Donegal kayak Angler: A day of brown trouser moments.

Hi all,
Its been hectic the last few weeks expecting every trip to be the last trip of the year out deep.
But come mid week a settled spell appears and its' FISH ON.
We are having a better autumn/winter than we had a summer.
I never expect to get out deep at this time of year but myself and a couple of the lads are always ready no matter what time of year it is. But I was on my own this day.

The perfect day.
Ye it was perfect, nearly no wind nearly no swell forecast and I had the day off.
What's the chances of all those circumstances coming together at this time of year.
So in at my launch spot at Malin and out I went. Geared up and I had forgotten to repair my battery clips for the gps/ff. So I just wrapped them onto the terminals and away I went.
Unfortunately I was heading out at the end of the ebb tide which is a killer for catching bait.
I have been unlucky with launch times and tides of late but you fish what you get at this time of year.
So with nothing to show for the bait search out I went.
This spot has a nice deep flat area not that far off shore. I was on the hunt for skate, squid and maybe an odd stray porgie.
The days fishing was tricky with not a lot about. The squid fishing was excellent again and I was rubbing the sardine wand on the jigs and it worked a treat,. It helped to keep the squid off the baits.
I also had a good few scad

Brown trouser moment NO.1 coming.
So apart from the squid there was not a pile happening, I was enjoying the weather catching squid hoping for a big rod to peel off when again a nice long lazy arsed take on the light bait rod.
I assumed it was another squid, and began to reel up nice and easy.
By now the line should be nearly up, feet over the side nice and relaxed as you should be on a day like it. I looked over the side to see was it a small ling, nice squid or a lazy doggie.
FF######CCCCKKKKK.
I leaned over as I love to see them coming up trough the crystal clear water.
Then what was coming up, no squid or a fish. But a massive shark, mouth opened coming straight up at a moderate pace.
Now picture it, all relaxed legs over the side and leisurely glance over the side to see a real monster heading straight up for you no more than 25ft under you. I near leapt out the other side of the kayak with the freight.
What a sight. I took me half a second to see it was a basking shark all 20ft plus of it. A real big bugger.
It was late in the day and in the afternoon light he was a bright light blue colour. Mad looking altogether.
More fishing and another squid with a couple of minutes.

Oh and yes it was a squid that was on the line lol.

Shaking starting to fade.
If I where a cat I think I would have used up 2 lives with that freight from that basking shark lol.
But the fuss was over and I was settling down again and my plan to fish into the dark was still ago. Despite the voices in my head saying get the fook out of here lol.
Fishing away and I was sorting my torch etc for the dark and low and behold moby dick came back for the craic, he didn't have the same scare factor this time . I was starting to think he was doing it on purpose this time. He came up under me done a big turn and rubbed off my 2 light lines and away he went. He thankfully didn't foul in any of them.

Not a lot of light left.

WTF.
Heading into the twilight now and the gps/ff shut off out of the blue. Oh this wasn't good at all as even if I upped anchor now I still wouldn't be ashore before the darkness.
It had to be a loose terminal as the battery was full.
I was contemplating my fate here and what the plan was. Either way I was making a paddle for shore in the dark to a rocky coast line looking for a 100 yard wide gulley which almost always has a swell braking on it and it did this evening. I could hear it breaking on shore from a mile out.
So I fished away and darkness fell very quickly I had planned to fish well into the dark but with my predicament I decided I would head in soon.

Pitch dark now.
Pitch dark now and the old curiosity was getting to me. I have never had a squid in the dark so I upped my gear and gave my squid jig multiple wraps of the bioglow from fish dynamix. [Shameless plug] But that's what I done, a flick of the black light and it glowed like a nuclear rod and down it went.
It wasn't down more than 10 mins and yes my first squid in the dark was on. Its the little things that brighten your day even in the dark lol. It was a cracker too.

