Duration:day trip
Tide:high @ 8:30am
Weather: small boat warning with a bit of rain
Bait: mack
Rigs: animal rigs and tope traces
Results: 2 tope, 2 dogs and plenty of mack (well enough to do as bait)
Report:
I got a call from the skipper of the Maigdean Mara the day before asking me where abouts on the inner bay the tope were being caught as wind conditions were making it impossible for him to head out into the bay to his usual mark, so after a bit of banter i was asked if i wanted to become a crew hand for the day as the boat was booked by a family of 3 (fella, his wife and 11yr old son), all i had to do was make my way to spiddal for 8:30am.. (wouldnt be too bad but i had a gig the night before)..
after a bit of deliberating and figuring things out i managed to get a lift out in the morning with my bike(so i could get back home) into spiddal for 7:30am.. set up on the pier for a bit to see if i could pluck a few mack out of the swells that were passing the end of the pier, but nothing much happening there, everyone arrived and out to sea we headed.. headed to the south shore to shelter behind the burren and see if we could pick up fresh mack... i think i was on a roll here as i was the only one of the 5 of us who seemed to be able to get them.. with only a few mack in the box we headed in the bay to one of my marks and set a drift towards one of the skippers marks.
rods were baited up with what mack we had and the drift was on, through the drift we kept after mack and thankfully a few shoals passed so now we had a good few to last the day, somewhere between the two marks my rod started to scream, i let the American grab it but the fish spat the bait, a change of bait and out again.. as we passed an area me and th skipper were looking at that we both thought should hold a fish or two one of the other rods started to scream, again the American was first to get the rod as me and the skipper reeled in the other 4 rods, this fish wasn't making it easy, hen it came up from the depths we could see why.. a good sized fish at that.
managed to get it into the net(after a few mins of too-ing and fro-ing) and landed a nicely formed male tope weighing in at 35lbs, tagged photo's and released the rods went out again after a change of bait.
by now the drift had us out into the swell and in rough water, so we decided to bring the lines in and reset the drift.. just as 2 rods were brought in, my rod started to scream again, this time i was the one to bring it in.. and i can see why we were going to reset the drift, the rough water was making it very hard to lift the fish and near on impossible to land, but persistence paid off and a cute female tope was landed, not as big as the first but my biggest one as i've only ever managed to get pup tope to date.. weighing in at just over 20lbs i was a happy camper.. we reset the drift again, but didnt manage to get any runs, and after a little banter it was time to head back,
the family enjoyed their day out, and i had a good day (and if i'm ever in the states i have an invite for a fishin trip over there (florida too)

here's a few pics courtesy of the skipper
and a vid to show it wasnt plain sailin (hence small boat warning)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LYSZxoBblk