bend in the attaching snap allows for unimpeded movement of any swimming minnow.
As these fish will become focused on a specific baitfish both colour and size wise, one must have a range of lures both in size and colour to be in the running. Heavy Twistys and large bubble generating Halco Streakers are ideal to cast long distances to spooky schools of surface feeding fish. Smaller models might be needed when the fish are concentrating on eating copious amounts of small fry such as white bait.
Trolling larger lures around off shore bommies and reefs is an ideal way to find some of the larger mackerels such as the Spanish variety. Giant Tremblers perform well in this environment and are easily jigged around the subsurface structure if fish activity is quiet on the surface.
Halco’s Laser Pros have been around for a number of years now and are at the forefront in the mackerel catching stakes, having every attribute required of a good lure for this range of species.
While the debate of whether or not fish can see colour, rages on, anglers often prefer white lures with red heads and those with white and blue colouring, similar to Halco’s ’Bait Fish’ colours. One colour that I have found exceptional for this species is the R15 Chrome Pink, which always gets a swim in mackerel and tuna water. This colour lure has proved its worth in the South Pacific where I have used it to nail dogtooth tuna, green jobfish and wahoo. Don’t go fishing for mackerel without this colour gracing your tackle box!
While the numbers of species of mackerel around Australian waters is around 9, Halco’s selection of metal lures and swimming minnows is capable of catching all of them. Just change the size to suit the size of the particular species.
By Rick Huckstepp |
Rick Huckstepp spent his early fishing years in the southern parts of Australia before moving to the Northern Territory to run a fishing charter business. He has fished extensively around Australia, into New Zealand and through out the South Pacific writing for many of Australia’s fishing and boating publications about his escapades.
