FISHERMEN at Aberystwyth south beach enjoyed a bumper haul of mackerel this week following a feeding frenzy which pushed thousands of fish towards the shore.

Local fishermen reported being able to scoop the mackerel up in buckets, with amateur fishers taking up to 15 mackerel at a time.

The mackerel shoal had forced a huge number of sprats towards the shore off Aberystwyth south beach on Monday, leaving hundreds stranded on the beach.

As the mackerel feasted on its smaller prey, fishermen were able to scoop up both the mackerel and sprats, with containers and ice boxes filled in a under an hour.

A rare phenomenon in Ceredigion, sprats coming to shore in large numbers happened last year on Irish and Cornish beaches.

Eager to escape the mackerel predators, the sprats are pushed closer to the shoreline, ending up with nowehere to go but the beach.

Sprats were still within metres of the shore on Wednesday, with fishermen from neighbouring counties also coming to grab the easy pickings of the mackerel close to shore.

Read the full story in this week’s south editions of the Cambrian News, in shops Wednesday, or available by clicking the digital editions link above