Peter, Mark and Dave from boat-angling-ireland.com took a run out to the Maidens last Friday and found their mark alive with spurs. In a short while Peter had 7, the biggest weighing 13lbs. After such a good day’s fishing the trio returned again on Saturday. They had a bit of time to kill before anchoring so they fished for pollack and got plenty up to 5lbs as well as loads of cuckoo wrasse .
With the tide coming right they moved to their mark and anchored up with a good bag of groundbait. It wasn’t long before the doggies and blackmouth dogfish’s showed. They were soon followed by the spurdogs and some nice bullhuss. The spurs kept coming and Mark got the best one, a lovely 15lb 04 oz fish. Mark also had the best bullhuss at 12lb.
Soon Mark had a cracker of a bite, the rod nearly getting pulled from the holder. It didn’t look like a skate but was certainly a very good fish but after 5 mins all went slack . He reeled in only to find the hook had partially straightened.
About 30 mins later Dave thought he had yet another spur but when he lifted into it he soon realised it was a good skate. 15 minutess later Mark was into one as well. Dave’s fish was first up and at the side of the boat it was clear it was only hooked in the wing on a size 4/0 hook, but it was safely hauled aboard. Once aboard the skate was safely unhooked measured, tagged and released again. It was estimated to weigh 113lb.
Mark’s skate was giving a very decent account of itself and made a few good dives for freedom but 20 minutes later it was brought aboard. It was a similar size to Daves and weighed in at 107 lbs, a fine male. Again the fish was tagged and returned to fight another day.
Dave who had stuck to fishing small baits had a few more doggies and blackmouths before the trio returned to shore after another successful trip afloat.
Report courtesy of www.boat-angling-ireland.com
