Tope meet in Donegal, round 2.

Hi everyone.
As per title we had another in Donegal.
Since the last one was a great success some of the lads couldn't wait to get back at the tope.
So I organised another meet for some to get here again and for some who couldn't make it the first time.

Meet up point,
We had Fergal, Anto, Tony, Oliver, John H, Macker, and myself on the Saturday.
The lads where all there in good time and ready to hit the water for 12.30pm, I pick this time to launch as it gives the lads time to travel here with out having to leave in the middle of the night. The days are long now and we would still get 8hrs or 9hrs afloat.

On the water.
Out we went in search of some fresh bait, The mackerel where feeding on plankton so the standard feathers where not catching them but a small green rig worked very well. I had about 20 in a short time.
With that we head out to our first spot in 95ft of water. There where some fish there but not what we where after. We had doggies and Macker pulled a bullhuss out of no where.
With that we moved out to 105ft of water near a 1/3 of a mile further out. Again no tope but lots of small ling and some red gurnards. I had 3 and 1 even took my tope bait a whole mackerel fillet. Here's the greedy bugger below.

                                         Here's another fell that took a whole mackerel fillet.

 But there wasn't much fish of any real size. But it was a good sign as it meant that we had not missed the tope as these tasty snacks would have been devoured by the tope.

So that was the height of it. No tope and not much fish of any real size. we where having great craic and the chat of big tope was flying.

We had a chat about what to do the next day and it was decided to try this spot again the next day as I was hopeful of the tope coming in but I had another venue with tope but you don't much else there so we decided to stay at Dunaff.

In we paddled and got more bait for the next day and as we landed on the shore we where met by John with chilled bottles of beer, it was the perfect end to a day afloat.

More beer and big fish story around a fire finished the night off. I think there where more fish caught around that fire than anytime in history lol. Tony and fergal had to go home but myself, Anto and Macker camped out and John headed for the comfort of a B&B and announced he'd be having a lye in and get up to a nice pre cooked breakfast, Jammy bugger lol.

 

Sunday, while you where sleeping.

Sunday morning came quickly especially after several beers. Up we got about 6.30.Soon after Bob and Joe from Buncranna landed. They got rigged and as our kayaks where already to go we just had to jump on the kayaks and out we went.

We again got some more fresh mackerel and headed for the second mark we fished on Saturday.

All the while John was in the B&B having a lye in.

Joe and Bob stayed inside for Pollack and mackerel and we went on out.

Anchors down and the wait was on.

 

Let the fun begin.

Macker and I where fairly close together and Anto was further away down the tide.

It didn't take long for me to get a tope hit on spurdog rig  not meant tope. I ad it half way and some great powerfull runs but one good run broke the trace and he was gone.

Next thing Anto roared fish on and another epic battle commenced. Anto was half way trough his fight when my tope rod started to go, I let him go a small bit and set the hook, he fought like a demon. Very very strong fight from him. he was about 25lb but he was a bugger to shift in the tide he was wired altogether. Myself and Antogot our tope in and we where delighted.

Macker was loving seeing the first tope being hauled in and was set for his own. With that his rod got the old zzzzzzz then zzzzzzzzzz rod picked up and the hook set Macker was in to a very lively tope.

He was in his element line flying off the reel and I swear with every yard of line that came off that reel the smile on his face got bigger.

He had a great fight from it and just before the tope came to the surface the anchor slipped the cleat and the tope took Macker for a short  tow down to Anto so I couldn't get a pic of his tope.

All the while John was snoring in his luxury accommodation missing the action. I did try and phone him after 3 tope landed and 2 lost but no answer.

We where not holding back and the tope where hitting us hard. Macker got back up and he was no sooner anchored than he got another hit and fish on. This was just great craic his second tope ever on the kayak.

Again his anchor rope slipped and he got a good tow around the place and as he got back over to me to give a hand to get a pic my rod got a nice take and started taking line. Macker got his fish in and landed but I had my hands full.

This fish was very heavy, he took about 20 yards of line but didn't seem to speed up or get excited when I applied big pressure. He just stopped solid. Then I realised it wasn't a tope but must have been a skate. 2 more times I got it moving but with it on a 12lb class rod and 30lb braid it wasn't looking good. I heaved and heaved but I couldn't shift it.

 I was afraid the rod would break. So I pulled the braid by hand and I did get it to move twice more and the second time I got it lifted a small bit and I was taking the slack on the reel as I pulled it up. But no sooner was I going to lift the rod and it just dived the 8 or 10ft I had just gotten him up. Again I heaved by hand and this time there was no moving him and the braid broke.

 I was gutted. But it was a great day and the sun was shining so it wasn't to hard to get over.

With that Anto had lost 2 tope and was mid fight with another and like the rest, an epic fight. They really are hard fighters this year.

But it wasn't over yet, I got a half hearted nod on the rod and after a minute or 2 I reeled down and struck, I had something small on and began to reel it up and less than half way up it really fought back. But then stopped and more line reeled up easily and again a charging dive but it went light again definitely no hooked tope. It came to the kayak easy then and as the mono leader came to the kayak it screamed away.

I thought definitely tope on and 2 good strong runs and pop tope was gone. In I reeled but there was still some thing on the line. Up it came a 48cm ling. A tope had hit it several times on the way up. The poor sod had a bad day, here he is with tooth marks in his head.

It's hard t see in this photo but he had lots of heavy marks in his side but in good shape for being hit many times by a tope. With that Anto had headed in and myself and Macker had stayed on to see what we could get. Also we wanted to wait for John. But by then the weather kicked up and it got rough quickly So home went and we where a mile out and gently surfing home lol.

We had an exciting paddle in and john was on the beach side ready to go.

But it was to rough to go back out so we where slagging John telling him we had all the action while he was sleeping lol. Maybe next time John. He did get out for a short run in the bay but it was ebb tied and the fishing was slow.

 

Thanks to all the lads for traveling, the company on the water just adds to the craic and excitement. And a big well done to Macker on his first kayak tope.

Until next time thanks for reading and tight lines.

 

Heres a vid from last year of a tope taking bait in 90ft of water.