Hi
Out with Mary Gavin Hughes skate hunting on a cloudy day with initially wind against tide. Dropped into a few holes on the way out to pick up mackerel and they were sketchy enough to find, but were of a decent size. Oddly when we got out to the skate grounds, they were more plentiful with full houses coming up. Switched to bait fishing on the bottom, with Mary releasing ruby dubby from the bottom. Once anchored and with the shift in tide the boat settled from what has been pretty rough conditions. Sadly we didn't hook up with a skate. Quite a few doggies, a spider crab and a horse mackerel on feathers alongside more large mackerel was all the day produced to six rods, with baits changed roughly every fifteen minutes. I missed something half decent at the end, better than a doggie but it slid off half way up. There was evidently a boat angling competition on the same day, not sure how it went, but can't imagine they did a whole lot better.
Hope to be going out for a final evening trip to Clare Island so to some species hunting (more my style of fishing) so will report on that in due course. Mary is a great skipper, you just have to accept that if the thornies and skate are not playing ball, they're not playing ball. One of the anglers, Declan, on his last trip had 4 skate in a single day, including on his very first stop. Such is life!
Kieran
inner Clew Bay 01/08/2026
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