Skate festival

Afternoon folks,
Just wondering is anyone from the site fishing the Skate festival in Westport on the 3rd and 4th of October. Also, whats your favourite Skate bait? We usually use a small dogfish, but i really dont like having to kill them. The only trouble is if we use mackerel for bait (even whole ones) we keep catching nuisance Doggies!! I've heard of people usung a mackerel/trout combination, can anyone confirm this? And how do you present this bait? Any replies or help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Jeff.

i dont have any experiance of skate fishing,but would you not nose hook a dog with a pennel type rig with your 10/0 nicked into his back and strap a mack fillet to his belly using a couple of small cable ties this way you dont have to kill the dog yourself and you have a good live bait with loads of scent

wow john the way you describe that. id nearly eat that myself lol

That sounds a bit gruesome! How do you enter the comp?

Thanks for the replies, lads. To enter call 098 26194 or 098 26398. Not sure how many places are left, word on the street is that there are 140 anglers booked in. must have something to do with the film crew that are coming over................

Well how did the festival go? Who won? Any big fish landed?

The Saturday was a blow out a few boats went out with doggies the only return. Sunday saw doggies small thornies and with about 5mins left a skate was hooked and landed winning the comp for the captor not sure the exact size (think it was in the 60's) or the winners name the vessel was the Western Kingfisher skippered by Johnny King.

Afternoon folks,
Just wondering is anyone from the site fishing the Skate festival in Westport on the 3rd and 4th of October. Also, whats your favourite Skate bait? We usually use a small dogfish, but i really dont like having to kill them. The only trouble is if we use mackerel for bait (even whole ones) we keep catching nuisance Doggies!! I've heard of people usung a mackerel/trout combination, can anyone confirm this? And how do you present this bait? Any replies or help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Jeff.

no offence, whats the difference in mack and dogs as bait?
or squid, herring etc!
i never used dogs but that's cos i never needed to!
bait that works for a species is better than bait that hooks the wrong ones surely!?
we are not talking butchary! like the crab/lobster potters!
same bait, same reason, it works!