THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

stretch straight to the end of the snout in one continuous run, with only the slightest hint of a bulge at
the head.
Thankfully, there are easier ways of separating white skate
from the other large growing species such as the common
skates and long nose skate, and to access the main one, you
only need to turn the fish over.
As the name suggests, the white skate has a pure un-marked
white underside with darker margins, whereas the underside of
the other large skates is grey and covered in small black dots
which are actually black ringed pores that are often tightly
packed.
Colouration on the dorsal surface ranges from a mottled
greyish blue in the larger fish, to reddish brown with numerous
white spots in younger specimens. Supposedly a deep water
species, but in my experience, that isn't necessarily always the
case.
Brian Douglas, 140 lb White Skate
Back in the early 1980's, Brian Douglas and I were invited to
trail my fifteen foot dinghy across to Ireland's County Kerry.
To Fenit in fact, to spend a week exploring the small boat
fishing potential in and around Tralee Bay, after which we
would report back to the Bord Failte as well as publicise the
trip in the UK angling press.
The arrangement was that we would follow a local charter boat about the area learning the ropes for a
couple of days, at which point, the late great Kevin Linnane would join us with a view to making a
promotional video for use on Irish Tourist Board road shows and the like, all of which was a great idea
on paper, but in reality, didn't quite go according to plan, though with far better results than any of us
could have possibly anticipated.
We did initially follow the charter skipper around, both for safety reasons and to get a feel for the area.
But he wanted to head out towards the mouth of the bay, where besides catching nothing much other
than dogfish, also meant we had some quite sizeable Atlantic swells to contend with, which when you're
sat so low down in a small boat, look as though they're coming in at head height. So not the most
comfortable feeling. But we stuck with it anyway on day one.
By mid-morning on day two however after 'enjoying' more of the same, enough was enough, and we
decided to motor back inshore and do some exploring in the quieter areas just to the seaward side of
Fenit Pier.
The water there was quite shallow. Probably no more than twenty feet or so. But that didn't deter us as
we'd heard there were monkfish to be caught close in, though by that stage we didn't realise just how
close in, and had yet to discover the famous 'monk hole'.
Pretty much immediately thank goodness, we started catching stuff other than LSD's, which of itself
was reason enough to stick with it and continue to go our own way. As I recall we had tope, huss and
thornback rays.
All the other ray species came later, both closer in to the big concrete pier and in the 'monk hole'. And
we also hooked two or three fish which initially took a short burst of line from the reel, but would then
lock up solid on the bottom when they felt the hook.
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