Sunday on the swilly

[congereel]

Vessel:Shazza

Crew:Wilks,Harry,Philip and myself.

Duration:9-5

Tide:LW 1pm

Weather:cool with little wind

Bait:none till we caught macs

Rigs:allsorts

Results:Ling,whiting,coleys,lsd,macks thornbacks and tope.

With the weather looking good for the day the mouth of the lough was the plan,off we went at nine not the planned 8.30 because we had to wait for harry to finish his frosties and porridge but at least he was sober this week.Stopped at dunaff to try for macs, not one to be had so we decided to move and then wilks was into them on the way up 10 mins later and we had enough for the day.
All sorts of baited rigs were sent to the sea bed with no great results just a few coalies.As we were having difficulty holding bottom because of a fast drift we decided to try the laurentic.First drop harry had a ling of around 6lb( our resident photographer rooster had run out of brownie points again due to over indulgence at darts,drink and the nw 200,so sorry not many photos)so things were looking good unfortunately it was followed by coalies in plauge proportions so after an hour we had enough,back to Dunaff to see if the drift had eased any but little success there with a lone whiting ahd yet more coalies
With fresh mac baits ahd the tide starting to flood it was off to the hawks nest for another go at the tope,baits out the waiting began not much happened for the first hour except a steady stream of doggies and thornies on the uptide rod then philips reel let rip his first ever tope run and what arun it was,about 300 yards non stop I thought it had to be foul hooked so told him to tighten into it ahd the fight began ten minutes later he was alongside perfectly hooked in the corner of the mouth by the 8/0 full circle.When we brought him aboard to measure and photograph Inoticed bite like marks around his tail area,any ideas what would tackle a tope?
That was it for another day as it was drink o'clock,another topeless day for harry came and went,he will get one yet

getting the hang of it now

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Phillips first tope

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[septicsac]

You boys are certainly getting among the tope, well done perphaps it was a porgie that tackled the tope ? ?

[Smiliejp3]

Not a bad day in the end ,great result on the tope.

[a1fisher]

nice one lads, fine tope.Well done philip, I bet that seal pulling at the tope.
And as for mackeral the in the 70ft of water off tullagh we had 70 on sunday and 4 nice herring.

[big c]

congrats lads, reward for all the work. nice tope

[big c]

regarding the marks on the tail, might they be some sort of injury made during mating? a porg would have that tope in half,and they usually target the throat.

[Fish Magnet]

I'd guess your right Colin, it was probably another male Tope staking out its territory or a feisty female.
Congrats Philip on your first Tope

[rooster76]

Good stuff,a big well done to philip on catching 1 of the many tope i have let other crew members catch so far this year because of my absence
Darts nearly over and no road racing til after the TT, i,ll be out soon. p.s thanks a million for the lovley coalies...a couple would have been enough

[congereel]

regarding the marks on the tail, might they be some sort of injury made during mating? a porg would have that tope in half,and they usually target the throat.

Ithought it might be something to do with breeding alright,it was an unfortunate tope for sure he also had some kind of parasites on his claspers :shock wouldnt fancy that

[PENN INTERNATIONAL]

You never forget your first tope, well done Philip

[paulbryson75]