Tope Fishing - Fishing for tope at Bridlington and Flamborough

My fishing is a bit slow at the moment so I have little to post up onto the blog. The long term weather forecast is giving little in the way of autumn weather and so it looks like the rough seas we require for cod fishing from the shore may not materialise for a while yet. Its been one of the mildest and most settled Septembers I can remember. To be honest this is quite annoying, Im longing for a big northerly gale to fetch in those winter cod.
Anyway Although I have little post about my own fishing I was sent some pics and a report from Martin Wilding and Chris Scaife who have been fishing for Tope and Bass from their boat out of Flamborough which is down near Bridlington. I thought I would share the report and pics with you here.

Sunday 10th September 2006 - Tope Fishing

Scarborough angler Chris Scaife and his fishing partnet Mick went Tope fishing on Sunday, they had 9 in total, Chris had 5 and Mick 4, they also lost 3 more [dam cercal hooks ] all in about 4 hours. At one point it all got pretty hectic and Chris had 2 tope at once on one occasion [fishing 3 rods] shame it was the north of England cod champs that day as Chris would have liked to have fished that , but the temptation of bigger fish was too much. As you can see in one shot from a previous trip all thats neaded is a good egg beater spinning real and a spining rod

all thats neaded is a good egg beater spinning real and a spining rod

says Chris










Bridlington Tope Fishing - Sunday 24th September 2006

This weekend saw the conclusion of the Scarborough fishing festival but Chris Scaife, Martin Wilding and Jeremy Robinson Didn’t bother with the All-England match on Sunday – Instead they opted for the Brid tope option – They launched at South Landing around 0700, & wished for about an hour or so that they hadn’t bothered – a snidey North Easterly wind, bit of swell, rain & white horses while they had a troll for bass (Jeremy caught the only schoolie) made them think that it wasn’t going to be fit for topeing. They had a run across to one of new found marks and once they were past the shallowest bit, the conditions improved greatly, although mackerel were pretty well non-existent at the start, probably due to the strength (strong!!) of the tide. They eventually found a few near to where they were going to fish for tope, & as soon as they put the anchor & ruby-dubby bag in, then the mackerel found them … & there were literally thousands once the tide slackened a bit!!

Again, Chris and Martin thought the tide was running just a bit too hard for tope at the start, but as the flow started to slacken, Chris had a couple of bites. The first dropped the bait, but he made brief contact with the second – unfortunately his trace wire gave way…..shop-bought as well!! Then shortly after Jeremy had a run, missed it, but left the bait & it got taken again straight away. He eventually landed a very nice male tope of around 50lb – his first ever tope & after quite a few trips!! He got another about 25-30lb pretty soon after & that was it until after slack water.

A while after slack water, when they were about ready to give up, Martins uptider showed a real screamer of a run – he hooked it & despite pretty strong drag it just carried on running, & was getting within about 30yds of getting “spooled” when all went slack –

"I think the mainline (20lb mono) must have rubbed against something on the seabed!! I’m sure I didn’t have that much drag on to break the line!!"

says Martin.

That was the only chance they had on the flood, but they trolled 7 or 8 bass up on their way back in, biggest a nice 3lber to Chris.

Looks like a tope has had his teeth into this mackerel bait



Martin Wilding With 1 of Sunday's Tope



Jeremy Robinson from Scarborough with his first ever Tope - Approximately 50 pound - Not a bad start.



Thanks Go To Martyn, Chris, Mick and Jeremy for sending the report and pictures. Cheers lads keep them coming and good luck with the tope - Dave Brown reckons we have potential 80 pounders around here.