Sharkatag & Crinan

Well the time had arrived and the Mull of Galloway was the destination. We arrived Thursday morning and made camp at Sandhead, the weather was looking good and the anticipated fishing was causing excitement.

First launch was at Ardwell where the fishing wasn`t as good as anticipated, some Mackerel, a few doggy`s and the odd Smoothy were all the sea could offer, not a sign of Tope. Friday saw us launch at Terally Bay, now this was a good day to say the least.

Again Tope were not on the cards but a constant stream of Smoothy`s kept us busy along with the usual Dogfish and a couple of LSD`s.


Mackerel were plenty so we bagged a good amount for bait and a few for our tea.




 The Smoothy`s were varying sizes with the best being
 about 90cm and getting tagged.

 Saturday was a complete wash out for us, we decided on Ardwell back bay as our launch site and no sooner had we got the yaks off the roof and the wind got up. Others had gone to Port Logan only to face the same. We spent the day spinning from the rocks with nothing to show.
On arriving back at camp we heard the news that Lozz had caught Tope over at Port William, time to check the forcast, got the laptop set up and spotted a window in the wind, early rise needed. The forcast was for no wind between 3am and 10am on the Sunday.
We got up at 4am Sunday, made our way to Port William and launched on a mill pond at 5.30. We sat waiting and waiting with only the odd Doggy to land. By 9am the wind was showing itself, building steadily and at 9.45 we headed back in. There were a couple of boats out on the water not catching much, like us, as soon as we hit the slip, over the radio we heard one had landed a tope, then the other. Just our luck, but we couldn`t hang about, we were off to Crinan.


After traveling to Crinan we found Lozz already at the campsite, it was early evening, no wind but plenty of the dreaded midges to keep us on our toes.

The Loch was like glass and a lazy laid back group of anglers got comfy and waited for the action to begin.









And waited

 Eventually, Paul uttered his most common frase "doggy bite" to which Lozz replied, "yeh, that doggy could be a 100lb, strike" Paul did strike and it was solid,   

Fish on and Paul was aching big time, it was a good sized Skate.







After a good 40 minutes I could see his prize coming up from the depths, a leviathan of the sea bed, a large male.

The wingspan measured 60 inches making the Skate around the 110/120lb mark. Paul was well impressed as I was.
Next up was Lozz, not long after he hit into a fish, a slightly smaller female.

That was it for the day, I didn`t catch or get a bite but the thrill of it all was plenty.
On the Tuesday we launched again for a second time. First thing we had to do was locate our anchor and bouy which for some reason had been dragged over a quater mile across the tide. We spent a few hours fishing with no indication of activity until the wind forced us to quit, it wasn`t too bad to fish but it would have been hard work to land a Skate. Lozz cut the anchor loose and we paddled to the shore. After a couple of hours the wind had dropped off, we made our way back out to the mark hoping our leads would hold us fast.

Just as the tide started to pick up Lozz hit into a fish.

 A female around 140lb. He had it along side after a short 10 minute fight, then she woke up and took him spinning around in circles.

I enjoyed the experience of Crinan even though I did not catch a Skate. I will make a return trip later in the year when hopefully I`ll hook up with one of these giants.

Many thanks to Paul and Daz for their company and Lozz for his company and experience.