So I felt I had pushed my luck enough and that was it. I decided to pack up and head in. Light rods up and then the big rods. First big rod in was the skate rod. It was baited with a fresh scad.
Up the skate rod came and the hook was bare. DAM it I thought. how long was it like that.
So I still had the porgie rod to reel in so I whacked a fresh scad on and dropped it down as I assumed if there was a skate there he would hit it soon.
That went down and I picked up the porgie rod to reel in and as I did the skate rod was far bouncing.
I reeled the porgie rod in record time grabbed the skate rod and struck hard.
It was now pitch dark and I wanted a short fight. So I struck into him with a good bit of drag so I could pump him off the bottom.

Pressure on.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZ Then ZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
I drove the hook into him and was waiting for him to instantly slow to some degree but he took off.
I pushed the drag to the max of about 14lb of drag and he just went even faster. the line was flying off the reel at an impressive rate. I was thinking about letting go of the anchor as I was soon going to loose my 400yards of 80lb braid that he was pouring off. The kayak was surging forward even my anchor buoy has half under the water from the sheer force of the run.
But No I wasn't going to be blindly towed in the dark by what could only be a porgie. It couldn't have been a skate. I have had a couple of belter skate this year and this lad was like a Ferrari compared to to them. Full drag on and now I was trying to hold the spool to slow him as the line flew off.
Then BANG the 80lb braid broke midst the unbelievable run.
I reeled up and the lead had shot up the leader onto my braid and had twisted and buried into the zip slider, got fouled and breaking the under the huge pressure.

Heart broken.
Ah I was very disappointed to say the least. I really wanted to at least see what it was. It was very big what ever it was vey fast.
But now I was still out off a rocky coastline in the dark having to paddle into a gulley 100yards wide. That sounds very wide but in the dark 1 mile out its like a needle in a hay stack.
I packed everything away and mulled over my options.
They where all pretty shit to be honest but to hell with it I shimmied up forward and reconnected the wires to the gps/ff.
Now the raymarine screen comes on black then a mid dark colour screen before it goes to the main screen.
It has never been a problem before but I never used it in the dark before and the brightness was up full for those sunny days.

Another Brown trouser moment and another 2 cats lives used.
I sat back as it fired up and I was happy for a moment until the super bright blinding screen light up.
Dam I could see nothing but the screen and my centre console.
That's not great, but add a small quick chop and it gets very bad very quick.
The blinding light totally disabled my sense of stability. and every bit of chop and swell came as a surprise. I couldn't believe how disorientated I became in less than a minute.
A quick shuffle forward to dim the screen down helped.

So the screen was sorted and I was starting to be able to sense what was happening around me.
I still had my anchor to pull and I was considering just leaving it there but I decide to haul it.
I got it in and I still had a sense of being drunk from the glare of the screen.
But the gps was going and I started off.

Heading for shore with the gps.
I had a reasonable idea of where I was going but a mistake out here heading into the wrong gulley would leave you washed up on the rocks in the dark with no way of walking out of it.
So in I headed and 10mins later the screen went dead again.

I took a pic in pure disbelief at it happening again. I was far to unsettled to shimmy up and connect it again. I also had a spare gps in the back but I wasn't reaching around for it as I was still not fully at myself.

Safety point.

At this point unless you are sure of yourself get your anchor or drogue out and call the coast guard for help. They will be more than happy to help you and it is a lot easier to help you on the water than washed up on the rocks.

I was paddling in with no help now but thankfully the light from some town in the distance showed a faint edge of the head land I need and with the help of some street light from peoples houses I knew where I was going. Still it was nerve racking paddling in looking for the gulley in the dark with swell breaking along the rocks as you looked for the gulley.

So all ended well. A lot more grey hair for that days fishing but I still enjoyed.

When I came a shore I took a pic of my kayak in the dark to show what mine looks like when a light is shone on it.

It is vitally important to be seen at night afloat. You can buy lorry grade reflective tape in many places now and E5.00 will be enough to make your kayak look like a Christmas tree in the dark.