Tope from the shore

Hi everyone long time since been on, I was wondering about tope fishing from the shore in Co.Louth,I know a charter there who is catching tope up until yesterday quite close to the shore.Has anyone ever caught tope from the shore and what are the best methods?.

Cheers!!!

Pete

get yourself a copy of 'the irish anglers digest'. this months one has a write up on how to tackle them from the shore. Cooke wrote it and he's caught a few!

Hi M.b3,

Got the mag on your recommendations,still I find that they never mention where best to target fish(Rocks,Sandbars etc.) or how to fish the bait I always thought Mackerel was the best bait or peeler then again I do not know enough about it to judge.

Any more info would be great I plan on going sunday also which is the best time before or after the tide.

I am fishing off Co.Louth coast line.

Cheers lads

Euro tackle
peter

mackerel or big sandeel are most often used for them but have heard of guys using whiting or coalie flappers for them.i wouldnt waste peeler for tope but smoothound - yes!

Lads,

I've been doin a bit of shore tope fishing over the past 2 - 3 seasons here in Kerry and it's been trial and error all the way! Don't fancy a lot of the tope articles I read and what I say below is from experience however limited. Below is the contents of a private message I sent to one of the members of this forum some time back. These are my own thoughts on the subject. Hope the information is of some use

"Marks:
Okay, I don't know what kind of information to give you about marks but I can tell you they all seem to have one thing in common. Deep water, with a good rip over sand. Every mark I've ever caught tope from has all these things. The water doesn't necessarily have to be fathomless right out in front of you but a little bit of extra depth even off the beach seems to do the trick. These fish like fast tides. If you're struggling to hold bottom and even 6oz is swinging all over the place then you're in the right area. Typically the marks we fish down here are at the points of big sand spits sticking out into some bay. Rosslare Point being a classic example. The tope here are moving in to feed on flats etc. over the extensive sandbanks sheltered behind these sandspits so we generally fish for them over high tide. Gives the tope a chance to move up the bay, and all the sandbanks will be well covered which gives them plenty of ground to hunt over when they move in around the back. Having said that some marks in the Shannon fish over low water simply because the place is so bluddy huge and we need to get into the deep channels here at low water. So who knows! Like I said, deeper water and a good strong tidal rip over sand are the key things to look for.

Rigs:
There are only two rigs to use. Either a clipped down running paternoster or a clipped pulley rig. Both of these rigs put alot of pressure on the hook and snood as it takes the pressure more than the rig body when casting so beef it up a bit and you shouldn't have any problems. Make them long with 3-4ft snoods. Tope can be very very shy and fussy at times, they will often pick up a bait and just drop it (if it isn't very very fresh) so the less resistance they feel the better. This is why I prefer the running pat over a pulley and it's also why I use longer snoods. The snood is a 6/0 viking to 18 inches of 70 - 90lb wire (don't go too light I've had them bite through 50 and the smallest kink can snap it like cotton) to a swivel with a further 18 inches to 2 feet of 80lb mono above this. No need for a hook any heavier than a Viking either, Cox end Rawle meat hooks look the job but remember you might have to set the hook at range and these are very thick wired hooks.
Now, do not go below 80lb mono for the rig body and shockleader and don't get clever either (like I've done) and buy some low diameter fancy stuff. The diameter of all this needs to up around .90mm trust me. Anything less and there's a good chance that during the fight the fish will flick his tail and slice through the whole lot. It's unreal, I learned the hard way and lost alot of fish because they're tail slapped against the shockleader end result: tope and rig gone... this year I got clever and got some nice 75lb Berkley Big Game Trilene - the toughest line in the world etc. etc. etc. First fish lost the lead, thankfully it parted below the snood and not above it otherwise it'd be another one that got away. Big cheap springy 80lb mono is the way to go. Having said that my mate has always just used standard 60lb shockleader and never lost a fish yet... he will learn the hard way!!

