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.

Lead moulds and how I found them.

Hi every one,

Here's a write up on the lead moulds I used all the time and ones I should have not wasted my money on.

The majority of moulds are excellent and will save you a fortune over the life time of the mould.

I have one mould which I have had the last 21 years and I still use it and it has no signs of it giving up yet.

 

The bomb weight 2.5oz, 3.5oz. 4.5oz and 5.5oz

I'll start this off with my oldest mould it is an Adjusti-mould and it makes bomb leads from 2.5 to 5.5oz.

 

 

 

 I bought this mould in the ABC fishing tackle shop on Caple street  in Dublin. It's a great shop and from memory, it was an Aladdin's Cave of fishing tackle. I think I paid 18 punts for it at the time.

With this mould you make the wire loops and set them in place and put the mould together and then just pour the lead.

You can also make grip leads by adding wire strands to the holes you can see at the base of the lead.

This mould is easy to pour into with a generous opening it's hard to miss. The lead does not have to be super hot just molten is enough. You can get about 12 pours before this mould gets very hot.

I find this an excellent all round lead that can be used from shore, boat and kayak in many areas and situations, I would highly recommend this style of lead. It drops quick with no much flutter on the way down. Also it is a good lead on the drift with it's slim design it is less likely to get stuck.

 

The dumb bell weight from 1oz to 2kg

 Another old classic,
This style of lead is really only suited to boats and kayak angling, I find this an excellent mould for making a huge range of leads weights, with a massive opening for pouring, it's a breeze to use.

I find it excellent for fishing at anchor as it holds very well and doesn't catch the tide. Also it's excellent for trolling feathers for bait fish from your kayak, it stays down with out having to have a huge lump of lead on.

 

 

But on the bad side it can be a catchy lead for drifting on hard ground and seems to find those sticky spots more than other slimmer lead patterns.

 

Bank weights 4oz,8oz and 12oz

These are handy a handy mould when your stuck for time this mould all you have to do is melt and pour. No wire needed as it makes the eye as you pour the lead. This mould was an ebay job and only cost about £10.00 a bargain

Although the mould quality was not great it does the job. The eyes where the most annoying part as some where open when taken out of the mould. An easy solution was to add a bead of blue tack

where the eye should be. It does the job easily. 

This mould makes 4oz, 8oz, and 12oz leads.

This is a trickier mould to use as the pouring hole is where the eye ends up. so your pouring lead on to the eye stud. So you need the lead to be very hot or the pouring hole blocks very easily. But very hot lead sorts that problem. 

This is an excellent lead for fishing at anchor or on the drift with it's slim design. Unfortunately it is brutal for trolling feathers and jigging as it flutters and shoots off to one side a lot when dropped. When trolled at a reasonable pace it spins like a helicopter blade and can hinder fish hitting your feathers. So at anchor and drifting it's a good lead trolling no good at all.

 

Bank weight leads 1oz to 3oz

This another mould fast becoming one of my favourites, no wire need and an excellent design.

The only problem is they are harder to tie on but it's a minor problem and easy sorted with a loop of line. They are a little small for my use but I would rather a mould with more 3oz spaces in it.

 

This mould is easy to pour with the eye at the bottom and a large pouring hole that's is easy to use.

 These leads are of use to us all from shore, kayak or boat.

 

 

Articulated jig head mould.

 This mould makes 4 sizes from about 25g to 106g

I came across this mould while watching Jim Cloughesy's video's from the Bella Vista self drive boats where they where catching fine bass, cod and Pollack with them.

Jim told us where he got them and I had one bought as soon as possible lol.

The mould landed and I was not overly happy to be honest. the head seemed very big.

I prefer to fish as light as possible. But as I went along I found more and more uses for them and also wanted to catch a tope on one for some real sport. Thankfully I did it on my first try and I had a great scrap from a tope of about 23lb. It was so good I will be doing it all summer.

This mould also has a handy pouring holes. They look small but I have no problem pouring them.

At the moment I am using galvanised tying wire to good effect.

The only problem I had was getting the eye to stay in place the wire was hard to get in shape. so I drilled the eyelets bigger and to stop any blocked eyes I added some blue tack. They are perfect every time.

