Summer Mackerel

Alan,

All caught on feathers, 3-5 at a time. For the last half hour we were throwing them back.



Regards,

Willy.

Going out tomorrow to try for some more. Need to get a couple of spinners after losing my only decent one.

Do you have any good mackerel recipies? I have only recently started eating fish after years as a veggie, and am a bit baffled when faced with a whole fish!!

Nigel

quote:

I have only recently started eating fish after years as a veggie

Be aware that the mackerel is a reportedly excellent but very 'fishy' fish, its smell makes fish-haters run for their life. Unless I did something wrong ? I'd be interested too in a proper recipe.

It's funny that it was you who responded after my post - I have only started eating FISH after being banned by my doc from eating CHEESE (!), in order to get my cholesterol down. A favourite recipe is a tomato sauce for pasta. It sounds vile but is really rather good - gently fry a choped clove of garlic and three peperoncini in olive oil, add a tim of chopped toms and some fresh basil, reduce for about 15 mins and then add a tin of mackerel and warm through for a couple of minutes. Stir it into penne and eat with a good green salad. Yummy.

But what do you do with a fresh mackerel??

Nigel

I seem to remember both Rick Stein and Keith (hic) Floyd's books contain good recipes for Mackerel.

Far eastern styles of marinating oily fish can make for great eating too without adding other oils (if cholesterol reduction is important).

Steve

quote:

Originally posted by hungryhalibut:
- I have only started eating FISH after being banned by my doc from eating CHEESE (!), in order to get my cholesterol down. Nigel

No cheese Grommit! Good grief! Eat what you like, in moderation. The lipid/salt nazis have gone mad. A lot of the cholesterol scare mongering is driven by the drug company owners who stand to make huge profits from lipid-lowering drugs. And don't think they can't influence impartial "Health Department" advice.

For delicious on the spot consumption of mackerel I recommend getting the little Abu Smoker box which will produce hot-smoked fish:

For example:
http://www.mullarkeys.co.uk/fishing/game-fishing-tackle...ries/0/abu-garcia/83

Otherwise try slitting them with 5 cuts each side, rub in mustard and wipe with olive oil, then grill each side for a few minutes. Yesterday, my local curry house did a version of this with asian spices which was lovely.

Nick

quote:

No cheese Grommit! Good grief! Eat what you like, in moderation. The lipid/salt nazis have gone mad. A lot of the cholesterol scare mongering is driven by the drug company owners who stand to make huge profits from lipid-lowering drugs. And don't think they can't influence impartial "Health Department" advice.

Hurrah!

Bruce (just nibbling his 'healthy' chocolate date and cherry slab for lunch!)

Re RD and BW's comment

Do not do as I do but as I say - <g>

I too would love a good recipe for them as i am trying to eat more fish. I agree that mackerel is 'fishy' and puts me off a little. I find it very difficult to get it without the bones (what i mean is after i catch, gut and clean the fish how to fillet it. Or is there a better way?) and this tends to put me off.
Ideally a recipe with other strong tasting ingredients to mask the flavour of fish a little. I know this sounds a bit silly, eating fish when i am not that keen on it but when i am getting them free for a days fishing it seems daft to give them away when i could be eating a fresh and healthy food.
Caught 7 this morning on a new spinner. Gave up when the final one i caught was grabbed by a huge seal which made of with the fish and my spinner after snapping my line with the spinner still in the mackerel's mouth.

Had a bumper day on Tuesday. Caught 40 of them. Mostly on a gold 'koster' spinner. Even people using feathers were not getting as many. After i had enough for friends i was giving them away to other guys that were fishing or returning them if they were not damaged.

ABU Koster a good name from the past, glad to see it is still catching. Have you tried the ABU Toby? I know it is also a venerable lure but it should still work. In years past I found the Toby to be slightly better than the Koster but YMMV.

Not tried a toby yet. The gold koster seems to be doing the trick but i have a toby style lure i will have a try with.

Given that you are not eating most of these, have you thought about using barbless hooks so that they can be returned with minimal harm (and to make more of a challenge of bringing them in).

Yes, i have thought about this. The only thing is that people are quite happy to take them. None have been small as to be undersize (i don't think there is a size restriction for them) and the smaller ones that are being returned are only put back if they are not damaged.

I think i will get some barbless trebles and give it a go though.

I've was considering using some for kayak fishing as a barbed hook is not something one would want to get caught in a finger while in a tippy boat.

Barbless hooks are good if you're planning to catch and release, but try to flip the fish off the hook without touching it if you can, difficult at times when using trebles I know. If the fish has swallowed the hook, cut the line rather than trying to remove it.

If you have to immobilise the fish to get the hook out, use wet hands rather than a cloth or landing net. Removing the fish's protective slime layer is usually fatal for them.