When I got to the pier around 9:45, it still rained. I saw a fisherman leaving and asked him about the fishing. He said he started early morning and kept 5 mack. He also said another fisherman got an under size striper too. I carried 2 rods. There was a fisherman casting jig&sabiki at the end of the pier. I heard he started at 8 and had kept 3. Wind was against although it was not so strong. I set up Daiwa Acculite AL SS902MFS 9’ salmon rod with a medium Shimano spinning reel. The rod was the one I bought for casting a long sabiki rig easily especially at Willows. The reel was a wide spool one, which was designed for the surf casting. I spooled 15 lb PowerPro to it. The rig was a 4-hook mirror film sabiki made of O’Shaughnessy #2 with 1/2 oz Kastmaster.
I began with the center spots. The fisherman got one soon near the pier. I dropped the rig and jigged for a while but no action. I started casting again and fished different depth ranges. You need to catch fish when schools come. Keeping casting is the key. That is what the shore mackerel fishing is all about. The 9’ rod was a little tough to handle because I got used to use a 5’ UL rod. Due to the wind, I felt like the casting distance was shorter than usual. After 30 minutes, I changed the jig to a LaFesta 24 g. This jig worked better. Jig reached farther at a light swing. I also increased the Jigging speed to fit this fast-sinking jig. As I reeled, feeling the bottom, the jig occasionally hooked a piece of seaweed or shell. The rig stayed near the bottom as I tried to keep.
Although I thought the rain would stop soon, it became heavier. I wore a rain gear but was a little upset. When I started to think about leaving around 11, I felt something as soon as the jig reached the bottom. After a jig and a fall, fish hit. As I reeled in at a steady speed, more fish bit and the rod bent more. The fisherman asked me if I got and I replied I thought I got at least a few. Soon I found full hook of 5 mack! I couldn’t pull out the entire rig with the rod so grabbed the line and took them on the pier. Yes! I didn’t lose any! I took a photo, bled them and put them into the cooler. All fish were 12-13’’size.
As I kept jigging, I got snag. I thought I could recover the jig because I tied the hook with mono line instead of a split ring. However, the main line broke when I pulled it. I lost one of 2 LaFestas, which were out of stock years ago. I thought the casting distance was important that day. I put Zingama 1-1/4 oz under the 4-hook sabiki. I got a decent mack soon. After pulling five fish at the same time, it felt very light.
It stopped raining around 11:30. I found the fisherman got some. As I asked him “Got it?”, I saw a surface blitz! I quickly reeled in the rig and casted beyond the blitz. Pulling the rig at 5-6 ‘ range, I got hits. Full hook again! I tried pulling with the rod this time. After reeling to 5’’ above the swivel, I pulled out the fish. All the mack jumped into the pier. When I put fish in the cooler and got back to the fishing, the blitz was gone. No action around the area any more. After that I got a double but lost one. I wrapped up at noon. I got plenty. All of 12 fish were nice 12-13’’ ones and tasted delicious! Fabulous!
I thought I could get some if I had a spot in the pier. Actually it was much better than I expected. Willows tackles; a 9’ rod, 1 oz jigs and hand-tied sabiki rigs worked perfectly to catch schools. In addition to Zingama, I would like to test some 1 oz size jigs. Seems like fast sinking small 1 oz ones are easy to handle.
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