Pollack - and Mackerel

Under orders today to catch a pollack or two for a meal with guests coming to dinner tomorrow! Conditions were less than ideal with a stiff SW breeze and a fair bit of swell pushing up the bay. It was all a bit borderline at my mark of choice, though I lost one good fish on a pink redgill before deciding the swell was too chancy. I relocated to a bigger headland a half mile or so further east, to get some shelter on its lee side. It was a bit of a scramble to get there but I was soon fishing again and to better effect.

I had a couple of small pollack out in short order, then a better one to keep about 4lbs (above) then another just slightly smaller (below.)

Then I lost the redgill in a snag. With job done and sea conditions still not great I was minded to pack up, but I decided to stay a little longer and tied on a pearl white redgill. After a few casts I was into another fish, but this one turned out to be my first mackerel of year. With the prospect of some fresh mackerel for tea and fresh bait for tomorrow, I quickly changed to a shrimp rig. Four or five casts later I must have landed it right in a mackerel shoal, as I had fish on as soon as I tightened up after the cast, and it turned out to be a full-house string of five mackerel. After that - not another sniff, so it must have just been small shoals passing through at speed.