Rosslare 17/08/15

[Bob]

Light southerlies, azure skies and settled weather set my mind to thinking about tackling some decent tope. I had taken a spin out the previous evening and found plenty of mackerel willing to take my feathers and so the hatched plan became a chicken.

I decided to keep it local and met up with a buddy of mine who commented on the lack of sonar attached to the console. Quickly covering my forgetfulness I quiped that I was confident in my fishfinding abilities. I sighed internally having jinxed the trip. So a short jaunt after launching had us near a mark where I have had some success, albeit from the shore several years ago.

Anchor dropped, the boat swung around and we got fishing. I decided to use a full mackerel fished as a flapper. As I lobbed it starboard the fresh 80lb braid on my multiplier dug in. I murmured a curse and began to pick out the mess. Finally, I sorted it and free lined another forty yards, then BANG of the line roared. I played it out for another while before lifting into what appeared to be a decent fish. I like to fish with light rods and the 20lb class rod started to bend gradually as I increased drag pressure. Having maintained a satisfying bend in the rod for 20 mins with the help of my colleague I landed a lovely tope, broad across the gills and in fantastic condition.

A quick attempt to weigh proved fruitless, the scales being limited to 50lb. To be fair however, I myself would have estimated it at no more than 40lbs. My small boat was no place for an angry, snapping fish so he was duly rested in the water for a few moments before swimming off a freshly as freshly as he had arrived.

With the smell of blood in our nostrils we continued to fish large baits to surpass the first fish. This was in hindsight a little naive as all we accounted for was several run with cleanly truncated mackerel. Still, go big or go home as is said.

We topped up our bait supply with a good if not plentyful amount of mackerel which entertained us between takes throughout the afternoon before the constraints of time saw us back to port safe and happy.

...... until tomorrow.

[Bob]

[Rob Millard]

Solid fish, well done and nice report!