would suspect they would do the job 4/0 should take a tope, but i would suggest you use stronger line to make them. Quite often tope or even porbeagles will attack a shaol of mackerel and they do at times get caught in feathers. I know of a case of an angler actually geetiing a porbie to the side after it tangles in his feathers. The fish Gary hooked into would prodably just have been going for a mackerel on his feathers, or it could have been going for a chunk of mackerel. Idea would have been to drop down a proper tarce with a mackerel on. Tope tend to be pack fish, once you get one you get a few.
Guess what was Hooked at Hartlepool Today....
- Thread starter jeff
- Start date
john.frain
Well-known member
well done gary, crackin story jeff....
john
john
Charlie_Thompson
Well-known member
Great post jeff
davem2005
Well-known member
Hi,
new to the board and this is one post that really caught my eye. I regularly go out from hartlepool and twice this summer have been totally cleaned out by mysterious fish presumed to be tope but could also have been porbeagles.
A recent conversation with a friend who goes out from seaburn on an almost daily basis confirmed the same has happened to him and we have decided to have a go for \"them\" whatever they may be.
Tope are supposed to be around till mid november in the recognised areas, lets hope thgis applies along this coast as I have spent most of the summer on the west coast after skate with excellent results
but it now time to come back to the reality of hartlepool 
Time to dust off the tope gear and fish closer to home I think
Dave
new to the board and this is one post that really caught my eye. I regularly go out from hartlepool and twice this summer have been totally cleaned out by mysterious fish presumed to be tope but could also have been porbeagles.
A recent conversation with a friend who goes out from seaburn on an almost daily basis confirmed the same has happened to him and we have decided to have a go for \"them\" whatever they may be.
Tope are supposed to be around till mid november in the recognised areas, lets hope thgis applies along this coast as I have spent most of the summer on the west coast after skate with excellent results
but it now time to come back to the reality of hartlepool Time to dust off the tope gear and fish closer to home I think
Dave
Tope are nothing new in the NE, we\'ve been targeting them for the last 6 years with excellent results. I took my eldest out on Saturday from Bridlington with 4 of his mates, specifically to target the tope, despite the conditions not being ideal (biggish tide for tope and a SE wind) we still managed to boat 4, with another 3 lost at the side of the boat (inexperienced anglers) and had at least 12 runs.
They landed 3 females (35lb, 45lb and 55lb) and a single male (40lb), all strong fighting fish in superb condition. All were tagged and released to fight another day. The average size of Tope off the NE coast are larger than anywhere in the UK at 45lb, this is based on the catch records from the UK shark tagging programme. The largest we\'ve had since specifically targeting them is Topecatchers 77lber and we\'ve had many more in the 70lb+ bracket and even more in the 60lb bracket. Another boat has had them over 80lb and considering that the British record is 84(ish)lbs and a fully pregnant female at that, the fish we get have already pupped so they are exceptionally big fish.
AC\'s tackle and outfit suggestions are about right, if you want to get the most out of the fish; we use standard uptiders with slosh 20 or 30\'s loaded with 15 to 25lb mono attached to 100lb dynon braid leader. We\'ve found that 150lb wire trace is best as even 100lb+ mono can be bitten through. We usually use the head or tail section for bait (3\" to 4\" in length), although unlike other years the tope seem to prefare a larger bait this year.
If anyone wants to have a serious go at them drop me a PM and I\'ll try and advise further or alternatively ask Topey, although he\'s a busy boy at the moment.
Remember though that if at first you don\'t succeed, try, try again, that goes for any kind of fishing, after all absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
In terms of seasonality, we get them from mid June through to late September, but the netters still get them in October which indicates that they are around later. Topecatcher has also had them from the shore in May, so they could be around earlier.
Possibly a bit late for this year up north, certainly numbers may be lower now than peak season, but if you target them next year you will definitely be surprised at the size and numbers present in the NE.
Good Luck
They landed 3 females (35lb, 45lb and 55lb) and a single male (40lb), all strong fighting fish in superb condition. All were tagged and released to fight another day. The average size of Tope off the NE coast are larger than anywhere in the UK at 45lb, this is based on the catch records from the UK shark tagging programme. The largest we\'ve had since specifically targeting them is Topecatchers 77lber and we\'ve had many more in the 70lb+ bracket and even more in the 60lb bracket. Another boat has had them over 80lb and considering that the British record is 84(ish)lbs and a fully pregnant female at that, the fish we get have already pupped so they are exceptionally big fish.
AC\'s tackle and outfit suggestions are about right, if you want to get the most out of the fish; we use standard uptiders with slosh 20 or 30\'s loaded with 15 to 25lb mono attached to 100lb dynon braid leader. We\'ve found that 150lb wire trace is best as even 100lb+ mono can be bitten through. We usually use the head or tail section for bait (3\" to 4\" in length), although unlike other years the tope seem to prefare a larger bait this year.
