North coast 13-2-2010

[davy mccormick]

With a fine forecast and a reasonable tide plans were made for a trip to the north coast. First up some deepwater fishing around highwater slack. With our baits 370ft below us we sat back and remarked on how calm and sunny it was for the time of year.The usual atlantic swell was non existant , as the boat gently rolled in the waves I noticed the tell tale bite of a doggie . This was the start of a procession of dogs that was unrelenting through the last of the flood and slack water period. As the boat swung round in the ebb tide a few of these turned up

After 8 spurs to 12lb the tide was starting to run and we sent our baits down for the last time on this mark. Fred managed one of these

I noticed a strange bite on my rod and lifted into it and the rod double over into a skate. I kept up the momentum and raised it 30 ft thinking it was a small one. Then it woke up a decided to go to the bottom. It was obvious it was a big one and with the tide starting to really pickup I had to tighten up the drag and go for it. After a lot of pulling and hauling it started to lift again and then it dived again and bent out the size 2/0 hook . It was probably the best thing as a few minutes later the anchor started to slip and it was time to move on. The rest of the day was in shallow water which produced more dogs, huss and a couple of pollock

[apache]

nice fishin there guys crackin report their davy
pity on the skate

[darryl]

Nice day out 4 u Davy surprised u didnt head 2 deep water fishin bit shallow ther at 370ft was a crackin day 2 hook in2 a few fish... nice1

[kenf41]

really nice session there lads, well done

[neil t]

nice davy boat up and running again i see went to mine over the weekend but some work needing done on trailer suprise suprise b4 i can get out for a run was a great weekend of weather tho

[KERRY1]

Well done Davy

[hugo]

Great day, great fishin, great pix Just finished servicing the boat today, itching to get out now after reading your report....

[birdseye]

.
Well done Davy+Fred. Nice to see you up on the north coast,
still a bit cold for me. Some nice dogs and huss. Cheers.

[scrob]

Great session, some results. Skate would have been fish of a lifetime to get on board!

Tell me this - anchoring in 370ft, what length of rope roughly do you use? I'm wanting to anchor in a mere 100ft but been told this is still quite deep and that the rule of thumb is 3x the depth. I'm using a 20kg anchor with 15foot of chain on a 7.2m cruiser, any words of advice for me?

[Dawsey]

Good going Davy, pity about the monster skate, now that would have been nice

[nifisher]

More cracking fishing the skate are just evading you at the minute.