JUST KAYAK FISHING

I was due to go up to Sand Head for Shark-A-Tag in June to try and catch a few Tope for the tagging program they have every year. While making travelling arrangements for the event I was asked if I fancied trying for the Common Skate after Shark-A-Tag, after looking at the tides I accepted, as this area can only be fished on a neap tide. This was an opportunity I could not refuse, as I knew a few other Anglers had been up there and had fish over 100lb. All we needed was good weather for the weekend. As the event drew nearer the anticipation and uncertainty grew, I kept thinking could I bring one of these big fish up from 400ft off a kayak.

After spending Friday and Saturday fishing sand heads, and the surrounding area with the shark a tag program for tope, me lozz. Spud, Stephen and kev decided we were going to head up to Crinan the next day. With the weather reports being good for the next few days.Sunday morning we said our good byes to the rest of the anglers who was staying for the last day of shark a tag and wished them good luck.

We decided to drive up to Crinan in a convoy just in case any of us got lost. The drive was well worth it as the scenery was stunning. Eventually we arrived at the little harbour village of Crinan and what a view. At this point the butterfly’s started, with quite a few hours of daylight left Kev, Stephen and Lozz decided they would go out for a few hours just to asses the currents and wind conditions, while dropping a line in just in case. Spud and myself decided to find a campsite and prepare mentally while getting our tackle ready for the next day.

It must have been after 11pm when lozz and kev got back with big smiles on their faces. This indicated to me and spud they had caught one or two nice Fish.

To celebrate the Common skate being there, we had a few beers but not too many as we knew we had to get up early the next morning. As the beer flowed, Our thoughts turn to Stephen, who was sleeping with the midges on the shores of Loch Crinan happy with his thoughts of catching the one 120lb to140lb Common skate, Earlier that evening

We were all up reasonably early and decided to get some more bait as Kev, Lozz and Stephen fished the night before. The midges were out early as well having their breakfast which consisted of kayak fishermen followed by more kayak fishermen. The first stop was the tackle shop that was Open when we got there which was great news for us. Lozz was the first in the shop and bought all the bait that consisted of a pack of mackerel and some squid so he was sorted for the day. When the rest of us asked for bait the shop owner said he was sold out, but he was expecting a delivery later on that day, we couldn't believe it. As for spare hooks and line, that was a joke as the shop only stock small terminal tackle considering the shop is only down the road from these fish I found it hard to believe, one consolation was my hat which was priced up wrongly at £3.50.

After filling our bellies in the cafe over the road from the tackle shop which had everything you could want to eat we then headed down to the harbour to see if the midges had finished eating Stephen, but most importantly to get ready for the days fishing. We sorted all our kit out, making sure we hadn't forgotten anything and after the previous nights fishing. Stephen decided not to fish for the skate again as he was still recovering from the aches and pains from the night before it nearly killed him, so he decided to go off in search of the Pollock, thornbacks and the rare black mouth dog fish.
Lozz was the first in the water followed by the rest of us; He must have been on a mission to catch one of the big ones. Because By the time we got to the mark Lozz was already anchored up and waiting for kev to buddy up with him. The rest of us headed off to another mark which was only a few minutes away and set the anchor with a quick release on it. We baited up and released our perfectly presented baits to the bottom which was over 400ft away. It wasn't long before kev had the first skate of the day which was 26lb. Then it was my turn for the next one, it was a little baby about 15-20lb. Even though it was a small one I was so happy because I had caught one. And that's what we travelled all this distance for. After measuring it and the usual trophy photograph I released it back into the depths from which it came from. I quickly re-baited and sent it back down to the bottom of the unknown dark depths of the loch, hoping for a bigger skate Next time.

It was about an hour before it was the turn of

Lozz to hit into one, we knew he had caught one as we could hear him across the loch without the use of the vhf, spud and myself were laughing as we could hear a blow by blow account of what was happening. This skate had a surprise in store for Lozz, when he went to grab the leader the stake managed to get its nose down and took off again all the way to the bottom. The second time round Lozz made sure the nose of the skate was up and out of the water before he grabbed the leader this time; this skate was a good size of around

70lb Stephen was having no luck for the Pollack and thorny’s so he headed back to where me and spud where anchored. Stephen said he would have to head back shortly so he decided to drop one last skate bait down for the last hour. I turned round to spud and said you know what’s going to happen now, he will hit into another big one. We didn’ thave to wait long before you guessed it.

