Mackerel – Page 2 – The Old Man & The Seas

Drift Lining

My time to get out to the pier, the wharf, the shore, and a planned boat excursion, is going to be limited for a while due to prior commitments so I thought I’d explain what I mean when I mentioned in many of my posts that I fish with a drift line. The concept is simple but actually fishing this way can be a challenge.

As I mentioned in an early blog post, my grandpa always advised me to take a fishing pole and what he called a “wishing pole” with me when I had a chance to do so. The wishing pole is one that I would weight down, bait up, and cast out to the deepest part of the lake, ocean, or river that I could reach. Then I’d set my drag so it would alert me when a fish is on the line. This pole would be used to fish for all the bottom feeding fish that tended to be larger and put up a better fight than fish who do not feed this way. Submarine size Carp and Catfish are examples of freshwater bottom feeders while Rays and Sharks are examples of saltwater bottom feeders.

Going after bottom feeders with your wishing pole is simple and easy to do and I think it is the way most people fish even when they use live bait. However, going after the rest of the fish out there with your fishing pole rigged as a drift line takes more effort than simply setting your drag. For one thing, you should never set your fishing pole when practicing this method especially when there are hard hitting fish like Mackerel and Bass in the water.

A drift line is simply a line with no weights or bobber on it. You can have multiple hooks if you want a greater challenge like catching three Mackerel at a time, which I have done many times. Your fishing pole should be as light weight as you dare use and the lighter the better, I say, since I like a good fight and I like to give the fish a chance. I always use my old ultra-light rig when I drift line so there is a 50-50 chance that I will either haul in my catch or it will get away. Since I only fish for sport, this doesn’t matter to me.

Whatever you use, it should be easy to cast with only the weight of the bait on it since no lead weights are used in this method. Using a bobber is close to drift lining but it is not the same since your bait is being held in place in the water, at one level. Though your line can drift anyway it wants, it cannot drift down which is key element in drift lining.

Drift lining is used to fish for all the rest of the fish out there besides bottom feeders though you can occasionally hook one. In drift lining, you cast your bait into the water and let it drift where ever it may go. As it sinks to the bottom, your bait can attract any fish at an water level. In the ocean, you often have Smelt sitting just below the surface, with Mackerel beneath or mixed in with them. As your bait drifts lower, it can attract Perch and Bass. If it hits bottom and you are content to let it sit there for a while, you can pick up a bottom feeder but since you are using light tackle, you have to hope it is not too big.

One day while I was fishing at Stearns Wharf, the Smelt that are usually around had moved off to another area which allowed me to catch 33 Mackerel in a few hours. One time, my bait made it through the horde of Mackerel that were lurking about and my line drifted closed to the pilings just beneath my feet. Suddenly, I got a hit that I knew was not that of a Mackerel, it was stronger, but slower and after a pretty fierce battle, I reeled in a nice size Calico Bass. Until that time, I didn’t know there were bass under the wharf. So I started fishing for them. Six more times my bait made it through the school of Mackerel and I ended up with 7 Calico Bass on the day. A total of 40 fish in about 3 ½ hours. I was very busy and I owe it all to the drift lining method.

As I said at the start, though, fishing this way can be a real challenge due to the following reasons:

First, you have to be aware of where your line is at all times, especially if fishing in a area where others are also fishing since you do not want to cross their lines. This means paying close attention to what you are doing.
Second, since you should be using the lightest tackle you dare use, you will feel every little nibble and the temptation will be to yank your line up on each one but as I wrote about in a previous blog, grandpa always said that patience is the best bait. This is what he was referring to. If you are an experienced fisherman, you most likely know a hit from a nibble but when drift lining, the nibbles can multiply greatly so you have to be patient. When a real hit occurs you’ll know. The same is even truer for beginning fisherman and it is something you will learn over time so don’t give up on the method.
Third, I always recommend that you keep your pole in your hands at all times when drift lining and you have bait in the water. The reason is that since you are using light tackle, it would not be that much of a challenge for a good-sized Calico Bass or speeding Mackerel to pull your rig into the water and since you are looking for hits as soon as they happen, you need to be ready to set your hook at any time which you can’t do if you are not holding your pole in your hands.
Fourth, since your bait starts at the surface and drifts downward, it will eventually hit bottom where you can leave it if you wish, but since you may have another pole baited for bottom feeders it is a good idea to keep your drift line moving which means a full day of reeling in and casting out. I like this because it keeps me busy and because I like to have bait in the water at all levels of water as much as possible.
Fifth, wind can really affect fishing this way. When the wind is blowing so hard that you are having trouble keeping your bait in the water, you can add a small weight to compensate for it. If you choose not to use one, you have to be just that much more vigilant about watching where your line is at any given time.

