Possible Skate Charter

Dave
I would be interested in joining the trip - i could take my car and fund the fuel aswell (fully expensed from work) so could cut down on costs. I have and estate car and can get me plus 3 and rods through the seat down the centre. Please let me know if there is space. i have met you once in spotty round about the time of richies shark catch.
 
HI Guys,

Sorry not to reply, been busy with other things but it all went t*ts up so its back to fishing.

Numbers seem to be ok and we have a few options.

The charter skipper reckons up to five max on his boat. ( he would still do the trip with only three). So if everyone turned up who has said yes on the thread so far we would be packed. Simple answer is I will take my boat up which adds an extra three places.

As for dates, I will speak to the skipper as he probably has next years tide table. We have done well on small and medium tides, big tides makes holding the bottom a pain in the neck ( 1kg plus lead is hard work). Will look for dates in mid feb and post options.

Once we have a date if people could post their preference for a day trip ( 24 hrs on the road) or a weekend...leave friday, fish sat and sunday and drive back sunday night.

The hotel is £45 per night BUT when I questioned this he dropped it to 35 and did say he would do it for £25 a night if a party turned up.

As for gear ...DO NOT GO OUT AND BUY SPECIAL STUFF FOR THE TRIP...you will probably buy the wrong stuff and waste your money. The same gear you use on a NE boat trip is fine but make sure you have a MINIMUM of 300 metres ( yes 300 meters) of braid on your reel. You will be fishing depths of up to 450 feet.

Leads, 6 oz to a lb, I have enough big leads for everyone. You do not loose tackle as the bottom is soft. I think I have lost three hooks and two eads in 11 days fishing with three rods.

Target species...well there's skate :) Doggies, wrasse, gurnard, blackmouth doggies (very rare) Spurdogs, conger, thornbacks, poor cod, pollack (loads of em in summer) and coalies.

Bait...mackrel ( we can buy fresh in bulk on the friday) Coalies (freeze any you catch ungutted) Herring ( not tried em but fancy them as a bait)

We did well on coalies on our last trip and ungutted fish up to 4lb in weight are acceptable baits :D Fishing a match? go on the scrounge for ungutted ones.

I would suggest we finalise this early in the new year as to numbers and a small deposit. The whole thing is subject to weather as we have some serious mountains to cross to get there. We may have to put it off if it snows heavy or is windy.

Cheers
Dave
 
Hi Dave, I'm up for the weekend option as it's a very long day doing the 24 hour turn around and it makes more fishing time, increasing the chances of all the party catching a biggy.
 
Oblickta said:
Hi Dave, I'm up for the weekend option as it's a very long day doing the 24 hour turn around and it makes more fishing time, increasing the chances of all the party catching a biggy.
Click to expand...

I agree with that Graham...will see what others think...as I say a day trip can be done...but the fri to sunday option is far more socialable ( to say the least) :D

How else do you think snatcher ended up sitting on a pavement with a pastie in one hand and a glazed look in his eyes!

And you should have seen what a state I was in as you will notice the picture was taken from the gutter.!

Cheers
Dave
 
"How else do you think snatcher ended up sitting on a pavement with a pastie in one hand and a glazed look in his eyes!"

Isn't that his basic posture lol?
 
im still intrested in the whole weekend but my dads intrested to
if thats a problem let me know
that would meen 2 of us and id be happy to fish on daves boat
new to it so take the skippers advice lol
ohh p.s
i only have a 18 to 20lb rod for boat and a old abu 700 and mitchel garcia reel
so dont know if they will be ok
the mitchel has 50lb braid straight though tho
so id guess me and my dad will need full kit if possible ?
pm me dave
 
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Gazzawill,

The skate gear is very specialised, but for general fishing I use a 6-16 class rod, shimano charter special and 30lb braid. Exactly what i would use off this coast.

Just waiting for the skipper to get back to me with possible dates.

Cheers
dave
 
Gazza, i've known skate to take baits minuets after they have hit the bottem but sometimes it can be a waiting game, so we put smaller baits down on lighter tackle to see what else is down there. Theres no rules and no science but lots of different species can be caught. The skate tackle is heavy with big baits so can stay down for a long time but when a skate is hooked up the tackle (regardless of owner) is handed to anyone on board who hasn't caught a skate. If I blank on this trip it wont matter nothing to me so long as I see you or other skate "virgins" haul them in, it's priceless!

I wont be taking part in any festivities this time tho' cos after new year i will be on a strict diet that does not include beer

*nose grows longer*
 
Dave
Please definately count me in - the weekend option is prefered. Like i said i would take my car as fuel would not cost (as long as i can fuel in a Tesco enroute) i even have a tow bar if you want to jump in with me and share the towing of the boat.

I have set myself a target of catching 15 new species in 2008 so the trip should help towards that.

i will pm my mobile number to you.

Jason
 
It gets more confusing.

The skipper has not got back to me yet. The website is closed down ??? and apparently the boat is out of the water!

Contacted another boat but we still need to argue on price. He wants £350 a day for the boat cos of rising fuel costs...thing is he will be traveling nowhere just anchored all day.

The other slight snag is he has never been skate fishing before :) but that isn't a problem as I have about 13 gps locations where I have caught fish and all the stuff other than rods that could be required.

The other snag would be the lack of hire gear but I reckon I have three full sets and can borrow a fourth, Graham one and I understand that Snatchers getting new toys for xmas :D

Five skate rods out is more than enough, and it leaves plenty of room for bait fishing up the front.

Gazawil,
As Graham says we take it in turns. The first time I went skate fishing I was handed a rod with a fish on and broke my duck, the next rod to get a fish was my new rod and reel which was handed on to someone else who had never had one. It was about four trips later that I caught my first on my own rod. This way has several advantages.

1. the hooking of the fish is done by someone with experience which reduces the chance of deep hooking.

2. The person reeling in gets to put on a harness and butt pad and is handed the rod with the clutch set right so reducing the chance of getting smashed up. Or worse still the angler getting dragged over the side due to the clutch been set too hard ( and remember your are clipped to the rod!) because those rods and reels are expensive :D

3. Everyone catches as opposed to one person getting loads and someone else blanking. I would hate to think a trip ended with one person catching three or four and one person in the party blanking.

4. When you have caught a skate the last thing you want is another immediately after! The fight often lasts longer than an hour and about half our trips have ended earlier in the day than planned..for the simple reason that no one can face reeling in another. A nice decision to have to make, but when three of you have caught over a tonne of fish between you by 4pm the pub armchairs and a few beers start looking very attractive

I notice there is a TLD 20 for sale on here ...wish I had 85 quid spare.

Cheers
Dave
 
Yes Dave I will have my all of my own skate gear ready for the trip. As you say though,as soon as I hopefully get stuck into a skate I will pass the rod over to the nearest skate virgin.

You done it to me skipper and its nice to be nice as they say. I recal pumping in three fish in fairly quick succession and I was quietly praying not to be called on a fourth time!!!

I do weight train and am fairly strong but this is definately a "different game"!!! I was near my limit on a coupl of occasions.

Taking that 124 lb male bareback was really tough mate. Hope we are not scaring them off by the way.

Bring it on
 
Here is another knot I got off Davy Holt

Knots - How to tie the Cat's Paw knot

Its for attatching your main line to the rubbing leader. Have tied it a couple times now and it is the biz!!!

These are the reels Santa dropped off

Reel2.jpg


Reel1.jpg


PennSenator.jpg


Have been told to use the Penn as first choice and keep the Shakespear for reserve

Santa has promised to return with an 80lb game rod in a week or so - luxury!
 
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