omega2
Active member
If you are bored have a read of this, sequels to follow if demanded
TROUBLESOME TOPE
At last the day had arrived, 16th May, 1999, and we were on our way, we being Mick, Steve, Mark, Pat, Don, Andrew and Richard the brothers and myself John, the daddy of the party.
This fishing trip had been on the stocks since August 1998, and had only been confirmed in the new year by our skipper Charlie Bartlett, who runs “Miss Claudia” a 34 foot Freeward, out of the picturesque port of Aberdyfi, GWYNEDD, WALES.
We had met at 11am at the South Mimms services and had an uneventful journey up the M1, M6, M54, then to the last 50 or so miles through the beautiful countryside of Shropshire and the borders into Wales we arrived at our Digs, at about 4pm, to be greeted by our landlady Cathy,who had the kettle on in no time flat, she was going to be OK as far as we were concerned. After settling into our rooms, Cathy moved her car from her space at the rear of the guest house and invited us to park there for the week, following a walk around the village a drink and a meal, I checked with Charlie on the phone to ensure we would be on for tomorrow.
Monday 17th, following an excellent breakfast, we got our gear together and made for the jetty to embark “Miss Claudia” Charlie had already brought her from her mooring, and was ready for us, the fishing tackle was stowed and Peter the Mate let go the ropes and off we went, to our first day of a most memorable fishing holiday.
None of the lads had been here before, I had fished with Charlie before and therefore knew what we would be up against in the way of fish I had told the stories of previous visits but they were taken with the proverbial pinch of salt by the lads, who I must explain do most of our fishing in the Thames Estuary, and are all familiar with uptide tackle and methods, the main difference here are the numbers of fish, and the fact that casting is not necessary. The tackle used was uniform throughout the 8 of us, a 6 to 8 oz., uptide rod, an ABU 7000, or similar reel, 18 lb line to a 50lb rubbing leader, and a 250lb nylon biting piece, with swivels between each joint, terminating in a 8/0 O’SHAUGHNESSY, bronze hook, weights varied between 2 and 6ozs depending on wind and tide and the position on the boat.
Following a run of about an hour the boat was positioned and the order given to commence fishing, 8 frozen Mackerel made their way down to the bottom. The reason they were frozen is because fresh mackerel were not there to be caught if they had been I think the catch rate would have been even higher, but the individually blast frozen ones were a very good standby bait, and within 20 minutes Steve was into a fish, two or three savage nods of the rod followed by a twenty yard run against the drag indicated that this was what we had come for, Charlie was at his shoulder giving advice and encouragement, the fish ran again Steve lifted the rod, thumbed the spool, and leant back into a very lively 25lb ish, Tope, which after about ten minutes or so was boated by Charlie and Peter, Steve posed for photos and then it was returned. Seven baits were already in the water before Steve could get his breath back, Micks went almost before it had hit the bottom, so again the lines were retrieved to allow him to play his fish, leaving lines in the water when there is a fish on is fatal. Mark had the next run, and boated fish 3,4,6. Pat had 5,8. I had 7, Richard boated number 9, with Andy at number 10., Don failed to boat any but did have runs, in fact had we boated the runs we would have had many more fish but such is the way of Toping, we were well satisfied with the day .
Day Two, Tuesday 18th, May, on board at 9am, and out again over the bar, running time about 45 minutes, an inshore mark this time, Charlie is working from his history book, “Big females show here, we will see if history repeats itself”, Don is the first to run and boats a fine male of about 30lb, it is carrying war scars “Been messing with the big females” says Charlie, Dons luck has definitely changed and during the day he boats number 1,2,8,11., all are male fish and are in fine fettle full of fight in fact No. 11, has a “go” at him and nearly had a piece of his thigh. Andy has 3,6. Steve has 4,12., Mick has 5,10., Mark 7., Rich has number 9 again, and I have number 13 not so unlucky, as Pat fails to score, all the fish were male going on average 30lb with two at about 38lb, Steve had the fish of the day a fat female with young going about 50lb, it was a comical scene as he held it for the cameras, the fish was about five foot long and he is about five foot four so all we could see was a Tope standing upright and a pair of trainers protruding at her tail fin, she broke wind and frightened the life out of him, he returned her to the water post haste. The sport is excellent and at one time we had three fish on at the same time and tempers were somewhat frayed when the fish decided they had had enough of us and dropped the bait, or chomped through it without getting hooked.
