The Helm Skate Festival is now in its 16th year, and was the brainchild of local publican, Vinny Keogh, who runs the Helm Bar and Apartments on Westport Quay.

The prospect of catching one of Clew Bay’s monster skate is a key factor in attracting anglers from all over Europe to this end-of-season event. Such is the popularity of this event, numbers are restricted to 150 anglers.

A successful tagging scheme, which has been in operation in Clew Bay for many years, sees the fish recorded and released, and this provides a plentiful supply of these monsters of the deep. Four Common Skate in excess of 150 lbs were landed during the 2007 event.

An interesting aspect of the event is the famous measuring method. The Skipper takes a piece of cord and measures across the Skate’s wings from tip to tip, when the angler is satisfied, the skipper then makes a knot to indicate the width.

The string is then put in a sealed envelope and kept until the awards evening – it makes an interesting build up to the prizegiving ceremony and creates huge excitement in the Helm when the strings are returned to the anglers for measurement.

The event is not strictly fishing, as entertainment is provided over the weekend for the visiting anglers by local musicians and comedians; there is also beach casting, longest drive and Tug of War exhibitions.