Duration:7am - 11am
Tide:Rising to slack water, an hour ebbing
Weather:Very calm, mild
Bait:Mackeral and Sandeels
Rigs:Shamrock Animal rigs/feathers for macks
Results:4 codling to half a pound, 3 small whiting, 4 macks, more dogs than I can remember and my very first tope
Report:Went out early this morning with the intention of fishing the rising tide, the slack water at the top and about an hour down. Went out about 300 yards off the harbour to catch some macks, which I did on the first drop down. went to about 100 yards from the first buoy that you can see from the beach, anchored up, and fished 2 rods, one with the Animal rig, baited with Mack fillets and head and guts, and the other fished uptide with a sandeel. Got one dog on the sandeel, and had a ton of dogs on the downtide rod. Second drop in the rod started doing a merry dance as soon as it hit bottom, then screamed off. After a struggle for 20 minutes, I finally got the fish close to the boat, it turned out to be my first ever tope
As you can imagine, I am still buzzing from the capture. Unfortunately, it was a little too large for me to get it into the boat, so I unhooked her in the water, and she swam off strongly. I dont know how much she weighed, but she was about 4 1/2 foot long, so start guessing Unfortunately, I dont have a picture of me posing with the fish, I couldn't get the bloody thing into the boat lol
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I would imagine even a small tope you tow you all over the place on the kayak, bu it would be a fight you wouldn't soon forget, indeed I am still smiling at thought of the one I had earlier.