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  • 22/12/2019 Fishing Report by Kevin McKie on Size Matters (Craobh Haven, Argyll & Bute)

    22 Dec 2019 by Kevin McKie

    Report on-board Size Matters

    2019 has once again been one hell of a year for Size Matters fishing from three ports around the UK.

    Here is how the year unfolded onboard
    Size Matters.

    SCOTLAND

    The Skate fishing from Scotland was truly outstanding at times, we totalled 641 Skate for a total weight of 80,617lb!!!

    We averaged 9 Skate a day with the average weight of 125lb 8oz!!

    At times we would have four Skate on at once, trying to get them all to the boat in over 600ft of water was challenging at times but we managed it.

    442 Skate where female and 199 were male, we caught 44 over 200lb and 359 over 100lb!!

    The biggest Skate was caught by Wirrel angler Mick Walsh a cracking fish of 232lb!!

    Bert Willams from the Wirral caught the first ever Blue Skate in Scottish waters all 22lb of it, this is an exceptional catch in UK waters.

    The most Skate we caught in one days was 37 for a total weight of 2790lb, by Garry Streeter and his lads from South Wales.

    The Liverpool A Team consisting of Phil Riley, John Owan, John Mcbride and Paul Hendrick, had the most weight in one day with 20 Skate for a massive total weight of 3590lb!!

    The best part about this is all the Skate are out there swimming around to be caught again in future.

    We did manage to get two the wrecks a few times and some of the wrecks held massive shoals of Pollack to 9lb, we will be doing much more wrecking in Scotland in the future.

    2020 is fully booked in Scotland but we do have dates available for 2021.


    PLYMOUTH

    When we arrived in Plymouth around mid June we done our first trip of the year to Jurassic Park, catching no less than 12 Six Gill Sharks to around 500lb, the biggest we boated measured and released was 410lb and the smallest was 145lb!!!

    That was definitely a trip to tell the gran kids about in the future and a trip that we will try to beat in the next few years.

    The wreck fishing on the drift was good from June to the start of August, once the algae bloom started to die and sink to the sea bed the fishing was very hard.

    Wreck fishing at anchor for Conger and Ling was slow in June and July due to the lack of fresh bait available, but in August and September the fishing really picked up with up to 70+ Conger and Ling per trip.

    Sadly we never caught any big Conger this year our best fish was 55lb, we did catch some monster Ling this year to 39lb 8oz a new boat record.

    Shark fishing was very poor from June to July because of the massive algae bloom we had, I got told by a marine biologist it was the worst algae bloom in 10 years, just goes to show how polluted our oceans really are.

    Once the algae bloom started to die and sink to the sea bed in August the shark fishing picked up a bit with our best day catching 19 Blue Sharks on a 23 hour trip and 11 Blue Sharks on a 12 hour trip, this is still very poor compared to previous years.

    In July we had big plans to go well off the charts but sadly the weather put a stop to that so plan B was to try for Thresher Sharks.

    We managed to pull it out the bag catching three Thresher Sharks to 150lb, pulled the hook on two more and missed one!!

    This was the 7th species over 100lb caught onboard Size Matters in UK waters.

    It was great to do a trip like this for the first time and learn so much in just a short space of time.

    It was definitely a very strange season in Plymouth not like any we have had in the last four years, the algae bloom didn’t help things either.

    We only seen a few Sunfish this year, in the pasted I have seen 17 in just one day.

    There was no Atlantic Bonito this year and last year you could catch them daily in September and October.

    We only caught one John Dory this year and last year we caught 11.

    This was the first time the wrecking fishing on the drift was over in August normally you can still chip away catching Pollack, Cod and Ling right through the year.

    From the start of August the weather got more unsettled as the season went on, we had so many good trips booked in but the weather put a stop to them.

    Even sailing to Liverpool we normally do some fishing on the way but the weather window was too small so we had to do the 360 miles none stop.

    2020 is fully booked from Plymouth and we only have a few individual places available in 2021.


    LIVERPOOL

    We arrived in Liverpool around mid October, we decided to target the off shore wrecks when the weather allowed and fish the Mersey as a back up.

    The wrecking was fantastic catching plenty of Pollack to 11lb 8oz, most where 4lb to 7lb.

    The Mersey in October to the end of November was full of Rays to 10lb, Whiting to 1lb 8oz and upto 20 Cod per trip to 9lb.

    As we went into December most of the Rays and Whiting moved off shore, this increased the Cod catches up to 39 per trip.

    We have available dates in 2020 for the Mersey and Wrecking.

    Once again we have some very big plans for 2020, we just need the weather on our side and a bit of luck.

    We would to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors Shimano UK, everyone who fished with us and helped us out during 2019, we appreciate the continued support.

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

    Kevin Mckie
    Size Matters
    07999628511.
    mckiesfishingcharters@hotmail.com

    #Scotland
    #Plymouth
    #Liverpool
    #Shimano
    #Mckiesfishingcharters





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