Pacific Salt eats pacific mackerel

Surfingringo

Surfingringo

Joined
May 25, 2013
Messages
3,700
Ok, so I just got back from the states last night with some new fishing gear and two new knives (pacific salt and pm2). Came back sick as a dog with a cold, but whatever, woke up this morning at 4 am and loaded up the kayak. I was only able to fish a couple of hours, but the mackerel were biting. Here's a few of the bigger ones.

I used my pacific salt today fishing and cut up all the fish with it when I got in. It went through the mackerel like a chainsaw! It's a great knife and it makes a perfect fishing combo alongside the dragonfly! I couldn't be happier! I filleted the larger mackerel and since I had my pm2 in my pocket, I just used that. It's definitely no filet knife, but it is screaming sharp and did the job well enough.

All in all, I am extremely happy with my new spydercos! The dragonfly hangs on my neck always and I alternate the pacific salt and the pm2 for iwb carry depending on whether I'm on the water and what my day looks like. Great knives, all of them. My manix 2 stays in the kitchen now and gets used mostly by my chick, so everybody's happy. Thanks for all the info and advice I got from everyone! You guys steered me right!

Lance

You can see my keys hanging from the pacific salt in the first shot.

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Man, you are one helluva fisherman. I love your action shots. Come to Georgia, and we will go hunting.... I could use the good luck.:)
 
damn Lance that's some nice fish. good to see you are putting the new spydies through the paces :D
 
Salt & PM2, great choices for what you need to use for cutting. Hope you have a decent sharpening system once they need a bit of touch-up, but they're bot great blades. Oh, nice fish too. You on the Pacific side or Atlantic?
 
noseoil said:
Salt & PM2, great choices for what you need to use for cutting. Hope you have a decent sharpening system once they need a bit of touch-up, but they're bot great blades. Oh, nice fish too. You on the Pacific side or Atlantic?
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I am on the pacific side. I have dmt stones which work great, but I just brought the sharpmaker back from the states. I like to keep my knives very sharp so i do a quick touchup every couple of days. The sharpmaker seems to work great for that. I'm not even using the brown stones. Just hit a few licks on the whites and bam! Razor sharp again. Easy and quick system.
 
PropThePolecat said:
Man, thats crazy...ive never caught anything that big. Youre the man, Lance!
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Thanks prop, I'd love to take credit, but the truth is I'm just lucky. I'm lucky to live where the fishing is good and I'm really lucky to have the means, health and ability to go most everyday! I try to stay grateful!
 
Just wondering, how are you enjoying the serrated edge for use as a "fish knife"? Is it up to most of the tasks, or is a plain edge better in general for you?
 
noseoil said:
Just wondering, how are you enjoying the serrated edge for use as a "fish knife"? Is it up to most of the tasks, or is a plain edge better in general for you?
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I go fishing a lot too. Serrated knives are handy because as the OP said, it saws through the fish. Fish have a lot of slime on the outside. It helps a lot of the blade has a good 'bite' to it. And if they have scales, I find that some plain edges can slide off instead of cutting. Mackerels have smaller scales so they're not as bad. If I have to clean a lot of fish in one sitting (a few dozen), I prefer to have 3 knives. One thick plain edge for scaling, one with some good serrations to cut steak chunks, and one good fillet knife. Handle ergonomics are very important because you have to white knuckle grip now and then.
 
TEFL0N_D0N_81 said:
I go fishing a lot too. Serrated knives are handy because as the OP said, it saws through the fish. Fish have a lot of slime on the outside. It helps a lot of the blade has a good 'bite' to it. And if they have scales, I find that some plain edges can slide off instead of cutting. Mackerels have smaller scales so they're not as bad. If I have to clean a lot of fish in one sitting (a few dozen), I prefer to have 3 knives. One thick plain edge for scaling, one with some good serrations to cut steak chunks, and one good fillet knife. Handle ergonomics are very important because you have to white knuckle grip now and then.
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Hey nose oil, Teflon don pretty much nailed it with this answer.

When u are looking at serrated dive/fishing knives, people are always recommending them because of their "rope and net cutting" ability. I guess everyone's experience is different, but I don't think I've ever cut through any rope or net while fishing. :-). But I tell ya what, the knife turns a big mackerel into a bunch of little mackerel steaks...and it does it WAY faster and easier than a plain edge!

Agree 100% with don about handle ergos and about how three knives are useful for a big "cleaning" job. If I had to use just two, it would be the se and the filet.
 
Mackerels are one of the few fish that are high in fat that don't need any oil added when baking (or smoking). Salmon is another. I usually take steak chunks of mackerel, put some onion and garlic seasoning on it, no salt.. and just bake/broil it in the oven.
I usually dislike fish skin, but the oil content in the fish bakes it to a very nice crisp. Totally love it.

OP, I also recommend looking for a caspian salt (discontinued but some pop up now and then). Very nifty knife. The index hole allows me to open up my hand and grab things when I'm snorkeling. It also reduces risk of losing it to the sand floor. I've used it to shell oysters, clams (some very light prying) and found it adequate for most boating tasks. Unlike you, I have cut rope and a lot of fishing line with it. I used to use a lit cigarette to burn through fishing lines, but I burned through too many lines by accident and lost some good catches :p.
 
Yeah, I was going to mention something else about the advantage of se for fishing. I was trolling two lures the other day and hooked up to a good mackerel. When I hook up trolling I reel in the other lure quickly before fighting the fish. Well, as happens sometimes, the lure got wrapped around the line with the fish on. I troll with both rods behind me in the kayak. Rather than fiddling around and losing the fish, I leaned back in the kayak and cut the line that was hung. The point is that with the long serrated pacific salt, all I had to do was get the edge on the 50lb braid and pull back towards me...it will grab the line and cut from almost any angle! It was a pretty awkward position reaching back over my head and am not sure that I could have gotten the angle to make that quick cut with my pe dragonfly. Sure, I would have gotten it done, but I might have had to reach back with my other hand and grab the line to get it done. Those five seconds aren't going to change my life or anything, but when you've got a good fish on "head shaking" and trying to spit the lure, it can be the difference between landing the fish or not. Bottom line, I'm happy with the knife. It's a good tool and very well suited to the jobs that I'm using it for.
 
And Teflon, I recently started cooking it in the oven like u described, but wrapped in foil! Retains all the juice and comes out great!
 
Try marinating your Mack steaks in some salsa w/lots of cilantro, then cook on the grill! Awesome! I also like to marinate them in pineapple and teriyaki w/lots of ginger and cooked on the grill! That rocks too!
 
I use a Plain edge Salt 2. I was disappointed with its edge holding and read that the SE was far better for that. I decided Micro-serrations were the way to go and now all I do sharpen on a medium coarse diamond stone and leave it at that. It'll transparent slice ripe tomato and works great for everything. I don't like serrated knives on fish flesh because I reckon the saw cuts change the flavour. Like with sushi & sashimi I like a clean single stroke cut rather than the fluffy surface you get with a serrated knife.
I also like to "snoek fillet" (kipper fillet) the fish, Cut down both sides of the dorsal spine all the way from skull to tail, slice in under the flat bone surrounding the gills there's a couple of thick bones to get through/around that support the lateral fins and that's it. You leave the belly completely intact apart from cutting out the anus. You can usually lift the guts and skeleton out in one go holding the tail, leaving behind 2 fillets attached by the skin. Perfect for cooking on the barbeque skin side down, when you can see the fish is cooked through, flip it over for a minute or 2 to brown off the surface.

PS: Your mackerel are way bigger than anything we get, they're almost Snoek size (related to mackerel and barracouda)
 
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