Can anybody share their experience in trolling for mackeral? Out on the reef many years ago, I got a huge Spanish Mackeral on my line. I was using a handline on drift fishing, and it caught me by surprise. It basically jumped out of the water and spat out the bait.

Now I'd like to have a serious attempt at catching one. Does anybody fish for mackeral around Hervey Bay? I'm looking at spending a week or so in the Hervey Bay/ Fraser Island area.

muso wrote on Dec 8^th, 2012 at 8:46am:

Can anybody share their experience in trolling for mackeral? Out on the reef many years ago, I got a huge Spanish Mackeral on my line. I was using a handline on drift fishing, and it caught me by surprise. It basically jumped out of the water and spat out the bait. Now I'd like to have a serious attempt at catching one. Does anybody fish for mackeral around Hervey Bay? I'm looking at spending a week or so in the Hervey Bay/ Fraser Island area.

A few weeks ago I saw a guy catch a mackeral off the long jetty (forget the name) at Hevery Bay on just a fishing rod. It took him about 20 minutes to pull it in. He had a strange looking hook with 3 prongs turned upward. The hook was about the size of a child's hand. He was using some small type of fish for bait.
I don't know the technical details about it all.

Live bait over a reef and burley.
You can spend a long time trolling, better to bring them to you.

spaniards are very toothy.  i troll for them fairly fast with big lures and even a foot of wire.  halco laser pro deep divers.
any colour but rhe 1/2 red  1/2 white one is popular.

smaller macks like spottys are probably best caught with a 1/2 pilly floated down a burley trail.

if you find bird action . and a schooled up bait ball, if you can match a plastic or a slug to the size of the bait, you have a chance.  need a very rapid wind though.

heres a good spaniard caught off the goldie

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aquascoot wrote on Dec 12^th, 2012 at 5:40pm:

spaniards are very toothy.  i troll for them fairly fast with big lures and even a foot of wire.  halco laser pro deep divers. any colour but rhe 1/2 red  1/2 white one is popular. smaller macks like spottys are probably best caught with a 1/2 pilly floated down a burley trail. if you find bird action . and a schooled up bait ball, if you can match a plastic or a slug to the size of the bait, you have a chance.  need a very rapid wind though. heres a good spaniard caught off the goldie

Yeah I figured that I'd have to use some trace. I have caught smaller Atlantic Mackeral in the Adriatic with a bunch of hooks with yellow feathers tied on. If I got a good spot, I'd pull up 6 mackeral at a time.