November tope!!! off dunmore east 5th Nov 2011

People:seirt myself

Duration:8 hours

Tide:flood to ebb

Weather:lovely

Bait:fresh macks

Rigs:gilling, and muppets feathers

Results: TOPE, Cod. ling, pollock, whiting, red gurnard,poor cod, pouting, macks

Report:

Well, as they say in fishing you just never know what is going to turn up, and today it really came home, we were having an ok day, with plenty of good eating fish coming to the boat, after persuading seirt to switch to the big muppet rigs i had made up that were picking up the cod amoungst the regular small ling, on his first drop he had an almighty take, with the line starting to tear off his reel, a moment of confusion, is he stuck on a pot rope, are we really drifting that fast, no we have a sea anchour out, it really is a big fish!!
a cracking fight ensude with the fish making some spirited runs, and eventually seirt started to make some line back, a tense few mins passed as he expertly lifted the fish to the boat, what was it we pondered , either blue shark or possibly a tope. well we caught sight of a fine male tope as it broke the surface, a good 30lbs plus, it had taken the flyer muppet, and was hooked in the lower lip, on trying to take the fish into the boat it finally snapped the 60lb snood and of he went.
It was a great fish for this area, and really throws up a few questions as to if they are here in numbers at this time of year.( an alternative tope venue for late in the year !!??) who knows
I had already been bust up by big running fish in the same area a month ago, i think a few large baits will be the order of the day next year, it would be great to have a tope mark out of Dunmore east.
I thought yesterday was a nice day, but back at work today with a flight along the south and east coast, it could have been mid summer, the sea was a mirror.
may it last
regards
screeming reels

Wow! great days fishing...

Well done. Sounds like a great days fishing.

Absolutely Excellent !

Great report. Current belief around W Waterford is that there are no tope there. As kids we used to fish off the cliffs. Sometimes when we had a good pollock the line would suddenly go slack and all that would come was a head. Could have been a tope or porgie. I suspect the former but nobody ever caught one that I know of. Mind you would like to think that it was porgie!!!

Great report. Current belief around W Waterford is that there are no tope there. As kids we used to fish off the cliffs. Sometimes when we had a good pollock the line would suddenly go slack and all that would come was a head. Could have been a tope or porgie. I suspect the former but nobody ever caught one that I know of. Mind you would like to think that it was porgie!!!

We were out on the Kilmore reefs on Sunday, I had a a lovely brand spanking new 20cm Storm Sand Eeel rigged up on a 35g jig head... any way it was taken by a substantial fish !!! line peeling off with an eventual break on the 25lb leader!

Te leader was very frayed from the short fight...

Thought it was a big Ling..but reading this report..... just maybe a Tope ??

Tope are plentiful around Kilmore. We have many of them in club comps.

[JOHN1]

Great report. Current belief around W Waterford is that there are no tope there. As kids we used to fish off the cliffs. Sometimes when we had a good pollock the line would suddenly go slack and all that would come was a head. Could have been a tope or porgie. I suspect the former but nobody ever caught one that I know of. Mind you would like to think that it was porgie!!!

We were out on the Kilmore reefs on Sunday, I had a a lovely brand spanking new 20cm Storm Sand Eeel rigged up on a 35g jig head... any way it was taken by a substantial fish !!! line peeling off with an eventual break on the 25lb leader!

Te leader was very frayed from the short fight...

Thought it was a big Ling..but reading this report..... just maybe a Tope ??

i have seen a couple of rubber eels taken by seals over the years danny i wonder if any of this vermin was seen near you

Last edited by JOHN1 on Sat Nov 12, 2011 12:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

Great report. Current belief around W Waterford is that there are no tope there. As kids we used to fish off the cliffs. Sometimes when we had a good pollock the line would suddenly go slack and all that would come was a head. Could have been a tope or porgie. I suspect the former but nobody ever caught one that I know of. Mind you would like to think that it was porgie!!!

We were out on the Kilmore reefs on Sunday, I had a a lovely brand spanking new 20cm Storm Sand Eeel rigged up on a 35g jig head... any way it was taken by a substantial fish !!! line peeling off with an eventual break on the 25lb leader!

Te leader was very frayed from the short fight...

Thought it was a big Ling..but reading this report..... just maybe a Tope ??

i have seen a couple of rubber eels taken by seals over the years danny i wonder if any of this vermin was seen near you

I didn't see any around John, only a few Dolphins... but those seals are sneaky buggers !! Could well have been one looking for a an easy snack !