Carefull what you wish for

[sailrepair]

All fishermen want to catch big fish and lots of them, it is in out nature. Yesterday I learnt you can get a bit more than you bargained for.

I took the Frib out about 9.30, a lovely day but the fishing started slow. Not a bite until 12.00 on the lighter skate rod (50 lb braided line). 20 minutes of pulling for all I was worth and still no wet line on the reel yet. It was a hot day and warm work. Another 20 minutes of gaining up to 10 meters of line just to loose it again each time. Eventually and hour after hooking the fish I have her on the surface, she is a big girl that I'd estimate at 180lb. I release her at the side and pop a fresh mackerel on the hook when I notice the other skate rod has some interest. So I leave that rod lowering itself on the reel drag and pick up the other rod and I'm in again. This rod has a bit more power with 70lb braid so while not quite as hard work it is still hot stuff. I am a fit and strong guy but my T shirt is now soaked in sweat and my sunglasses are steaming up. 30 minutes into hauling this one up and I notice the other rod that had lowered its own bait to the bottom is beginning to nod! 10 minutes later and I release another skate at about 150lb. And then straight back onto the original rod for another 50 minutes to bring up another skate at about 140lb.

By this time I am good for nothing and very glad I don't have a baited hook in the water. Unless you have done anything like this before it is hard to imagine the forces involved. most of the time when you raise the rod you have to have both hands right at the top of the long fore grip to get the leverage. Without a tall gunnel to save you you have to be careful when you ramp up the drag as the fish could easily take you over the side. Whilst I'm normally braced against going over I do like to fight the fish over the transom just in case the line snaps in which case I'll just end up on my backside in the rib. If it happened while fighting a fish off the side you will end up going over the opposite side.

So having go my breath back after about 2 1/2 hours of pulling for all I was worth I resumed fishing and caught two small male skate, babies at about 15 and 25 lb. The male skate never get much above 100lbs while the females go to 200lb +.

I will pop a couple of photos up. I need to be on my other computer to upload them.

[sailrepair]

Here is the first and biggest skate


And the second one which had surfaced further back


And here is the tackle - 10/0 hook, 250lb mono trace and 2 lb of lead to hold the bottom in 100m of water

probably the most important thing is the but pad!

I should also say that if I still had my old larger boat I wouldn't have been fishing since I could launch at low tide, pushing the frib over the sand. A heavy boat and you can only launch at high tide.

[Martin]

Jeeeez, i think i'd panic if i caught that
Thats some serious size !

[Stray]

Nice one, it's on my bucket list to catch a decent skate, but to be honest though one a day would be enough for me.

[Paul]

Amazing stuff
I can't imagine catching something fishy of that size and weight but hell yeah I'd love to have a go

[Andy B]

That's pretty cool.
I've caught a few skates of different sizes and speices over the years, but nothing like that. Even pulling a 20lb'er off the bottom sometimes feels like you're trying to lift a manhole cover!
I have no idea what that monster must have felt like???
One hell of a workout.
Did it fight at all or was it just a dead weight?

[Mitch]

Wow, that’s what you call a fish, I struggled a bit bringing up a 26lb cod off eddy stone lighthouse, took me over half an hour & I was aching like hell, god knows what you were feeling like.