if you sever the cord by cranking the head back they wont know anything
after that point, although this is best left just for the mackerel, some
fish can leave a nice mark on your thumb )
To absoutely be sure with any fish, a fillet knife point shoved into the
rear of the head and twisted quickly guarantees the nerves are severed, i
always do this with doggies, the cosh often dulls them but they can wake 20
mins later and get ya! )

Mackerel is usually best from may/june to sept/oct. highest ive caught was
on a warm day in early july.
14 carrier bags filled in under 1 hour on a single, '6' trace of cheap
silvers. (the neighbours were eating fish for weeks from their freezer)

Good hunting...

wrote in message
...
yup they will become ever thinner, however i have known some bass to fish
ok
end of the year but you are always assured some doggies, they fight well
but
taste like %^&*.
you might be lucky for a while with the pollock and whiting down south
coast
too.

Cheers for the pointers - you're not kidding about the mackerel - last
week
(the first week I'd really caught anything this year since I started sea
fishing) - I caught 29 mackerel in one day - today I caught just the 2!
(at
least I caught some though : ). Now it looks like I'll have to wait until
next season to catch some more! When does the mackerel season start in
earnest anyway?

Oh, and what's the best way to kill a mackerel (or any fish for that
matter)
properly? I use a mixture of kosh over the brain area and then one to the
top of the spine and today I tried the cranking the head straight back to
break the spine, but somehow, no matter which method I use, the fish's
nerve
system still seems to twinge every now and then ten minutes later (despite
repeated well-aimed kosh strikes). After the inital blow, the fish's gills
and eyes stop moving, so I presume its dead. I do hope the nerve twitch
thing is normal? Its a rather macbre paradox to say it, but I do care
about
the fish when I'm killing them...