Exciting news from Stealth kayaks.

Hi all as per title I have some exciting news.
I have been kindly asked to join the Stealth kayaks Irish kayak angling team, and I have gladly accepted.
This will open a new world of kayak angling for myself and others, a kayak with a potential to paddle further than ever before. These sleek kayaks are about as close to a sea kayak as you get.
Don't get me wrong I love my old kayak and it helped me catch a few monsters this year.
But I believe the stealth range will open new grounds and possibilities that where not possible before.
Here is the kayak and it looks great. Nice colour to.

 

 

Next year
So next year will be very interesting, after an initial few runs to get the feel for the new stealth kayak it will on out to see what I can do. As it won't be the kayak that will hold me back it will be my own ability and nerve. It's a bit nerve wracking paddling out and loosing the shore line behind you.
I am excited just thinking about it here now as I write. Dam it will be a long winter waiting for the chance of a long run out. But lough Foyle will get a good run up and down.
So watch this space and I hope I can do these fine kayaks justice on our fine Irish angling grounds.
Also you can get your own Stealth kayak at this link. https://stealthkayaksireland.wordpress.com/

Regards
Graham Smith
Stealth Kayak Angling team.

Common Skate from a kayak in Ireland. We got a good one.

Hi all.
Ye you read that right, following on from our last success of getting a common skate of 37lb there was nothing else for it but to do it all again.
Well the weather  forecast finally settled down and myself and some of the lads decided to hit the skate mark near Malin head. Plans where made and the final head count was Mike Henry, Brendan Moyna and myself [Graham Smith].

The launch
The 3 of us met up near malin and got ourselves on the water as soon as we could, It was a late start and 1pm was the earliest we could get out with work and travel.
I was first pushing out, and the initial calmness of our launch point was soon gone once we cleared the shelter of the bay. It was rather lumpy to say the least with the wind and swell running against the tide so we got battered on all sides lol.

Anchors away
I didn't bother messing about with getting bait as myself and my son Craig had gotten a bucket full the day before. But I did drop a set of euro champs on a mark of fish, the first drop I got a good fish on and lost it half way up but as soon as my gear went down again, BANG another had hit and he was a good scrapper. And to my surprise it was a nice codling. Very rare for this spot only my second this year from this venue

We all paddled out and it was clear that the weather was considerably worse than expected so much so we stopped short of our intended mark. Anchors down and myself  Mike anchored about 200yards apart began to fish. I had forgotten my scads so all I could do was to double up some mackerel and try that. I fished away for about 1.5 hours catching small stuff. When the skate rod got a bit of a take and a short run, but then nothing. I waited for about 10mins but nothing happened. I reeled up and the bait was in perfect nick so he may have been eating the chum bag.
I decided to go big on the bait and from recent advice from quiet a few skate anglers and friends I put on a large dogfish for bait. I cut it in half at the lower end of the gut section and just hooked it in the nose.
 Down it went and the adrenaline was flying at this stage, but in the back of my mind I was convincing myself it a lobster at the bait or a bullhuss.

The weather worsened
By this stage the weather was really making things uncomfortable. We had a reasonable tide running west with a NW wind with a dirty sharp lump coming from the NW. All this meant we where getting a good battering so much so that Mike called it a day and began to head in. Myself and Brendan where for staying out.  But no sooner had he let go of his anchor and started paddling ashore my rod started to go.

FISH ON GET THE CAMERA LOL
Ye my rod was going quiet a gentle take and nothing mad or screaming runs. I lifted the rod wound down on her and lifted as hard as I could. I felt a short bit of movement and some shifting about, but then nothing but solidness. I heaved and heaved for about 10 full minutes and she didn't budge an inch. I was making so little progress that I was thinking I was just stuck. DAM it I thought and mulled over my options. So I eased up the pressure to see would she move and no not inch did she move. I got the line in my hand to get a better idea of what was happening and heaved and she was solid and now I was think I really was stuck, That was until she had enough of being heaved and started to shift and she could shift.

