Six huge skate to 204lb caught off coast of Scotland

A 1,050 mile trip to Scotland saw a pair of Essex anglers land six huge skate between 177lb and 204lb.

Barry Edwards and Chris Warren spent two days out of Crinan, Argyll with Matthew Burrett’s boat ‘On Yer Marks II’. Using big cocktail baits consisting of mackerel, rainbow trout, squid and octopus on 14/0 hooks, 80lb braid and 250lb mono traces, the pair took three fish each, fishing  inshore in 450ft of water. Barry’s biggest skate weighed 193lb and after taking blue sharks to 161lb last year, he said that the skate was the next species over 100lb he had wanted to catch.

“The long trip up was well worth it for fish like this. It usually takes you between 30 and 45 minutes to land skate as big as these, the first 15 minutes are the toughest as the fish hug the bottom and you have to try and move them! All the fish were safely released alive after being quickly photographed,” he said.

Click here for more angling news...