So, that is the drift lining method. I have caught thousands of fish this way even when others around me were being shut out. Though I have told and shown many fishermen this method, I have not seen that many actually use it because of the attention needed to be successful when using this method.

Later that day…

After ending my latest quest to catch something while surf fishing, I needed to stay on the Emma Wood State Beach side of town for a few hours so I could run an errand in the afternoon. Instead of just prowling around all the interesting shops in Downtown Ventura while I waited for the time to pass, I went over to the Ventura Pier during the interim.

The weather could not have been better for the way I fish and there were surprisingly few anglers around. I didn’t have my ultralight with me since I had not planned to use it, so I put the line on my Shakespeare ATS 350 reel & Shimano Saguaro rod outfit on the ocean bottom looking for sharks, rays, or a stray Halibut and fished over the side with my Shakespeare Contender reel & 8-foot Shimano FX 2803 rod. It is a pretty big outfit, big enough to haul in a 5-foot Tiger Shark, but it is not really suited for drift lining. Still, I had to use what I had on hand.

When it was time to go, my catch for the few hours I fished was 3 Mackerel, 1 Smelt, 1 Croaker, and the guy pictured above. I am not a crab expert but apparently a passerby was, he was also a lover of crab meat.

He told me that this is a Dungeness Crab which are very good to eat; he had eaten hundreds in his lifetime. He also asked me if he could have this one. I told him that I was going to let the guy go back into the ocean after I took his picture for my blog. As if he knew what was going to happen, once the crab finished posing for the picture, he scuttled sideways to the edge of the pier and jumped in which gave all of us observers a good laugh.

The now crab-less passerby stayed and we talked fishing. He is from Atlanta, GA, maybe a 75-mile drive from where my sister lives. He told me of a great place to fish which is about 4 hours from Atlanta but worth the trip.

So, I am thinking that maybe its time to pack up my gear and pay sis a visit…

Stearns Wharf III: Big Mac Attack!

After my amazing day yesterday, I decided to visit Stearns Wharf again to see if the fishing is really is as good as it has been the last two times I was there. I can now say that it is since this time I caught 33 Mackerel in 4 hours.

When I arrived at the wharf just before 7 AM, the wind was howling, and a low fog lay on the water which drenched the wharf. Because of the wind, and the way I fish, I had to cast my line in on one side of the wharf that I had not fished off before. At the Ventura Pier, that is the “bad” side of the pier (as I see it) but it made no difference at the wharf. Though I didn’t catch anything on my ocean bottom pole, I had plenty of BIG Mackerel to keep me busy. In fact, after a few hours, I stopped bottom fishing and rigged my Shakespeare Contender reel & Shimano FX 2803 rod so the line would drift since by that time the wind had abated, and the sun was shining. I put on a larger hook and used larger chunks of salted Mackerel for bait and sure enough, I started getting even bigger fish. They were not as large as the “submarine” Mackerel that I used to catch off the Goleta Pier, those were all 24 inches or longer, but most of the Mackerel I caught today were around 15 inches each. I wound up keeping 14 of them for bait and threw 19 back in with instructions telling them to send me a Halibut.

They must have ignored my orders since no flat fish were seen by me today.

Stearns Wharf II: Shark, bass, and mackerel, oh my!

After my last fishing adventure at Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara, CA where I caught 40 fish in 4 hours, I just had to go back to see if that was the norm or if I had just caught the area on a good day. So, I went back today and though I only caught 14 fish in about 3 ½ hours, the Tiger Shark’s size and weight made up for a lot of that time.

