Had to get up early for my first Scad of the year. Here it is. 5am Scad.
Scad
The Scad, or Horse Mackerel as it is sometimes known is a fast, pelagic predator that visits our shores in mid to late Summer. They aren’t Mackerel at all, but members of the Jack / Trevally family of fishes. The Scad has big eyes and this hints at their ability to hunt at night. In fact fishing for Scad at night is often the best technique for the Light Game angler to successfully target them from the shore. There is lots of dedicated tackle for Scad because their close relatives in Japan, called Aji has a huge following with Japanese anglers.
Our Alderney Lure Festival 2016
The 3rd and 4th of September saw both local and visiting lure anglers congregate upon the beautiful island of Alderney for the annual Alderney Lure Festival. Hosted by Alderney Angling and its 4th year, it was great to hear the event was going from strength to strength, with a record turnout.
Light Rock Fishing in Skopelos
As always, an awesome weeks holiday in Greece. This time on the island of Skopelos. Amazing how much fun you can have with just a travel rod, a spinning reel and a small bag of lures.
Horse Mackerel at Weymouth
Great little session with Chris Wheeler in Weymouth on Saturday night. Wind dropped away to nothing for a couple of hours around midnight and we were able to fish delicate Aji-type lures on jigheads, using the curve fall method, on-the-drop (OTD). We picked up the desired Horse Mackerel (Scad), Mackerel and some decent sized Pollack, plus the odd tiny Whiting caught well off the bottom. Really enjoyed it.
Irish Aji
A few Scad related pics from our trip with Sea Angler magazine to West Cork, Ireland. Great memories from that evening with Dan, Paul and George for company.
Light Rock Fishing in Spain
Back from a top week in Spain visiting my mum. It was minging hot, so snorkelling was mostly the preferred pastime but I did get to flex the travel rod here and there, trying to notch up the species count.
Cornish Lure Festival 2014
It’s a week since the kick off of the 2014 Cornish Lure Festival and I have to say I’m not sure I’ve recovered yet – it was EPIC
After entering the Species Hunt competition for the first time last year, I’d managed to pass on my enthusiasm for the event to mates, Dan and Chris. Estelle enjoyed last year, even as a non-fisher, and was along for the ride again too. So with a rough plan built around the far from perfect forecast, and the two productive marks I’d garnered last year, we all met up in deepest, darkest Cornwall. Exciting!
LRF Scad on Jigs
We got out in the boat yesterday and although big tides, managed to flex the LRF gear briefly at slack tide. An inshore wreck was home to a shoal of decent Scad (Horse Mackerel) so we had a blast with small metal jigs. Aji-tastic!