 

Jighead mould 9g to 26g.

This is an excellent mould an it opens a world of lure fishing for many many species, from perch in the fresh water to pollack, bass, codling and even flatties on the smaller ones.

I picked this up on ebay, my most exspensive one to date at £31.00 including postage.

The only draw back was the hook eye holes where large, but a dab of blue tack sorts that and the heavier hooks don't need the blue tack.

You can see above the mould was tight for some hooks so a rub of the grinder with a sanding disc sorted that. 

 This mould comes with wooden handles and can be used even when very hot. So be careful not open it before the lead goes hard. The eye holes on this mould are good and easy to use.

 

Pirk moulds 3.5oz and 4.5oz

This mould was an impulse buy as I couldn't get the one I really wanted.

It also was an ebay job and was a poor choice. I was very difficult to pour so I had to bore the pouring hole out a bit bigger. They did come out well after that but on a few try's I had no luck at all, I tried them on Pollack, coalies and ling with not a fish to show for it.

It may very well work for you but I won't be a hurry to make any more soon. It could work on the wrecks so if you get a chance try it but you where warned.

 

Another pirk mould.

This was another mould I bought from the same place as the mould above. Again the pouring hole was very small and difficult to use, again the pouring holes needed to be drilled to make it useable.

These perks where really to big for me and I never gave them a proper go for ling and Pollack on the wrecks. some day I'll give them ago.

 

Tough fishing, but great to be out.

Hi everyone.
I went out after work yesterday as it was to good an evening to miss, the tides where all wrong but I was going in any way.
I finished work at 1pm and grabbed a bite to eat on the way out.
Again it was my old haunt in the north of Inishowen.
I was heading out and I hardly contain myself with the thoughts of specimen spurdogs and tope devouring baits as hard as I could put them down, but a dirty big black thunder storm soon appeared as I arrived at the launch site.
A huge black cloud unleashed a monsoons worth of rain in no time.
I wasn't giving up and sat it out in the car waiting for it to pass.
And sure enough it did. With that the kayak was loaded up and I was away across a flat calm sea delighted at the prospect of a fantastic evening afloat.

Time to find some bait.
As I went out all I had in the line of bait was 10 whiting, some small and some bigger ones for the tope.
I dropped the dark green glow worm rig down in 40ft of water and also dropped a feathered rig and began to troll but no sooner had I started I got a hit, oh yes mackerel, just 2 at first , next drop another 2 then 5 all on the dark green glow worm rig, and not a sniff on the feathered rig. I am assuming this is because they where feeding on plankton rather than fry. Also they where tight to the bottom, not the usual spot for plankton on a nice day.

Anchors away.
I got to my anchoring spot in 90ft of water to see what was happening there.
It was desperately quiet, I fished for an hour and only managed a few doggies.
But some where a good size the best I got later on it was a tad over 2.5lb and measuring 71cm.

 

Time to move.

 It was very quiet for this spot and being the ebb tide didn't help.
So I upped anchor and headed about 3/4 of a mile west into 100ft of water,
Things seemed better here and the rods got some interest fairly quickly.
But it was mostly doggies but I then started to get some small ling and the fish below was the best of them, he was about 3lb and went very nicely with a few chips today. They are a very under rated table fish, if you catch one have a try you should like them.

I fished away and although things where quiet it was great to be out as don't I get many evening sessions in.

The 2 rods where down a tope pulley rig on one and a mickeyfish rig on the other.

But still there where no tope or spurs about so I went for the glow worm rigs with the yellow blades on them. They where down a while and getting more doggies and again when I dropped the rod went quiet. I guessed they robbed my bait so I went to lift it and there was definitely some extra weight, I thought it was a crab or spider crab but half way he decided to object and gave enough of struggle to be certin that it wasn't a crab. Thankfully it was my first bullhuss of the year. Ye he was a tiddler but great to see him.

 

But that was the run of it, some more small ling the best of them was 40cm and not much else so I thought I would head in for some more macks.

It wasn't easy leaving an evening like this behind. Oh I would have loved to do an all nighter, but it gets very cold out here until about 1 hour after dark and it normally warms up a bit then.

