Sea Angling Ireland

People:

Duration:myself and 3 mates

Tide:flying most of the day! :(

Weather:overcast with occassional shower, wind westerly mainly

Bait:Mackerel, squid ,coalie ,trout ,sandeel

Rigs: 4 skate setups, 2 for spurdog etc

Results:no skate, a few spurdog and lsd's


Report:the big skate didnt seem to be hungry today, because there was more than enough tempting offering down there for them on 10/0 pennell rigs and single 14/0's!!!!couldnt believe it, i got the biggest spurdog of the day, just over 11lb on a 14/0 o'shaughnessy cleanly hooked in the bottom jaw!(on a bait of 2 whole mackerel and a trout!!)
the spurdogs seemed to be more interested in ripping the big skate baits to pieces than taking the smaller baits which we tried specifically for them - the doggies made short work of them mind you!
its hard enough work just reelin your rig back in to rebait with about 3lb+ of lead on plus bait!
anyhow, none today just have to try again next month! :wink:

According to the Regulars the pllace is teaming with Skate up there at the minute, Big Davy who I fish with had 5 Fish to 178lb in 2 Trips. Its good to see the Spurs making an appearance again after that Longliner wiped them out last year. I see Sam Oliver got a good Huss up there recently too.

I agree about the Tedious winding up at the Skate Hole, You keep thinking you could leave the bait down for 5 more minutes, lol.

I've given up on fishing like that, too much effort, I wasn't enjoying it.
Might go up to try for a few Blondes next year...They're fun.

fun on light tackle but a good scrap with a big male skate beats them hands down anyday!yeah the spurs are slowly coming back on it though not in same numbers or size as previously. i wouldnt say the place is coming down with skate as only the odd ones are getting caught anyhow. the place is coming down with skate on days where you get about 10 or so hook ups on the boat! but it is all lookin on the up at least.longliners hit the area hard last year and took away a lot of the good fishing so heres hoping they dont come back.

Mr McKay said they were shooting upwards of 40,000 Hooks, What chance did the Fish have?

Got to fish the Pinacles this year for the First, It was good craic...

wait till he takes you to fish DEEP water then! :lol: . pinnnacles is good, havent had chance to get out to it in a couple of years but i had 3 double figure pollack 1 day at it with sean and a 25lb ling was also taken that day, that was all before sean started anchor fishing! i wouldnt mind a crack at the seperation zone! :wink:

Aye, Heard it was something special... 4lb Pollack on a 14/0 Seamaster with 400lb Cable for the Porbeagles... lol

Ballycastle really seems to making a name for itself with the big skate and other good fish. If your looking for numbers to make up a crew anytime I'd be well up for heading up.

Pete

i have not got the trips i'll be going on booked in my name, its one of the mates who is organising them but if any spaces appear in the future i will let you know pete, if they do it will probably be short notice. and if so, be prepared for a hard days work!! :lol: :wink: send me a pm so as i remember who to contact!my heads like a sieve

Out the tuesday before you. Got I skate 149 and a pb spur. I see you picked the easy tides to fish.

i didnt pick the tide, just made up numbers on trip. although it was meant to be a fairly slack tide it actually took a fair bit of weight (up to 3 1/2lb) to hold bottom at times.though 2lb would have been ok during the worst of the run but it still took 1 1/2lb to hold at slack water. i still think that numbers of skate caught are higher when there tides are a bit stronger. small tides are easier fished though.