The secret of catching mackerel has nothing to do with rubbing horseshit on the hooks or pissing on the feathers, the secret lies in knowing where to catch. If they are there and there’s a hook in the water they will bite at it no matter what it smells or tastes like. The difficulty lies in knowing if they are there. With the water being black like it is you can only see a foot or so through and after that there is nothing to see. There could be a million mackerel down there but all you will see is the colour of the water and that’s it.

There are places they should be at times of the day and go there and get it right then you should come back with a full bucket. But you can go to that sane spot the following day and come back with nothing.

The fish are down there alright but if they are swimming ten foot to the left of where you line is you won’t catch them.

– Clancy O’Conner would tie old CDs to the line so that they’d spin in the water and any bit of light down there would spin off them and attract the fish. Better use down there, he said, than having to listen to the music on the feckin’ things.

– Another man he painted his line a florescent green that he swore he could see twenty five foot down from the surface.

– And there was that man who almost killed himself with electricity and water when he tied a set of Christmas Lights to his line and had them connected to an old car battery he had in his boat.

– You want to tie something bright to the line. I tried it once with sweet wrappers. You know the ones you get in a box of Quality Streets, all purple, green, orange and pink it was. Still caught no feckin’ fish but the chocolates were good.

– A good piece of tweed will do it. Something with a red flash to it. If you have that on the line you’ll have a go.