Because of the wharf’s restriction on overhead casting, I took my Shakespeare Contender reel & 8-foot Shimano FX 2803 rod since I knew I could cast some distance with it even underhanded. It is equipped with moss green 30lb test Spider Wire line so essentially the rig is better suited for freshwater but then I like to fish with light gear, so the fish have a chance. That is why, in my mind, it is called sport fishing.

I arrived at the wharf around 7 AM and was surprised that there were no other fishermen out there. After about ½ hour of fishing as the Shakespeare’s line sat on the ocean floor with a large hook baited with a big chunk of Mackerel, I started catching fish on my ultra-light rig. I didn’t have the continuous action like I had last week, but I stayed busy, eventually catching 7 Mackerel and 3 Calico Bass; but more on them later.

A local resident, with his kids and mother and father, saw me catch my biggest Mackerel and, as I do with all kids, I showed them the fish and told them about it. That is when the father told me that I had a fish on my other line. I turned to see my Shimano FX 2803 bent nearly in half while the drag on my Shakespeare Contender reel hummed as it let out line. Once more I thanked my grandfather for telling me repeatedly to always secure my pole. If I had not done that, my rig would have been lost. So, I put the Mackerel down and took my rig out of its holder. That is when I knew I had a VERY big fish.

The way that the fish was fighting, I knew it was a shark as opposed to a Bat Ray or Halibut, the only question was what kind of shark did I have on the line? It pulled me down from one side of wharf to another which was good for me since that side was in open water away from the wharf’s pilings. As I battled it, a large group of tourists gathered and several people asked me what I had caught, I could only tell them that I thought it was a shark and that if my line held, we would know what kind it was. At first, I thought it might be a Shovel nose shark but the more I fought it, the more I thought that is was some other species. When the Tiger Shark finally broke the surface, people got real excited, including me. One lady was recording the battle, and everyone was taking pictures of the fish. Fortunately, the local man had a boat in the harbor and was an experienced fisherman, so I asked him to get my gaff out of my bucket. He had never used a pier gaff before, so he took the pole while I manned the gaff. He was amazed at how strong the shark was. We both figured it to be well over 5-foot-long and in the 150+ pound weight range.

After a few tries, I managed to hook the shark’s tail and at that point, the beast was played out. I fully intended to bring the shark on to the wharf but once it left the buoyancy of the ocean water, I realized just how much it must have weighed. Even with the help of the local fisherman, we could barely budge it and since I was going to put it back in the ocean anyway, I decided to just cut my line and let it go after I took a few pictures. I managed to work the gaff free then took out my knife while looking at the great fish that I had fought for the last 20 minutes or so, it looked totally exhausted as was I. I told all the tourists to take their pictures and when they had finished, I cut my line to much applause from the audience who watched it swim away.

Meanwhile, a Seagull ate the large Mackerel I caught and put down while I was fighting the Tiger Shark which I thought was tacky. For the rest of the morning, when it came near me, I scared the hell out of it by yelling “Thanksgiving” at it which made the tourists think I was insane and got a few laughs.

My last catch of the day was a Calico Bass which I was sure would be my dinner today but it measured 13 inches long, one-inch shy of the legal limit.

Still, it put up a hell of a fight on my ultra-light just like the shark did on my heavier gear.

RESPECT your catches…

This note, this moment, is an adjunct to my last post about my fantastic morning of fishing at Stearn’s Wharf in Santa Barbara, CA. Even if you don’t fish, like the majority of the tourists who observed it, you may like it because it shows how I respect all living things, even those that I “hunt” with my rod and reel. I can only hope that you feel the same way.

When I arrived at the wharf, there was already a man fishing off of it. I said hello, etc. then I went about my business of catching fish. After 20 minutes or so of him seeing me catch one fish after another, he came over and asked if I had any bait he could have. I looked at the SEVEN lines he had out in the ocean and wondered what he was fishing with if he had no bait but I didn’t ask him why he needed any, I just gave him one of the Mackerels I had caught. A few minutes later, after he watched me catch more Mackerels and Calico Bass he asked me if I had a smaller hook that he could use to catch them. I had a Mackerel in hand so I showed him the size of the fish’s mouth compared to the hook he was using while telling him that the hook, the bait, and the fishing outfit had nothing to do with my catching fish. His blank look told me what I had suspected from the first, the man was seemingly Developmentally Disabled. He was high functioning but still at a loss about what I was trying to tell him. I have a degree in Psychology and I worked in the field for over 6 years, so I know of what I speak.

