The fantastic 4, common skate no.4 of 4

Hi all,
As most of you already know I had an epic session out near Malin head, Inishowen.
It began with the alarm going off way before stupid O'clock 4am to be precise.
So up and ready and out the road.
The forecast was not great for the early part of the day 12mph to 15mph later it was to be 6mph to 8mph.
But the swell was small so I was up for it.

Bait gathering.
I had a decent selection of frozen baits, including a 4lb coalie and a 2lb coalie for the skate.
The mackerel where very scarce and I just managed 2 on the way out. I wasn't to bothered though as I was really after skate.
Chum out, heavy rod down with a bait jaws couldn't resist lol.

So down that went soon followed by the light rods for some entertainment while I waited.

As usual the doggies where in flying form and nailed me every drop but then they went quiet, I am sure I was shaking with the excitement waiting for something to happen lol.

But not this time, soon they where back.

But so where the squid, my first of the year. I really get a kick out of squid fishing they are a laugh.

The fishing was good, I start hitting some fine red gurnard, scad and more squid.

As I sat there a big mark of fish drift across my fish finder so I reeled up to it quickly to try for macks or what ever it was. But as soon as began to reel I got a nice rattle on the rod likely a scad or mackerel, but a third of the way up something grabbed it and took off. A good run and as it started to come around it bit trough the line.

Ah not really a problem as I didn't want him hitting my skate line.

But he was no sooner gone and the skate rod got a take, the rod bobbed and the line started to run off the reel. I lifted the rod and began to put pressure on but the hook didn't make contact. I reeled up after a few minutes but the bait looked perfect.

I guessed a skate just swam into the line.

 

Down again.

The morning was cracking on but there was no sign of the breeze easing in fact it was getting stronger if anything. But skate bait was sent down again, I didn't get up that early for nothing.

More squid and scad and the old pain in the back side the doggies.

They where relentless, I even switched to squid and rag baits but they still found them just as quick.

As I fished away again the doggies vanished but as this was the third time it happened I let my guard down and sat there fishing away for small stuff.

 

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK.

Ye the moment in jaws when Quint's ears prick up after a couple of clicks of the reel.

Well this was the same but more exciting lol.

Light stuff reeled in quicker than a mackerel could ever catch and the big rod was grabbed as the line was slowly peeling off the reel.

 

Shaking with adrenaline,

As above that first reel down to see if it is still there, is heart stopping stuff.

I reeled the rod tip under the water and heaved like I was trying to pull the plug out of the sea.

The rod doubled over as I reeled, and heaved. FISH ON and I had her moving.

She was coming handy enough for about 30ft of line and I assumed she was a small one.

But that changed about 2 seconds later as she turned and dived like a submarine and as much as I wanted I couldn't stop her.

She hit the bottom and run for a bit then stopped and half circled, Then solid and I mean solid.

I heaved and heaved my 50lb class rod was bent double for what seemed like a solid 20mins and no move at all.

 

Stuck solid,

Was she still there, it was totally solid on the bottom and not a foot of line could I gain.

So I eased up on the pressure to see would she run, No not an inch. So I actually let the line go slack for about 2 mins and pulled the line by hand to get a better idea of what was happening, and yes she was still there, I could feel the line dragging around a boulder.

So pressure back on and I let the anchor go to paddle around in a semi circle to free the line.

 

We're away again.

I let the anchor go and the tide ran me the way I wanted to go so that was handy and before I could start paddling the line came free and she was fighting hard.

One submarine away, f##k she could go.

Very very strong. About 45 mins in now and my fore arm was acking. Full pressure on now for the best part of 45mins is tough going lol.

But she was coming up, but when you have so much pressure on for so long doubts start to creep into your head.

Is it really a fish, where those runs just swell and tide.

But hey what appeared but my leader end, nearly as good to see as a fish lol.

Soon followed by a massive white shape and I mean massive.

Shit pic I know, but when your on your own you just point and click.

