Mackman's spoon feeds passion

By Rick Frazier
Published April 6, 2007

For 30 years, Hal "The Mackman" Rast has been chasing king and Spanish mackerel from bay area piers. He's somewhat of a traditional pier mackerel angler, but a few years ago Rast decided to put his own twist to it.

Typically, all serious mackerel chasers fishing from piers and bridges use a size 0 or 00 silver spoon rig. It's simple and deadly.

When Rast came to Florida from Michigan during the Jimmy Carter era, he did what all the rest of the mackerel chasers were doing, he used the silver spoon. But, Rast didn't like the amount of fish he was losing. He attributed the reason for the lost fish to the spoon's hook being too small. So he decided to modify the store-bought spoon by taking off the hook and replacing it with a larger one. That worked and satisfied him for a while until he wanted to catch more mackerel. Rast had another brainstorm.

Realizing mackerel were feeding on scaled sardines or what most locals call whitebait, he decided to use a white spoon. The only problem was at the time white spoons weren't on the market, so Rast thought about making his own white spoon. He found the white metal he was looking for and enlisted the help of one of his friends to fabricate his idea. As the saying goes, the rest is history.

Now, Rast is making his own white spoons. He constructed a form and pounds his metal spoons into shape. Rast likens the size of his spoon to the market size No. 1. He attaches the hook with a pop-rivet and had to look to Mastry's Tackle in St. Petersburg for the right hook.

"I use a hook that isn't made anymore," Rast said. "They were made by Barracuda Tackle years ago and Mastry's is the only place that has them."

Rast doesn't sell his spoons. Of course, he uses them and he has divvied out a few to select anglers. That's not to say he is opposed to helping out someone, especially beginners.

"A few years back, a young couple wasn't having much luck fishing next to me," Rast said. "I could see the fella was getting agitated by not catching anything, and he went to fish farther down the pier leaving the young lady fishing by me. I took it upon myself to give her one of my spoons, and she started catching fish. When her companion came back she had over a dozen mackerel, and he didn't believe she caught all those fish."

When the mackerel and kings are running like they are now, it's not surprising to find Rast out regularly at one of the piers chucking out his spoon and reeling in fish.

"I was out the other day fishing right next to another fella using a silver spoon, and I caught 14 macks on my white spoon and he didn't catch any," Rast bragged.

King and Spanish mackerel aren't the only fish to bite Rast's spoon.

"I've even caught whiting, silver trout, and redfish on my spoon," Rast said. "And, I've even caught three tarpon on it."

Rick Frazier runs Lucky Dawg Charters out of St. Petersburg and can be reached at 727 510-4376. If you've had a great day fishing from land and want to share it with readers, contact the lubberline at (727) 893-8775 or e-mail captain rick@luckydawg.com.

[Last modified April 5, 2007, 10:10:32]