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Went to Oban for the weekend with my friend Tony for a bash at the skate.
On the journey up early on Saturday the scenery was fantastic, everything had a coat of frost and the lochs all had a thin veil of mist in the flat calm conditions, coupled with the golden sunrise on the autumn leaves on the trees, magic!!!!
Got to the puffin centre about 9 o\'clock and quickly launched to catch the slack water period out on the deep hole off Kerrera, got the pick down and started fishing at about 10.
The water was flat, the little puff of breeze in the same direction as the tide meant we sat perfectly at anchor, no annoying yawing from side to side, with 3 skate rods baited with frozen coalies down Tony decided to fish baited hokeyes for what ever was about, normally there is only the odd blackmouth doggie on this mark, its 530 feet deep, but after only about 10 mins he had a bite, struck it and his rod was yanked right over and gave up a few feet of line, this gave him a bit of a shock, we debated it must have been a tope as I have had a few over the years on baited feathers in luce bay when fishing for whiting etc, a little while later the rod went over again, after a long haul, expecting him to get his hook bitten of at any minute he pulled up a 14lb conger, it had taken a finger sized bit of mackerel on a hokeye, bit of a surprise that.
After that he pulled up a succession of LSD\'s, normally at this mark we only get skate.
After a couple of false alarm bites on the skate baits my rod started zipping off line, I struck and was well attached to a skate, it didn\'t take long to get it off the bottom and I started the long haul up, I had the butt pad on, but when I tried to get the harness on it was adjusted to fit my son, after a lot of farting about I decided to do without, it only took 20 minutes to get it to he surface, it came up about 20 feet behind the boat, Tony went to the stern for a look, the skate took one look at his face and dived down about 100 feet........lol, bit more strain, gaff went in and we pulled her gently aboard, beautiful female, perfect condition, 60\" wide by 76\" long, we didn\'t have a chart with us so I phoned my mate Jason in Glasgow for a weight, \"123lb\" he said, \"looks heavier than that\", \"no\",he said \"that\'s a male, female...155lb\"
We took a couple of photos, as we were putting her back she curled her tail round my back and when we let go it whipped across my arm leaving me with some nice deep scratches as a reminder of her visit....lol
After that we got no more action on the big rods but had a fish a chuck on the light rods, I had another conger about the same size as Tony\'s, more LSDs then Tony had a blackmouth doggie of 1lb 15oz, after that we went in, stopping to enjoy the sun setting over mull and troll for pollack, Tony had 3, best about 4lb.
Back in oban we had a nice meal in the waterfront seafood restaurant and got slightly squiffey, OK, pished at a few of the local hostelries.
On Sunday Jason was coming up to fish with us as he has never seen, never mind caught a skate, met up with him at the puffin centre and off we went for a second go, the weather on Saturday had been fantastic, no wind, not a cloud in the sky, fishing in your shirt sleeves kind of day, Sunday was cloudy, breezy, with a bit of a slop on the water, we anchored close to the mark we were at the day before, 3 skate baits down again, but no skate this time, Jason had a conger of 13.5lb and a couple of spurs to 3lb 12 oz and a pile of LSDs, he was determined to get a blackmouth but never did.
The scenery on the drive back to Edinburgh was if anything better than the trip up, the hills golden with the setting sun.
A weekend to remember
photos to follow
Les
On the journey up early on Saturday the scenery was fantastic, everything had a coat of frost and the lochs all had a thin veil of mist in the flat calm conditions, coupled with the golden sunrise on the autumn leaves on the trees, magic!!!!
Got to the puffin centre about 9 o\'clock and quickly launched to catch the slack water period out on the deep hole off Kerrera, got the pick down and started fishing at about 10.
The water was flat, the little puff of breeze in the same direction as the tide meant we sat perfectly at anchor, no annoying yawing from side to side, with 3 skate rods baited with frozen coalies down Tony decided to fish baited hokeyes for what ever was about, normally there is only the odd blackmouth doggie on this mark, its 530 feet deep, but after only about 10 mins he had a bite, struck it and his rod was yanked right over and gave up a few feet of line, this gave him a bit of a shock, we debated it must have been a tope as I have had a few over the years on baited feathers in luce bay when fishing for whiting etc, a little while later the rod went over again, after a long haul, expecting him to get his hook bitten of at any minute he pulled up a 14lb conger, it had taken a finger sized bit of mackerel on a hokeye, bit of a surprise that.
After that he pulled up a succession of LSD\'s, normally at this mark we only get skate.
After a couple of false alarm bites on the skate baits my rod started zipping off line, I struck and was well attached to a skate, it didn\'t take long to get it off the bottom and I started the long haul up, I had the butt pad on, but when I tried to get the harness on it was adjusted to fit my son, after a lot of farting about I decided to do without, it only took 20 minutes to get it to he surface, it came up about 20 feet behind the boat, Tony went to the stern for a look, the skate took one look at his face and dived down about 100 feet........lol, bit more strain, gaff went in and we pulled her gently aboard, beautiful female, perfect condition, 60\" wide by 76\" long, we didn\'t have a chart with us so I phoned my mate Jason in Glasgow for a weight, \"123lb\" he said, \"looks heavier than that\", \"no\",he said \"that\'s a male, female...155lb\"
We took a couple of photos, as we were putting her back she curled her tail round my back and when we let go it whipped across my arm leaving me with some nice deep scratches as a reminder of her visit....lol
After that we got no more action on the big rods but had a fish a chuck on the light rods, I had another conger about the same size as Tony\'s, more LSDs then Tony had a blackmouth doggie of 1lb 15oz, after that we went in, stopping to enjoy the sun setting over mull and troll for pollack, Tony had 3, best about 4lb.
Back in oban we had a nice meal in the waterfront seafood restaurant and got slightly squiffey, OK, pished at a few of the local hostelries.
On Sunday Jason was coming up to fish with us as he has never seen, never mind caught a skate, met up with him at the puffin centre and off we went for a second go, the weather on Saturday had been fantastic, no wind, not a cloud in the sky, fishing in your shirt sleeves kind of day, Sunday was cloudy, breezy, with a bit of a slop on the water, we anchored close to the mark we were at the day before, 3 skate baits down again, but no skate this time, Jason had a conger of 13.5lb and a couple of spurs to 3lb 12 oz and a pile of LSDs, he was determined to get a blackmouth but never did.
The scenery on the drive back to Edinburgh was if anything better than the trip up, the hills golden with the setting sun.
A weekend to remember
photos to follow
Les
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