Simon McLarnon contacted us to report on a recent trip for tope, fishing with SΓ©an McKay out of Ballycastle on Monday 18th August.
The crew had a great trip, with one 35lb tope landed, two skate, two cuckoo wrasse and some good pollack caught. Skate were not being targeted, but one complication of targeting tope is that you can hook these much bigger elasmobranchs while fishing for themβ¦.you are in for the fight of your life if you do!
The skate weighed 145lb and 160lb going by the charts. All released in good condition!
The skate were caught by Dean Boardman (160lber) and SΓ©an Polley (145lber) with some help from Toni Hannigan who (on her second ever fishing trip!) played the 145lb skate for 20 minutes before exhausting herself and having to hand the rod over to SΓ©an Polley, who took a further 40 minutes to bring this impressive fish to the side of the boat.
The 35lb tope and two cuckoo wrasse (just over a pound each, and close to specimen weight) were caught by Simon McLarnon.