Baits:
Fresh anything. I couldn't believe the difference between fresh and frozen bait when I started catching these fish. It's unbelieveable. Days when you would have sworn there wasn't a fish in the place will suddenly come alive when you put a fresh bait out. Fresh mackerel is the way to go, take a good sized mackerel, just fillet the fish, split the fillet down the middle and you have two lovely big tope baits. We also use fresh gar here quite a bit, but that's just cause the mackerel can be a bit patchy in early May and I can catch the gars right off the beach while I'm fishing. The main thing is they're fresh.
I can't say I've fished with big frozen sandeel but frozen mackerel is a poor second. You will catch fish but no where near as many, plus 1) you'll get dropped runs (these are the worst, the ratchet will just start screaming and after 3 or 4 seconds they'll just drop it), 2) fish plucking and pulling at the bait (I've struck bites that looked like flounder bites and they've turned out to be tope!) and 3) poor hookups with fish being dropped during the fight.

Weather:
Alot of articles/books I read about tope regard flat calm warm sultry conditions as ideal. I don't know about this... water clarity does need to be good, these guys definitely rely on site (another reason why shiny garfish can do the trick). I've often found a slight onshore wind F2-3 puts a nice chop in the surface and can produce a lot of tope. Heavy seas/swell are definitely out.

Casting Distance:
Not as big an issue as you think, even in daylight. These guys have no real natural predators so they have no quams about coming in to shallow water. Night time might possibly be better because it may encourage small fish to move inshore which the tope will follow. I've seen plenty of fish taken within 60yds of the beach, anglers here often fish two rods (dangerous practice with pack tope!) and get just as many fish on the short rod cast well under 100yds. Other days they're on the horizon.

Tackle:
Standard beach casting tackle is more than adequate. Any beachcaster capable of throwing 6oz is more than adequate. As for reels, I use penn 525 mags loaded with standard 15lb mainline to a long 30 - 35ft 80lb shockleader for the reasons mentioned above. Make sure you have one with a good ratchet and a very very smooth drag system. I hate small Abu's for this, any of the Abu mag reels don't have ratchets and the drag system is far superior on the Penn's. I find the drag on Abu's very jumpy, they stick and jerk too much. It's not an issue so much when you're fighting the fish but you need to set the ratchet off the drag when you've cast out and this is where a smooth drag will make life a lot more pleasant. Plus the 525's are tanks of reels in comparison to other 6500 models. A good long shockleader is necessary as the fish can roll themselves in it plus it helps to have a few turns of it on the reel when they get in close. They won't come near to spooling you with 300yds of 15lb line despite what you might have heard. It doesn't pay to go much heavier either as line diameter in a fast tide is critical. "

As I said mainly based on my own experiences down here in Kerry don't know if you can apply this across the board...

All the best,
Liam

This is a reply to Liamo's great note on his own findings....

I have just come back from Kerry in fact and had originally been told that May was the best month with a serious spiral downwards after that .and yes fresh bait is always the issue that time of year.

We did in fact have crack this year for these fish but no takes although I believe the venue we fished had prduced a couple of fish the previous week or so. The venue definitely fits the bill you described although I would be interested to see if there are others in the Dingle /ring of kerry area (I understand you wont reveal actual marks but a simple keep looking there are a few places woyuld be apreciated).

My real question is around the best time to come over a give it a real try - we are thinking early June - what are your thoughts on this ?

Mike,

In Kerry they arrive early, May is definitely the best month. This year was patchy for me but some of the best fishing I had was over the May bank holiday weekend right at the start of the month - that is early, however I've had fish right up to 21st June. That said come the June bank holiday weekend I ususally stop fishing the Kerry marks.

We have some marks in Galway that produce around this time and I must give wexford a shot over the first couple of weeks of June also next year.

I don't want to give out marks firstly cause I spent year after year blanking - countless sessions of nothin season after season. This was hard won information! Plus I do believe they are more readily available than most people think. It's just they are not targeted, where do anglers get sufficient quantities of fresh mackerel this time of year? If you're fishing a beach with anything else the tope could be there and you wouldn't even know it. Here's some food for thought though, a few ideas of my own I haven't even tried yet, for next season...

