Having missed the last couple of trips to Scotland in search of Skate, I was determined to get back this year. We (Me, Steve and Martyn) decided to give it a go during the summer months this year, predominantly based on the supposition of better weather, traded off with the virtual guarantee of a greater presence of all manner of biting insects. The second reason though was to test whether or not our usual marks, which aren’t particularly deep and therefore 99% of the time will yield far better results during darkness, would still produce skate at this time of year given the longer periods of daylight.
To cut that story short, our theory that it would be much slower on the Skate front at this time of year turned out to be fairly accurate on this occasion. Four and a half days and only a single skate run during the wee hours of the final night, which resulted in a dropped bait, adds some weight to the idea that this perhaps isn’t the best time of year to go after them on our usual marks, and while there are Skate in the wider area pretty much year round, the presumption is they’re spending a greater time in deeper water during the summer months – at least on our usual patch. Local boat reports would seem to corroborate this.
It’s worth pointing out that our ambitions regarding the weather may have been somewhat naive as well – this is Scotland after all, where the most reliable view of the forecast is obtained by looking up at what’s above you. Despite the nationwide droughts featuring in the doomsday press in recent weeks, Day 3 was (predictably) more or less a complete write off with 50mph winds and driving rain for pretty much 24 hours. The rest of the week the wind wasn’t exactly helpful either, although perhaps not as bad – but in hindsight it was somewhat a blessing in disguise as it kept the bugs at bay, we didn’t really have any issues with them all week.
What was salvaged?
It’s supposed to be a fishing report after all. All in all there’s not an awful lot to write home about fishing wise, but between weather and twilight we did manage to salvage a few species points in the shape of wrasse, pollock, poor cod and Thornback rays. I even managed a few Ballan Wrasse on soft plastics intended for Pollock which is a first for me.
The highlight of the trip was my long awaited return to Loch Etive, and although I’ve camped a few times recently, I haven’t properly fished the loch in near a decade. We were forced in a way to go here during the awful weather on day 3, as a small bank on the south shore almost directly under the connel bridge was one of the few sheltered spots we could find between Oban and Fort William!
Steve was bitten off by a suspected Spurdog within minutes of putting a bait in the water, and although the evening didn’t yield any catches – I had to have another go the following morning to see if I could winkle out my first Spurdog in at least 10 years. Steve had gone home the evening before and Martyn was still chucking Z’s in the van, so I threw some gear into my box and trudged down to the same spot for an hour over slack water when the current would be fishable.
Frustratingly I got bitten off on my first chuck and then proceeded to miss 2 more fish afterwards before the tide got too fierce, so determined to settle the score I later moved round to the north shore with Martyn to a mark that I knew from experience can produce fish on the ebb. This proved a good move as we each landed a couple of spurs, with the biggest going to Martyn at around 5-6lb. As I’ve found in the past, the determining factor on this occasion may have been adding squid to the equation bait wise – there have been times when I’ve fished here and can’t buy a bite on mackerel alone, then as soon as you cocktail it with squid the fish are all over it. Coincidence perhaps, but this has happened on too many occasions on etive for me in the past to ignore so it’s always worth having squid in your bait bag when fishing here.
I also managed a solitary dogfish before the tide again made things somewhat un-fishable, and the final (failed) opportunity to tangle with a skate that evening compelled us to move on to other areas.
So all in all not the best trip fishing wise but still a good trip all the same. I certainly won’t bother going back for the skate in summer!
Its always a pleasure to head up there with you mate.