Duration: 21st & 22nd June
Tide: rising & falling
Weather: Grand
Bait: Mackerel,
Results: Skate, congers, ling, cod, pollack, coalfish, bullhuss, dogfish, pouting, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse
Report....first of all apologies for the late report.
I have several targets this year……a skate,a blue shark in excess of 100lb and a few specimens.
So we booked a boat in Union Hall knowing that there was a reasonable chance of a skate and possibly a 6 gilled shark.
Arriving on the Friday night we stayed in the Leap Inn. This is a very quaint pub plus B&B and I would certainly recommend it to any fisherman.
The next morning we set out at 10am. First job was to catch mackerel for bait and that was easier said than done as they were not to be found in any great numbers. Eventually we had enough to try for the big one.
Quite quickly we had congers, ling and bullhuss coming on deck
. The suddenly my ratchet let out a loud sound and I was into a big skate . The task was know to get it up from 60M below the surface. After 20 minutes of brute force I had her near the surface . Sweat was pumping from me as a large fish appeared about 10feet down. That was when she decided that she did not like me and took off again 
. There was simply no stopping this fish and she burrowed rapidly downwards. After another 20 minutes I was just about wrecked when she was at the surface again…..for a few seconds before another dive . However, I was able to bring this dive quite quickly to a full stop. After another 10 minutes she was on the surface and it took 4 of us to get her over the gunnel. A few quick measurements and photos were taken before we lifted her back over the side.The wingspan was 180cm and snout to tail length was 220cm. On a length to weight table she was over 200lb in weight. That was the only skate of the day but we had loads more congers, ling, bullhuss, cod, Pollock and coalies.
The next day we went out to catch edible fish and caught loads. My freezer at this stage is full.
