Duration: 9-5pm
Tide: Slack water at 4pm
Weather: Mild, calm sea
Bait: Mackerel, squid, octopus, rainbow trout
Rigs: Running ledger, size 10/0 hook and 2lb lead
Results: 7 common skate (mine 191lb, best 204lb!), about a dozen spurdogs and a blackmouth dogfish
Report:
After falling in touch with a contact in Scotland I ended up getting booked onto a charter boat out of Oban in the west of the country with legendary skate skipper Ronnie Campbell, some of you might have seen him on TV with John Wilson a while back.
Met up with the lads in the port of Oban and after a 20min steam we were anchored in the Firth of Lorne in 450ft of water. Ronnie dismissed my 20-50lb Penn Evo as a bit light for the job and handed me a 50-80lb Penn International seeing as it was my first time. He then produced the biggest mackeral I have ever seen, this thing looked like a big trout not a mack! Two small flappers were cut from the rear and threaded over the hook and up the line, and the fish was then hooked once through the chin onto the massive 10/0 hook which was attached to a split ring using 200lb mono and a sliding boom attached to 2lb (!) of lead. Over the side and the long drop to the bottom
With all baits in the water, I got to know the rest of the guys who were all very friendly and it soon transpired that I was the only skate virgin, and it wasn't long before the abuse started about how I would live to regret it once I was into a fish bla bla.. can't be THAT bad I naively thought?! 
Ironically, after 20 minutes a reel started clicking and then started screaming as something made off with someones bait.. everyone turned to see it was MY rod and immediately the laughter started as the guys rushed to get me a butt pad and harness
So all strapped up I lifted the rod out of the holder, reeled like f**k and lifted into it - SKATE ON! was the call from the skipper. To be honest, it felt like I was connected to the very sea bed and not a fish, and for about 15 minutes I struggled and strained and gained absolutely nothing. The rod was bent double and so were half of my fellow anglers (sadistic whures!) who found my plight hilarious, especially as I am only 5'6 and the harness was too loose to allow me to take the weight of the rod on my shoulders 
After about 15-20min I began to gain line and started the painstaking process of slowly lifting the rod tip and then dropping and reeling line.. gaining about 15-20 feet at a time. This was back breaking work and I was pumping away at it for about 20 minutes in which I gained a substantial amount of line, with the reel filling up nicely. Then the fish woke up and decided it was not happy! It gained some line but I managed to steady the show and won some back before the gear seemed to go completely solid... At this point I was about 40 minutes into the fight and things were at a complete stalemate. I tried for a further 10 minutes to gain line but things were going absolutely nowhere... I called over the skipper and it soon became apparent that the fish was caught around the anchor rope and I was hauling a 100lb anchor along with my fish.. GREAT!
A half hour operation then ensued to untangle the anchor, myself and another angler who were in an almighty mess. At this point the skipper took over and did a blinding job of reeling in the anchor and my line and untangling as he went, eventually after a total of about 1hour and 30 minutes I saw a HUGE female skate appear at the surface and before long she was gaffed and in the boat. SUCCESS! 
After a quick pose for photos, she was measured at 66 inches wide and 83 inches long.. the skipper confirmed a skate with an estimated weight of 191 lb!! AWESOME!! I was absolutely exhausted and made up and watched as the huge fish gracefully powered off back to the depths with confident swirls of her large wings. JOB DONE I then sat back and watched my fellow anglers one by one connect into skate and took on the role of dishing out the abuse and enjoying watching them struggle
In total there were 6 more skate boated throughout the day, including fish of 179lb and 204lb, again huge!I retired to fishing a set of 4/0 muppets with mackeral and octopus slivers and hauled in 6 or 7 spurdogs, the best weighing in around 4lb. A new species to add to my list and I christened my new Penn Evo Braid rod - superb!
All in all the best day I have ever had fishing and a massive thanks to the organiser Fin (blackmouth on WSF) and the brilliant skipper Ronnie Campbell. Ronnie was professional and friendly throughout the day and put us right over the fish, kept us brewed with fresh tea and coffee and skillfully untangled many lines throughout the day as the tide got the better of our 2lb leads
It was a very reasonable price (£50 each) and I would certainly recommend him to anyone.Final tally:
Rab 204lb skate
Rob (ME) 191lb skate, few spurdogs
Stuart 179lb skate
Kevin 97lb skate, spurdog, blackmouth dogfish
Peter 71lb skate
John 40 lb skate
Tony 32lb skate, few spurdogs
Some pics (videos to follow)
