Peter Ross of Boat Angling Ireland joins Mark and Dave for a trip out on the ‘Harry O’ to the Maidens and reports:
There is just no stopping big Dave at the moment, he has hooked at least one skate on his last 4 trips to the Maidens ,and today was no different. the last 2 weeks have been pure crap weatherwise and next week looks no better . Yesterday there was a brief window of half decent weather before it was to turn nasty again.
So with time limited we went straight out to the Maidens and used frozen coalies and mackerel for bait. Mark and me used big whole coalies , but Dave was happy using beefed up doggie traces with smaller baits. After about 90 mins the wind died down a bit and it was quite pleasant in the sun We were just tucking in to chilli hotdogs for breakfast when Dave was into a skate.
After about an hour a decent female skate was at the side of the boat. It was tagged ,measured and safely returned It turned out at 174lbs a nice female.
Meanwhile not much action for Mark and me, although we did get a few decent bites. Around mid-day the wind started to pick up from the south ,slightly earlier than forecast, then Dave was in again, yet another skate. He managed to get it to the side of the boat in 50 mins. It was a male which turned out at 107lbs.
The skate had a chunk missing from it’s rear left wing – interesting
We decided to head in in case the weather got any worse. When I reeled in I noticed my trace had been bitten clean through about 6 inches from the hook. Never even noticed a bite to be honest but I was wondering what might have snaffled a 2lb coalie and bitten clean through 300lb mono, maybe some big tope still about . Anchor lifted we headed back to Ballylumford where we had our lunch and a refreshment or 2 in our boatclub.
Good day out for the time of year. Bet you Big Davy slept well last night !
Peter Ross
Boat Angling Ireland
