THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Following and feeding on the phyto-plankton come the zoo-plankton which are tiny carnivorous
animals, then other slightly larger animals all the way along the chain to small fish and ultimately larger
predators.
As I've said, I have yet to catch a hake. I have tried a few after dark sessions and planned even more
around Beauforts Dyke only to loose them to the weather. On top of that, the tide through the North
Channel can be horrendous, which only adds to the overall degree of difficulty.
However, in support of the theory, though not with the same species, there is a fish called the escolar
which leads a very similar life style to the hake around the Canary Islands which I have fished for and
caught in exactly the same way.
The boat was drifting over around a thousand fathoms of water in total darkness. We started deep
gradually positioning our whole mackerel baits closer to the surface by increments as the night wore
on, catching some very good escolars to fifty five pounds.
Not exactly the same, but similar enough. So that's what I would do if I got the opportunity again in
hake territory. A twenty pound class outfit fishing a heavy mono dropper say six feet in length above
the lead, with a 6/0 hook and mackerel flapper, or perhaps a smaller cut bait, dropped straight down to
depth with the reel left on ratchet.
Beauforts Dyke is definitely worth a shot. But with more opportunity of getting out fishing slightly to
the north and east in the Sound of Jura and Firth of Lorne, either of those might actually prove an even
better bet on account of their relative shelter and close proximity to the shore, plus of course, depths in
places down to around a hundred fathoms.
Alternatively, as you progress up the Firth of Lorne towards the entrance to Loch Linnhe, tucked into
the right hand corner just past Oban, if you pass under the Connel Bridge, you enter Loch Etive which
has produced not only more hake, but more big hake to rod and line than any other venue I know.
Why this should be so is difficult to explain. If you've ever been to Connel and watched the water
entering and exiting Loch Etive through the very constricted entrance, you would wonder how any fish
would ever manage to get in to the place.
I've watched boats literally stood still at full power trying to get the better of the outflow. Yet the stats
speak for themselves. Lots of spurdogs, cod, pollack and thornbacks too, though not common skate so
far as I am aware, despite them being abundant all around the outer entrance. So that might be worth a
look too.
Otherwise, hake are more commercially important down in the south west of Britain and Ireland where
I saw plenty of them in the trawls within just a couple of miles of the shore, particularly around the Isles
of Scilly, and on the markets at Newlyn and the like.
Rod and line records however reflect much of what has already been said, particularly in connection to
Beauforts Dyke, with Loch Etive having produced the biggest ever at just short of twenty six pounds,
with a fish of similar weight from Belfast Lough just the other side of the North Channel and Beauforts
Dyke.
Milford Haven produced the best Wales has to offer from the boats, and amazingly Port Talbot the best
from the shore with a fish of three pounds six ounces.
Tied in to this, I recall Dave Lewis telling me about a session he once had when he caught several small
ones years ago in the same session somewhere around that neck of the woods.
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