How likely is it that a skate would take a greater sandeel bait?

Reason for the question, I was out fishing from a friends boat this evening, dropped a line baited with 2 sandeels, and after about 5 minutes my rod just pulled down, I thought at first that I had hooked the bottom, but then after about 2 minutes of steady pressure the line moved very slightly only to then have about 10m of line taken against the clutch very slowly but without being able to stop it.

It then stopped, after another couple of minutes I managed to move it again slightly at which point line started to be pulled out very slowly and then after about 5m had gone the fish just moved quicker, snapped my rod and broke the 50lb braid like cotton (though I think that caught on the broken carbon and cut through).

Any thoughts appreciated.

After that we managed about 70 coalfish between 1lb and 2lb in about 2 hours. That's bait taken care of for the next few weeks!!

Hello Nick.
Greater sandeels or launce are a much favoured bait for turbot and rays down south. I think a skate would think it was his birthday if he found a couple just within range of his snout?
Paul.

Hiya,

yup you been nailed by a big Common :-)

better luck next time

Hehe - Nice one Nick - That snap off is gonna bug you for years mate

Last year, out in Ronnies boat, a punter had taken along one of those fancy ringless rods - ok for pollack gilling but quite the wrong tool for skate. We all told him so, as did Ronnie.

He still insisted on using it with a whole mackerel. When he hooked a skate, the rod bent like a watch spring, there was a loud bang, he ended up flat on his back, the line parted against the broken end of the carbon tube, and the skate was away attached to 500 feet of line :mad:

I wish I had been a bit more outspoken with this guy, to dissuade him from using his toothpick, but he seemed determined to learn the hard way - the trouble was it was hard on the skate too

Its one thing to hook a skate ACCIDENTLY on light gear, that can happen to anyone - like you, me and I think Davy has had a big skate on a doggie rod too ? - in such circumstances you can only do the best you can, but to fish deliberately for skate with an inadequate rod is not clever at all.

[ 04. June 2003, 10:21 PM: Message edited by: Vagabond ]

Surprised Ronnie allowed him to fish with that set up - The said punter was clearly following Yatesey's example

Fishing where I was in about 20 feet of water, within about 50 meters of the shore, and in the kelp the last thought that crossed my mind was that I might hook a skate, I was hoping for pollack!

I would never set out to target skate using inadequate tackle, far too much respect for the fish.

Just considering what rod to buy first, but whatever it is it won't be carbon, lesson learnt.

Nick

Any submarines in your area :confused:

From what I have read I would imagine there is every chance that Skate would take ANY fish bait.
Common Skate are a class A preditor at the end of the day.

Does this mean that I have to schedule a trip to the Isle of Muck?

Alan(nl)

Plenty of submarines, but they're all supposed to be to the north east of the island in the submarine exercise area.

Let me actually land one before I start offering skate fishing trips, but you're welcome anytime Alan. (And anyone else!)

Nick, I hope you don't think for one minute that I was suggesting that you would. There is a world of difference between that and what happened to you.

As to the best rod, having now landed skate on several different rods, I have settled on a Penn International Tuna Stick 2255 ARA coupled with a Penn International II 50 SW (the same reels that Davy uses) I was lucky enough to pick these up second-hand at a good price, as new they would cost a bomb.

On the other hand, Norma uses an old 6'6" solid glass shark rod of mine which would probably command about £20 second-hand. She uses a Tiagra two-speed 50 reel with it - similar to the Penn Int II but narrower in the spool, so that with her smaller hands she can still spread the line evenly. She got four skate over the ton in two days with this gear.

Davy favours somewhat longer rods to keep the skate from getting under the boat - but of course the extra leverage the skate gets means extra work for the angler.

I don't think the rod is that important, providing it is strong enough. What makes the job of getting a skate up easier is the low gear on a good quality two-speed reel. Before getting these we used Senator 6/0 reels, which are rugged, robust and reliable, but harder work because of the higher gear.

Hope to see you in the Island of Muck one day, this year we were on a tight rearranged schedule as we are off to Canada in August instead of our usual Scottish skate trip.

How is the boat-building going?