Duration:9 - 5
Tide:Up to top & back down again
Weather:warm southerly breeze
Bait:mackeral
Rigs:running legers
Results:Tope, Mackeral, whiting & Tub Gurnard
Report:
Met up with Dennis & Dimitry early this morning in Dun Laoghaire to hopefully sample some of the good tope fishing they’ve been having, unlike most of the sessions I’ve been having lately, this one was brilliant
!!10 minutes out of the harbour we had found enough mackeral to do us for the day, steamed off to the “hotspot” and a suprisingly comfortable ride later we lobbed over a mackeral bait, we didn’t have to wait long until the fist run, about 2 minutes later the one and only rod out screemed off and we had already decided Dimitry would have the first fish, and what a battle insued!! Dimitry finally got her to the boat after some unreal runs and we brought on a fish weighing 35lb. He then promptly got seasick over the side (a trend which continued for the next couple of hours). This had the three of us in stitches, and we were worse a minute later when the tope latched on to my leg!! “He’s got me fcukin leg” was the cry, but rather than help the two boys fell around the deck crying with laughter, as did I when i pulled my leg away, Torn salopettes with it. But the fun didn’t end there, this fish now had a taste for human flesh and as dennis went to pick her up to return her she whipped around and grabbed him by the calf!!! By this stage there was tears of laughter all round, and you gussed it, another pair of torn salopettes, and i was contemplating shorts!!
I was next for a run and this thing took off for hollyhead at a rate of knots, i was genuinely worried i was going to get spooled but I eventually turned her and she came back to me fairly quickle, but then tried to bolt for Wales again and again and again. By the time the lads lifted her in I was absoloutley knackered!!
Dennis latched into a fish next and this felt really powerful, but we were really surprised when she was only about 30lbs!! Dimitry landed another one but by this stage the sea sickness had really taken over so we dropped him (literally like) in the shallows on Greystones beach to get the DART home!
Back out me and the brock fella went, he had a dropped run & I hit another fish, this one didn’t run fast or long like the first one but just came up 10 feet and would go back down 20, We saw her after about 10 minutes but evertime she was under the boat she’d just dive again and there was no stopping her. By the time Dennis Tailed her I was absoloutley shattered, “I don’t want another one” i may even have said! Dennis weighed her and the scales bounced between 42 & 50lbs, the biggest fish i have ever caught!
Anyway we headed back to port, laughing all the way about the craic we had & discussing options for new salopettes!! Stopped for a few mackeral for tea on the way in, and again they played ball straight away.
A fantastic day out, thanks to Dennis for bringing us out & skippering us brilliantly!
Well done on the big one Alby 
great day all together despite me hanging over the side off the dodger.had my PB my first tope,my first tub gunard and all my insides 
thrown to the sea.Not very smart eating a full irish breaky and about 3 litres of liquids before I WENT OUT 