Mick must have lost about five runs due to this and was trying to develop a means of presenting the bait that would ensure hook-ups, I let him stew for a while then dipped into the communal tackle box and handed him a 16” baiting needle, this allowed the bait to be presented with the hook halfway along the flank instead of in the head as we had been presenting it, he did not lose another fish, although I think he annoyed one, whilst posing for the camera it slapped him round the face with it’s tail, broke free from his grip on it’s head and made a lunge for his wedding tackle, luckily Mick had the presence of mind to drop it, Charlie was not amused.
Wednesday 19th, May, 9am, start again, flat calm, the first two had been a little bouncy due to the wind being North East 4/5, but today the wind was having a day off, the mark we tried at first produced a fine male fish going 38lb for Mark, but was not prolific enough, and as the sea was so kind, Charlie suggested we try for the Bream, this was welcomed by all ,as it promised a respite from the hurley burley of Tope fishing, little did we know, out came the light gear, stepped up carp rods, open faced reels, 8lb line, No. 6. hooks, tiny strips of Squid and Mackerel, 30ft of water, Tap, Rattle, Tap, the fish were here in numbers but we were far to slow to hook them, Charlie took a rod from one of us and did a master class, five fish in five minutes all on the same bit of bait, we did not need showing twice, it was so hectic that I being the only one in a boiler suit was deputed to remove the fish from the hooks and selecting the ones for the table, Charlie and Peter were also kept busy at this task, the rods were getting three fish a minute, that’s 21, so you can see how busy it was, the lads were soon falling into a heap pleading to be put back on the Tope. For the first time during the holiday lunch was taken with all the rods out of the water, Megan, Charlie’s wife had come up with another excellent packed lunch too good to be rushed, and definitely too good to be mixed with smelly bait.
Thursday, another calm day, wind South West 2/3 becoming 4/5 towards evening. Charlie has saved the best till last, he explains that the forecast is not good for the rest of the week and that tomorrow is doubtful, in view of this we will visit “Tope City “ today, it requires about 90 minutes to get there. We set up two sets of feathers, and whilst the cockpit is fished by six , looking after eight rods, two of us in turn, feather off the bow for bait fish we get small whiting an excellent bait by all accounts, these are kept in a bucket until required. For the first hour or so nothing happens except for the bait fish coming in steadily we start to release these as we have enough and it is a waste to kill them by over crowding the bucket. Charlie starts to pace around you can feel the tension, “Should be fish here, can’t think what’s going on”, out comes the history book, we feel a move coming on, then as the tide dies away my rod goes into “one” and the reel screams, Charlie is now tuned in to each of our reels and shouts from the wheelhouse “John your on”, I was already on station awaiting the 2nd run, the fish is there I can feel him slowly mouthing the bait, the reel is put into free run, the rod held high with the slightest tension on, held by the reel thumb, then the fish is off and running the reel spins under the thumb then the thumb goes down hard and the angler leans back as the rod curves over and the strike is made it is now that you feel the joy of angling after these magnificent fish, after several less powerful runs the fish is brought to the side of the boat carefully lifted in, the hook removed, or trace cut if it is too deep, the angler holds the fish for photo’s, then it is carefully returned.
During the next hour or so over the slack water period it was mayhem, fish were picking up baits running around other baits dropping them picking up another and eventually getting hooked up and boated with three or more sets of tackle wrapped around it we boated nine fish, Andy had a hat trick all well over 30lb, we lost at least twelve fish, but no tackle was lost, I would hate to think of a fish swimming around with line around it, hooks that are left in the fish to avoid damaging them due to them being deep are soon disposed of by the fish and to be double sure we don’t use stainless hooks, the bronzed ones will rust away in a very short time.
“Irish Sea, South West 6/7 locally 8, Friday , becoming West 6/7 during the day” was the forecast on the radio as we made our way back to port, Charlie is sure we will not be fishing, and we get the tackle together to take off when we reach the jetty, all of us have had a great time, and thank the skipper and mate for their efforts during the week, we arrange for next year and invite Charlie and Megan to dinner on Friday evening at the “Brit.”, which has been our watering hole for the week,
The last day is spent roaming around Aberdyfi or as we spell it Aberdovey, getting a hair cut, buying presents, the usual things, but in the afternoon, Mark, Mick, Andy and Pat, get the urge to wet a line again and go off to a trout lake they have been told about, they returned in time for dinner with a sorry tale, Pat was in a boat with Andy, and at some stage was standing up, in a 12ft skiff is not a good idea, the inevitable happened and Pat had to wear a flotation suit for the rest of the afternoon, At dinner they related the tale to Charlie, who listened most carefully and then stated that from the description of the lake they had given they had been to the wrong place anyway. Oh by the way if you are ever out with Charlie and the action is a bit slow just ask Peter to put the kettle on it works a treat with the fish.