The battle
Ye there's no other description for it, it was a battle. I heaved some line up and she would just pour it back off. It was mental. I was delighted to have her peel the line off the reel but the effort to get every last yard back on the reel was a killer.
I was using a 50lb class rod and it was bent like it was light fly rod. By now the weather really wasn't helping with the tide holding me side on to the swell and fighting the skate from the side it was tough going.
Thankfully half way up I got the kayak into the wind and it got easier I had more stability and gave her all I had, Oh it was great craic. I'd get some line in and she'd take some line all the way up.

Up she came.
My leader appeared and I shouted to Brendan that she was coming up and over he came.

The anticipation was serious every foot of leader I was trying to catch a glimpse of her in case the gear gave up under the pressure. First a flash of white and then what looked like a sitting room carpet appearing on the top of the water with those black eyes popping up like a crocodile.
It was a fantastic sight only for her to turn and dive like a submarine, but thankfully only a short dive.

I got her back up again and I grabbed the hook trace and held tight. At this stage I was wrecked and Brendan was laughing his head off at me. You'd think I ran a marathon lol.

No time to rest.
You'd think it was over now, trace in hand and a big skate nose poking up from under the kayak.

She was massive, but I wanted to get at the very least a wing span measurement to have a rough idea of weight, but with the tide constantly pushing her under the kayak it was very tough going to turn her over. This was as far as I could get the skate up on my own.

So Brendan came along the lower side of my kayak and the plan was he would heave the trace and I'd haul the skate itself.
Dam she was heavy we heaved together and up she came. She actually sunk the kayak down on its side as she came in. What a sight she was immense and really heavy she was squashing my legs lol. I got the tape out and could only manage a wing span measurement which came in at 142cm.

We went mid range on the possible weights and ended up with a weight of 130lb. A chat with the lads that catch them all the time reckon she was comfortably 130lb so I was over the moon even more, if that was possible.
What a day it was unforgettable and to top it off I managed another codling on the way in.

So that was day one and day 2 didn't let us down. There was another skate caught, not by me but by Mike Henry. Unfortunately Brendan had to head home so it was just Mike and myself out on Sunday.  It was Mike's turn for a skate and after the skate nudging and pulling his bait for half the day it eventually took the bait and Mike was into another nice skate. She put up a good scrap and between the 2 of us we got it on to Mike's kayak for a trophy shot. She was estimated at 60lb to 70lb. Very well done Mike cracking fish.

 

What a way to end a week end. Absolutely brilliant. 

                                       
                                             So until next time, tight lines.

Bait, catch your own crab and shrimp.

 

 

Hi all,
Here's a piece on making your own shrimp/crab pot.
I made one earlier in the year with one entry in it and it was excellent. We had a meet on in wexford this year and we used it to catch crab. It was catching enough hard crab after an hour for 2 anglers for the day. So it fished very well and a lot cheaper than buying crab.
This time I added another like a traditional pot with the intention of catching shrimp.
I put 2 soft eyes the pot this time as I want crab as well.
But for shrimp you really need 2 hard eyes which means 2 hard rings. Instead of the soft eyes

 

So a simple start, I got a 10L plastic drum and cut 2 holes on opposite sides of the barrel. Then I drilled holes around the opening about 25mm apart.

For the eyes I used knotless mesh but any mesh of less than 15mm will do.

Commercially you would pre-make the eyes and add them to the pot. But this is based on what ever is in your shed or what you can get cheap and easy. So the easy way to do it is to pull the mesh around opening and just cable tie it to the pre drilled holes. Cheap £1.00 ones will do.

 

To save on cable ties I get through 2 holes per tie.
[Note] You never use the outer edge of the mesh as this may pull when fishing. Tie to the next mesh in.

 

So do his all the way around until you end back where you started.

Then cut the mesh and join the edges with more cable ties.

When sowed up your eye should be 3/4 of the width of your pot when the eye is pulled back inside.

Right bye now you should have a mesh funnel 3/4 the width of your barrel/tub.

