Headed out today with 6 lads for an offshore trip today. we had a slightly later start than usual for an offshore trip to get the best of the tide. We started off in search of fresh mackerel for bait, the last couple of times I tried we had no bother but today it was a bit harder. After over an hour we had just 5 mackerel then the lads had full strings all around as we went through a shoal. With 30 odd mackerel on the boat we headed off in search of a tope. We got anchored up and ready for the long wait. We didn’t have to wait too long as billy’s rod went tearing off up tide! After a lap of honour around the boat and a trip for me around the bow and anchor rope the fish settled down the starboard side (opposite to where billy had started) and held in the tide. Billy did a great job and after a good battle inching her back to the boat he had her it the net. She was clearly a big fish before we put her on the scales but when we did she went a good 55lbs! it’s a shame she wasn’t full of pups to be honest as she would have been even heavier! We got her back as quickly as possible and settled down to fishing again. ian was the next to get a bite which took off down tide. He thought it was a dogfish as it was swimming towards him and then when it realised it was hooked we could tell he was in to tope number two. It wasn’t long before this one was on the deck and maybe he was the boyfriend of billys one at around mid thirties. We didn’t weigh him as he wasn’t a pb for ian so got him back quickly. The next couple of hours went slowly with a few roker for steve and ian and the dogfish came on as the tide eased off. Some of the lads became a little impatient with the lack of bites so kevin decided to try a light trace with mackerel on just to get a fish. sure enough after a few dogfish this was taken by a tope which went through the line. A while later kevin hooked another tope, this time on his tope rod. It was on a good while and made several very good runs before biting through his trace! These fish are a bit tougher than your average dogfish and will find any weakness in your gear. I never like loosing fish but I particularly dislike the idea of fish trailing tackle around.
Kevin re-tackled as he knows loosing fish is part of angling and we kept trying. The turn of the tide saw more dogfish and then another run for kevin. This time he remained connected although this was just a pup but a good warm up. Time was getting on now and as home time came and went steve missed a bite on each rod. These looked like a tope had bitten his bait clean off, as it was home time he packed up and started to skin a roker he had kept. I left the rest of the lads to have a 28th last cast after those signs of a fish and sure enough kevin had another run. He remained connected this time (despite my best efforts to knock it off with some dodgy netting) and landed a nice tope of around the 30lbs mark. We ended the day with 30 odd mackerel, 1 bass, 8 or 10 roker and 4 tope not a busy day but a good one none the less.
