Growin' Up A Pier Rat — Anglers & Mackerel
One of the chapters in my new book Growin' Up A Pier Rat is stories from writers who fished the piers when young. One story is by a friend of mine in OWAC (Outdoor Writers Association of California), Paul Sherman, who lived in the US but has returned to England. He told me one day he would write me a story and here is a small part of that story. In reviewing his story I came across this interesting section on anglers and mackerel."
An English Pier Rat — "From my more recent experiences here in the States, I can see that the general rules of looking for a hole at the railing and propping up your under-gunned cheapo rig amongst the eclectic compilations of your fellow angler’s remains the same. Unless you are the serious pier-rat of course—you know the guys who always seem to be there with the custom-built tackle caddies on wheels and the half-dozen professional long-distance casting rods all set up neatly in a row. What is also the same is the general desire and happiness to catch absolutely anything that may happen to be swimming by. Of course if something was in season and news got out of a run happening then the number of anglers would swell appropriately, but then as now, there was always something to catch even if it was small but it was always fun and that is something almost unique in the sea-fishing world.
Now as shocking and disturbing as it may seem, mackerel were the number one reason to get excited at the pier. Typically turning up in the summertime, many a great summer holiday at home or somewhere else around the country was spent dangling ‘mackerel feathers’ off of a pier or breakwater. In the main seaside resorts the charter boats would clamor to take holidaymakers out on mackerel trips advertised on chalkboards placed along the promenade or near the docks, so they could load up and take home a sack of fish. Many a time after a successful outing our bathtub would be full of several dozen mackerel awaiting cleaning. Us Brit’s aren’t afraid of a little flavor to our fish you see, and the oily mackerel whether broiled, fried or smoked was always popular. My favorite recipe was to broil a mackerel until the skin was crispy and would peel off easily. Then pull the meat off the small bones with a fork and mash it up with some malt vinegar to make a sandwich filling in some toasted bread. MMMmmm good!"
[KJ - So mackerel are a main fish even in Great Britain.]
but it makes me happy see the world isn’t afraid to cook them!