Skate Fishing

[Elton]

What a monster....and the skate wasn't bad

 

Congratulations, Alan.

 

Davy - when can I come and fish with you?

 

Tight lines,

 

Elton

[Norrie]

Well, I'm home (fishless) and VERY happy, we had 2 skate on our boat, one of 109lbs and one of 85lbs. Geez it's exciting stuff , not at all what I have been told(betcha they never fished for these gorgeous beasts) we dropped a bait at 9am (5rods,there were 5 of us)and 15mins later a run , It was on Geoffs rod, (after all it was his birthday and he had organised it all) He got strapped in etc and after 20mins or so the fish was about 50 or so feet from the surface , then it saw Geoff (thats what we reckoned) and buggered off back down over 300ft. So a lot of swearing and sweating later it was on the surface, the last time I saw something like that was at Sea World in California,(unfortunately in a tank), Ronnie did the biz and it was on board, seconds later photos were all done and it was back. A couple of hours later , Geoffs son Ben had a fish on, he is a lot fitter etc, and the fish was on board 15mins later. Not before it coughed up a dog fish at least 2-3lbs. It was 85lb. We also had Spurdog to 6lbs, there was plenty of room on the boat as there was only the 5 of us, so we did a bit of kiddon fishing.

 

Although I never got to catch a Skate I would recommend it to anyone.It was one of the best days I have ever spent and cant imagine what it would have been like with a fish.

 

So, in conclusion I would like to thank everyone for the help and advice that has been given to me in the last few weeks, it has all been taken on board.

Davy and Allan, thanks to you both, Sorry I was under the weather when you phoned, will talk to you later.

 

ALL THE BEST

 

Norrie

[Davy Holt]

I think this is gonna be a 3 parter

 

Ok here we go

 

<jackanory mode on>

 

I managed to meet up with Alan at the Glasgow Angling Centre, I’m parked outside trying to figure out how to get through to his mobile as the code wouldn’t work.. while Alan is trying to phone me and getting the engaged tone. I finally got through via Holland to find he was only 50yrds away

 

As we were having to wait for Mark to finish school and for Linda to finish work I had planned on giving Alan a tour of Glasgow.. my work had other plans L

 

We managed to do a couple of tackle shops, a Chinese cash n carry and time in the Glasgow kelvingrove museum, home to the tagging programme. Time flew by and despite another hiccup with work we managed to get away for 5.30. A nice leisurely drive to let Alan see the sights, seen us arriving at LochAline about 8.30. After a brief guide of the caravan and the Village, I took Alan along to the pier to let him see the local charter fleet (all two boats of it). We soon found out that the “Brendan” was going to be out of a skate charter on the Saturday, so I ended up giving John a hand to get the gear ready while Alan helped Bodie, the part owner of the boats, to fit a grab rail on the “Peregrine”

 

The plan was to head out around 9.00 on the Saturday morning, as it would be nearly high tide I decided we should have a few casts for Pollack at the entrance to the Loch before heading out… unusually the Pollack decided not to play with Alan managing only a small red cod while I blanked. We decide just to go and anchor up right away as we had plenty frozen bait, The “Brendan” decided to go and get some fresh Mackerel first. We motored down to a mark that had produced the goods a couple of weeks before and dropped the anchor. While we were getting the gear ready and letting the boat settle in I informed Alan that we normally see Golden Eagles on a near by cliff, as I pointed the area out there right on cue was a Golden eagle.

 

Unfortunately the eagle was the highlight, the forecast drop in wind speed had not happened, if anything it had built up so I decided on a move to another mark that would give us better conditions to fish. In hindsight we should have stayed where we were as the skate started to feed not long after we left, the anglers aboard the “Brendan” landed one fish of 102lb and lost two. That made my mind up we were back to the same mark on the Sunday.

 

Arriving back at LochAline we decide to give the Pollack another shot at high tide, this time Alan had one Pollack of about 4lb and some clonking Coalies some reaching 2lb,. the biggest Coalies I had seen up there. I targeted the smaller Coalies (ok that’s all I could catch) and we soon had some fine fresh baits.

 

On Sunday Morning we headed back out and after a quick stop off to get some fresh Mackerel, we anchored up close to where I had anchored the day before. The baits were dropped over on the 4 skate rods and we sat back and waited. Just before 12.00 we had a take on one of the rods, but the hook didn’t connect and I was pretty certain it was a small fish. It happened again about 15 minutes later, not wanting to miss a chance I brought out a 30lb class outfit and set it up with a smaller hook and a double squid bait and dropped it down. At 12.20 another take on the skate rods, this time the fish was on and it was a good one, after getting Alan into the harness and thighpad, I stood back to give him moral (slag him rotten) support, only to see the 30lb class rod fold over with another fish. The problem was, it wasn’t a wee fish so I opted to put the rod back in the holder with the drag on full and concentrate on Alan’s fish. It only took Alan 35 minutes to get her to the boat and history was made. We dealt with her as quickly as possible and got her back into the water sporting a nice new tag, No 02470.

 

[ 06 June 2002, 10:23 PM: Message edited by: Davy Holt ]

[spasor]

Alan. Davy. Nice fish. Want a recipe for it?

OUCH!!!!! Didn`t mean it.

:cool: :cool:Paul. :cool: :cool:

[Alan Taylor]

Elton:

What a monster....and the skate wasn't bad

 

Congratulations, Alan.

