MY HUNCH PAYS OFF!!!

People: Paulie, Myself

Duration: 4hrs (9pm - 1am)

Tide: Rising

Weather: As good as it gets!

Bait: Fresh Mackerel

Rigs: 8/0 Steel Wire / Pulley Rig

Results: Paulie: 2 Tope (17lb 4oz, 22lb), 1 dog, 1 Turbot - - - Myself 4 Tope (25lb 7oz, 17lb 10oz, 14lb, 31lb)


Report: Well its been a tough summer for the tope from the shore i must admit, and have been striking out more often than not, So when i seen the weather and winds starting to come right, i knew that this was going to be my best shot at finding them. So i rang paulie to see if he was up for a session, and as usual he comes up trumps AGAIN, Says the magical words - Ive got FRESH MACK Which is a god send when targeting Tope from the shore and IMO a good advantage! So got the gear packed and headed off! Arrived at the venue and i must say, gave me goosebumps, it looked awesome, a still pond wouldnt have been as calm and just screamed TOPE! The session started off slow, with not much of anything stirring, but paul got bored and started scratching and managed a nice turbot which saved the blank just incase things didnt pick up As the tide started to make, and darkness fell, things started to get interesting and the fun began. I was the first to get into the action, with a nice run, but failed to hook up, and needless to say i wasnt happy, lol.. No sooner had i finished my rosary , Paulie got into the action but was also not having much luck. He was running 2 rods, One of the rods had a mono trace and luck would have it, the tope had picked that one, and wasnt in the fight long when the inevitable happened, the tope had bitten through the mono, another bad luck moment. We were starting to wonder if this was going 2 be one of those nights, but lady luck eventually came when i got an amazing run and hooked into my first tope of the year, excited wasnt the word for it!! This fish gave one of the best fights i have had from the shore, not the biggest tope i have ever had from the shore, but it was fast, strong, took line at ease and gave a few impressive runs. After about 5mins the fish was landed and weighed in at 25lb 7oz. It was tagged, documented and a quick photograph before the fish was released back!! At least the pressure was off now, and it was pauls turn to land one, but Paul was getting greedy and decided that one wasnt enuf and had a double hook up, no sooner had he landed the other one he turned and said there is also one on that rod aswell, lol. He landed both fish and we only managed to tag and document one of them, because when i was helping paul out, my rod took off and it was all hands on deck as this was a mad half hour of fishing (Unfortunately no pics were got of pauls two tope and I was playing another Tope and we needed to get the fish back into the water as soon as possible for a safe release).. I struck into another tope and this one weighed in at 17lb 10oz, delighted This was a feeding frenzy as we dropped numerous fish on the night and often when u miss a bite, reel in and leave the rod down, they would smash it again and again. I had one tope hit and drop me 3 times before he eventually took it, this was the smallest of the session, weighing in at 14lb.. My last fish of the session was the heaviest and gave a serious account of himself and this one weighed in at 31lb.. This fish literally gave everything he had, and when releasing it was very tired and disorientated and took a long time to get swimming. It kept swimming back into shore which was cause for concern. Brought him out to deeper water and got him swimming strong, which was a good sign and looked to be back to himself, released and swan away. Actually lost some sleep that night on that one fish (Sad but true, lol) that kept swimming back in, hoping he made it back in good health and didnt end up swimming back in further up the beach that night, but myself and Paul walked about 200 yards either side of our pegs that night to check for him and no sign, which was a good sign..

Went back down the following night without Paulie ( My lucky Charm was out on the tiles ) and i had fellow Club member Philip along with me, Hoping to land his first Tope from the shore.. The conditons were much the same, It was a little colder and a lil more weed in closer that the previous night, but conditions were still very good (Never seen as many shooting stars in one night, along with a big red moon, amazing). Fished for 4hrs and Philip blanked, and myself had 1 Dog, and lost a tope aswell. Well actually tiredness and stupidity lost it for me, forgot to put the ratchet on, and got one hell of a bite and pulled the rod off the stand and by the time i got to the rod, the fish had done a number on me and evaded the hook, RAGE, but couldnt be mad at that as the previous night made up for it

All in all, A couple great nights fishing and the Craic was had, which is the main thing

Hope you enjoy the read, all the best SQUIG (aka Steve)...............

