Spring Mackerel

Mackerel come close to shore in the middle of May in this area. They chase bait fish so sabiki & jig are good lures. Willows is one of the best places but it is tough to keep a spot. The most impressive fishing I experienced was at State Pier.

When I checked during day time, some locals were catching mack and there were plenty of bait fish. So I decided to try in the evening. I thought spring mack was mainly tinker size so I prepared ultralight tackle. The only UL rod I had was a 2 pc 6’ trout rod I bought 15 years ago. It is one of my favorites, super lightweight and fun to use. I added a Shimano Sienna 2500 reel with 10 lb power pro to this rod. This reel is a little too large for 10 lb braid but I wanted casting distance. I usually used 15 lb for mack so this setting was a kind of unique.

I arrived at the pier around 5:30 pm and the tide was still low. I set a two-hook sabiki made with Rexlace in winter time with a new Daiwa 7 g jig. The sabiki was 1’' small size of Rexbait silver holo with #6 Gamakatsu octopus hook. I started fishing around the bottom but snagged in a few casts. There are lots of ropes at the bottom so it is common in this spot. I always tied a treble hook with mono line when I fished here so I didn’t lose jig but snagged twice in a row. Unfortunately, this time the sabiki hooked on structure as well and I lost a brand new jig very soon. Ugh..

I reset a rig with 7 g Kastmaster blue/chrome and started again. Although bait fish were near the pier, I fished a little farther out to avoid snagging. The first hit came in 30 minutes. During reeling I saw a few mackerel chasing after my hooked fish so I slowed down a little hoping more would hook up but I lost the first fish in the meantime. Ugh..

Yes, fish were biting in this low tide. I started again. After a while, I found a small blitz close to the pier. I casted the jig diagonally, retrieved through it and got one. It was 12’’, a nice size. I chased the blitz, casted in the same way, and got 7 in an hour including two doubles. It was just a shallow game. By sunset, bite became slow. Small fish were found in stomachs of caught fish so they had been preying on bait fish. They tasted good, just a little less oily than fall ones.

In fact, double 12’’ mack were too heavy for the UL rod I used. It felt like a snag when I had a hit and it was not always comfortable to fight with this rod. All I could do was reel in withouht using the leverage of the rod. However, it worked best to cast and retrieve 1/4 oz jig. Light rod and light line were best for controlling the jig.

I hadn’t seen any surface blitzes of mack in fall so it may be unique to spring season. I saw another blitz at Beverly Pier later in May but haven’t ever seen such a long lasting one like this.