Tope Hunting

So in between all the sessions I have been reporting I have also been going for a few sessions after my first shore tope.

It began towards the end of July, I had a few hours at Ty Croes chucking out big mackerel and sandeel baits. Unfortunately the main ledge was already taken at 9am so I settled further to the left. I fished over low and about half the tide up but the action was very slow. A couple of doggies were the only takers on sandeel cast as far as I could, but big mackerel baits came back untouched.

Next effort was 9th August, I packed the bike into the car and missoned up to Fort Belan and fish the mouth of the Straits. Despite moving a couple of times and finding some deep water, the current proved too strong and the weight of the seaweed snapped my line both times, and I called it a day. The very day after was my trip to Pwllheli that is detailed in another post, safe to say there was no tope caught that day either!

About a week later I had a crack at a new mark on Anglesey called the Ranges. It took a while but eventually I found a ledge that was fishable, unfortunately the current was incredibly strong, carrying my gear out to sea. I made a slight move to an area that looked like there was less of a tide run and managed to hold bottom. As it got dark the current still couldn't make its mind up and I watched a lobster pot buoy float initially to the left, then right, then back to the left again. As the current went slack briefly I had my only bite which resulted in a huss about the 9lb mark. It would have gone bigger had it not spewed a giant softie edible crab on the rocks. The current picked up again and after losing a couple of sets of gear I cut my losses and packed up.

Then it was back to Dinas Dinlle on a big tide. We positioned ourselves at the first bend, where in front of us there was a bit of deep water and the gully was filling nicely. Unfortunately, despite throwing out big mackerel and sandeel baits again there was no action at all, not even a doggie came out to play.