Big tope are running in Carlingford Lough again and anglers the Boat Angling Ireland website enjoyed getting amongst them over the weekend…
Mark Heffernan fished out of Greenore over the weekend with tope as the target. Unable to find any shoals of mackerel they were forced to fish with frozen baits. Conditions were perfect, but the anglers were concerned about using last years frozen mackerel. They had caught on them before but not as well as on fresh ones.
Having fished fruitlessly for a few hours and fast running out of time they were taking about heading for home. Mark got a call to see how theywere getting on and he had a good moan about the fishing. He had no sooner hung up when there was a screaming run on his 15lb class rod. It was soon clear this was a good tope as it made 2 very long runs before slogging it out closer to the boat.
Mark says he was surprised at how big the tope was when she came up beside the boat. After she was boated and she was weighed at 50.5lb, photographed and safely returned. What a start to the year!
Earlier in the day Matthew Corrigan was fishing a shallow water mark with angling pal Dinny. The pair had to use frozen mackerel from last year as no fresh fish could be got. Dinny had the honours of catching the first tope reported from the lough this year. A lovely female of 29lbs that fought well in the skinny water (20 feet).
Matthew soon had his own thrill catching a lovely tope of 26lb in 18 feet that fought like a demon. They finished up soon after that and handed over the remains of their frozen mackerel to Mark Heffernan who went on to catch the 50 pounder reported above!
Report courtesy of www.boat-angling-ireland.com
