Flying fish

[Lowflyer]

Had the most weirdest experience last Monday.

I'm working just next to the Corran Ferry on Ardnamurchan at the moment. Passed by the slipway and noticed the Loch was bubbling with fish. Took a shimmie down and sure enough, a shoal of mackerel had cornered a shoal of sprats ( tiny herring ) into a corner between the slipway and an old wall. It was a massacre, the poor sprats were jumping out of the water on top of the sandy beach, followed by the mackerel

Nipped down, grabbed a couple of mackerel on the sand and went for my rod. Told my young plant op to get his also.
He was grabbing them in by the shore on his spinner while I was nabbing four at a time with my trusty feathers.

We managed to get 50 mackerel in about 20 mins.Trouble is I haven't got a freezer on site so had to give them all away to the locals.
The tourists waiting for the ferry were taking photos all the time including three bikers ( didn't have time to chat to them, I was pre occupied, sorry )
Kept two for myself, from loch to oven about 1 hr, lovely fish

Anyways, really good fun, keep looking every time I pass the slipway, but no joy so far. Oh well, maybe next week.

 

[nigelphoto]

Mackerel pâté on toast, a twist of lemon and a nice cool Chablis - yum yum!

 

[Meesh]

I've seen that happen on the beach in Dorset when I was a kid. We used to holiday in a caravan and every now and then there would be great excitement as everyone rushed to the beach with fishing rods, buckets and anything you could catch them in.... the mackerel would chase the little white fish right up onto the beach - themselves included - you could literally scoop them up in the bucket at times. I learnt how to gut fresh fish and cook em on a bbq in those days. Very exciting to watch, fun to fish and yummy to eat ...

 

[Lord Vader]

WOW cool. Free food
I seen a similar thing when i lived in SA.

Called the Sardine run

The sea goes black



unfortunately other fish eat sardines too

 

[jackdaw]

Same thing is happening all along south coasts of Devon and Cornwall. We hope that the bass are down there as well.



Had this one last week during a similar feeding frenzy.