Weather: Light N/NE wind F1-2. Dry, cold with some sunny intervals
Sea Conditions: Slight – a little chop at times
Time Spent: 0945-17:00 – 7:15
Tides: 11:15 GMT – 3.1m
Taking advantage of a break in the winter weather Ian and I towed Alcatraz westwards to have a crack at Oban and the chance of a skate. The wind was light but it was bl**dy chilly, so much so that my eTec decided to issue a “no oil” warning after a few minutes running – a first for me, but known to be an occasional problem in cold weather. Sorted out by a quick restart, and we were soon dropping the hook down to the seabed 530 feet below.
We’d timed arrival for an hour or so before HW, but there was still a moderate tide running and a little hint of wind against tide. Nevertheless we got a pair of skate baits settled on the bottom and sorted out a welcome cup of soup. After an hour or so, and a little after HW, Ian’s rod had a nice run and he was soon into a good sized fish which was surfaced about 20 minutes later, after much huffing and puffing. The way the tide had been running the fish was actually lying in front of the boat, towards the anchor rope, which made playing it a bit more difficult. However, at 178lbs it was a good start for the year for both Ian and Alcatraz, and broke Ian’s long running duck at Oban.
Just as soon as Ian’s fish was returned I realised that there was another fish on my rod so it was a repeat performance,
apart from showing me to be even more out of condition – it took an age to get it off the bottom and my back was constantly reminding me why skate fishing is a really silly idea. Nevertheless line gradually filled the reel again and eventually Ian got the chance to sink a gaff into the wing of what looked to be a very good fish.
The fun started in earnest now because, try as we might, we couldn’t get the fish aboard. After a few attempts we gave up before we caused too much damage to ourselves or the fish and settled down to trying to measure it in the water. Length wasn’t too bad – after we got a rope around her tail we could hold her against the side of the boat and measure off against that. Width was much harder as we were measuring a rather slippery and curly underside but we got there in the end, despite almost joining the fish in the water a couple of times. Final result was a (reasonably conservative) 86″ x 69/70″, which I make to be around 203lbs or thereabouts and a lifetime personal best. Result!
After that excitement the rest of the day was (thankfully) fish free apart from a few doggies and a single spurdog to Ian. Sadly no black mouthed dogfish put in an appearance 🙁
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