Small Boat Fishing - Big Fish, Small Boat
What dinghy angler wouldn't love to catch a huge fish by his own efforts and from his own boat. Its the stuff of dreams. The question has to be, what is a exactly is a huge fish, because everything is relative. A 5 pound plaice or a 10 pound bass should be big enough to warm the cockles of any anglers heart. And while from a species perspective both are big, in the purist definition of the word, they are not physically huge to the point where having them in or along side your boat is going to cause any practical logistical problems. But some ton up fish could, particularly if you want to have them in the boat say to measure and photograph. The biggest we've actually had in our Warrior 165 was a skate of 202 pounds. Now that really is deck filler. We probably could even have handled something bigger. But certainly not a round fish such as a shark. Even really big tope and conger could present problems. So the whole concept is to some degree species dependant. You have to know how to deal with the situation once you have created it. Organisation down to the very last detail is key if what should be a massive achievement does not suddenly descend into total chaos.
In the case of big common skate, getting them into the boat and having them there isn't nearly so much of a problem as getting them back into the water safely and away. Skate are not particularly troublesome fish at any stage once you get them to the surface. They cooperate well. There is plenty of time to select a good safe gaffing point in the leading edge of each wing well away from any vital organs. Judging by the number of tagged fish around Mull which are re-caught time and again, careful gaffing does them no lasting damage. The wounds soon heal. But you really need two gaffs – one for each wing. Not only is this less stressful to the fish which you want to make a complete recovery, but I know from experience when boating the big one single handed after breaking a gaff on an earlier fish of similar size, it is also less stressful on you. How I managed to get that fish in I will never know. At one point it started to slip back as I was holding the gaff head with my knee's pressed firmly into the side of the boat. Only quick thinking stopped my fingers being smashed on the side rails. I won't be trying that stunt a second time. If ever we're down to one gaff again, I'll touch the fish then cut the trace close to the hook in the water.
Big skate just lie there on the deck and present no problem to measure between the wing tips and from nose to tail to get an estimated weight from a chart which is available on the Internet at www.catchalot.co.uk/tagging/tskate.htm They don't bother much either when you lift their head up by their nose to get access to the hook in their mouth which is tucked away underneath. For this you are going to need a long handled T-bar disgorger. You wouldn't want to get your fingers caught between those powerful crushing jaws. The teeth are not huge, but they do point inwards, so the mouth would have to be forced open again for you to get what's left of them out. That being the case, keep the fingers well clear. And you don't want to be thinking you can get away with something like a Gemini disgorger either. I have no doubt that Gemini produce the best general purpose disgorger on the market. Unfortunately, traces made from 200 pounds mono and 12/0 hooks are way beyond it's handling range. You will also need a deck sized sheet of tarpaulin or netting to work underneath the fish to get it back out of the boat. Big skate have to be one of the most awkward fish on the planet to physically handle. At least with a sheet under them you have the four corners to get hold of to lift the fish onto the gunnel's and slip it away.
Fish likely to wreck havoc inside a boat if not handled sensibly, and those that no right minded angler would want inside such a confined space include big tope, big sting rays, and big sharks. You could also add halibut to that list, though the chances of being fortunate enough to have to deal with one in a dinghy are sadly extremely slim. This said, it has been done both here in the UK and abroad. I would also put big monkfish in very small boats on the list too. Monkfish or angel sharks used to be quite common in some areas. Unfortunately, they are now on Europe's red list of crucially endangered sharks. Yet I can remember catching them almost to order from a 15 Seahog in 4 feet of water at Fenit in Eire. They would come to the boat like a wet sack of spuds. But the moment you touched them they quite literally went berserk. Drop one in the fishing well of the boat as we did on a number of occasions, and it was like having a wild crocodile in there with you. Sizeable stingrays would also pick up the baits at Fenit, and these too are potentially dangerous fish to be in a confined space with. Remember Steve Irwin. A charter skipper in the Canary Islands was also killed by one a few years back. White skate (bottle nosed ray) to 140 pounds also saw the inside of the boat on that trip.
Big tope are not particularly difficult fish to deal with, so long as pre-planning puts sufficient safeguards in place to protect both you and the fish. If you fail to control the fish from the onset, then expect trouble. Like all shark species, tope can be particularly difficult fish to keep hold of. All that power and muscle first twisting one way then the other. Its no wonder they end up on the deck, at which point they are everywhere, scattering anything loose in their wake. Best then not to have loose items lying about, and in particular fishing rods. If they don't get damaged or chewed, a flying hook on the end of a trace could easily lodge itself somewhere penetrating flesh well beyond the barb. Kneeling facing the same way as the tope with its head held by your knee's and your backside holding its back down provides some control during disgorging. But as sharks don't cope well with being removed from the natural support of the water surrounding them, wherever possible, they should be disgorged in the water. Lifting a shark, particularly by its tail, allows the internal organs to move about by gravity, potentially leading to the rupturing of small blood vessels and possibly even bleeding to death. If you must handle a tope, cradle it to support the gut area, and try to place it on the deck rather than dropping it. Rhyl charter skipper Tony parry uses a huge purpose made landing net which helps support the fish during the lift, and control it in the boat. He also weights them in a weighing sling for additional support. This has a flap that covers the fishes eyes which seems to calm them down.
