I’ve been targeting a stingray for my all-time species list which only includes fish caught in UK and Irish waters, and so far a stinger had eluded me. The Tralee area is though, one of the best for stingray. However the late and cold season was just as prevalent there and it was only literally just prior to my trip in late May that news filtered through of the first stingers being caught, but only the odd one.

To succeed with some fish targets, you need good advice, and I was lucky as I’d be fishing with local stingray specialist Jerry O’Connor, and Mike Hennessy, Angling Information Officer based in the southwest of Ireland.

I set up with a simple pulley rig armed with a single 4/0 hook and baited with a large peeler crab that I’d halved then bound together with bait elastic. One thing that does surprise with stingers, immaterial of their size, is that they swim within a few yards of shore, so short casts are usually the most effective. I lobbed the bait only 25-metres out, set the Penn 525Mag on ratchet, and waited.

As a collective, we had a few dogfish, then a run of flounder. I’d rebaited after catching a flounder and dropped the bait just tight in to a clump of stone and seaweed. I noticed the line twitch before I watched the rod tip shudder. The rod tip stayed static, but the line was lifting and dropping, so I left it. Then the rod tip jagged forwards a few times. I lifted the rod up, released the ratchet and as I did so, the fish started to take line. I let it run for a few yards, then set the hook.

There was good weight there and the fish turned and headed out to sea dragging a few yards of line off, then bolted back uptide, turned back and ran downtide. It hung out there, went to ground for a few seconds then started to come in to the pressure of the rod. The other lads were in front of me now, but I saw the stingers tail break water and took it steady as I really wanted this fish on the shore. Slowly it edged in, and eventually slid ashore to hoots of delight from me. Judged by Jerry at between 12 and 15lbs, I settled on 12lbs, got my photos and slid the ray back in to the sea to watch it flap away. That’s species 107 and a really difficult one ticked off!

The weather was difficult though while in Kerry, with strong and sometimes gale force north-westerly winds blowing. On a really rough day, and just to prove we didn’t have it all our own way, Jerry and I teamed up and went to find some shelter inside the Shannon Estuary. We settled on a pier mark near Foynes that looked to give us easy casting access in to the main channel. Our target species were maybe huss, but we had high hopes of some thornback ray action.

Although this area can be alive with thornies, the late cold conditions and a wind gusting so hard it was difficult to stand up at times resulted in me catching just one small thornback late in the evening on a squid bait. It wasn’t for the want of trying as we’d both had two rods in the water and tried numerous changes of tactics and baits to find the fish, but it was not to be.

What was pleasing to see while in Ireland are the numbers of flounder which are increasing in numbers rapidly and this is reflected here in the UK too, and especially in Welsh waters. While in Tralee, even though we were fishing big baits for big fish most of the time, we still had a steady stream of sizeable flounders that greedily crammed the baits in to their mouths. Double shots of flounder where also common when fishing two-hook rigs.

One high point for this coming summer and autumn is that Ireland looks set to potentially have a bumper bass year. Prior to the bass close season between May 15th and June 15th, Irish contacts where telling me in all areas that the numbers of bass were as good as some can remember. The majority of fish are sub 4lbs, but there seems to be a nice mix of fish up to 6lbs, with much bigger fish available too. Those of you visiting from the UK to fish the famous bass beaches or looking to work plugs and soft plastics should enjoy some great sport looking ahead.

For anglers looking to visit Ireland general accommodation information is available online at www.discoverireland.com, and specific angling information on any area from the excellent www.fisheriesireland.ie website. For ferry services visit http://www.stenaline.co.uk .

The cold sea temperatures have also delayed the incoming spring sea species by about a month, and this seems fairly general right around the UK. It’s periods such as this when I envy coarse, game and carp anglers. I know they have weather issues too, but consistent strong winds are not a major problem and they can usually find somewhere to wet a line.

However the sea season will get going eventually and I’m optimistic we’ll see some good fishing when the weather finally does settle down. It’s just a case of hanging in there!

FACSIMILE FISHING
With the wind screaming in from the Atlantic recently, I had little choice but to head back up to sheltered waters of The Dee Estuary in North Wales, which I’ve covered in a recent blog, and have another go at the plaice. We’d had heavy rain just prior to the trip and this can affect this mark badly. Nevertheless the session started with a steady return of dabs, but then an hour and half after low water I picked up a nice plaice about 1.25lbs on a fresh crab bait. That was the only plaice of the day, but I did catch a very colourful vivid yellow with brown patches sea scorpion, a species I’d not had on this mark previously and it gave me a new species for this calendar year too.

Plaice

Sea Scorpion

I’ve hung back from trying for a bass. The crabs have been slow to start peeling with the cold conditions and with little food supply inshore the numbers of bass, other than a few sub 3lb schoolies, would be limited. Anyway keen to catch a bass I eventually could not resist and threw caution to the wind deciding to ignore the extreme wet and windy conditions and venture out to fish a low tide mark. My fishing buddy actually declined to fish this night as he felt a bottle of chilled white wine held more promise. As I walked on to the beach I could see the huge amounts of weed, including deep water kelp, this to give you an idea just how rough it’s been, that had been ripped out by the storms. The surf was full of it. My mate’s decision to give it best looked a good one!

