The Spanish Mackerel has been on my bucket list for many years and has managed to evade my hook like the plague.   During the past 9 years of fishing the Perth Metro, I have put my wife onto a decent 134cm specimen and even put my boss onto a 135cm mackie on his first cast in my favourite waters.  I have spent countless hours towing Halcos and Rapalas behind the boat, but to no avail - the Spanish Mackie was not to be.

That all changed on Easter Monday and here is how it all went down. 

Good mate Glen Liebold and I decided to head out and take advantage of the good weather and hopefully boat a snapper or two.  We launched from Woodman Point just before sunrise and made our way to my favourite waters off Rottnest. After an uneventful 40-minute trip we baited our lines with scalies attached to weighted double snelled traces and allowed these to drift down slowly behind the boat as the wind gently pushed us over a bommie of choice.  Whilst my bait was slowly drifting into the "snapper zone", I took up the spinning gear and started working a soft plastic.

Out of nowhere the rod baited with the scalie suddenly burst into life, with the reel peeling off a frightful amount of line in a very short time.  The rod tip was pointing 90 degrees away from the direction that the holder was pointing which resulted in a wrestling match as I tried to free the rod from the holder - and the "gosa" continued donating line.  I pleaded for Glen to start the Yammie as the level of line on the reel was indicating that I was about to be spooled.  Glen gently manoeuvred the boat in the direction that this rocket was travelling, but line still continued disappearing off the spool.  When the black tape that supports the knot at the base of the reel became evident, I panickly pleaded for Glen to pick up speed as I was onto another hiding from a fish from the depths of these waters (lost many good fish in the Perth Metro).  The odds eventually started turning in our favour as I gained some valuable line and the panic began to abate.  After a few shorter runs the fish eventually started showing signs of exhaustion and gave a final burst just after we saw colour for the first time.  

You would not comprehend my elation when we saw the fish's "numberplate", confirming the elusive Spanish Mack.  Once on the boat I realised how lucky I was to land this fish as the hook slipped out the corner of it's mouth, the rows of razor sharp teeth missing the vulnerable 30lb mono which made up the rest of the trace.  The lie-detector put the length to 131cm, which is about 18kg.

The Spanish Mack is now well and truly ticked off my bucket list - cannot wait for the next adrenalin rush on the Perth Metro.  

https://youtu.be/azmDGB1h6p8

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