TROUBLESOME TOPE
At last the day had arrived, 16th May, 1999, and we were on our way, we being Mick, Steve, Mark, Pat, Don, Andrew and Richard the brothers and myself John, the daddy of the party.
This fishing trip had been on the stocks since August 1998, and had only been confirmed in the new year by our skipper Charlie Bartlett, who runs “Miss Claudia” a 34 foot Freeward, out of the picturesque port of Aberdyfi, GWYNEDD, WALES.
We had met at 11am at the South Mimms services and had an uneventful journey up the M1, M6, M54, then to the last 50 or so miles through the beautiful countryside of Shropshire and the borders into Wales we arrived at our Digs, at about 4pm, to be greeted by our landlady Cathy,who had the kettle on in no time flat, she was going to be OK as far as we were concerned. After settling into our rooms, Cathy moved her car from her space at the rear of the guest house and invited us to park there for the week, following a walk around the village a drink and a meal, I checked with Charlie on the phone to ensure we would be on for tomorrow.
Monday 17th, following an excellent breakfast, we got our gear together and made for the jetty to embark “Miss Claudia” Charlie had already brought her from her mooring, and was ready for us, the fishing tackle was stowed and Peter the Mate let go the ropes and off we went, to our first day of a most memorable fishing holiday.
None of the lads had been here before, I had fished with Charlie before and therefore knew what we would be up against in the way of fish I had told the stories of previous visits but they were taken with the proverbial pinch of salt by the lads, who I must explain do most of our fishing in the Thames Estuary, and are all familiar with uptide tackle and methods, the main difference here are the numbers of fish, and the fact that casting is not necessary. The tackle used was uniform throughout the 8 of us, a 6 to 8 oz., uptide rod, an ABU 7000, or similar reel, 18 lb line to a 50lb rubbing leader, and a 250lb nylon biting piece, with swivels between each joint, terminating in a 8/0 O’SHAUGHNESSY, bronze hook, weights varied between 2 and 6ozs depending on wind and tide and the position on the boat.
Following a run of about an hour the boat was positioned and the order given to commence fishing, 8 frozen Mackerel made their way down to the bottom. The reason they were frozen is because fresh mackerel were not there to be caught if they had been I think the catch rate would have been even higher, but the individually blast frozen ones were a very good standby bait, and within 20 minutes Steve was into a fish, two or three savage nods of the rod followed by a twenty yard run against the drag indicated that this was what we had come for, Charlie was at his shoulder giving advice and encouragement, the fish ran again Steve lifted the rod, thumbed the spool, and leant back into a very lively 25lb ish, Tope, which after about ten minutes or so was boated by Charlie and Peter, Steve posed for photos and then it was returned. Seven baits were already in the water before Steve could get his breath back, Micks went almost before it had hit the bottom, so again the lines were retrieved to allow him to play his fish, leaving lines in the water when there is a fish on is fatal. Mark had the next run, and boated fish 3,4,6. Pat had 5,8. I had 7, Richard boated number 9, with Andy at number 10., Don failed to boat any but did have runs, in fact had we boated the runs we would have had many more fish but such is the way of Toping, we were well satisfied with the day .
Day Two, Tuesday 18th, May, on board at 9am, and out again over the bar, running time about 45 minutes, an inshore mark this time, Charlie is working from his history book, “Big females show here, we will see if history repeats itself”, Don is the first to run and boats a fine male of about 30lb, it is carrying war scars “Been messing with the big females” says Charlie, Dons luck has definitely changed and during the day he boats number 1,2,8,11., all are male fish and are in fine fettle full of fight in fact No. 11, has a “go” at him and nearly had a piece of his thigh. Andy has 3,6. Steve has 4,12., Mick has 5,10., Mark 7., Rich has number 9 again, and I have number 13 not so unlucky, as Pat fails to score, all the fish were male going on average 30lb with two at about 38lb, Steve had the fish of the day a fat female with young going about 50lb, it was a comical scene as he held it for the cameras, the fish was about five foot long and he is about five foot four so all we could see was a Tope standing upright and a pair of trainers protruding at her tail fin, she broke wind and frightened the life out of him, he returned her to the water post haste. The sport is excellent and at one time we had three fish on at the same time and tempers were somewhat frayed when the fish decided they had had enough of us and dropped the bait, or chomped through it without getting hooked.
