Common Skate from the shore

[Alan Taylor]

Hi all,

I have seen some reports of very big being caught from the shore and can't imagine how you would go about it. How do you get your bait out to the mark, 2lb of lead + 2lb of bait would rule out a bait boat :confused:

What sort of tackle? I don't think that I will ever get the chance of doing it but am really interested of hearing from those that have done it or intend to.

Imagine a 150lbs fish trying to pull you into the water, wow

 

Alan(nl)

[Kieran Hanrahan]

Hi Alan

 

Only record I know of such was a 109 lb skate landed after 4.5 hours from Fenit Pier in Co. Kerry by a local angler using a multiplier, a bass rod and 19 lb line, some time back in the mid 1970s! It is listed in a few books, but no details of rig or techniques given. There is even a photo of the angler in the dark (sadly a dead skate, before more enlightened attitudes)...

 

All I have been told is that you need deep water, preferably a sand or mud bottom, in an area with strong currents but fishing at slack water, and that around Ireland a dead dogfish, preferably five days old (!) is the best bait... all per the skipper of 'Enterprise 1' up in Rathmullen in Donegal. Some smaller fish up to 60 lbs have been recorded caught from the shore in recent years...

 

FWIW.

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

Originally posted by Alan Taylor:

How do you get your bait out to the mark, 2lb of lead + 2lb of bait would rule out a bait boat

 

The easy way is to use smaller baits, remember a Common will take anything remotly edible and the size of it aint an issue. I most areas that you would try from the shore you would get away with normal beachcasting leads and or grippers.

 

What sort of tackle?

 

Good quality rod with plenty of backbone and a solid reel with a high line capacity of at least 25lb mono.

 

I don't think that I will ever get the chance of doing it but am really interested of hearing from those that have done it or intend to.

Imagine a 150lbs fish trying to pull you into the water, wow

 

I hooked one a few years ago from Lochaline pier, it took a small whole sandeel mounted on a 4/0 Mustad BLN, the rod was a cheap Dam Beachcaster that I had won and the reel was Abu 6000 loaded with 18lb mono. I had been trying for Cuckoo ray's when the skate struck and then decided to head off down the Sound. I was standing on the pier with the butt of the rod against my foot with the line peeling off at a fast walking pace for about 5 minutes till thankfully the skate crunched the hook

[chris parker]

Just a thought,Could you use a baloon fitted with a release clip perhaps a clothes peg rigged the same as a down rigger clip. It would only work in an offshore wind but you should be able to get your tackle out to any distance with weight not being a problem

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

chris parker:

Just a thought,Could you use a baloon fitted with a release clip perhaps a clothes peg rigged the same as a down rigger clip. It would only work in an offshore wind but you should be able to get your tackle out to any distance with weight not being a problem

yep in theory it would work great.. trouble is when you want to use it you never get an off shore wind or a bloody seagull attacks the balloon

[Kieran Hanrahan]

How about using the paravanes and big heavy duty floats that pike fishermen use on the big lakes, assuming you have a favourable breeze? It would be able to withstand the seagulls

[Alan Taylor]

Davy Holt:

Hiya,

Interesting replies, Davy I can just imagine you standing there not being able to a thing to stop the fish

I suppose you could use a dingy to row the bait out but NOT for playing the fish

Still sounds like fun though.

 

alan(nl)

[Gillies]

Here on the Isle of Lewis, there have been a few Common Skate caught from the shore, including the UK shore record. We are lucky enough to have a sea loch which holds a large number of skate, but for some reason or another us boat anglers never seem to go fishing for them. When in the boat and anglers fish for them though, they usually catch them. As for the shore, people I know who has put the time and effort into fishing for them have got ones … the tides have to be right though, and the fish have been caught in the summer months.

 

Fishing for them, the tackle I know that people have used is an Abu 9000 reel filled with 40lbs line, and casting out a large Mackerel bait as far as they could. In the area up here anglers normally fish for them … there is a hole in the muddy bottom that they are said to often frequent that anglers aim to cast their baits into.

 

Just a quick point, I’ve been late to respond to this thread as I’ve been across the pond for a week and a bit … and could not remember my password to log onto Anglers Net I was also amazed at how badly treated the “so called” 230 skate was during its capture that featured in Sea Angler magazine, I was going to comment about what I know of capture of one shore caught Common Skate up here on the Isle of Lewis which can only be described as … well awful. (sorry to comment on an other thread)

 

One guy I know who caught one from the shore described it as like trying to drag something through a bed of very thick bed kelp, there is just no give. I’ve never been lucky enough to be present when one has been caught, and can’t say I know very much about fishing for them, but I guess the only things I could say, is find somewhere that is known for producing them, have the right tide conditions, and just keep at it hoping to get lucky.

 

When fishing for them up here, it usually done of Breasclete Pier, a well known Thornback mark on the Island, I do know of one guy whom a couple of years ago, cast out his bait, and stuck the rod out of the boot of his car, and forgot to set his drag properly … it was too loose, and when he went to check his rod a wee while later he found all the line had been stripped from the reel.

 

I always say to myself, I should set time a side to fish for one, it must be incredible from boat or shore ... but I am yet to fish for one.

 

Gillies

[chevin]

westerly:

Hi Alan

 

Only record I know of such was a 109 lb skate landed after 4.5 hours from Fenit Pier in Co. Kerry

Actually, if you go back into the '60's there were quite a number of big skate, (many larger than 109lbs) caught from Fenit Pier. In fact it was a regular enough occurrence to attract Vagabond, Peter Grundle and I to the place in 1966 or 67. Sadly all we caught were dogfish and to add insult to injury Pete walked into a girder and gashed his eyebrow so badly it required stitches. Actually, I think that we might have caught a thornback or two as well. Perhaps Vagabond's memory is better than mine! But however good his memory is, I know that we never caught a big skate there.

[Vagabond]

Right, Chevin, but I'm surprised you forgot my two thornbacks a second time - we had a salutary reminder the first time!

 

For other readers, what happened was this. I caught a couple of thornbacks (about 6 or 7 pounds each) on Fenit pier, and we decided they would make a good supper with a suitable quantity of chips, so we tied them to my roof-rack, took them back to our digs and hung them in the shed for attention the next day. A lot of snot, slime and corruption had anointed my car roof as a result!

 

The next day, on the way back from fishing, we got waylaid at the pub by people wanting to buy rounds of Guinness, so that we forgot all about supper. What with that, the subsequent amnesia caused by half-metabolised Guinness and the excitment of fishing several very good tides for bass on the surf beaches, we forgot about the thornbacks altogether.

 

Towards the end of our stay, our landlady made a tactful reference to the fish "ripening" in the shed. That was an understatement - cor' did they pongo!! I seem to remember we attached a long cord to the tails, then cut the string they were hung from. The fish were then dragged down the path and t'other end of the cord tied to the bumper of my car - no way was I having them on the roof-rack again.

 

We dragged the thornies through Castlegregory High Street (at one point Pete said we had just passed a party of nuns who promptly crossed themselves) and down to the shore, where we consigned them to the crabs and dogfishes.

 

We were not happy at the waste of fish, because we were really looking forward to thornie wings and chips - it was amazing that they went "out of sight out of mind" for all three of us. These days I make a point of "processing" my catch the same day as caught - unless it is my lucky day, and Norma volunteers to do the filleting.

 

[ 13. December 2002, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: Vagabond ]