state of tide for tope

Hi ,
I'm being given conflicting advice and wonder if you can help me out .
Talking about tope in a large estuary with a fairly narrow channel ( Ballisodaire bay ) .
You want a big tide , or doesn't it matter ?
Fish when tide is in full flood ?
Fish the shallow ( 10 ft ) rougher water over the sandbanks rather than in the deeper ( 20+ ft ) main channel ?
Sorry for so many questions . Even sorrier nothing caught so far .

Tried deep , fast water . Couldn't hold bottom with even 6 oz lead a fair way behind the boat . Mackerel flapper on 10 ft trace .
Cheers
Nick

Couldn't hold bottom with even 6 oz lead a fair way behind the boat

6 oz isn't really all that much, I've seen 2 lbs of lead streaming away astern. :shock:

Are you using braid? That helps a lot.

Hi Nick,
From what we have found fishing in Castlemaine Harbour for Tope this year was that the latter half of the flood tide gave the best results and in the deeper channel as well (40') we can usually hold bottom ok with a 6oz gripper, thats using braid mind you and I think uptiding helps or failing that drop the bait down quick, hit the bottom and keep letting line out to form a bow in the line you will be surprised how much extra grip you get, saying that its a gravel bottom where we fish, we get a good old flow of water on the bigger tides as well. I'm no expert but I would say a 3 - 4 ft trace is long enough with a 50lb rubbing trace.
Cheers Sean,

Great success can be had when fishing for Tope if you follow some very simple rules. A good sand bank with a fair population of Mackerel is a good idea. The first throws of the tide will produce the best results. It matters little weather it is coming in or going out. You position at this time is more improtant. Set up with the mindset of being in the lee of the flow on whichever end of the bank this entails. The first run will set the scent running nicely. Fresh mackerel baits are a must. The slack water period rarely produces fish. During the first runs of tide the Tope will still be on the other end of the bank due to them being feeding there up until slack water. This can sometimes produce a run or two but will peeter off quickly as the fish make for the other end of the bank. If the runs start to slack off for more than an hour between runs then move a couple of miles uptide and reintroduce fresh baits. This is because if the fish have moved uptide then they will not be picking up your scent trail :wink: Of course thre will always be people who have different experiences, but down my way (Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford) this seems to prove to be best. These are rules i have learned from experience not from a book. I hope it helps somehow.

Different locations mean different behaviour
In the estuary, the topes main grub is whiting, sand eels and flatties. This will be the same if fishing shallow water on the open ocean. However, mackerel or launce are the killer baits here
In the shannon, the tope seem to be most active just prior to and just after slack water, high or low. As the tide changes and a push of water develops, this seems to spur them into feeding.
After reading seanp's experience in Dingle, Ive switched to uptiding with grip leads to extend the fishing time on the fierce tides here, with some success
Having read lukes posts on his own site, tope in deep open water behave very differently, so suit your tactics to your own locale
Good luck
Kev

Cheers guys - appreciate that . I'll let you know how I get on .
Nick