Hunting Scottish Skate

This blog is still in its infancy and like many my fishing ventures have been scuppered by covid this past year, so I’ve not written about Skate fishing on here before. However it has been something of an obsession for me over the last five years, having spent much of my waking life perusing Google earth and shipping charts trying to locate likely looking fishing marks for these elusive ‘barn doors.’ You need to consider not only the depth you’re fishing, but access to the waters edge to physically land a fish that could potentially weigh over 200lb which means understanding any underwater obstructions/ledges that will make the task of landing impossible.

Over the last five years myself and Steve, who’s been equally as obsessed with catching one of these fish, have put thousands of hours into researching possible skate marks and tactics and put as many miles on the clock travelling to these places with only limited success, with my last trip yielding a 30lb Common Skate, my first and only to date.

There are of course places you can go which are well known that have been well canvassed on YouTube and social media – and this is another factor. These marks will and do yield results, but you have to be prepared to potentially share a small space with multiple other anglers. Such is the growing popularity of targeting these fish from the shore that people come from all over the U.K. to Scotland in order to try and catch them.

Personally though I prefer the quieter spots, and what better way to truly embrace isolation than in this part of the country, combining wild-camping and fishing; I don’t think there’s a better soul medicine.

Tackling up for shore Skate

I’m by no means a seasoned Skate angler – as I’ve said, I’ve only had limited success with them. Consider though that you’re fishing for something that could potentially be as big as you, so it stands to reason that tackle needs to be beefed up to handle the job at hand. A heavy beach rod with plenty of guts is a must – I use a MK1 carbon metal crest, one of the early carbon metal rods – stiff and plenty of power! These fish will glue themselves the seabed when they realise they’re hooked and refuse to budge, so you need a rod that will provide enough backbone to keep the pressure on for a long time to encourage it to dislodge itself. Reel choice is down to personal preference, but make sure you consider the depth of the venue and the amount of line the reel holds and again, it needs to have the guts to handle the abuse of hauling a Skate up from the depths. I go for the penn battle 7000 fixed spool, preferring fixed spool over multiplier as i find it easier to control when casting large baits. I load this with 90lb braid – braid being better again for keeping the pressure up due to the lack of stretch, and the improved bite detection when fishing deep water.

The point here being that if a hooked skate decides to take off in the opposite direction, there’s nothing you or any rod and reel on the planet is gonna do about it, so make sure you’re gear is up to the task.

Rigs

Again there’s no single answer and everyone has their preference. Given the size of the quarry though rigs need to be of at least 150lb – matched with hooks 10/0 or bigger (avoid stainless steel as they do not rust if you need to cut the line on a deep hooked fish).

I use a pulley rig anywhere between 5 and 8 foot long depending on depths – and always with a weak link to the lead regardless of where I am fishing.

Day 1

This time I was joined once again by Steve and also his mate Jamie (his first time sea fishing) on a four day trip to various marks in the north west highlands of Scotland. The trip had been planned for months in advance and it seemed like fate that the Scottish government were lifting the border restrictions on the 26th of April – the exact date we were pencilled to go!

After just over a five hour drive I arrived at the first mark at around 7pm, Steve and Jamie having arrived a few minutes before. Spirits were high in anticipation; we’ve never fished this mark but it’s one we’ve had an inkling about for over a year but haven’t had the chance to fish yet due to covid!

To cut a long story short though there’s not a lot to talk about with regards to the first night other than how uncharacteristically beautiful the weather is – the night sky is lit up by an intense full moon and the water is flat calm, the occasional twitter of a tawny owl somewhere in the hills breaking the silence.

An occasional dogfish breaks the monotony on the fishing front, some managing to hang themselves on the 10/0 Cox and Rawle meat hooks. No Skate though and In the end we decide to call it at 2am as we’re all a bit shattered from the drive up, with the intention of hitting it hard tomorrow.

Day 2

A mixed bag of weather today, with a stubborn cross wind and periods of intermittent rain making things a bit uncomfortable. In actual fact, other than a solitary pollock in the early morning mist, the mark is seemingly devoid of life throughout the daytime. Only when the sun drops do the ever reliable dogfish start to put in an appearance as we busy ourselves making a small campfire.

