Anyone have any tips and lessons learned on catching mackerel for striper bait? Personally, I've found that chumming is essential (at least for me) and that sabiki rigs outfish the "Christmas tree" type jigs like nobody's business.
I've always used ground fish (since it's available) but heard that ground sand eels or krill works better. Anyone have any experience?
One challenge I've faced is that when the current is strong, my chum bucket gets far away from the boat (I usually put it down 10 feet or so in the water). Unfortunately, I imagine this means my chum is getting far from the boat (and my rigs) as well. I've seen these chum cages that you are supposed to attach to your sabiki rig. Anyone actually used one of those? My fear would be that everytime you are bringing your rig in the boat to take the fish off, you are getting chum everywhere. Maybe a better solution is to try and weight the chum bucket more heavily.
Take your chum, and hang it right off the side of the boat, few inches below the surface is fine.
Cast your Sabiki down current, same direction the chum is flowing, and start jigging,
that's pretty much it. You should have enough Macs in no time doing it this way.
Best approach for catching mackerel?
