Tope At Bempton Cliffs ??

In a recent Post to the Whitby fishing forum. North East Sea Angler Ray Maddison claims to have hooked into something rather large from the top of Bempton cliffs. With tope being on the increase in the north east on the Yorkshire coast perhaps this is what it was ?

While fishing down Bempton during one of the rock anglers summer matches last year I hooked into a fish which I believed at the time to be a Billet. After winding only a few turns my rod lurched over and I had to quickly press the release button on my reel to prevent the line from breaking. The fish sped off at breakneck speed much to the disappointment of my thumb! Suddenly it stopped and I even managed to move it back towards myself about 15yd. Once again it sped off, taking my line off down to the backing. I had no choice but to engage my reel and my line snapped like cotton. I can only assume that it was maybe a Tope. I know after talking to Chris Scaife he was catching them from his boat around that area at the time. It wasn,t a seal, the water was like a mill pond with thousands of birds lolling around, there's no way I could not have seen it had it surfaced. Has anyone else had any similar experience.

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http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,151.0.html

Tope fishing from the shore