Broken Fish Repeller

[john c]

At last some science in the fishing has paid off. On Friday took Mad Miller and crew Dom round to the west as advised. We now know the slack times for the Tope and once the (NEW) anchor was down we got bites immediately.

 

First aboard was a 16.6lb Conger but soon the Tope were on. Not big, up to 15lbs but lots of them. After last weeks experiences of our braid breaking repeatadly, we were equipped with stronger nylon and wire traces. This did not prevent me from losing a fish that fought for 5 mins doubling up the rod then bit through the trace. Are there sharks in with the Tope???.

 

Dom, my crew, caught a Tope of about 10lbs which let go the hook at the side of the boat. It then lurked there, so in went the tattered bit of bait it had originally taken. Dangled in front of him he could not resist. He took the bait and was briefly hooked again. Out came the net again, but oh !!!! he's off. 5 times he did this untill eventually hooked we got him aboard.

 

The Mackeral steaks worked a treat but as the tide turned anything worked. It's a shame that we lost 45mins or so on the turn as the lines repeatadly go under the boat, drag into snags etc etc. The fish fed all the way through the slack.

 

After bending my Danforth anchor, fluke and shaft in the reef last week I bought a new Bruce copy of 7.5kgs, much lighter than the Danforth. This was rigged to trip and was deployed using the "coat hanger" and bouy as described in BFM. The coat hanger really helps with recovery. I don't have to scream at the crew so that I can see the anchor line as it is a long way in front of the boat. Anyway, the anchor just came up. No fuss.

 

If I can get my broken fuel filler cap off today, I will be out again on Sunday to get the one that got away.

 

John C

[Bob F]

Nice report John.

 

BF

[gruesome twosome]

yes there are sharks in and around st albans and even the 50 50 banks as 3 to 4 years ago i hooked a thresher at both places the first one i hooked left the water by several feet but i dont think they are common place who knows good luck tommorrow if winds light will be on tope marks myself regards trev

[duncan]

Glad you had a good trip John, and that the plan and tactics all came together.

 

Their are some big tope out there, looking at some of the catch reports to 50 over the last year - and at one point last year someone was loosing them faster than they were catching them with traces bitten and main lines snapped (last years 48hr?) over the VHF.