northeast1
Well-known member
Had this day booked for a longtime and after my last trip up there of 2 skate upto 191lb and congar,dogfish etc the pressure was off to engoy it more as job done.
Myself and Dave set off on Wedensday and had a nice drive up with little traffic, we arrived at the B&B and got settled in...
It had a nice view from its window over the loch.
So after a few drinks and some grub, quick pint with the skipper we went to bed and got all set for a trip into the depths again.
Day 1
Headed down the marina and the morning mist was just starting to burn off.
The boats standing ready for some big skate
So we headed off to the 500ft+ depths to try our luck for the skate, no mackerel up there yet so we came armed with 30kilo of mackerel and coalie and a 7lb squid for bait.
Bait at the ready, 2 full mackerel with just the tail cut off on size 15/0 hooks (size of my gaff hook on Stingray)
Well between me and Dave we had 6 lines in the water 4 for the skate and 2 for anything smaller and it was not long before "fish taken line on inside left" shout and i got strapped in
and clipped on for the battle.
I was more sure of what the rods can take after last time so i got this one off the bottom and moving, it dived and ran and turned but after 1hr 10mins in hit the surface and it was mine
We got the fish to the side of the boat and unhooked her, it was a big female and she was untagged so we got her on board and did the paper work before a health check (remove leaches and such) then got her back in.
She tipped the scales at 177lb (thats 1 stone more than i am)
So lines set again and ready for bites that never took long.
Not long after Dave struck into a skate of about 30lb followed by me with my first ever thorn backray on the lighter gear, not a monster at about 6lb but i was over the moon.
Less than 20mins later the skate rod went again and i got my first under 100lb skate at a little but cutie 24lb, no tag again so we checked her onver and put her back after a short 15min fight.
This was followed by dave hitting into a 121lb male that gave him the run around 1hr 55mins it took to get him moving and at the same time he was battling his i struck into a hard fighting speciman male of 131lb that took 1hr 35mins to land, the males fight much harder as we both now know
Already tagged so we got the info and chucked them both back and that was the end of day 1
Myself and Dave set off on Wedensday and had a nice drive up with little traffic, we arrived at the B&B and got settled in...
It had a nice view from its window over the loch.
So after a few drinks and some grub, quick pint with the skipper we went to bed and got all set for a trip into the depths again.
Day 1
Headed down the marina and the morning mist was just starting to burn off.
The boats standing ready for some big skate
So we headed off to the 500ft+ depths to try our luck for the skate, no mackerel up there yet so we came armed with 30kilo of mackerel and coalie and a 7lb squid for bait.
Bait at the ready, 2 full mackerel with just the tail cut off on size 15/0 hooks (size of my gaff hook on Stingray)
Well between me and Dave we had 6 lines in the water 4 for the skate and 2 for anything smaller and it was not long before "fish taken line on inside left" shout and i got strapped in
and clipped on for the battle.
I was more sure of what the rods can take after last time so i got this one off the bottom and moving, it dived and ran and turned but after 1hr 10mins in hit the surface and it was mine
We got the fish to the side of the boat and unhooked her, it was a big female and she was untagged so we got her on board and did the paper work before a health check (remove leaches and such) then got her back in.
She tipped the scales at 177lb (thats 1 stone more than i am)
So lines set again and ready for bites that never took long.
Not long after Dave struck into a skate of about 30lb followed by me with my first ever thorn backray on the lighter gear, not a monster at about 6lb but i was over the moon.
Less than 20mins later the skate rod went again and i got my first under 100lb skate at a little but cutie 24lb, no tag again so we checked her onver and put her back after a short 15min fight.
This was followed by dave hitting into a 121lb male that gave him the run around 1hr 55mins it took to get him moving and at the same time he was battling his i struck into a hard fighting speciman male of 131lb that took 1hr 35mins to land, the males fight much harder as we both now know
Already tagged so we got the info and chucked them both back and that was the end of day 1