If anyone wants to have a serious go at them drop me a PM and I\'ll try and advise further or alternatively ask Topey, although he\'s a busy boy at the moment.
Remember though that if at first you don\'t succeed, try, try again, that goes for any kind of fishing, after all absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
In terms of seasonality, we get them from mid June through to late September, but the netters still get them in October which indicates that they are around later. Topecatcher has also had them from the shore in May, so they could be around earlier.
Possibly a bit late for this year up north, certainly numbers may be lower now than peak season, but if you target them next year you will definitely be surprised at the size and numbers present in the NE.
Good Luck
davem2005
Well-known member
Why wait till next year 
I was taking the boat to Luce bay this weekend ...but this has got me thinking
I dont know if any of you heard on the radio news tonight of \"blue sharks\" being sited of the beaches of Hartlepool, as reported by local fishermen. What next
Tat if you have the gear I have the boat
Dave
I was taking the boat to Luce bay this weekend ...but this has got me thinking I dont know if any of you heard on the radio news tonight of \"blue sharks\" being sited of the beaches of Hartlepool, as reported by local fishermen. What next
Tat if you have the gear I have the boat
Dave
On Saturday we were about 3 to 4 miles off, we\'ve had them within 300m of the LW mark and Topey\'s had them from the shore. Last time Dave went they headed out a bit further and still got plenty, and by all accounts Rich Ward got one at 20 miles off when they got the porgie, whether thats 20 miles off or 20 miles from Whitby is anyones guess, but when I used to fish up at whitby in the mid to late 80\'s there was a couple of photo\'s in the tackle shop of 2 tope caught off a wreck quite a way off, although Tut Utterley used to target them occasionally down towards Robin Hoods bay and in Tuts Garden.
Personally I wouldn\'t get too wrapped up in distance offshore as a deterministic factor, ground type is likely to be as important, although as the season progresses I suspect that the tope will tend to move further off. Water temperature has been a major factor in their arrival and it is likely that they will move away as temperature begins to drop off. Off our neck of the woods (Bridlington Bay area) the sea temperature may peak in October, having taken 5 or 6 months to reach the peak, however, the decrease is rapid taking just a couple of months to fall back way below 10 degrees. Prey availability is another deciding factor, where are the mainstay of their diet, inshore or offshore?
The back end of the season is possibly not the best time to be searching them out unless your prepared to concentrate and spend many fruitless days looking for them, although this will apply to early or peak season, its just that numbers are likely to be greater which increases your chances of a hook up or two or three or.........
Anyway good luck, they are well worth it
Personally I wouldn\'t get too wrapped up in distance offshore as a deterministic factor, ground type is likely to be as important, although as the season progresses I suspect that the tope will tend to move further off. Water temperature has been a major factor in their arrival and it is likely that they will move away as temperature begins to drop off. Off our neck of the woods (Bridlington Bay area) the sea temperature may peak in October, having taken 5 or 6 months to reach the peak, however, the decrease is rapid taking just a couple of months to fall back way below 10 degrees. Prey availability is another deciding factor, where are the mainstay of their diet, inshore or offshore?
The back end of the season is possibly not the best time to be searching them out unless your prepared to concentrate and spend many fruitless days looking for them, although this will apply to early or peak season, its just that numbers are likely to be greater which increases your chances of a hook up or two or three or.........
Anyway good luck, they are well worth it
Well Phill, if you fish Luce Bay, (of course the NE will never be as good as this) at the top you can catch tope in very shallow water and actually at times see them picking your bait up. The you can fish the scars in 100 foot plus of water and catch plenty tope. Would suspect that would not happen over here though, but there again nobody has actually treid so you never know. Personally to start with I would fish in 50 to 150 foot of awter, smooth bottom with a few bumps in it. Channels are good to, but dont know of many around here. The dumps at Hartlepool are similar ground to one i fished when down at Anglesey.
As I said previously only the skipper of Famous showed any interest and he went out on his day off to fish for blues off Hartlepool.I dunno where,or which way he went but he must of known something,cos charter skippers would\'nt waste their time on a wild goose chase.
It\'over a year since I was on that boat mind so he might have packed it in,but mebbe not.
It\'over a year since I was on that boat mind so he might have packed it in,but mebbe not.
davem2005
Well-known member
I am fishing Luce bay fri sat and sunday the whitby festival weds so it would have to be thurs fri or sat, obviously subject to weather but I dont mind arranging something at the last minute...in fact I always leave things to the last minute!
I certainly dont mind blanking and it has to be better than the full house of weavers I caught on feathers last monday
Dave
I certainly dont mind blanking and it has to be better than the full house of weavers I caught on feathers last monday
Dave
If you decide to have a go, here are some factors we\'ve found generally work in our favour, but as with all fishing not always.
