Incredible skate haul taken by top specimen angler - 16 over 100lb!
31 huge fish to a best of 211lb taken on 2ft-long squid baits
THESE are the pictures of one of the greatest catches of specimen skate ever landed in the UK.
Terry Theobald and fishing companions Dave Pritchard and Stephen Scammell were left completely exhausted after doing battle with 31 huge common skake, with the biggest two weighing 211lb and 202lb, backed up by 14 other fish over the 100lb mark.
The trio, from South Wales, were fishing aboard Ronnie Campbell’s Laura Dawn II boat, which operates out of Oban, Scotland, and used squid hook-baits measuring over two feet in length to make their astonishing catch.
Hauling the fish up from depths in excess of 560 feet, it took Terry and Steve almost two hours to land the biggest of the skate, which bury themselves in the debris on the sea bed to try to avoid a trip to the deck of a boat.
“It took me over half an hour of putting all of my strength and body weight through the rod just to start to move the fish off the bottom,” Terry exclusively told Angling Times.
“After almost two hours I was absolutely broken and I know we all felt the same, but we could not get enough of it. The adrenalin was flowing big-time!
“There were a few times when all three of us were hooked into fish well over the 100lb mark at the same time… it was incredible.
“Ronnie is an absolute legend
and he told us that it is one of the best three-day catches that he can recall.
All of the trio’s fish were taken on squid and mackerel hook-baits that were attached to 200lb hook-links and 60lb mono mainline coupled with 200lb shock leaders.
To find out more about common skate fishing with Ronnie Campbell, call him on 07721 640024