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Some serious fishing there lads. Well done

nice catch i bet that was a good work out

That's an amazing report and superb angling. Top dogs!

nice catch i bet that was a good work out

It actually was, pains in my arms the next day, been awhile since i had that complaint

Damned good fishing lads. What sort of gear you using to fish for them.........i'd probably cut my line if i saw that coming out the water towards me

Damned good fishing lads. What sort of gear you using to fish for them.........i'd probably cut my line if i saw that coming out the water towards me

Hiya Bouncer,

These guys tend to test your tackle to the limits for sure so getting the tackle right is the first step, or else u could lose a fish of a life time..
The gear is simple enough, a rod that can take a little weight on the end, i was using a carbon metal BB, with a penn 525 loaded with 22lb Ultima F1 line.
The shockleader knot needs to be up to scratch for sure and i would use a longer shockleader than normal cause i have seen tope twist, turn and roll themselves up on the shockleader, also it helps for tailing the fish from the shore, just gives u that extra bit of safety when u get the shock leader knot onto the spool when u get them in close, last thing u need is for him to get a mad notion to bolt in close and could snap you.. As for the traces, i like a pulley rig, with 8/0 Sakuma Manta Extra hook on around 100lb steel trace, myt not need the 100lb but my motto is, u just never know what is swimming out in front of u, and losing something big isnt an option when they are hard to find at times, better safe than sorry. Then the mono on the pulley, min. of 100lb, but thats just my set-up, some other people might vary.. And if you can get urself some fresh mackerel, ur good to go

All the best SQ.......

serious fishing lads

Damned good fishing lads. What sort of gear you using to fish for them.........i'd probably cut my line if i saw that coming out the water towards me

Hiya Bouncer,

These guys tend to test your tackle to the limits for sure so getting the tackle right is the first step, or else u could lose a fish of a life time..
The gear is simple enough, a rod that can take a little weight on the end, i was using a carbon metal BB, with a penn 525 loaded with 22lb Ultima F1 line.
The shockleader knot needs to be up to scratch for sure and i would use a longer shockleader than normal cause i have seen tope twist, turn and roll themselves up on the shockleader, also it helps for tailing the fish from the shore, just gives u that extra bit of safety when u get the shock leader knot onto the spool when u get them in close, last thing u need is for him to get a mad notion to bolt in close and could snap you.. As for the traces, i like a pulley rig, with 8/0 Sakuma Manta Extra hook on around 100lb steel trace, myt not need the 100lb but my motto is, u just never know what is swimming out in front of u, and losing something big isnt an option when they are hard to find at times, better safe than sorry. Then the mono on the pulley, min. of 100lb, but thats just my set-up, some other people might vary.. And if you can get urself some fresh mackerel, ur good to go

All the best SQ.......

Damn .....i may just be interested to catch one of them now Well may have to invest in some better rods first but jesus i bet thats some sport bringing them in to land. Does make me think twice about wading though

great great fishing lads

serious fishing lads

Tanx seaotter, much appreciated

Damned good fishing lads. What sort of gear you using to fish for them.........i'd probably cut my line if i saw that coming out the water towards me

Hiya Bouncer,

These guys tend to test your tackle to the limits for sure so getting the tackle right is the first step, or else u could lose a fish of a life time..
The gear is simple enough, a rod that can take a little weight on the end, i was using a carbon metal BB, with a penn 525 loaded with 22lb Ultima F1 line.
The shockleader knot needs to be up to scratch for sure and i would use a longer shockleader than normal cause i have seen tope twist, turn and roll themselves up on the shockleader, also it helps for tailing the fish from the shore, just gives u that extra bit of safety when u get the shock leader knot onto the spool when u get them in close, last thing u need is for him to get a mad notion to bolt in close and could snap you.. As for the traces, i like a pulley rig, with 8/0 Sakuma Manta Extra hook on around 100lb steel trace, myt not need the 100lb but my motto is, u just never know what is swimming out in front of u, and losing something big isnt an option when they are hard to find at times, better safe than sorry. Then the mono on the pulley, min. of 100lb, but thats just my set-up, some other people might vary.. And if you can get urself some fresh mackerel, ur good to go

All the best SQ.......

Damn .....i may just be interested to catch one of them now Well may have to invest in some better rods first but jesus i bet thats some sport bringing them in to land. Does make me think twice about wading though

Nevermind wading, seen people swimming out as far as we were catching them one time and when they say what we were catching, they came over and said thats the last time i go swimming in there, lol. Doubt a tope would make an advance on a person tho, but u just never know tho, as they have teeth that can do some damage..

great great fishing lads

muchas gracias Tom

another super session lads ,i didnt catch my tope or hound yet but must try again soon.many thanks for your guideline down there .

another super session lads ,i didnt catch my tope or hound yet but must try again soon.many thanks for your guideline down there .

No worries Zeke, hope there was some of the info was useful....

All the best SQ...

excellent fishing lads well done

excellent fishing lads well done

Tanx G

well done nice fishing!!

well done nice fishing!!

Thank you forest!!

what a great nights fishing that must have been.. and may i say a great report,1st class.