Guess what was Hooked at Hartlepool Today....

[Tat]

I\'ve got a 50lb rod and a 7000,and 8/0 hooks,just need150lb wire traces.

[Charlton]

if you are going to try for tope, i would suggest a 20-30lb class rod, reel, i normallu used a tld15 or my litle rod with a slosh loaded with 30lb nylon or braid, you can feel everything with braid. 6/0 hook (not stainless) 30yards 60lb rubbing line, with 4-6 foot of 150lb nylon or wire hook length. Give the bleeders a chance. Great fun on light gear, especially those around 30lb. And na gaffs and if you land one put a wet towel over its eyes, tends to subdue them a bit

[jeff]

Thanks Alan.....

So 4/0 Daylights loaded with Macky not recomended then....? (LOL)

Jeff.

[Norman]

LOL jeff, knowing Gary I bet there was someone to blame for loosing it hahahaha all in a days fisshing though eh

[KeithB]

It probably got drawn to the boat by the scent of Jeff\'s pastie wrappers, any seroius anglers would of took note of the constant ground baiting and tackled up accordingly.

[Charlton]

would suspect they would do the job 4/0 should take a tope, but i would suggest you use stronger line to make them. Quite often tope or even porbeagles will attack a shaol of mackerel and they do at times get caught in feathers. I know of a case of an angler actually geetiing a porbie to the side after it tangles in his feathers. The fish Gary hooked into would prodably just have been going for a mackerel on his feathers, or it could have been going for a chunk of mackerel. Idea would have been to drop down a proper tarce with a mackerel on. Tope tend to be pack fish, once you get one you get a few.

[john.frain]

well done gary, crackin story jeff....
john

[Tat]

AC I\'ve got that gear too.I\'m thinking about it.

[Tat]

Frgot are tope and shark summer fish or can they be caught autumn/winter.

[Charlie_Thompson]

Great post jeff

[davem2005]

Hi,
new to the board and this is one post that really caught my eye. I regularly go out from hartlepool and twice this summer have been totally cleaned out by mysterious fish presumed to be tope but could also have been porbeagles.

A recent conversation with a friend who goes out from seaburn on an almost daily basis confirmed the same has happened to him and we have decided to have a go for \"them\" whatever they may be.

Tope are supposed to be around till mid november in the recognised areas, lets hope thgis applies along this coast as I have spent most of the summer on the west coast after skate with excellent results but it now time to come back to the reality of hartlepool

Time to dust off the tope gear and fish closer to home I think

Dave

[fishfinder]

Good luck with the tope davem and welcome to the board

[Doc]

Tope are nothing new in the NE, we\'ve been targeting them for the last 6 years with excellent results. I took my eldest out on Saturday from Bridlington with 4 of his mates, specifically to target the tope, despite the conditions not being ideal (biggish tide for tope and a SE wind) we still managed to boat 4, with another 3 lost at the side of the boat (inexperienced anglers) and had at least 12 runs.

They landed 3 females (35lb, 45lb and 55lb) and a single male (40lb), all strong fighting fish in superb condition. All were tagged and released to fight another day. The average size of Tope off the NE coast are larger than anywhere in the UK at 45lb, this is based on the catch records from the UK shark tagging programme. The largest we\'ve had since specifically targeting them is Topecatchers 77lber and we\'ve had many more in the 70lb+ bracket and even more in the 60lb bracket. Another boat has had them over 80lb and considering that the British record is 84(ish)lbs and a fully pregnant female at that, the fish we get have already pupped so they are exceptionally big fish.

AC\'s tackle and outfit suggestions are about right, if you want to get the most out of the fish; we use standard uptiders with slosh 20 or 30\'s loaded with 15 to 25lb mono attached to 100lb dynon braid leader. We\'ve found that 150lb wire trace is best as even 100lb+ mono can be bitten through. We usually use the head or tail section for bait (3\" to 4\" in length), although unlike other years the tope seem to prefare a larger bait this year.

If anyone wants to have a serious go at them drop me a PM and I\'ll try and advise further or alternatively ask Topey, although he\'s a busy boy at the moment.

Remember though that if at first you don\'t succeed, try, try again, that goes for any kind of fishing, after all absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

In terms of seasonality, we get them from mid June through to late September, but the netters still get them in October which indicates that they are around later. Topecatcher has also had them from the shore in May, so they could be around earlier.

Possibly a bit late for this year up north, certainly numbers may be lower now than peak season, but if you target them next year you will definitely be surprised at the size and numbers present in the NE.

Good Luck

[Tat]

Cheers doc very interesting.I\'m seriously thinking of having a go as I\'ve talked to the odd skipper about this over the last 2-3 yrs,and the only one I got any response off was the skipper of the Famous.

[PhilT]

Might have a go next summer if the weather\'s right.

How far offshore do you go for tope, Doc?