Local sea angler Alan Kelly is a bit of a tope fanatic, although his efforts have been mostly in vain this summer with a poor run of tope in Galway Bay. Alan had put in an incredible 19 sessions and almost 60 hours since May targeting tope on the right tides, only rewarded with the occasional dogfish or bull huss. However, his patience was rewarded last week with a fine specimen shore tope, tipping the scales at 51lbs. In his own words: The evening started off with 3 dog fish on the first 3 casts and I was thinking if dogs are around maybe the tope aren’t. As the night drew on the dogs disappeared, weather conditions settled down and darkness fell. All was quiet until – bang! the reel was screaming, line disappearing from the spool at pace. I let the fish run for a while and slowly tightened up the drag, set the hook and then the battle began! Although the drag had tightened up, there was still enough for the fish to run and that it did. I thought at one stage “this beast is not stopping”, but after around 25 minutes I managed to get the fish close to the shore – not an easy thing to try on your own. But Imanaged to get her head beached, dropped the rod and made a grab for the tail. My knees where like jelly at this stage!
After unhooking the fish – a prime female in great condition – she hit the scales at 51 lbs. I took a few photos and sent her on her way …”
Elsewhere, there are sporadic reports of mackerel being caught inshore in Galway Bay, so hopefully they will be here in numbers soon. Charter boats are reporting excellent pollack fishing at the moment. John Brittain, skipper of Bluewater based in Cleggan, also reported catching a monster 6-gill shark, the first for his boat and certainly the first I have heard of in these parts. Well done John! O book fishing aboard Bluewater contact John at 086 2779622.