Tide size can be a deciding factor; generally lower middle sized tides can fish better (based on Bridlington 5.1 to 5.5m) that means next week the more suitable tides would be on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, although they are falling and not building.
Look for an area with some relief on the seabed that may hold a channel/gully close by, some thing the fish can run along. Quite often an area of rock/boulder that abuts a sandy seabed will have a scour. Look for areas on a chart that have banks (not necessarily sand banks but areas where the seabed is elavated), these will have gullies or channels alongside. One of our main areas is heavily potted which indicates rough ground, the trick is to position the boat in such areas, but making sure that you are far enough away from pots and markers so not to get the fish caught up when they run.
Change your baits regularly, they get ravaged by crabs and other fish, and as a consequence can be useless after a very short time.
We generally use the head or tail section, and strike immediately the fish hits the bait, this has resulted in an almost 90% strike rate, don\'t let them run, as you increase the chance of deep hooked fish. However, if you fish with a larger bait (full mackerel), you\'ll need to let them have more time to manoevre the bait in their mouths before striking. This year the fish on occasion only seem to want a live full mackerel, and we\'ve had to resort to leaving them awhile before setting the hook. Try putting a number of rods out baited with different sized baits (head and tail sections, and full live/dead mackerel), see which they prefer. Again give yourself plenty of options, what works on the west coast doesn\'t necessarily work here.
As a general rule we don\'t put out a chum trail, as it doesn\'t seem to make much difference, but as you try a new mark it might not be a bad thing to try and chum.
Fresh bait is a must, mackerel is without doubt top, but we\'ve had them on eel section (again fresh live eel is a must), we\'ve tried lamprey, dab, flounder, whiting without any greater degree of success, mackerel really is the key, which is strange because I\'m not convinced that they actively feed on mackerel normally. One thing I don\'t think we have tried is Launce, live launce may well be a killer bait, and something I expect that tope will feed upon naturally. However, I would only be inclined to try live launce once I\'d identified a mark that definitely held tope.
Whatever tactics you choose it\'ll be trial and error to whatever suits the area, but they are there... somewhere... and it won\'t be long before you find them.
Good luck
Just a few shots of what to expect..... god I hope this works!!!!!!
and another!!!
and finally one for shaggy!!!!
[Edited on 5/9/2005 by Doc]
[Edited on 5/9/2005 by Doc]
Tide size can be a deciding factor; generally lower middle sized tides can fish better (based on Bridlington 5.1 to 5.5m) that means next week the more suitable tides would be on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, although they are falling and not building.
Look for an area with some relief on the seabed that may hold a channel/gully close by, some thing the fish can run along. Quite often an area of rock/boulder that abuts a sandy seabed will have a scour. Look for areas on a chart that have banks (not necessarily sand banks but areas where the seabed is elavated), these will have gullies or channels alongside. One of our main areas is heavily potted which indicates rough ground, the trick is to position the boat in such areas, but making sure that you are far enough away from pots and markers so not to get the fish caught up when they run.
Change your baits regularly, they get ravaged by crabs and other fish, and as a consequence can be useless after a very short time.
We generally use the head or tail section, and strike immediately the fish hits the bait, this has resulted in an almost 90% strike rate, don\'t let them run, as you increase the chance of deep hooked fish. However, if you fish with a larger bait (full mackerel), you\'ll need to let them have more time to manoevre the bait in their mouths before striking. This year the fish on occasion only seem to want a live full mackerel, and we\'ve had to resort to leaving them awhile before setting the hook. Try putting a number of rods out baited with different sized baits (head and tail sections, and full live/dead mackerel), see which they prefer. Again give yourself plenty of options, what works on the west coast doesn\'t necessarily work here.
As a general rule we don\'t put out a chum trail, as it doesn\'t seem to make much difference, but as you try a new mark it might not be a bad thing to try and chum.
Fresh bait is a must, mackerel is without doubt top, but we\'ve had them on eel section (again fresh live eel is a must), we\'ve tried lamprey, dab, flounder, whiting without any greater degree of success, mackerel really is the key, which is strange because I\'m not convinced that they actively feed on mackerel normally. One thing I don\'t think we have tried is Launce, live launce may well be a killer bait, and something I expect that tope will feed upon naturally. However, I would only be inclined to try live launce once I\'d identified a mark that definitely held tope.
Whatever tactics you choose it\'ll be trial and error to whatever suits the area, but they are there... somewhere... and it won\'t be long before you find them.
Good luck
Just a few shots of what to expect..... god I hope this works!!!!!!
and another!!!
and finally one for shaggy!!!!
[Edited on 5/9/2005 by Doc]
[Edited on 5/9/2005 by Doc]
