This week I thought I would fill you in on this years tope season aboard the ‘Galloper’. its been a good season all together. We managed to get most trips out and we were successful on most of them. Those that we didn’t see any tope on were either struggling for weather and bait or we got carried away bass fishing. we started back in may when despite struggling to catch mackerel Stephen Clarke set a nice bench mark with male a fish of 44lbs. Stephen had the boat on his own that day and I was lucky enough to fish too. I had a small tope around 10lbs and lost two more including one that did a good job at clearing 300yards of braid from my reel on the first run!
The next couple of trips we had better weather and a good supply of bait. The lads had 5 decent fish the first day going from c.15lb, 27lbs, 38lbs, 44lbs and the biggest falling to Ian Hewett at 47lbs and another male. Many of these were personnel bests for the lads which is always nice to see.
The next trip saw two decent fish on the boat, Fred managed a new PB of 41lbs on a carp rod of all things. To be fair both Fred and the carp rod did very well but this isn’t something I would encourage too often. Mark also had a new PB tope of 31lbs that day and consequently booked another trip with some different pals soon after this one.
The next trip came and Mark bought Tom and his Friends along. The weather was spot on and with plenty of bait we headed off for a mixed day. we started off targeting bass and had loads in the first few hours. There were plenty of sizable fish to go around and the time flew by. It was soon gone 11am and we had to drag our selves away from the bass that were being so obliging if we were to have a chance at any tope. We were finally set up and fishing for tope just before midday. I had set my sights quite low and decided I would be happy if we saw a tope. We had a tope run first cast on one of the rods but unfortunately we were broken off. This was a promising sign even though it could have been our only chance. Happily it wasn’t and we went on to bring 8 tope to the boat that afternoon and loose a further 6. It was madness at times to be honest with a few beginners on board. At one point we had 3 decent fish hooked at once, needless to say I had my hands rather full and it was no surprise one or two were lost. The biggest that day fell to Mark at 37lbs so he had beaten his PB from last trip. Many of the fish we had that day were around the 30lb mark and very welcome.
As we came to the end of our main tope season we mixed in more bass fishing with the tope again and once the lads had their quota of bass we went in search of tope. We scratched a few more out to finish the season off with more PB’s for Dave and Chris along with some nice bass. Stephen Clarke has the biggest bass so far this year with a nice fish of 10.7lbs. its quite common for decent bass to be a bycatch while tope fishing as they tend to favour the fish baits we are offering.
Although we may see one or two more tope this year our main season is now over. I will be taking bookings for next years tope fishing soon.
Closer inshore our trips have been productive as ever. Over the last week or two we have seen some good action on the hounds at times. The lads fished hard the other day and kept count of 63 hounds. There were plenty of scrappy fish in the 6-10lb range and the biggest went 13lbs. we had a few sizable bass too. We have been getting a few bass mixed in most inshore trips which are popular for both sport and the table.
Most of my offshore trips will be for bass until into November this year.
Staying with this year I have been through my diary for the next couple of months and consulted my parties regarding current covid rules. Some have chosen to give it a miss for a while which means I have the following availability.
08/08/20- offshore bass (weather permitting) £90pp (worm required can be provided at extra cost) 6am start 4 spaces
09/08/20- offshore bass (weather permitting) £90pp (worm required can be provided at extra cost) 6am start 2 spaces
16/08/20- general trip 3 spaces @ £80pp max 5 anglers
31/08/20-general trip 1 space @ £80pp max 5 anglers
05/09/20- general trip 4 spaces @ £80pp max 5 anglers
06/09/20- general trip 5 spaces @ £80pp max 5 anglers or boat £400
12/09/20- general trip 3 spaces @ £80pp max 5 anglers
I am still keeping things the same regarding numbers on the boat until I hear anything different. So its max 5 anglers (unless living together in which case 6) I don’t have much availability at the moment although I could have to move groups around due to numbers ect. Please keep an eye on here for spaces.
Please call me for more information on 07956411528
Stacey is still operating the ‘lady grace’ on a bookings only basis both mid-week and weekends at the
Moment so please call her on 07791859624
Dad (Stuart) has availability on the ‘Razorbill 3’ please call him on 07850234077