Bait wise we’re using a mix of things – mostly mackerel which are cut in half. It is possible to use larger baits, and there may be advantages in terms of scent appeal, however this comes at the expense of lost distance when casting. It’s certainly not necessary to use massive baits and many Skate have been hooked and lost having taken smaller baits intended for smaller species and half a mackerel is still compact enough that it can be flung out a good distance. Aside from mackerel we also try bluey, pollock and even dogfish for bait – all of which will be readily taken by Skate, which aren’t the fussiest of fish and will eat most things!

At 1:30am, one of my rods gives a typical nod nod of yet another dogfish. Resigned to having to probably change the bait again, I leave it a bit to see if it will lose interest. After a while though i notice the rod seems to be pulling down slowly a couple of inches at a time. Excitement sets in as we realise this is definitely something different – and after sitting on my hands and letting it develop a little more I decide to hit it. The resulting bend in the rod is unmistakable – I’ve hooked the first skate of the trip!

For the first 10 seconds it’s coming in relatively easily and it appears to just be a smaller fish, not dissimilar to the 30lb fish I’ve had previously. Then for whatever reason, it realises it’s hooked, turns in the opposite direction and (excuse the term) f***s off for the horizon – and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. The drag of my penn battle is almost fully locked up, and yet the fish has my carbon metal crest buckled, peeling line off the spool at an impressive rate of knots – it’s immediately obvious at this point that she’s a big girl! She then employs the typical “sit and sulk” tactic, gluing herself to the seabed and there’s nothing to do but jam the rod butt into a rock and sit on it, keeping the pressure constant, waiting for her to give up. She dislodges a handful of times and lets me gain a few yards, only to give me the proverbial finger and take double, triple, quadruple the amount of line back before suctioning herself to the seabed again. The lads are providing words of encouragement (and the odd bit of micky taking). At one point she is sat, completely unmoved, for a good 40 minutes. A bit of extra pressure and I feel the lead part company – reiterating the importance of a weak link. No matter how clean you think the ground is, a Skate will spend 95% of the fight on the deck, and you can pretty much guarantee if there’s a snag to be found, it’ll find it!

Sure enough she’s moving again and finally starts to come up through 90ft of water. This is probably the most nail biting (and exhausting) part of the fight, as every time I lower the rod to pump it back, the momentary slight lapse in pressure is taken as an opportunity as the skate turns and shoots back down again – and all I can do is hang on and let her. A few times she isn’t far from the surface before turning and heading back down the full way and I have to start over again!

Finally, 1 hour and 20 minutes after first hooking her, she suddenly emerges on the surface a couple of yards in front of us and we’re all in complete shock. You see plenty of pictures and videos online but until you see one in the flesh it’s hard to appreciate their size.

A couple of nervous moments as she makes a couple of last ditch attempts to turn and get back down again – even now testing the gear to complete limits. She eventually gives up though and we negotiate her onto a low lying rock, still partially in the water, so that she can be unhooked, measured and photographed.

It’s impossible to physically weigh a fish of this size so weight is determined by pre approved charts using a measurement from nose to tail and wing tip to wing tip and we calculate that by the chart she weighs 178lb. I’m absolutely ecstatic. After 5 years and hours and hours of research and travel time, I’ve finally landed a Skate over the 100lb mark.

Following a few photos she’s released, taking her time to disappear off into the depths and leaving us watching, completely speechless. In fact I’m speechless for pretty much the rest of the night, not knowing what to do with myself. I don’t even really bother continuing to fish – just sitting content having finally achieved what I set out to do years ago. It’s nearing 4am and we have a few beers to celebrate next to the campfire on a blissfully calm night before turning in.

Day’s 3/4

Despite the success of the previous night we decide to up sticks and head further north, given that the current mark doesn’t appear to fish well during the day and the forecast is for the wind to swing round into our faces. In hindsight we probably would have been better off staying where we were as our efforts were only rewarded with a handful of dogfish, and we can’t help but feel the day was wasted a bit. We decide that tomorrow for the final full day we’ll go back to the area where I caught my 30lb fish 2 years ago.

This Loch has a reputation for smaller Skate and I suspect it acts as a nursery.

We busy ourselves making camp and once again spark up a fire, cooking steak, sausages and pork chops on a flat piece of slate – proper bushcraft style!

The fishing is a little slow but we do manage a handful of Thornback Ray’s each throughout the evening and into darkness, including a first ray for Jamie, although sadly no more skate.

And so ends another trip. I’m still in awe from the experience, and my arms still hurt 4 days later! But I can’t wait to get up there again.