 

They think it's all over.

Me hole, lol.

One look at me and she turned in a heart beat and powered down half way, but I piled the pressure on and got her coming up again.

Up she came white side then the brown side, she looked like a living room carpet coming up lol.

After a few mental attempts to get a good pic of her. I let the cameras run and I lined her up to get as close a measurement as I could.

One side was at my rod holder  and the other side was at my forward hatch. So Skate released and I got the tape measure out and measured where she was and she measured in at 5ft 7' and according to Mike that's a minimum weight of 187lb. I'd well believe it lol.

The go pro pics make her look half the size but sure that's cameras for ye. I was more than happy, one of those fish that takes a day or 2 to take it all in. 

Heres a couple of screen grabs.

She looks like nothing in this pic.

 

The video will be up very soon.

So that was no.4 of the big 4. Tope, blue shark, porbeagle and Common skate.

 

For me its the fantastic 4. And will look forward to trying it again.

 

So that's me happy for a life time, but will always try for more.

Thanks a lot for reading, and no doubt I will see some of you in the near future.

 

Good luck and be safe out there.



A bash in the shelter.

Hi all,
With this brutal weather of late sure where else could you go but hide in the shelter somewhere for a few hours, and with a bit of luck snag a few decent fish.

Forecast 15mph gusting to 25mph.
Ye that was the forecast and not weather to be heading out. But the wind was coming off the land I would be very close in, also no more than 1/3 of a mile from Culdaff pier.
So no swell running up the slip it was a stations go.

Great to be out.
I headed out and it was great to be out, I seem to have done very little this year with the poor weather.
I have only been out 3 times out deep this year, normally I would be on at least my 15th trip.
Well on out I went and I noticed a mark of fish near the bottom.
So I dropped a set of silver euro champs on and thankfully I got 2 cracking sandeels.
Which was handy as I had my new live bait contraption with me, another project from the shed.

Unlike most other areas around the coast drifting doesn't really work here, for a couple of reasons.
1. the patch of ground is very small so your off the ground in no time.
2. It catches the wind and the tide sweep you over the ground even with a drogue.

So anchors away.
It was a day for experimenting, The livey tube was sitting along side keeping the eels alive and I had some new 12g lead heads with 1/0 hooks baited to try out on the sand as using them on the light bass rod there great craic.
This is how I bait them. Stick the hook in and out the length of the hook down the bait.

 Then simply elastic thread it to the base of the lead head. Making a great bait with lots of fast action.

So the baited lead head was lobbed out across the tide and allowed to do its stuff in the tide as the chop jigs it as it pulls around in the tide.
The 2 main rods where put down, one with a standard 3 down rig bait with razor, mackerel and big juicy rag [can't fail lol]
The other a 2 down rig with 2 lumps of mackerel under the camera  hoping for ray.
Now with 3 top notch flattie baits down you'd expect it to be devoured first. But oh no in true dab form a whopper dab nailed my ray bait and on camera. I was amazed he took a big lump of mackerel before fresh rag and razorfish.

A whopper of  a dab, I was delighted.
It was a day of odd happenings as a short while after the light rod with the jig head got a rattle and again a cracking dab.

So those good dabs where great to see but there was no sign of any plaice or ray. But thankfully 1 of them turned up. Also on camera, I think the rays are one of the best fish to watch taking a bait. they just pounce on it when they find it, shuffle around until there mouth finds it and then scoff it.
This is one of 2 I had.

So by now I was having a ball and apart from the ravenous doggies making life hard to find more flats, even with all worm and razorfish baits they where still on them in a flash. The light rod with the jig head got a good rattle and a nice scrap resulted in a tub gurnard.

There was more to come a double shot came to the surface with a doggie on top and a nice brown diamond shape directly behind him,
Oh yes a turbot another I had hoped to see but they are scarce around here. Unless your beach casting.