 

In for some bait

So in I went in search of bait for the weekend.

As I trolled my gear in behind me I could here what sounded like water rushing by. I was expecting mackerel on the surface but it was actually 2 tides running alongside each other.

 My favourite place to find bait. This tide was running in 70ft of open water. So I dropped the glow worms with the yellow blades down expecting mackerel or gurnards on the bottom.

Down they went I thought all the way to the bottom and as I went to reel up bang a nice Pollack on. I was delighted. Line down again and another but not as big but great fun all the same.

 Very few mackerel about but I had 6 Pollack, 2 coalies and a few big mackerel for a short dip.
Pity I wasn't there all day lol



So on in I went leaving this fantastic view behind me.
Don't worry it won't be long until I am back lol.
Myself and around 6 of others will be here the weekend, the 14th and 15th of june so if you like come along and enjoy what Donegal kayak angling has to offer.

So until next time tight lines and thanks for reading.

Oh where's the bait gone

Oh what a day.
It was my usual day off and a short bash out local after my old friends the tope.
As the mackerel have been patchy at best I was heading out with the intension of catching some whiting on the way out.
But they where unusually scarce and I only got 1 tiddler for a drift.
As I neared my mark I dropped again looking for whiting and by chance I got a mackerel on the drop.
That was what I needed to get started.
The rods went out with mackerel baits a 3/4 fillet on each and I continued to try for more bait but they where not about.
I was giving up on the bait when one tope rod took a sudden screaming run and as I lifted into it the tope dropped the bait. I let it sit there for a moment and he didn't return. to
I reeled in as bait was so scarce I tidied it up and lobbed it out again.
I didn't have to wait long when the other rod started to nod, nod but didn't really progress at the normal rate so I reeled down and struck as I didn't want a deep hook fish but no it was a doggie.

Bait again tidied up and out again, and hardly 10 mins later a proper nod nod came. I picked up the rod, knock the reel into free spool and away he went. I let him go a short bit and then lifted hard into the rod to set the hook and with that as per usual he poured off the line. But this lad was smart bugger.
He just done it the once and went all over the place while staying deep the whole time. He went above me, under me with no real panic. I was expecting a monster.
This went on quiet a while and eventually I put a lot of lift on the rod to get him to the top. And up he came and he was quiet placid. Until I touched the trace and he went bananas then and screamed off a short. I got the mad bugger back alongside and in for a trophy shot. He lived up to this seasons tope as a serious fighter.

 

 

I was delighted and the mad thing was released to terrorise me another day lol.

By now I was down to a mackerel head or a small whiting. So I flappered the whiting and put it on the hook with the scraggy bit of mackerel.

Still no bait fish appeared and the other rod with a battered mackerel got an enquiry.

Rod picked up and put into free spool and few more nods followed by the beginning of a run I struck and this lad screamed off in the usual tope style, this bugger ran and ran. Up down and all over the place. Oh I was loving it.

This one was tired when he came along side and was easier to handle, well as easy as any mad tope is to handle lol.

I got them into a short sling and the weighted 30lb and 31.9lb.

I really didn't think they where that heavy but I check the scales when I got home and they where bang on. So I was delighted.

By now the tide and wind where all over the place and it was very difficult to fish, so with very little bait. I headed for home with the intention of getting bait for the next day on the way home.

This time there where lots of small whiting about and some small codling, So I kept the whining for the next day. But I managed a wright few species. I had weaver fish on shamrocks sabiki rig.

Grey gurnard.

Which managed to nail me wright in the joint of my finger, it's dam sore now lol.

It was a nice way to end the day and I ended up with 7 species.

For those that are interested here's the rig I use for the tope it's a pulley rig.

I use a 7/0 O'shaugassey hook, 18" of 120lb wire and 4ft of 150lb mono for the trace body.

I am also trying out the lynx traces at the moment I am adding the lynx 7/0 hokk with 100lb wire detach rig, the hook is deadly sharp and so far it is doing very well in the hook up rates.

So until next time tight lines.

 

 

 

My first run out off Dunaff this year.

