Glasgowdan

It was down at a castle kennedy casting event dale a few years ago... went with rodders.

John I've got a cheap second hand penn rod that Ill sell for £20, it's a very good rod to be honest and cost £125 new about 8 years ago. It has a good action and casts 5-6 ounces. It will let you get used to the reel, has a good stiff butt action which sees some good distances (I cast 170 yards personally and Im not even that good). It's a Penn Extreme which was very highly praised when it came out. Im in ayrshire a lot as Im from west kilbride so let me know if you want it. Will save you a wad of cash too and is better than any new rod for £50 and thats a fact! Email me if you want it Dan

Stop calling them skate everyone!!! They are R.A.Y.S............ Read a fish biology book! Its like calling a cod a haddock!

good to see this thread on track again! Id love to catch a skate but we are now boatless for a while... maybe next year! Would be good to tag along with you guys davy once Ive got a new bathtub and get some tips etc.

good to see a video... was that a strong tide you were in or was the boat motoring? !!!

i dont fish the west coast in winter as it is so poor... why not get yourself up the east coast during decent weather conditions for some proper cod? the only place i would go is etive, and even then I would only go on the boat

Anyone got one for sale? I had a shot of my mates one today and love it!

well I can vouch for windguru, again been using it for a couple of years like nick... wave height is surely the best feature of it! I mean its one thing looking at wind but this doesnt always translate into how rough the sea is going to be. It is almost always right and has helped me a lot. Designed for surfers so the sea state is even more important for them than it is for us.

pm sent, very interested, cheers. Dan

Do make sure that you clean the reel well though, and about every 2 months take the rear drag off and clean all the parts inside there, as thats the one part of the reel thats very susceptible to corrosion. After about 1-2 years you will probably have to replace a few of the drag components, but this costs less than a tenner. Ive used them for years and years and like them, but ive recently changed to an abu 505fr baitrunner as I find the shimanos are getting a bit dated, the drag actually isnt as smooth as the abu either. Ill put a long term test report up here one day! Rod-wise im not sure what you guys normally use off the kayak. There are some good jerkbaiting rods, maybe 8ft long and rated to handle 4-5 ounces. have a look on ebay and in your local shop.

quote from that website "Although the formula was calculated using salmon, I have been informed that it is reasonably accurate for other salmonids such as trout" NOT very transferrable to flounder I suspect!

the mark2 greys rods are not 50% of the odl ones. try and get a second hand mark one either an apollo or a pz match, which an understated good allrounder. (I have one of each!). Im sure conoflexes are great etc, but greys feel so damn good. Interestingly enough theres a guy selling a conoflex vampire on the wsf forum, with a daiwa 7ht, though at £150 I think hes asking a bit much. Could always try and bully the price down a bit if u live nearby. The other greys rod worth considering is the mercury... beautiful rods. but always try and get a mark 1 greys beach rod, the ones that are made in alnwick!

well all very nice, but wont you get fed up of the constant "eek can u get this one off the hook", "Can you put more bait on please" , "somethings stuck, i cant hold on, i feel sick, lets party instead of fish" etc etc etc!!! Fishing, as MJB said, is to get away from the females! Though it does fill me with glee and joyous song to see so many nice bums n boobs

makes me feel sick... its like watching a rape. why immediately chop up a creature like that without thought?

the problem with european law isnt that its crap... its just that the directives are so vague and widespread that in reality they just shouldnt apply to a lot of locations... take an example of farm waste... a busy large cattle farm in south west scotland will have to account for every kilo of chemical dip they use and return packaging to ensure there is no effluent dumped into the already polluted rivers... at the same time, a crofter in lewis who uses on bag a year will have to adhere to the same rule, and return the bag etc etc, when in fact what real overall damage could this guy really do? Its all relative but the eu doesnt see that.

im reading up for an essay on north sea stocks and sustainability as it happens, so ill come back with any new information i get. Ive got access to the most recent journals through the uni and have about a dozen articles written in the last 12 months to plough through.

we took this on a nice day on loch etive this year

Can you fish 3 on an orkney coastliner? Knowing there wont be much space I just want to know if its worth getting one, as most of our trips will be close inshore with 3 people, cheers

.

my problem, warrior, is the picture that started this thread...

maybe i am weak then!

i wouldnt use the chrome screw... these should never be used for spool tensioning. take the spool out and actually change the oil in the larger bearing to red rocket fuel, that is best if you are getting problems. the other thing, which is the most basic and often overlooked, is the line level, but you seem to be ok from what you say

these reels showing figures of 30-38lbs of drag are lying to you... lets be honest! You guys might be bigger than us ( ) but you aint that much stronger as far as im aware, and trying to hold onto a rod with even 20lbs of drag for five mins is more than just a little difficult. so tell your reel manufacturers to stop pampering your egos. bear in mind the drag settings may assume a half full spool, but if the spool is almost full then the drag will effectively be less, as the radius of the lever (ie the edge of the line compared to the spindle) will be longer. I dont see how it is justified comparing comercial fish catches as an excuse to kill big game fish. These beasts are true elegant giants of the seas and I would pay more to go on a boat where I know the skipper wont keep the fish, than one where the skip is gonna knock any beautiful thing i catch on the head. We have in scotland a population of common skate which, thanks to tag and release, are providing good fishing for hundreds of anglers season after seaosn. If we acted like some of our us counterparts I am sure that we would not have a stock of fish worth fishing for by now. perhaps more than pure numbers of fish, the most important thing here is attitudes, because that is what rubs off on your children, the commercials, the public and the skippers. If a skipper always has a crew who hate killing fish, he will change his views over time and become an ardent follower of this practice. If that same skipper knows commercials who longline the same species he may, at least to some small degree, convince them to target certain other fish, or be more aware of breeding seasons etc. It is all pasrt of a chain of events that has to start somewhere

try 30lb daiwa sensor instead... trust someone who has tried every line and now uses only sensor for rough ground... the stuff is bloody good!

its a cod-pouting! they are a bit like whiting-pollack but just a bit lighter!