Blank summer fish is conspicuously absent from the bathing water.

Blank summer fish is conspicuously absent from the bathing water

Not nearly as many mackerel have been caught on the West Coast as usual. An 86-year-old German angler is deeply disappointed.

German angler disappointed with mackerel fishing 52 minutes ago

The mackerel is very much a herald of summer along the west coast of Jutland, and therefore it is also sought after by anglers on piers, breakwaters, and beaches. But so far, it has almost stayed away from the west coast of Jutland during the otherwise warm July.

86-year-old Peter Jeske, an angler from Drensteinfurt in central Germany, is deeply disappointed.

He has been coming to Thorsminde on the west coast of Jutland to fish since 1998.

"We have been here since Sunday, and we haven't caught a single fish. Not even mackerel. Now we can just pack the car and drive the 720 kilometers back home to Münsterland," says Peter Jeske.

He wonders why things are going so badly with the mackerel this year.

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Far fewer mackerel on the hook

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Catches of mackerel in July across Denmark have also been on the low side, according to statistics from the Catch Journal, where anglers can report their catches.

Professor at DTU Aqua Teunis Jansen has no doubt that the total stock of mackerel near Denmark is threatened by overfishing.

"We assess the total stock, and there can of course be fluctuations from location to location. And overall, the mackerel is threatened," says Teunis Jansen.

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Lower mackerel quotas

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Therefore, significantly lower quotas have also been announced for commercial mackerel fishing in 2026 - and anglers have had to observe minimum sizes of 30 centimeters in the North Sea and 20 centimeters in Danish inland waters.

"It is overfishing by commercial fishermen over many years that has damaged the mackerel stock. We have said this as advisors for many years, and now we are seeing the result," says Teunis Jansen.

The yellow curve shows all mackerel catches by anglers from 2014 onwards. The blue bars show the reported catches this year. Source: The Catch Journal DTU Aqua. (© The Catch Journal, DTU Aqua)

However, Teunis Jansen can reassure anglers going after mackerel that it is still possible to make a good catch if the conditions are right.

"Even if there are generally few fish in a stock, you can still find a dense concentration of them in a local spot," he says.

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Three days of east wind

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Generally, anglers seeking mackerel on the West Coast advise that it needs to blow from the east for at least three days and be warm and sunny to improve your chances of a catch. And then you can often catch many mackerel at once if those conditions are met. This can be read in several groups on social media that gather mackerel fishermen.

Further inside Danish waters, the wind can be from the west if you want to catch mackerel. Quite a few mackerel have also been caught in, among other places, Frederikshavn, Sæby, and Kalundborg Harbor.

Billions of small fish flee in terror when there is a mackerel bonanza on the West Coast ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/milliarder-af-smaafisk-flygter-i-raedsel-naar-der-er-makrel-bonanza-paa-vestkysten )

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