Helge

I will get the pictures soon, will try to post some of them then. We used just about any bait there is. Mackerel, coalfish, dogfish, squid. Got fish on all of them.

quote: Some people were horrified when I proceeded to wade into the sea, hold the fish by the tail until it regained its composure, and then wave it goodbye It is great to hear that you released it. It is a great fish, and now it has a chance to be even greater. I belive you have come a lot further with C&R than we have in Norway. Here people still think you are crazy to put back any fish that is eatable, and if you fish for non-eatable fish they think you are just plain stupid. But it is getting better. I release all my fish, even record fish. A picture lasts a lifetime, dinner only until the next one.

Finally here's the report. First day the weather was very good, and the sun shone like there was no tomorrow. I got the first take, and Ronnie being a bit skeptical to us using braid almost halved the drag on my reel. But as it turned out, that may have bin a stroke of genius because the hook had only hold in the skin next to it's mouth and was almost free when we landed it. Anyway I played the fish fairly gently, and had several runs the longest being from halfway up straight down to the bottom again. When this fish finally got in the boat, it was a 109 ib male. 10 minutes later we got another male, weighing in at 102 ibs. And at the end of the first day another male at 114 ibs. A great day. The next day startet very well, with a bite about 40 mins after the baits had hit the bottom. I'm not gonna BORE you with all the details here, but we got 5 skates in the boat that day. Here's the list in the order we caught them: 107 ib male, 172 ib female, 181 ib female, 82 ib male, 78,5 ib male. We also had 2 runs that we didn't get, and I lost a skate at the same time that we had the largest on. This was due to a bad or damaged knot most likely :mad: :mad: :mad: My own fault!! Well, what a day that was Third day, bad weather delayed us an hour and when it didn't get any better we went for conger instead. After several hours of talking and no action on the rods, we tried a little for skate but the current and the tide was not in our favor and nothing happened yet again. Not even the doggies came to our baits. This was just one of those days. All in all a fantastic trip, with a great skipper. All honours go to Ronnie. We saw Scotlands beautiful nature, and we all got to experience these magnificent big fish. What more can you ask for. Since I got home several of my other friends, whom I also go fishing with, want to go to Oban. So maybe I'll join them and go back later this year.

Well when we fished 1000 meters, we actually just tried it for fun. We where'nt bothered too much by hagfish or any other ocean pests, but the fish we caught down there were only small ones. My experience tells me that around 5-600 meters is better, because you find more fish and also greater number of species. On that particular trip we were aiming for 3 species, and caught them all, big ocean perch(i think that's what it is called in english), greenland hallibut and Onion-eye grenadier all caught in around 4-600 meters. If you want to catch larger fish, like hallibut, ling and greenland shark we find it better to try shallower deeps, around 200 - 500 meters is probably a god bet. It is starting to become fashionable again to try for greenland shark, and several people I know have caught quite a few during the last year(3-4,5 meters, up to 400 kg). These fish grow very slowly, and since the world record is so large (775 kg) all fish are returned. Are there any greenland sharks caught around the british isles, or is the water to shallow for it?

Well when we fished 1000 meters, we actually just tried it for fun. We where'nt bothered too much by hagfish or any other ocean pests, but the fish we caught down there were only small ones. My experience tells me that around 5-600 meters is better, because you find more fish and also greater number of species. On that particular trip we were aiming for 3 species, and caught them all, big ocean perch(i think that's what it is called in english), greenland hallibut and Onion-eye grenadier all caught in around 4-600 meters. If you want to catch larger fish, like hallibut, ling and greenland shark we find it better to try shallower deeps, around 200 - 500 meters is probably a god bet. It is starting to become fashionable again to try for greenland shark, and several people I know have caught quite a few during the last year(3-4,5 meters, up to 400 kg). These fish grow very slowly, and since the world record is so large (775 kg) all fish are returned. Are there any greenland sharks caught around the british isles, or is the water to shallow for it?

We are prepared to use his equipment with mono if he wants us to, even though we have been using braid now for many years. I find it better than mono, because you can feel even the smalest nibble on the bait and as long as you set your drag loose you will be fine. I've fished down to 1000 meters without any problems, and many times in water around 100-150 meters with other anglers as close as 2 meters to each side. My experience with tangling is that you can avoid it with a bit of ekstra care, like if you feel anything touching your line then wind up, the same goes if anyone on the boat hooks up with a big fish. This is normal procedure around Norway on festivals for instance if somebody hooks up with a hallibut or another large fish. I can't tell you all how much we are looking forward to this trip. I just got Sea Angler yesterday, and the article there got me fired up even more. But its going to be a long week yet. Thankfully I'm going on a 3 day trip just down the cost here to Langesund today. We are having a "gathering" of all sorts of anglers from around Norway. We all talk on a forum just like this, and somebody had the brilliant idea to meet up just to go fishing. You may have heard of Langesund, several world records have been caught there in the past; ling, sail ray, tusk.. This is deep sea fishing, from 250 meters down to 500 meters roughly. We also have excellent fishing in the area in freshwater for pike, perch and zander. If only my working hours could be over soon!!!

We are only going to use 4 rods(we have the boat for ourselves), so a tangle hopefully won't happen. Anyway we will use mono if Ronnie wants us to. I will post a report here when we get back.

Is that because you might need to slide an ekstra pound of lead down the line if the current is too strong? I read about that. We'll bring some mono then, just in case. What do you use, any recommendations? [ 26. May 2003, 10:44 AM: Message edited by: Helge ]

Thank you all for your advice. I don't think our equipment will be a problem. We're using Shimano TLD 2 30 reels containing 1000 - 1200 meters fireline 0,39 mm together with Shimano hyperloop 50 ibs standup rods. Hopefully that'll hold.

Me and 3 of my friends are going to try for Skate now soon. We've got 3 days booked with Ronnie Campbell second week in June. We're all experienced anglers, but have never tried for this kind of skate fishing before. Ronnie i've been told is one of the best out there and we will hopefully catch one of the big ones. Any tips out there apart from doing whatever Ronnie tells us?