A day of monsters at the end of a fantastic year.

Back again,
More grey hair and slightly worse for ware.
Another excellent day appeared on the forecast and where else would you find me on a day like it.
This day Mike Sherwood was up for a monster hunt to, so rods, reels and hooks where gathered that would look out of place on a small boat never mind a couple of  kayaks.
It was a belter of a day and all was calm.
There was a light easterly forecast so we where gear for a cool if not cold day out there.
The 2 of us headed out 1hr before high water which was ideal for some bait hunting before we headed out.

Bait fishing can be great fun.
Lines where dropped as we went dipping here and there looking for bait. When a nice shape appeared on the sounder, I was thinking mackerel or herring. So line down with white euro champs  and the rod buckled over.
It could only be Pollock or coalie and to our delight it was coalie. An excellent skate bait, plus the best of craic catching them.
Every drop the rod buckled and the line was peeling off the reels with three to four 2lb+ coalie.
It was that much fun we nearly didn't head out, but come the turn of the tide they would settle down and be very hard to tempt.

So enough for the day fishing were kept and away we went trolling the rigs looking for mackerel but we only got one. As always I had the porgie rod with me and since there was really only squid out there I am assuming that any porgies that are left out here must be after squid. So I stuck a big squid on and bound it in place with the heavy bioglow elastic thread. It was good, and held the hook in position very well, as we all know hook position is half the battle. You don't want the hook lost inside the bait when you are trying to hook a fish.

Out that went on a balloon and I wanted it very deep as that's where the squid are. So I let out about 80ft of line and set the balloon 2.5oz of lead and away down tide it went.

Then the skate rod got a whopper coalie on and it also got lowered to the bottom.

Then the light rod got the usual rig when there's a chance of spurdogs, a mickey fish rig with a squid jig on top.

The wait was on and we had some doggies and small ling.
As I sat there my balloon came free of my line, no runs or tugs. The small swell just pulled the line free as it takes a lot to hold them at depth.
By now the tide had eased and my line was slowly sinking to the bottom.
I was quiet happy to let it go to the bottom as I had been toying with the idea of trying this to drop a bait down tide for skate so I could use 2 rods for skate. Plus I had that monster hit me in the dark on the bottom a couple of weeks ago.
More doggies and small stuff for the both of us, the banter was good and the slagging is never far away,
As it was quiet I decided to give the porgie bait that was now on the bottom a lift and reeled in about 20 yards, as Mike was telling me the sharks lads where getting hits with moving baits.
Rood back in the holder, clutch set for a take, but I forgot to put the ratchet on.

The silent zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I was sitting there and I started to feel a rattle trough the kayak and turned to look at the porgie rod to see the rod top bouncing. I was thinking a skate had just jumped on the bait so I reeled the light rod in quick.
Then lifted the porgie rod and struck hard. The line went for another few yards and then came to a solid stop.
The porgie rod is a penn 30lb to 50lb class rod. Its a bit soft yanking skate off the sea floor but that's what he hit and it was about to be tested to the full.
The line had come to a solid stop and no amount of pulling would shift it.
So I let the anchor go and worked the rod until I was directly over the spot it stopped at. It was this point I realised the bugger had peel of near 100yards of line very quickly.
He had wrapped the line around several rocks so a bit of paddling and heavy had the line poping off each rock as I paddled and each time I got a bit of slack line for a second thinking each time I lost it.

Eventually I could feel my lead bouncing off the bottom so my hook was now I was either hooked to a lump of Donegal or a dam big skate as she was not shifting with out a scrap.
I heaved like hell and mike was heckling me from a far YOUR STUCK ARE YE LOL.

HEAVE,
Oh I heaved like a mad thing either that was coming up or I was going down lol. Either way something was going to give and then movement. I got it up about 10ft off the bottom and shouted over its up and then back down again it went. It done that about 3 times. But I could clearly see it on the fish finder and you can just see it on the fish finder screen the blue line, its about 25ft off the bottom here. the screen is zoomed here.

Up she comes.
Ye she was coming up and the seriously damaged line was coming to. The rod was holding up well to the abuse but myself and Mike where wondering if the line would as there where slivers of line coming off as it came trough the rigs. The skate gave it a terrible doing on the boulders. So no braid for me any more. The other rod is getting mono soon.
At last the bright yellow lead end of Alain Storey's was coming up and I was delighted to see it come into the top eye of the rod as the piece of line near the leader was in a shocking state.
I grabbed the leader and the skate came along side slapping splashing along side. She was immense. The big ones are an unbelievable  site when they come along side.

She looked a similar size to my last big one but was 5ft4" across and 78" long working out at 170lb.
A massive thanks to Mike for helping me get her measured.

