Tope

Any reports of my beloved tope being taken in any numbers on the east coast yet?
ive heard of the odd one here and there,but nothing spectatular yet.
anyone any info?

We were in Cahore yesterday. No tope and only 3 hounds in the boat but all over 6lb. Another boat had one tope around the twenty mark. The sea blew up in the afternoon and we couldn't get to the better marks. Tope have been showing but I don't think in big numbers.

What you get the hounds on Cooke?

Lads,

What kind of ground are you catching the Tope on? Are they on botton/top of sandbanks etc and what kind of depths do you get them in?

I'm fishing out of Poolbeg in Ringsend and I reckon if there are Tope in Carlingford Lough and Tope in Wicklow it stands to reason they are in between. Its just a matter of locating them.
So on the East coast is there any type of ground which seems to hold them better then others?

Plenty of good marks in both Greystones and Carlingford. The trick is to fish the tide side of a long sandbar. Best tides I have found is before during and after slackwater high, but I am sure everyone has there stories, once the dogs fade away the tope come on. Never got them out of Dublinbay but I am sure they would be there. A good starting point would be out from Greystones past the red buoy and anywhere between Newcastle where there are good sand bars. Wicklow is also a great spot, same strategy. We have caught them there in November straight through!

Had my first Tope on the Kish bank straight out from Dublin bay. The Burford bank is the place to try if fishing close to bay in your case Colm. Mackerel shoals on that bank can be very big. You would have to put a lot of time in though and only use freshly caught Mackerel. A constant supply of fesh bait and a bag of rubby dubby would be a must. Also 8/0 - 10/0 hooks would be best to keep the dog count down. It would also be a whole day event as the Tope would most likely be coming from a long way off and so plenty of time and plenty of blood in the water is the key. There are more of them around than people think. Hang in there... :wink:

Hello Dirty Fecker, that's a fine looking Craft you have there. Would you regularly fish out there for Tope and using ruby duby for Tope is not something I am familiar with, are you attaching it to the Anchor or just dropping it down separately, have you noticed a difference when using it for them? Cheers Rob.

That would not be my mark of choice but Colms boat is quite slow and he was looking for a venue closer to home. I think Tope are certainly possible there though. I target Tope in Greystones myself and while they are around there is by no means the same numbers as in Courtown and Cahore. the fish seem to be mainly females though and can be very big. while further south I have found them to be mainly male. These are just my personal findings. I would definately recomend using rubby dubby mashed up in a bag and hung over the side of the boat. That is what i do anyway. this allows you to add to it as the day wears on and allows the slick to spread out from the boat and down to where the baits lie downtide. In this area Tope are not in huge numbers so anything that helps is worth doing. Fresh Mackerel is the most important thing. I find frozen is a waste of time and if I can't get enough Mackerel together I hardly even bother wasting my time. The other day we were hitting stringfulls of small coalies. Could'nt stop catching the buggers. Must have had over 200 fish. We used them as bait but they were useless. We only caught two dogs! Great to see Coalie in huge numbers like that though and almost all of them were returned. We only got four mackerel! The coalies were everywhere...

I agree with your synopsis of where the male/females seem to lurk alright, with the exception of Winter time when big Females can be caught off the beaches. Never thought about using ruby duby for Tope but certainly something to try next time out, sure at least you could spin or float fish through the slick and maybe pick up some mid water species whilst your waiting on the precious Tope to strike. Thanks for the Tip. :wink:

16 sheets of 8x4 24 cans of cheap paint and some screws ,,,,all sold in woodies...dont forget measure twice cut once ,,hope the build goes well for ya rs.....

Yes I was oneth in a compo before using that method, I do believe Noyaks do sell quality MDF for decks, and me brother in the Law has a nice circular saw for fitting such quality to the hull in all. :shock:

alright mick i remember that compo wa it was buzzing,,,i might try that tip with the mdf i use chip board once but it went like wheatabix i think it was from the salt water,,,,do you nail the mdf into the boat ya....sure ill talk to ya in da morn at training,,,

Howea, Stevo, I use u-nails for the MDF , also similar to Keano playing last week its important to drive home the U-nails. Of course you would not be able to keep your boat in da water all year using the MDF method, i take mine out and keep it in the brother in laws, usually borrow his stuff to repalce the boards, but be careful I ruined me new strip last week with mastic replacing the crapper on da boat, had to go straight into Lifestyle to get a new wan, also note a no smoking sign on Board is essential as on a trip recently I burnt a hole on the deck when one of me John players fell onto the deck...

:roll: :shock:
I'm not sure if I'll be able to follow this thread if this keeps up :)
jd

from tope to boat building :)