By now the tide was getting up and the doggies kept coming and a mass of brown crab had descended on my gear. I was catching so many I kept a bunch on the kayak to see if they where the same one. But no there where heaps of them. They where so bad at a tme one even came up holding on to my lead.

So between doggies and brown crab it was time for home.
Home I went quiet happy with my inshore sheltered session.
Lets hope the weather settles soon and we all get out to where we want to fish.

So tight lines and thanks for reading.

Trying new out old new ground.

Hi all,
As with every trip this summer, well meant to be summer. A break appeared in the weather so I had a plan waiting for the wright day.
Today was ideal as I would be launching mid ebb tide so it was no good for flats or ray or Pollock.
So I decided to try a mark close to Culdaff in case the weather is poor for the final leg of the Irish kayak angling competition.
I wanted to try this spot as many years ago while boat angling we use to hit good tope 3 miles off shore, but the ground seems the same the whole way in on the charts,
So an inshore session had to be tried.

Ready for any thing.
Well no change there really lol,
But I had it all with me, a light rod for some messing about, a tope rod, and 2 for all things on the bottom.
So 2 rods on the bottom just to see what was there.
I was not in a panic to try for a tope as I wanted to see what was about.
In no time I hooked and lost 2 reasonable fish, they felt like cod heavy enough and fought well but the small hooks didn't hold them.
The fish started coming in well from then on, I was getting whiting, doggie, mackerel, lots of good dabs and red gurnard, my first of the year.

 



I was enjoying the craic with the species and trying for the tope had faded it wasn't slack tide yet.
So if you remember I said I had the light rod sitting out while I fished the 2 bait rods.
Well the light rod had a white soft lure that John H gave me last summer to try, so since it was white and had a great action I put it on a 1oz jig head and sent it to the bottom to let the tide and chop work the lure while I fished.

BOB, BOB and away.
Fishing away here catching all sorts of small stuff when the light rod with the jig head got a nice rattle followed by a fierce bit of battering on the rod tip. So a whiting or a small codling was swinging on it.
Great to see it work while un-attended.
But I was reeling in another fish so I let it sit while I reeled the other in.
As I reeled, what happened but the light rod took 2 long lunges.
Bo##ox, I knew what that was straight away but in the half a second it took to register in my head the rod shot off the centre hatch and over the side.
FOOOOOOK IT,
But it was on a length of cord so I grabbed the cord and pulled the rod up to see the line flying off the reel, I had a great almost unstoppable run and the black rock bass rod held him well.
But I was running out of line and my 150yards of 20lb braid was coming to an end.
Pressure on big time now and he sort of stopped gave a head shake and bit trough my mono tippet.
Dam it he was gone, but that was fun and that meant there definitely were tope on that spot.

Rod change.
So a rod change was in order, tope gear down and I fished with a small bait rod while I waited.
Now I have been seeing small dragonets on my camera for a good while and I even seen one fall of my hook while after wrasse the other week so I had to put a tiny hook down for them.
So with a bit of luck and nothing managed to eat it on the way up I had my first dragonet on a kayak.

I was delighted to see the little tiddler and another species for the hunt this year. But this spot had another surprise for me in the form of an octopus. I have lots on the boat but this is my first from the kayak.

He wasn't impressed and turned from pissed of red to fook off white as I tried to unhook him lol.

 

Ah it was a great evening and that 15mph to 18hph never showed and you couldn't be in a better place.

 

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ye you forgot about the tope rod didn't ye lol.

Well I didn't and after numerous barsteward fish [doggies] the tope rod was away.

Oh yes, the old whirl of the reel gets me every time.

So hook set and a great scrap was even better as the tope used the tide to his advantage as it had picked up a good bit now.

So tope to the side of the kayak and it was a respectable 30lber and scrappy as ever as I hauled it in for a few pics.

 

 A cracking evenings craic, tope in a few new species and a classic sun set to paddle home with can't be bad,

 

So until the next meet or the competition tight lines lads and be safe out there.