He was in to another big one. I unclipped the lazy line an moved into position to steady his kayak while spud paddled across to the others for the tagging kit. After another epic battle and nearly bursting the blood vessels in his head with the force needed to bring these monsters up from the deep

After measuring and tagging the fish. Stephen's arms dropped to his sides as he slumped down with shear exhaustion, It was about 10-15mins before he was able to paddle back to shore safely, we said our good byes and congratulated him on his second skate over 100lb. Lozz was in again but this time it was a small one or so he thought, it came up without to much trouble and when it surfaced we realised why by the swearing and cursing you that everyone could hear from miles away, it was a nice sized thornback ray about 10lb, When you are fishing for skate this is the equivalent of catching a doggie

With the bait nearly running out, we where thinking of heading back to the tackle shop for more, until spud had a rod twitch, the fish carried on playing with his bait for the next 10 mins then it went deadly quite for a few mins, then all of a sudden mine started twitching. Then the rod tip started to bend and didn’t stop. I stuck into the fish and at first I thought it was another small one, as the fish started to come up with not much effort, but without warning it dove to the bottom stripping the line off my reel from that point on it was like trying to raise the Titanic, when I realised this was bigger than I first thought spud unclipped the lazy line that joined our kayaks together and moved into position were he could attach the modified clip to safely join the kayaks together, this was to aid in steadying my kayak if needed.

After 15 mins of measuring how much line I have got back on the reel in inches, and how much the fish took back off me in feet. This part of the fight was soul destroying, I end up shouting and swearing but it didn't make the fight any easier, I put more pressure on the skate with the last bit of strength I had only to hear my rod creaking and the sound of the varnish cracking. This worried me as a few months before I was with kev when he snapped the same solid carbon rod while conger fishing. The extra effort paid off as it finally started to move off the bottom. I was told the skate only swim round in circles or do a figure of 8, but this one started swimming it had a mind of its own. It took us on what I would call the fish motorway, it took off in a straight line which ended up to be1.2 miles, I don’t know how long this motorway was but the fish had no intentions of having a rest at the next services. At this point my arms were on fire and my back had nearly ceased up due to the immense force need to get this fish moving off the bottom. This is when spud moved into position to stead my kayak, all I could do was shut my eyes put my head down and get on with the mammoth task of getting over 400ft of line back on my reel with a monster on the other end. After fighting with the fish for what seemed like over an hour, I looked down at my reel only to see I had made little progress in putting line back on it, I looked at my gps and it had only been 15-20 minutes. I started to wonder if I was capable of bringing this fish to the surface then spud gave me some bad news he said we might have to cut the line as the weather was turning for the worse and the Corryvrecken was getting closer, this area MUST be avoided at all cost, with no exceptions

This is when I ignored the pain in my arms that I could barely move and my back, which felt like it was broken to get the fish to the surface. I made steady progress for the next 10-15 mins, until the skate decided it wanted to go back home and take the line back off my reel. All I could do was pray to Poseidon and hold on, it must of worked as a few minutes later the skate stopped taking line and started to move towards the surface again. I said a quick thank you to Poseidon and hold on. It must work as a few minutes later; the skate stopped taking line and started to move towards a surface again
15 minutes later the emotional, mental and physical battle was nearly over as I could see my reel was nearly full of line again. After what happen to Lozz with his skate I knew the fight was never over until I had hold of the fish, the next thing I see was my rubbing leader breaking the surface, this was like seeing the finishing line after running a marathon in lead boots, spud made sure he had a good grip of me and my kayak as I got 2-3 turns of the rubbing leader on the reel. at thin point I knew the fight was nearly over, when I caught sight of the skate my heart stop, I can only describe it as a living, breathing dinosaur the size of an aircraft carrier. The next problem was how to grab the leader with such an enormous weight on the rod using both arms pulling the rod to one side while a made a desperate grab for the leader as I knew I would only get one chance at this. With a fish of this size it’s like trying to hold onto a car rolling down a steep hill with a rod and reel.
Trying to measure it, we had problems with its shear size. I backed the drag completely off the reel and slotted the rod away in its holder to the side of me ensuring the line was not tangled around anything, mainly me, I pulled the skate towards me and tried to lift it up, but with its shear weight this was not possible, so I put my leg underneath it so the skate was flat on the surface and tried to slide it on the kayak. This method failed as well, at this point I realised the skate was not going to play. At this point spud unhooked his kayak from mine with a modified clip, and moved round to take photos of it while I held it in position. After the photo shoot it was just a case of measuring its shear size. I pulled the tape measure from my pocket and held one end of the tip of the wing only to discover that the 6 ft tape measure wasn't long enough. I realised the only way of measuring it accurately was to hold the skate against the side of my kayak which is a known length ,mark its position then measure the distance between the 2 marks, and photograph it in that position so it can be re-checked later on from the photo. Before unhooking the fish we tagged the fish with one of the tags we had left from Shark-A-Tag
Only when I let go of it, did I see its true size, it reminded me of a Condor the way it glided effortlessly in a giant circle back to the dark depths of the sea.
Later that night in the tent we phone a colleague with the measurements and only then did we realise how big it was we where told the chart for measuring only went up to 72 inches across a wingspan and that would make it 201lb mine was 77 inches. When we got back home hatter sent the measurements off to davy holt as he was the leading experts on skate fishing, he came back with a size of 210-220lb I had to sit down as it dawned on me what I had caught.