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Last week Scott (bigfoot) and I had our annual trip to the Isle of Man for a week’s fishing, this trip was to target Tope.
We arrived on Sunday and got to our accommodation, a self catering cottage just outside Ramsey. On the Sunday evening we had a trip to Point West to see if anyone was fishing as we had heard the Tope had arrived.
Conditions looked good for the week with no wind and flat seas.
On Monday morning straight after breakfast we made our way south to the famous Fairy Bridge to say hello to the fairies and left them a gift to give us good luck for our trip.
We started our first Tope session on Monday at 1pm, we knew a few hours before high tide is the best chance to catch Tope, but we had nothing to lose starting a few hours after low tide, we caught mackerel on the beach and that was our bait for the Tope.
Scott caught one on the Monday great that’s him off to a good start but that was it for us one Tope for Scott 25lb.
Tuesday we fished Ballaghennie beach and I was into his first tope a nice one of 20lb then another 15lb so at the end of play my PB was 20lb Tope how this would change.
Wednesday we had a day off the Tope fishing we spent the day at St Marys fishing for Pollock.
Thursday 18/07/13. We arrived on Point West beach at 0400 in the morning to target an early morning Tope session Conditions were perfect, warm and no wind, first cast resulted in a double shot of dogfish for the both of us, we then went to Ballaghennie beach, again first cast a double shot of dogfish, then Scott caught a 5lb bullhuss, we packed in at 0700 as there was too many dogfish we got are heads down for a few hours and back on the beach at Point West at 1pm, we set up our beach shelters as the sun was hot and to keep our bait and gear in the shade. We caught our mackerel which would do both of us for the day for bait. High tide that night was at 8pm so we knew we had a long day on the beach we started fishing for Tope at 2pm low tide; we knew things would be slow then my line dropped slack as I tightened this up the reel went like I had hooked a train my 515 reel was screaming the first run stopped after 50-70yds then struck in to it was using a AFAW Tournament Match but this stood up to the fish very well, I managed a few turns on my reel then the Tope would take line again. Mark Quirk was on the beach catching mackerel for his Tope session that evening Mark came over and said “I think you have a good fish on there!”. I played the fish for 20-30 minutes before it was close enough to land, Mark and Scott entered the water and tailed the Tope. We got her on the beach and she was huge Mark shouted out “that is massive”.
This catch was all witnessed by Mark Quirk, Scott Davidson and Ian Ashcroft the Tope was weighed on my 100lb club scales and placed in a carp sling and the scales would show a huge fish of 66lb 10oz beating my PB and the British Record shore caught Tope which stood at 66lb
After taking pictures of the fish she (& the pups she was carrying) were safely released. We couldn’t have wished to have a more accomplished angler than Mark Quirk to help us land this huge fish. That day we carried on fishing until 8pm catching a total of 6 Tope 3 each Scott’s best was 40lb for a grand total weight of over 215lb
We fished Friday and Saturday catching more Tope, we planned this trip back in January 2013 and picked the week to end on the Saturday as we knew high tide at 10pm would be a good evening for them and we were right!! Scott ended up with 5 Tope and I had 4 Tope. We even caught Tope at the same time. At the end of the week, Scott had caught 13 Tope and my total was 11 Tope.
We arrived on Sunday and got to our accommodation, a self catering cottage just outside Ramsey. On the Sunday evening we had a trip to Point West to see if anyone was fishing as we had heard the Tope had arrived.
Conditions looked good for the week with no wind and flat seas.
On Monday morning straight after breakfast we made our way south to the famous Fairy Bridge to say hello to the fairies and left them a gift to give us good luck for our trip.
We started our first Tope session on Monday at 1pm, we knew a few hours before high tide is the best chance to catch Tope, but we had nothing to lose starting a few hours after low tide, we caught mackerel on the beach and that was our bait for the Tope.
Scott caught one on the Monday great that’s him off to a good start but that was it for us one Tope for Scott 25lb.
Tuesday we fished Ballaghennie beach and I was into his first tope a nice one of 20lb then another 15lb so at the end of play my PB was 20lb Tope how this would change.
Wednesday we had a day off the Tope fishing we spent the day at St Marys fishing for Pollock.
Thursday 18/07/13. We arrived on Point West beach at 0400 in the morning to target an early morning Tope session Conditions were perfect, warm and no wind, first cast resulted in a double shot of dogfish for the both of us, we then went to Ballaghennie beach, again first cast a double shot of dogfish, then Scott caught a 5lb bullhuss, we packed in at 0700 as there was too many dogfish we got are heads down for a few hours and back on the beach at Point West at 1pm, we set up our beach shelters as the sun was hot and to keep our bait and gear in the shade. We caught our mackerel which would do both of us for the day for bait. High tide that night was at 8pm so we knew we had a long day on the beach we started fishing for Tope at 2pm low tide; we knew things would be slow then my line dropped slack as I tightened this up the reel went like I had hooked a train my 515 reel was screaming the first run stopped after 50-70yds then struck in to it was using a AFAW Tournament Match but this stood up to the fish very well, I managed a few turns on my reel then the Tope would take line again. Mark Quirk was on the beach catching mackerel for his Tope session that evening Mark came over and said “I think you have a good fish on there!”. I played the fish for 20-30 minutes before it was close enough to land, Mark and Scott entered the water and tailed the Tope. We got her on the beach and she was huge Mark shouted out “that is massive”.
This catch was all witnessed by Mark Quirk, Scott Davidson and Ian Ashcroft the Tope was weighed on my 100lb club scales and placed in a carp sling and the scales would show a huge fish of 66lb 10oz beating my PB and the British Record shore caught Tope which stood at 66lb
After taking pictures of the fish she (& the pups she was carrying) were safely released. We couldn’t have wished to have a more accomplished angler than Mark Quirk to help us land this huge fish. That day we carried on fishing until 8pm catching a total of 6 Tope 3 each Scott’s best was 40lb for a grand total weight of over 215lb
We fished Friday and Saturday catching more Tope, we planned this trip back in January 2013 and picked the week to end on the Saturday as we knew high tide at 10pm would be a good evening for them and we were right!! Scott ended up with 5 Tope and I had 4 Tope. We even caught Tope at the same time. At the end of the week, Scott had caught 13 Tope and my total was 11 Tope.
- did Mr Charlton sort you out a t-shirt?
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