The Annual Skate Hunt, 2008. (aka - The Luck of the Irish!)
The Skate featured here are from our archives, but are atypical of the kind of big beastie we go after. Fancy your chances at hauling one of the monsters in without a near coronary? Contact us for details of our next Skate Hunt!
Never has that saying been more true, but more of that later...I was pleased to have been joined by my son Matty who having done his skipper exams and training through the winter took his first ever charter out on a day when the ferries were tied up because it was too rough. Talk about throwing someone in at the deep end. It's not the easiest place to fine tune boat and anchoring skills at the best of times but in force 6-8 winds it was a nightmare for him; but as the footballers say, 'The boy done well'
He led me astray in the evenings though, insisting I go out and drink many pints of Guinness, even though I would have preferred a night in by the fire. (Yeah..that'll be the day! ~ Webmaster)
The strong Northerly gales continued for the first three weeks of the trip with just the odd day when the wind was below a force 6. Unfortunately the marks we fish in Northerlies just didn't produce the numbers of expected fish so figures were well down on previous trips with a fair few blank days. We managed to get down the Firth of Lorne just once in the first week and Jan and Kees both had PB's with fish of 177 pounds and 193 pounds with Matty.
The Coatbridge boys had mixed fishing with two days down the Firth of Lorne which produced great fish for 15 year old Steven Murphy with a fish of 190 pounds and a cracking 198 pounds for his pal. Not a bad fish to pop your cherry on. It took an hour and ten minutes to get off the bottom and nearly two hours in total to the boat. Gordon Stewart equalled his PB for the third time with another fish of 188 pounds.
As usual Trevor Armitage had problems for this trip and missed the first two days due to a serious operation on his hand after falling during jogging. (Sorry Trevor, Skate - Running ) Sad thing is, he missed son John, pulling in the biggest fish of the trip with a 219 pounds. Trevor, who allegedly was just along for the ride, helped himself to a Skate a few days later winding with just thumb and two fingers. Not sure whether it was bravery or foolery but well done anyway!
Cedric's party from Hexham and Grizz's party from Cumbria brought some horrible weather with them and saw just the one fish of 198 pounds for Malcolm Tweddle. You may remember, Malcolm has caught our biggest ever Tope and Pollack. (I am beginning to suspect he has those shiny orbs...!)
Matty
went home on Monday the 7th April and the weather changed
dramatically. I got to the Firth of Lorne five days in a row
which produced more fish in the five days than I had had in the
previous 16 days fishing and showed how important the need for
decent weather was this year.
Lone angler Dave Wright who, to be fair, had never seen the best of the fishing and had struggled in the past two years with just the odd fish, blanked on the Monday. We made the magic mark on the Tuesday and Dave was rewarded with three fish literally one after another.
I had just got Dave's sex aids
sorted out on the first fish, when another rod went off. Dave
asked, 'what was that' and I replied, 'just the boat swinging'.
Forty minutes later we retuned a 179 pounds and I passed the second rod
to Dave'' 'Better do something with that' I told him as I passed
him the second fish. As he got this estimated 180 pounder half way up,
the third rod went off, so the procedure was repeated and the
third fish (another estimated 180 pounder) duly came to the boat. Dave had
been strapped in for a solid two hours and thought he was
knackered but the worst was yet to come....
The following day we again ventured down to the Firth of Lorne
and Dave had a 185 pounder, quickly followed by a Personal Best of 202
pounds, and then had
the dubious pleasure of fighting a 191pound beast that totally boll-axed
him. The fish ended up 100 yards behind the boat! But rather than
skating over the surface, it proceeded to use the strong surface
tide to swirl round and round like a kite without a tail
string. I have never seen so much effort put into bringing in a
fish and I congratulate Dave on his 'bottle'. Unfortunately, he
was that knackered he never made the pub that night.
And then came the Irish Skate Virgins....
I must admit the banter during my last three days was only beaten by the standard of the fishing. Luke Turkington, Dad and friend John returned twelve fish to 203 pounds and dropped quite a few more. I will get killed for writing this, but the Irish have invented a new sport.... You will have heard of the 'naked chef'
and the 'naked civil servant' but how about the
'naked angler'?
It seems they have a naked species list but wimped out on the
Skate. I suspect they thought the freezing Northerly wind would
have made things shrivel up and wouldn't look very impressive on
a photo. Better luck on the Tope boys????????
All in all, it was an enjoyable trip with some great nights at
the local club and, as usual, a few good nights in the digs
listening to Keith and Bim jamming on the guitars. It was great
to have my son Matty up with me and I look forward to working
with him over the coming years. I guess you could call it a
'proud dad thing'. After the difficult weather conditions, he is
now an old seasoned pro and is keen to get back to Loch Aline
next year.
To conclude it was great to see many of our regulars and if you
didn't get the luck with the weather and fish this year then
better luck next year.