Mick must have lost about five runs due to this and was trying to develop a means of presenting the bait that would ensure hook-ups, I let him stew for a while then dipped into the communal tackle box and handed him a 16” baiting needle, this allowed the bait to be presented with the hook halfway along the flank instead of in the head as we had been presenting it, he did not lose another fish, although I think he annoyed one, whilst posing for the camera it slapped him round the face with it’s tail, broke free from his grip on it’s head and made a lunge for his wedding tackle, luckily Mick had the presence of mind to drop it, Charlie was not amused.
Wednesday 19th, May, 9am, start again, flat calm, the first two had been a little bouncy due to the wind being North East 4/5, but today the wind was having a day off, the mark we tried at first produced a fine male fish going 38lb for Mark, but was not prolific enough, and as the sea was so kind, Charlie suggested we try for the Bream, this was welcomed by all ,as it promised a respite from the hurley burley of Tope fishing, little did we know, out came the light gear, stepped up carp rods, open faced reels, 8lb line, No. 6. hooks, tiny strips of Squid and Mackerel, 30ft of water, Tap, Rattle, Tap, the fish were here in numbers but we were far to slow to hook them, Charlie took a rod from one of us and did a master class, five fish in five minutes all on the same bit of bait, we did not need showing twice, it was so hectic that I being the only one in a boiler suit was deputed to remove the fish from the hooks and selecting the ones for the table, Charlie and Peter were also kept busy at this task, the rods were getting three fish a minute, that’s 21, so you can see how busy it was, the lads were soon falling into a heap pleading to be put back on the Tope. For the first time during the holiday lunch was taken with all the rods out of the water, Megan, Charlie’s wife had come up with another excellent packed lunch too good to be rushed, and definitely too good to be mixed with smelly bait.
Thursday, another calm day, wind South West 2/3 becoming 4/5 towards evening. Charlie has saved the best till last, he explains that the forecast is not good for the rest of the week and that tomorrow is doubtful, in view of this we will visit “Tope City “ today, it requires about 90 minutes to get there. We set up two sets of feathers, and whilst the cockpit is fished by six , looking after eight rods, two of us in turn, feather off the bow for bait fish we get small whiting an excellent bait by all accounts, these are kept in a bucket until required. For the first hour or so nothing happens except for the bait fish coming in steadily we start to release these as we have enough and it is a waste to kill them by over crowding the bucket. Charlie starts to pace around you can feel the tension, “Should be fish here, can’t think what’s going on”, out comes the history book, we feel a move coming on, then as the tide dies away my rod goes into “one” and the reel screams, Charlie is now tuned in to each of our reels and shouts from the wheelhouse “John your on”, I was already on station awaiting the 2nd run, the fish is there I can feel him slowly mouthing the bait, the reel is put into free run, the rod held high with the slightest tension on, held by the reel thumb, then the fish is off and running the reel spins under the thumb then the thumb goes down hard and the angler leans back as the rod curves over and the strike is made it is now that you feel the joy of angling after these magnificent fish, after several less powerful runs the fish is brought to the side of the boat carefully lifted in, the hook removed, or trace cut if it is too deep, the angler holds the fish for photo’s, then it is carefully returned.
During the next hour or so over the slack water period it was mayhem, fish were picking up baits running around other baits dropping them picking up another and eventually getting hooked up and boated with three or more sets of tackle wrapped around it we boated nine fish, Andy had a hat trick all well over 30lb, we lost at least twelve fish, but no tackle was lost, I would hate to think of a fish swimming around with line around it, hooks that are left in the fish to avoid damaging them due to them being deep are soon disposed of by the fish and to be double sure we don’t use stainless hooks, the bronzed ones will rust away in a very short time.
“Irish Sea, South West 6/7 locally 8, Friday , becoming West 6/7 during the day” was the forecast on the radio as we made our way back to port, Charlie is sure we will not be fishing, and we get the tackle together to take off when we reach the jetty, all of us have had a great time, and thank the skipper and mate for their efforts during the week, we arrange for next year and invite Charlie and Megan to dinner on Friday evening at the “Brit.”, which has been our watering hole for the week,
The last day is spent roaming around Aberdyfi or as we spell it Aberdovey, getting a hair cut, buying presents, the usual things, but in the afternoon, Mark, Mick, Andy and Pat, get the urge to wet a line again and go off to a trout lake they have been told about, they returned in time for dinner with a sorry tale, Pat was in a boat with Andy, and at some stage was standing up, in a 12ft skiff is not a good idea, the inevitable happened and Pat had to wear a flotation suit for the rest of the afternoon, At dinner they related the tale to Charlie, who listened most carefully and then stated that from the description of the lake they had given they had been to the wrong place anyway. Oh by the way if you are ever out with Charlie and the action is a bit slow just ask Peter to put the kettle on it works a treat with the fish.