 

Davy - when can I come and fish with you?

 

Tight lines,

 

Elton

Thanks Elton, Davy is doing a good job of describing the weekend and the story gets better as it unfolds. Marvelous trip and a great guy.

 

As to you going out with Davy, I think he is booked up until twothousand and eight you should be fit enough to take it by then. If you go with Davy I hope you enjoy PAIN , not the punch in the head type of pain but the knife in your leg being twisted type of pain for half an hour plus.

 

Alan(nl)

[Elton]

Alan,

 

I'm itching to give it a go now

 

Elton

[Davy Holt]

Part 2 the final part

 

While Alan recovered I took on the fish on the 30lb class rod, it took ages to get the fish moving up the way and at one point it had went round the anchor rope, then for no apparent reason after about 1 hr, when the fish was only about 50’ below the boat the braid parted…. Bummer.

 

Alan decided to go into the cab and put on the kettle.. That was the cue for another take

This time it was another female of 96lb, tag number 01205. A quick check of the sheets showed she was tagged on the 23/7/96 at a weight of 24lb and around 3 miles from where we had caught her.

 

I was next into action followed by Alan, unfortunately my bait had masked the hook and pulled free after about 5 minutes but Alan had a good hookup and after another good scrap a fish of 168lb was in the boat, again this fish was tagged but unfortunately I don’t have any release details for it.

 

I took the next run and yet again when Alan went to go into the cab another rod went, another double hookup. My fish was about 80lb but I pulled the hook out of her on the surface when I tried to get a hold of it… I had left the gaff on the other side of the boat … duh!! Alan meanwhile was making good headway with this fish and soon had a small male of 95lb on the boat. He was released sporting tag number 02471.

 

I was up next and this time I was making no mistakes and produced a fish that weighed in at 170lb (the charts put it at 178lb) it also put paid to our “lucky” bait, this was the third skate that the same coalie bait had caught.. who said Scotsmen were mean ;-)

Alan continued with another male of 121lb tag number 01569, this fish was first caught on the 26/07/96 at a weight of 119lb and again 3 mile from where we were fishing.

 

On re capping at the end of the day we both agreed that we had a fish missing, I had missed writing the details down in the confusion and we were pretty certain it was a fish in the 89lb range.

 

On the Monday morning we headed out to try for Pollack before going and anchoring up again for a few last hours. The first mark produced a blank so we headed off to another mark and had a quick stop off along the way to get some more fresh Mackerel. The next mark was the Grey Isles at the entrance to the Sound and on the way out to them we passed through the largest pod of harbour Porpoises that I have ever seen. There must have been around 20 to 30 of them all around us; it was quite a sight as we plodded on our way. We arrived at the Isle and had a few drifts but again the Pollack were being very elusive, we did however have the pleasure of a couple of Otters hunting in the kelp along with a couple of Common seals that were sunning themselves on the rocks.

 

Time was now pushing on so we opted to go and anchor up again at the same mark in the hope of some more skate. This time we only had fresh mackerel and one lone Coalie that was left over from Sunday, it was a wee bit ripe to say the least. It went down on one rod and we mixed the baits on the other rods between flappers, whole and double mackerel, just for variety.

 

As expected the rod with the coalie bait was nailed first right on cue and Alan was getting well in to the swing of things and soon had another male skate of 112lb on the boat. As Alan had wanted to get a photo of a skate being weighed we did the deed with this fish, incidentally when checked on the charts the fish came in at 107lb.. 5lb of a difference isn’t bad on a moving boat.

I was up next and produced a small female of 73lb, the smallest skate to come into the boat this year but still a nice wee fish. Alan had the next run, which produced a hard fighting male of 88lb and I followed it up 2 hrs later with the last fish of the day another male of 87lb.

 

By now Alan was trying to figure out how to avoid having to head back home and I must admit I felt the same way, but we had a cracking weekend and one that won’t be forgotten in a hurray. It had turned out to be my most productive trip for nearly 5 years and to be honest more than I expected in my wildest dreams. Alan had a baptism of fire in the art of skate fishing he also learned a few facts of life when skate fishing, the main one being skate know when you turn your back to make a cuppa or a bite to eat

 

[ 07 June 2002, 10:24 PM: Message edited by: Davy Holt ]

[Alan Taylor]

Davy Holt:

Part 2 the final part

 

Nice one Davy, I have people round for my birthday and have just finished the last of Linda's bottle. In the morning or on Saturday I will tell my side of the story

Alan(nl)

[davidP]

Interesting that of the 2 fish caught 6 years apart, the male was practically the same weight whilst the female had quadrupled in size. Are the biggest skate usualy female??

[Davy Holt]

davidP:

Interesting that of the 2 fish caught 6 years apart, the male was practically the same weight whilst the female had quadrupled in size. Are the biggest skate usualy female??

Hiya,

 

Yup females are the biggest and can reach over 400lb in weight, the males however max out at 140lb but the normal weight for a mature male is between 110lb and 125lb

 

So with this in mind the female was probably only 9 years old where as the male would probably have been in his mid to late teens. I've also had females that hardly put any weight on, one in particular was tagged at 171lb in 1990, we had her 10 years later and she had only put on 7lb.

 

[ 08 June 2002, 07:54 AM: Message edited by: Davy Holt ]