The Kintyre Forum

Well it's nearly Kintyre - but it's not quite the rest of the world !!!

Have a look here and tell me what you think?
http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l141/ ... il%202009/

All skate were tagged and released.

Had eight skate over three days weighing 24, 27, 38, 101, 171, 182, 182 and 182lbs

Knowing nothing about fishing, I'm just curious. Why do you tag the fish? Is it some sort of survey?

Thanks to a long campaign, it's no longer legal for commercial boats to land common skate. The skate tagging program has been co-ordinated by Glasgow University for the last 15 years or so. In that time, many tagged fish have been recaptured - some as many as ten times. Anglers measure the length and wingspan of the fish and plot these sizes on a chart created by the university to estimate the weight.

There are also benefits to the Scottish Economy. A mature skate landed at Oban a couple of years ago was sold at market for a meagre £26. It has been estimated that same fish would have been worth around £6,000 to the nation if recaptured six times. Anglers travel from all over the world to fish for common skate on the West Coast of Scotland. They use our airports, hire cars, buy fuel, use hotels, buy presents, food, drinks, pay charter skippers, buy tackle & bait and a host of other things.

The tagging has also proven that the fish are largely resident year round in our waters.

Interesting.

So can you fish for them in waters around Kintyre? (assume so but wondering where is best etc)

With very few exceptions, skate are taken in water depths exceeding 300ft. The main grounds are the Firth of Lorn, Sound of Mull and in deeper areas of the North Channel. It's not something to tackle (no pun intended!) lightly. We kit up with 50lb class rods, 6/0 size reels, 100lb mainline braid, 150lb leader and 250lb traces. Couple this to a 2lb weight and a 12/0 size hook. Bait on Sunday was four mackeral and a whole octopus on each hook.

It's not unknown to take two hours to bring a big skate up from these depths and it may take up to an hour just to lift it off the bottom as they dig their wing tips in under the muddy seabed and create a vacuum. On top of this, you'll need a large size butt pad, a harness, two gaffs for getting the fish on board and a net for lifting them back overboard.

Have added some new pics of a 182lb fish coming aboard. Have a wee look?

http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l141/ ... il%202009/

Great pics Ticketty.
You will need to keep some of the smaller ones (if any) and reintroduce them to the deep water at the back of Carradale quay.
You would get some extra holidays and not have to travel so far .

Ticketty Boo! wrote: Bait on Sunday was four mackeral and a whole octopus on each hook.

No wonder they are that size with all the feeding you are given them .

ps. Out on Ticketty Sunday night past for a fish run,no fish, but boat very fast.