Hi all,
Here's what happened last Saturday may 31st.
Finally the weather had settled and as per usual tope where never far from my mind.
I had 2 had a few goals this year and I mark 2 of them off on this run out.
I wanted to get a tope on an articulated jig head and catch a tope on the Dip jigger rod.
The jig head for added sport and the dip rod as I was asked could I get something decent on it to give it a good run for it's money. I had a 7lb Pollack on it last year but that wasn't big enough lol.

A slow start.
I met with Bob and Joe from Buncranna at the launch site.
We launched up near Dunaff  2 hours before low water. So I could get bait paddle out the 3km and be ready for my toothy adversaries.
The first 2 didn't happen I went out past the coalies as I didn't want to get hung up them and playing with them even though they are good fun.
I went past them and it was not as calm as first hoped, so the lads stayed in at the Pollack and coalies and I went on out.
I dragged my feathers up and down and not 1 mackerel appeared, But I bumped into the old reliavle coalies and though they will do. So I just kept just a few for emergency bait.

At anchor.
Reluctantly I anchored up with only coalie and small whiting for bait from a previous trip. Also I had some rag. So I dropped a limi B trace baited with the rag down hoping for gurnard etc. The other rod had a pulley rig baited with a coalie fillet.

Down they went and all was quiet enough. I had some coalies and some Pollack which I don't normally hit here. But a short bit of under water filming made the reason clear.

But I fished away and with that a good rattle on the limi B's  and up came this lad another unusual catch on this hard open ground.

I was happy to see him but no tope yet, But the bait fishing was improving.

And soon after this lad I got another and not a bad wrasse at all.

 

Although I was glad to see them the where not tope and that's what I was after.

By now I decided to try 2 things my Dip jigger rod with an articulated jig head on it.

And since it was quiet I would send the camera down with the jig head on it.

This would show I had landed on a small rocky reef so that why I was getting wrasse and Pollack.

I sat there and the nerves got  the better of me and I hauled the camera up as a tope tangled in the camera is not worth the head ache. 

But I put the jig head back down let it hit bottom and wound it up slightly so it lifts and falls with the swell.

 

The first of the toothed lads.

I was sitting there contemplating a move when the coalie fillet got the old familiar nod nod , I had the reel in free spool gave him a second and struck hard.My first of the year and a decent fight ended in a lively spurdog, my first of the year and weighting 11lb.

Terrible pic sorry, dirty lense .

That set the scene for the rest of the day.

Very soon after the this spur the coalie fillet got another enquiry and a short run resulted in a hook up and a fine scrap. I was in my element.

I must be getting forget full in my old age lol, but the tope this year seem to be much harder fighters.

Lines screaming off all over the shop, great craic.

My first of the day and I was delighted.

 

Let the mayhem begin.

Lines in again the Dip jigger down with an articulated jig head and the coalie fillet on a pulley rig.

This time things would go from a bit quiet to madness lol.

Again the tope rod got a nod nod but nothing else, But then he came back 30 seconds later and hit it hard. With that I struck and he gave a half arsed fight and came up quiet easy, that was until he realised he was hook then he powered away like a steam train taking lots of line with that I was about to reel the Dip rod with the jig head on in and it got a serious take.

I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe it lines flying every where lol.

But thankfully the one on the light boat rod had powered off and I had room to play the tope on the jigger rod. It was great fun and although the rod is not one of those bendy rods nor is it a broom handle it was ablr to work the fish and have room for more pressure if needed.

The fight was great fun and I got him to the kayak and I was delighted.

Here he is with the jig head hanging out of his mouth. He was about 23lb

Again a poor pic, but it's mayhem on your own.

Back to the other rod, and yes he was still there. Oh I was delighted. another great scrap and another lovely tope was on my lap. A better fish and this day was really looking up.

After that I had 2 others on the pulley rig, So I finished the day with 5 tope, 1 spurdog, 4 wrasse and a decent few Pollack and lots of caolie.

On returning ashore I met another keen kayak angler Norman and his wife, our sport seem to be growing by the day and long may that continue.

 

 Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the vid.

 

So until next time tight lines.