A few Tope

I only had one proper attempt at Tope last year and kind of missed the early run of pack Tope. With a settled forecast I intended to put that right at the start of June.

I was on the road for 3.30am after a double dunt of coffee, launched for 5.45am after a quick call to Belfast coastguard to log my trip. I started fishing the last of the ebb. Nothing around in terms of mackerel I picked up a few Launce and some Coalies to supplement my frozen bait and then dropped the anchor. It was a cracking morning, calm and windless, not another person to be seen on the water. I knew where I should have been but I wasn't in the mood to be fighting the tide too much so, I was here.

After a couple of hours I had dropped a Huss after it spat the bait as I went to lift it out, from there, it was just a wall to wall dogs. I was kind of regretting my decision to fish this area but had a move further off shore as the tide started to flow. I picked up a few fresh Mackerel which proved to be the turning point of the day. As I waited, the bottom seemed paved with Whiting ,they came up 2 and 3 at a time if the feathers hit the deck. I then had an absolutely howling run, thankfully the hook didn't stick as a sizeable seal popped up down tide. Having just got over that, a Gannet hit the water like a rocket about ten yards from my yak. I shifted around in my seat to check I hadn't soiled my drysuit and put a fresh bait down.

I then had a couple of decent hours fishing with three Tope and a nice Thornback before it went quiet. I wrapped it up for about 1pm after trying inshore unsuccessfully for a Bass. Species for the day,Coalie, Launce, Whiting, Mackerel, Grey Gurnard, LSD, Tope ,Thornback and Pollack.