Still, I gave him a pack of hooks since I have hundreds of them. Over the next few hours, I threw a few Mackerel in his bucket so he didn’t have to ask for more bait. Then he caught the Shovelnose Shark I mentioned in my previous post.

After a few moments of hollering about his catch, I went over to see if he needed any help, only to find a TOURIST trying to haul in the fish. The “fisherman” was blathering on about his “bad arm” and asking anyone around to get the crab net he had so they could land the shark. When no one wanted to do anything and the tourist, surely out of his league, was looking stressed I fetched my pier gaff and hauled the fish in.

Before I brought it over the railing, I told the horde of spectators to back off, when they didn’t move, I got ticked off and told them that the fish was harmless but the gaff I was using would go right through their shoes—and foot—if they stepped on it. That got me a lot of space.

After I brought the 20 to 30-pound shark over the railing, I had to work the gaff out of one of the fleshy parts of its head. I have gaffed a lot of these fish, who are properly named Guitar Fish and I knew that I could get it out and that the fish would survive if I did it right, so I took my fishing towel out of my back pocket and put it over the beast while rubbing on it and telling the shark that it would be okay once I got the gaff out. No one said a word except the “fisherman” who was carrying on about his “catch”. I finally told him to shut the hell up and let me do what needed to be done. The crowd concurred and he quieted down.

It took a few minutes, but I got the gaff out with a minimal amount of blood which I sopped up with the towel. Then I picked up the shark and made a mistake.

Instead of just putting it back in the ocean, I asked the “fisherman” what he wanted to do with it. Was he going to keep it and eat it (they are edible) or should I throw it back? This decision clearly confused the “fisherman” and he started talking about having to ask someone before he could decide. I don’t know who this person was but I assumed it was his attendant who was nowhere to be seen. So, I put the fish over the rail with the intent of returning it to the sea. This led to a loud protestation by the “fisherman”, almost to the point of crying. So I handed him the fish and told him he only had about 5 minutes to decide or find whoever it was he needed to ask before the fish died. Then I went back to fishing, followed by most of the tourist who applauded me for my gentleness and respect for the shark, so I said a few words then went back to fishing, angry at myself for not putting the fish back in the ocean.

Later, I saw the “fisherman” carrying around the clearly dead shark with seemingly no idea what to do with it. I never did see who he was going to ask, which was probably a good thing, because he and maybe the “fisherman” would have gone over the rail with my steel-tipped shoes as propulsion.

Advice from Grandpa: Patience is the best bait (this worked today)

As a 5 to 7-year-old kid (which were the years I spent fishing with grandpa or just talking about fishing with him), I wanted to catch a fish every time my bait hit the water while not understanding how unrealistic that was. Grandpa told me more than once that “patience is the best bait” meaning that there are more times that you have to wait to catch a fish then you are actually catching fish. It took me a while to understand this but I finally did and now, 60 years later, it is still the truth.

Today was a prime example. I usually don’t fish on the weekends due to the tourist crowding the pier and I especially don’t fish on holiday weekends like this one, but I was feeling very restless so I threw caution to the wind and went to the Ventura Pier. I got there later than I usually do and I was shocked to see how many people were out fishing today. There were more anglers than tourists.

Still, I went out to one of my favorite spots and found it open. After two hours of no fish, though, I was ready to go in and take a rare shut out home with me. Then I remembered what grandpa told me and instead of going in, I moved further out on the pier to the deeper end of it. In about 20 minutes, I caught three large Mackerel and my Wishing Pole started getting a lot of attention.

Outside of catching a $*@! # bait stealer, my Wishing Pole was very quiet despite getting that attention. However, I wound up catching seven Mackerel on my ultra-light Fishing Pole not counting two that wriggled off the hook half way to the pier.

Seven fish in about an hour and half made today a good day but it would have never happened had not grandpa cautioned me about impatience all those decades past.