                                       Thanks to Mike for this pic, Its a great shot.

 Here is what my bait looked like after that beast devoured it. And it was still held in place with the heavy elastic thread.

The excitement wasn't over yet.
We had been towed and drifted about a mile at this stage so a brisk paddle back with an aching arm lol. We where soon at anchor. Mike and I whacked large squid baits on down they went.
Not 30mins later I could hear mikes rachet going at a good rate.
Mike grabbed it and struck hard and hoofed up the drag and it kept going it was going mad and trying to get away but it was coming up not to bad and after a minute or so it was looking like Mike was going to get his first kayak skate and all of a sudden BUMP, off it came. F#####KKK echoed around the area as Mikes disappointment was very clear.
The hard fighting beauty was gone.
We fished on with more doggies and squid some of which where huge.

A monster of another kind

So Mikes skate didn't come back but he did get a brute of a spurdog when I had the skate on so no pic of that fish unfortunately.

But he got the dinner no bother to him, with a good few huge squid.

 As the year is nearing the end on the big salt stuff, I thought a pic of how the typhoon suit was getting would be appropriate. Here it is not even washed yet after a day fighting with Skate, Squid and lots of baits. It is still in perfect condition despite many lads prediction that it would never survive my kind of fishing. Thank you Typhoon with Wet and Wild in Belfast you make an excellent suit.

Thanks for reading and paddle safe out there.

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.

 

That can easily be seen from a .5 of a mile away. We have tried it.

Oh I ended with a good bag of squid.

 

So paddle safe out there. Be ready for all circumstances.

Even the most experienced of us get caught out an odd time by situations you could never fore see.

 

Tight lines and paddle safe.

 

 

 

Making the most of a settled spell.

Yes the wind actually settled for a little while last week.
So with cabin fever starting to settle in I was ready to hit the water.
Out to my launch site near Malin head, and the tide was the lowest I have ever seen out there.
Also some clown had the slip block so it was a long carry down to the water,.
But karma was on its way as the ejit came in expecting to be able to get out of the water at low tide of the biggest tides of the year lol. He had about 2hrs of a wait lol.

Get out there.
Ye the tide was very low so the kayak was dragged off the slip and across the weed to get to the water. Mad seeing the place like this. Its normally at least 4ft deep here at low tide.

 It was a slippy carry to the water.

 As the tide was low bait gathering options where not going to be great, the coalies and Pollock are very tough on an ebb tide. Today was no different. I didn't hit 1 coalie or Pollock on the way out nor did I get any mackerel. Never have I seen the mackerel so bad. even quiet years they are every where at the end of September.

Anchors away.
Out to what I had hoped was spot for skate and squid and all I had was a rank ling and some frozen macks and squid. But the macks where not what I thought they where. They where macks from the last session put back for chum. Oh I could have cried the first chance in 2 weeks and all I had was squid. Not the best bait here by far but it was better than nothing. I did have an ace up my sleeve in the form of the new fish dynamix attractants.

First out was the stinking ling down for a skate. I had hoped a skate would be mad for the smell of it.
Then the light rods first a small set of feathers with tiny bits of squid on them for macks and scad.
But there was not a tap on it so. So light rod 2 was sent down with a set of rainbow warriors with bigger bits of squid with a good lick of the sardine bio edge.
It had hardly hit the bottom and the rod was hopping. a quick strike and up this lad came a nice red.

 

Rod down again and again a nice red.



 Not a bad sign for low tide, so I whacked the camera on the line hoping for more gurnard.
But no they where away, but a few minutes later a grand ling came to the kayak. I got him on camera.

As I didn't have any shark baits he was impaled and sent out on a balloon.

Oh so quiet.
But then every thing went quiet, very quiet.
A couple of doggies and that was it. I realised there was something more substantial down there so I took the camera in as I didn't want it to get eaten.
With that I stuck half a doggie on the skate rod to see would that coax a monster to the hook but no.
I didn't get a touch on it.
The rest of the day went pretty much like that. I had planned to stay on into the dark but the conditions worsened and it is not the place to be in choppy conditions during the day never mind in the dark.
So for once sense prevailed and away I went for home, paddling under a fantastic sunset.
It was great to be out.

Home I went a bit disappointed about the result but I was happy enough.

Of course I was itching to check the video and what do you know. It was deja vu.

Out of the clear blue came a skate and spent his whole time bashing my rig with the sardine bio edge wand scent on it. I couldn't believe it. It was no more than 10ft from my skate bait.

Hey sure that's fishing. It'll just be all the better if I get to battle him again. The video is below

I hope you enjoy.

Just a note of safety, the temps out there have dropped considerably. So even if its warm on the shore you'll need some extra clothing out there.

 



Until next tight lines,