So you need to make the jaw of the eye now. This is the part that the crab of shrimp drop in.

Simple gather 1/3 of the mesh to the top of the eye and gather 3 meshes either side of the eye making sure the eye is level on top. Then cut down the mesh at an angle, in this case about 6 bars of the mesh on both side and then cut the middle piece off. 

With the 3 meshes from either side get a length of cord and thread it through the 3meshes and catch them in an over hand knot and then run the cord through the bottom of the jaw of the eye until you come back to the other side

 

So now you have threaded the cord through the jaw of your eye. I then just simply just do an over hand loop on each side this is for tying back the eyes.

 

Now your ready to push the eye back inside the pot. You now need 2 holes level with the top of eye . Then simply thread the cord through the holes and use the over hand loops to tension the eye and tie it off.

This is what it should look like when tightened. notice the top flap of the eye stays up and should not hang down on the entry point.

                                                   Now do the same the other side.

All you need to do now is to add a door to empty the pot.

So I just cut 3 sides and use the back as the hinge.

Also add some bungee to keep it closed when fishing. I put the bungee through half way along as well to stop it falling inside the pot.

All you have to do now is add some weight. I use what I have around the place. This crappy chain will do the job, even has an old pad lock for added weight lol.

 

 [NOTE] But this is not heavy enough to hold the pot in the tide so you will need to tie it to an anchor or tie it to a pier. This pot will catch all the bait you'll need for smoothies and all the shrimp you can use for wrasse and bass. If you think you are not getting shrimp change the soft eyes for hard plastic rings.
                         So good luck and I hope you catch what you want.
                                                 Until next time tight lines

Mullet has to be done at least once a year.

Every one.
As per title I had a trip down home to the east coast and lucky for me the new kayak a scupper pro [more on that later] landed the same weekend so I got to try it out and have a crack at the mullet on my old stomping ground.
It was a tad late in the year for this venue but there was still a reasonable few mullet about.

The Nanny river.
So a plan was hatched to meet up with Anthony Byrne at Nanny river at 6.30am on Sunday morning.
Well we met there bright and early, it was cold but what a morning a fine sunrise spurred us on out onto the water.

It was great to be back on the Nanny, with a rising tide and calm it couldn't of been better.

We had a short paddle around the basin and there where some mullet getting ready to run up. But no where near the mid summer numbers. Saying this an afternoon flooding tide is always better at this venue. 

 On up the river we went and I left Anto anchored beside one of my favourite spots that attracts some fine mullet at the early stages of the tide. While I had a reci about to see how the mullet where running.
Only small numbers where coming up so drifted a few baits past them to no avail.
I left them after 20 mins and went to see how Anto was doing and there wasn't a mullet near him.
We put this down to the anchor chain. I reckon the chain was rattling in the tidal flow and put them off as they hit this spot every time with out fail.
I went across the river and threw some bread about to try and the mullet going. Thankfully a few mullet took some bread but they where far from in bread feeding form. They at best had 1 or 2 bits each before leaving. I had my line out and was about to re-cast as Anto was coming over for a shot at them when I saw a mullet come up for a gentle take. He let it go and came back and after a few seconds of playing with it my tiny float took a shift and I truck into a mad bugger of a mullet. He run like a tope and poured line off the reel. If we where in a harbour I would have said there was a seal after him. He took a good few screaming runs and I had a nerve racking fight, as my heart does be in my mouth for fear of loosing the first of the year. Thankfully I got the beauty in and got some nice snaps. Thanks to Anto for this pic. A nice fish of 3lb+

 

After that there wasn't a lot of action the mullet where active for about 15mins after this fish but that was it. The tide turned with out rising a whole lot and that was it. So we headed down to a spot where the flounder hang out and we managed 2 small ones flounder and endless crabs.
So with that Anto had to have ago at his re-entry drill as he hadn't had a go yet in the new kayak.

So a few re-entries under his belt with out much fuss and we where both happy with the day.

So hopefully next time Anthony will get his mullet.

 

So until next time tight lines.