Moreton Bay Mack Tactics Gordon Macdonald walks you through every technique you’ll need to know if you want to catch Moreton Bay’s lightning-fast mackerel all year round.
Anglers living in South East Queensland are lucky to have a prolific mackerel fishery on their doorstep in the form of Moreton Bay. Spotted and school mackerel can be targeted at any time of year and they attract the attention of sport fishing enthusiasts, as well as anglers who are looking for a tasty feed of succulent white fillets.
These lightning-fast predators can be targeted in a variety of ways using baits and lures in Moreton Bay. After many years of experience, I have learnt a few things about catching mackerel, and can generally produce fish most of the year. Let me tell you what I have learnt so far.
LURING SURFACE SCHOOLS
Probably the most likely, and definitely the most exciting, scenario in which anglers locate mackerel are surface feeding schools. When numbers of mackerel have rounded up bait into dense balls, catching them is often easy. This situation is most likely to occur between October and March, though it can occasionally be witnessed at other times of the year.
When in a surface feeding school, both spotted and school mackerel take random slashes through the schools, engulfing and maiming as many baitfish as possible with each pass. In this situation, the best technique is to cast chromed metal lures (commonly known as slugs) through and near the school, retrieving them as fast as possible back to the boat. | 
