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  • 07/2019 Fishing Report by Kevin McKie on Size Matters (Plymouth, Devon)

    Jul 2019 by Kevin McKie

    Report on-board Size Matters

    I honestly don’t even know where to start, we are over the moon with the results of our latest adventure.

    Phil had booked Size Matters for four days to get a chance to fish a place well off the charts, sadly the weather to do this was not in our favour.

    So it was time for Plan B Thresher Sharks and Flip Flops.

    On the first day we stayed close to Plymouth and fished a mark only a few miles from shore that had produced a few porgies on previous trips.

    Sadly we blanked but did top up our bait supply, we then steamed well over 100 miles through the night to our chosen area to fish for Threshers.

    We knew this was going to be a challenge because none of us had ever seen a Thresher before let alone caught one.

    Five hours into the first day we got a screaming run Phil was up and once the drag went up the shark went air borne, it was a Thresher around 200lb.

    After about a 20 minute fight we had it about 20 meters from the back of the boat, it then turned and spat the hook, we where all gutted.

    The rest of the day we where trying to figure out how it spat the circle hook out, normally once a circle hook is in it stays in.

    I was changing hooks all the time, keeping them sharp and changing baits regularly.

    We never got anymore interest from Threshers just lots of small Tope 10lb to 20lb stealing baits and trying to bite our chum bags at the side of the boat.

    When it went dark the lads went to sleep and I carried on fishing though the night trying all sorts of Sword fish lights to see if they would attract the Threshers during the night.

    They sure did look good but the Tope loved them especially the green ones.

    As soon as daylight started to brake I steamed the boat back to the area where we got the first run the day before.

    I had just put all the rods out, John had just woke up and was on deck with me, with in 5 mins one of the rods had a short run I said to John it’s another Tope, as I picked the rod up and started reeling in it took off and jumped 4ft clear of the water it was a Thresher I was screaming at the other lads to wake up.

    I had no butt pad on, flip flops on my feet and the fish was heading to the bow of the boat, I jumped up the side of the boat with the rod in my hand then fought it for 30 mins on the bow.

    The problem was my mono leader had a nick in it so I needed to be extra careful, eventually we got it in, an incredible shark when you see them up close, this one was just over 100lb, I was well chuffed.

    Then a few hours later we missed a good run then about 20 mins later Phil had a run and was back in the game with one that looked around 250lb smashing through the surface for about 25 mins.

    The hook hold looked good and was coming to the boat perfect, then the same happened again it turned and spat the hook.

    Again we where trying to work out what we done wrong, then we started to do things a little different.

    Next up was John and he tested out our new approach to hooking the Threshers and bang it worked after a 40 min fight he landed a cracking fish around 150lb.

    Then it was Tony next and again the new system worked, he landed one around 60lb.

    Phil was back on the rods but once we started to lose daylight the Tope moved in and the Threshers disappeared.

    It was now home time and we steamed through the night back to Plymouth.

    Please note all Sharks where handled with extreme care, we used our Scottish National Heritage Skate sling to lift the Sharks just 10 inches from water to the deck of the boat supporting there whole body, we then used buckets of water to keep the sharks wet and release them as quickly as possible.

    If you love Shark fishing or just love Sharks then make sure you go out of your way to see these fantastic Sharks up close and personal, they truly are an amazing creature.

    This now means the Thresher Shark is the 7th species of fish caught on Size Matters over 100lb in UK waters.

    As always our Shimano rods and reels done us proud and never let us down, the
    Speed Master Dendou Maru 1000 20/30 rod is one of the finest sharking rods I have ever used with bags of power in the blank and teamed up with a Tiagra 30 it’s one hell of a combo for sharking.

    A massive thanks goes to Phil, John and Tony for there team work and taking the opportunity to try something new.

    Thanks
    Kevin Mckie
    Size Matters (Plymouth)
    07999628511

    #Shimano
    #Mckiesfishingcharters
    #Plymouth



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