The channel into Castlemaine Harbour is well documented on this forum in the boat angling section. No secret there, stands to reason these fish must be targetable from top of Inch and Rossbeigh. Occasional tope are reported from Inch and the opening paragraph of Clive Gammon's old book "Tope" describes a magical session on Rossbeighs main strand. The tope stay here until mid July which can be the best time according to some of the locals. Further down the coast here you have Kells Bay, a deep water rock mark out onto sand and a damn good dab mark I believe though I haven't fished it in years now. Fits all the criteria already...

I remember wrasse fishing here as a boy maybe 10 years ago. While retrieving a small wrasse the line went slack and right at the same time so did my Dad's. We both retrieved with hooks missing, 30 seconds later this huge huge (now I was only a kid...) blue/grey shark appeared along the rock ledge not 10 feet under the water, just cruising away cool as a breeze. I know believe it was a large tope and that image has always stayed with me!

So there you go some potential shore prospects in Dingle Bay to get the aul juices flowing...

Liam

I can understand your reasons for being cagey on marks although it is interesting that you mention one mark in particular that I have discussed with other locals in Kerry who recommend it and have caught fish there. It certainly fits all the criteria that you mention in your original note (and some!) .

I believe that there is also a mark in the north of kerry that fits this description that you havent mentioned (it may be one you already catch fish at !) fishing from a rocky outcrop with serious tide.

Talking to others in the know down Waterville way I believ there is another steep beach iin the area that does produce fish as you desrcibe in May but having fished the area for close on 15 years I am really struggling to come up iwth any ideas .

The comments about kells are interesting becasue I fished the West side and never saw a dab there ever! Loads of dogs and i am sure Tope dont eat them! (does anytihng ?) I assume you mean th west not east side?

It seems to me that the best option would be to come early June in that case and just hope the mackeral are there !

how r ya mike
were tinkin of heading down ta kerry next summer to try for the tope, tinkin inch strand heard a few were taken there, any other good marks

I see you don't mind giving the Rosslare Point mark away Liamo

Hi Crack-off

Welcome to the forum.

To be fair to Liamo my Granny knows about rosslare point for tope...

...whereas the marks around Kerry and Cork are not that heavily fished and like much of Mayo, there is a lot of virgin territory that a lifetime will not cover... which is part of the fun.

I would mention one additional note in relation to Tope, which is that they really really like small flatfish, and I mean palm sized. I am experimenting with flat plastic lure designs (bugger to get them to "swim" correctly) but I reckon half a flounder / small dab is ideal tope bait...

They are also known to target eels in the Thames estuary in fact sections of eel (also crab proof) are renowned as the large tope bait there...

BTW, the only tope I've had from the shore took a sandeel intended for a sea trout. Scared the bejaysus out of the fluff chuckers beside me! :lol: especially when I told them it was a baby one. A tope on the fly anyone?

:shock: :lol:

FWIW...

hey liamo
Just wondering where in kerry are you fishing? I have been fishing b/skelligs from shore and boat for 20 yrs and never had even one tope, i hear dingle is much better. anyone any ideas why this is?

Hi Liamo,

I can't find any mention of a "clipped down running paternoster" on the net anywhere. Can you describe this rig please?

Kev

A running paternoster is the similiar to a running ledger but instead has a mono conection to the lead. This is left longer than the snood so it can be cast further. THe hook can then clipped down to either a clip on the mono to the lead or directly onto the lead.

Donagh

Hi,

Here's a very rough basic diagram to the rig.

Remember if your going to clip the snood down to the lead then it's the snood that's taking the casting pressure and must be built out of bigger components plus it suits bigger hooks better as a fair amount of strain is put on the hook also.

However this design also keeps the snood and bait "inline" behind the lead more effeciently than any paternoster during the cast so achieves the best distances.

The other option is to just clip the snood down with a bait clip attached to the length of line running to the lead.

Ya and before it starts, pats, pulleys, all manner of rigs will work fine for tope but this one just works better - I think :-)

Liam

http://www.keepmyfile.com/image/cdc132817553"