From a handling point of view, blue sharks are the same as big tope. The fact that they are open ocean surface feeders and different in colour is what sets them apart. Blues can easily clear 100 pounds, which is a big fish. But due to over exploitation both deliberately and otherwise, the average blue shark won't be much different to a half decent tope which puts them well within the scope of the dinghy angler. The reason why so few are caught from small boats is down to distribution. Open oceanic coasts with at least 40 fathoms of water to the south and west of the country are their main stamping grounds, which generally means getting a long way off. So weather conditions are going to have their say. But you can catch them within a few miles of the shore around the Scilly Isles and parts of south west Ireland such as Ballydavid near Dingle. Float fished mackerel between 30 and 60 feet down and lots of rubby dubby are the key. But so too is care in the handling. A friend of mine whose shall remain nameless, had a 12/0 hook driven literally right through the palm of his hand while disgorging a blue. It took hospital surgery to get it free.
Porbeagle sharks, though bigger, are probably far more of a proposition from small boats that blues due to the fact that often hunt within casting range of the shore. Obviously circumstances have to be right. Headlands and islands where you get tide rips over shallow reefy ground attract porbeagles all the way from Cornwall to the Shetland Islands. In poor weather, perhaps not the most comfortable place to be fishing. But often close enough to shore to offer more of a regular chance than heading well off for blues. This said, you would not want to be bringing a porbeagle into a small boat. These are shorter, stockier fish with immense reserves of power. So as it is widely accepted in big game fishing circles to touch the trace or the fish, then cut the thing free, that's what I would be inclined to do. But to do that safely and efficiently so nobody is damaged by the trace if the fish makes a sudden crash dive, or so as not to put the boat in a precarious position, a good set of sharp wire cutters is essential. You want that trace cut quickly and easily. But the exploits of Graeme Pullen and his mate Padstow Pete fishing from a 14 food dinghy have shown just how much of a possibility dinghy fishing for porbeagles really is.
The last remaining big fish species open to targeting from a small boat is the conger. Having access to really big conger is something of a geographical thing. Most truly big eels are caught in the English Channel or off the north coast of Devon and Cornwall, and usually from wrecks. Some big eels are taken both from open ground and other parts of the country, but these are the exceptions rather than the rule. If its big eels you want, then you seriously need to be thinking about wrecks. This said, they don't need to be virgin wrecks. Back in the 70's when we used to wreck fish regularly from Plymouth, the best eels came from wrecks that were to all intents and purposes fished out. New wrecks used to be loaded with ling in those days which would have the baits down before even the smaller, quicker off the mark conger could get a sniff in. Wrecks with not much else on them other that bait fish and eels are the ones to be looking at. A big pouting flapper on a heavy mono trace dropped right into the thick of things where it is not going to be bothered by small bait robbers is what you want. Whether you would want the results inside a 16 foot boat is another thing. There are a lot of old wives tales concerning damage done by conger to people and property, much of which is urban myth. But they are powerful fish. Again I would be inclined to snip the trace in the water, or if its for eating, make sure the thing was dead before bringing it on board, unless you have a big fish box with a secure lid.
As was said in the opening paragraph, what dinghy angler wouldn't love to catch a huge fish by his own efforts and from his own boat. But there are going to be many reasons why this will never be. Access to the fish of course is one major reason. Not everyone has either the outfit or the inclination to put in hundreds of miles on the road to visit a destination you really know very little about. But even then, all is not lost. You can still catch big fish from small boats and leave your boat own at home. Every year, Scottish charter skipper Ian Burrett bases himself and a couple of his 19 foot Orkney Strikeliners at Lochaline on the Sound of Mull during late March and April. And every year he and Spike send dozens of visiting anglers home having caught the biggest fish of their lives. Skate topping 200 pounds are taken every year. The females seem to average around the 140 to 160 mark, while the males which fight harder, go just either side of the ton. This year, they had the biggest male skate they've ever seen weighing in at 139 pounds. They also recently had their best ever female skate estimates revised upwards. Extended research by Glasgow Museum into the skate weight estimation chart has seen changes. Five years ago, one of Ian's clients had a skate that went off the scale in nearby Loch Sunart. The weight of that fish has now been estimated at 238 pounds, more than 10 pounds above the current record. Not that records matter. I have seen Ian put records back unclaimed before. But it does make you think about how big these fish might grow, and how changes to the way we record them are urgently required - something I will be looking at next issue.
Not everyone who would like to catch a big fish from a small boat is in the enviable position of owning their own trailed dinghy, and not everyone reading would necessarily get the same satisfaction out of catching one from a charter boat, however small it might be. So, before closing, with Loch Sunart mentioned in the last paragraph, let me also say that a chap called Any Jackson who lives near Glen Borrowdale on the north bank of Loch Sunart which connects into the Sound of Mull, has a couple of Orkney Longliners for self drive rental. Dave Devine and I went up there a few years back to give them a try and had ton up skate on board on both of the days. There can't be many places where you could jump into a displacement boat with an 8 hp outboard on the back and be in with a realistic chance of a hundred pound plus fish within 500 yards of the shore. The key is to find the deepest water available on the laminated piece of chart Andy supplies with the boat. I would also be inclined to take a good heavy anchor with lots of chain and a reel of 6 mm draw cord to replace the anchor on board. The boat needs to be fishing static. Whether you could get the anchor up using an Aldernay ring with an 8 hp outboard is not something I've tried. If you can't, its a long way up hand hauling. But it can and has been done.
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