Undeterred I made a long cast out in to a gutter that ran across in front of me. It was a case of wading out as far as possible and holding the rod high to keep the minimal amount of line in the water to limit weed collecting on the line. Low tide came and went without a bite. Low water also saw the wind strength increase to near gale force and persistent rain start to fall. I was just about to pack up when I felt a double knock on the rod tip. It was faint, but definitely was not weed. I left the bite to mature and felt just one more pluck. The information coming back through the rod was minimal, but I decided to retrieve. Straight away I felt weight there, but it was pretty much dead weight. The rig was about 15-yards out when I felt a double thump on the rod tip and saw the line pulling across the surf a little. It was a tidy flounder about 1.5lbs and a heap of weed. Fishing on my own I had no choice but to photograph the fish on the sand, but you can gauge the estimated size from the 3oz lead also in the shot. I had one more cast and decided to quit as the wind and rain were now lashing in. No bass alas!

Flounder

Is it me or are we seeing a flounder revival? Numbers fell rapidly during the last 20-years due to commercial flounder fishing for pot bait, but currently we seem to be catching increasing numbers, and of a decent overall size too. Long may it continue!

My last blog detailing huss fishing ended with me suggesting I would target a shore plaice. Normally I’d look for these from about the end of February, but the bitterly cold east winds the whole of the UK endured, pretty much from the end of January, had postponed the hoped for early spring. Sea temperatures on my local Welsh coast were some 2C lower than average for the time of year and struggling to make 7C. This suggested the plaice might be best left for a while.

I waited until the third week of March. This was deliberate on two counts. I felt the first plaice would be showing by then even though it was still exceptionally cold, plus the small neap tides fell that week and the mark I had in mind fish’s best on the smallest tides possible when the lateral tide run evident there is lessened.

Arriving at the mark, a steady 20mph easterly wind was blowing with gusts to 30mph. Snow showers fed in intermittently and looking at the conditions the last thing you would expect would be plaice.

The bait situation has also been disrupted by the weather. By the time I’m normally plaice fishing, the first peeler crabs are shedding their shells and it is no surprise these are the best bait. But there were no crab peeling and none to pick. My back up bait was frozen black lug, but I did have a couple of frozen peeler crab left over from last year’s final pick and these would have to do.

The hour before low water and the first hour of the flood tide produced just small dabs. The tide had just started to really pick up power and I decided to switch to a 3-hook rig and fish the line between the rod tip and the weight slightly slack and bowed in the wind. This would ensure that all three baits were sat hard on the seabed. I baited with black lug baits, but on the lowest hook right by the lead weight I tipped this with a precious thawed crab claw. This was cast tight by the edge of some rough ground where I know early plaice like to hole up.

The bait had been out about 10-minutes when I noticed the line bow lift and drop back. After a few seconds the same thing happened and this time it just registered on the rod tip. When this occurred a third time I picked up the rod and lifted in to the fish.

There was a little weight there and I felt the fish try to turn and head for the bottom, but this was no leviathan. It was obvious from the rattles on the rod tip that I’d hooked a plaice, but it was still a relief when it broke surface and I saw the red spots dotting its flank. Lifting it from the water, I knew it would barely make a pound in weight, but that did not matter. It was the first plaice of the year and it heralds the arrival of spring. It swam off strongly after a photograph.

First Plaice of the Year

My next trip out the east wind was still howling and you could see your breath in the late afternoon air. You would assume the sea would be flat with the wind coming off the land, but a depression far out in the Atlantic put up a shallow two wave surf. It was just before low water and we’d fish for at least four hours. My target fish was a turbot, but looking at the conditions, again I was not confident.

Fishing two rods, I went with my favourite ABU 6500 TSR reels that would give me the casting distance, but as usual decided to fish one about 40-yards out, the other at absolute maximum range which, with the wind behind me, was probably close to 130-yards. My mate did much the same.

The tide turned and flooded for two hours with not a bite between us. I switched the close range rod over from a 3-hook rig to a 3-boom rig to reduce any potential for tangling, and dropped the baits just 15-yards out to the outside edge of the first turning wave in to water that was barely 12-inches deep. My thinking here was that this wave action was the only place where any food was likely to be as it got washed from the sand by the wave action.

First cast produced nothing, but the second cast saw the rod tip bounce slightly and rattle down. I left the fish to fully take the bait. It rattled again and I just pressured the weight to lift it free and slowly retrieved. I was surprised to feel some decent weight there, then the fish tugged on the rod tip and actually swam with the wave sideways to the left a few yards. Standing on the edge of the surf the fish came in, first as a bow wave, then colour, then as a sizeable shape. A flattie, but what was it? It turned out to be a biggish flounder that had taken a frozen mackerel strip. Again I didn’t bother to weigh it, but if fat from a summer’s feeding this fish would have easily topped 2lbs or more. It was the only bite we had.

Flounder

Finally the east wind has backed westerly which is good, but seems to want to push back in to north now and then which is bad for fishing. I’m not sure what to fish for next at the moment. I might go back for a turbot, but the bass are an interesting prospect and that might be my next serious session.

My tactics are pretty simple. I aim to fish a tide with low water falling around dusk or in to dark. I tend to favour the smaller neap tides on the marks I fish as fast tide runs induced by the bigger tides tends to push the fish in to sheltered bays, or more likely, out in to deeper water where the tide run is lessened and out of casting range.

The type of ground huss are working through is typically underwater rock ledges, boulders, small rising rock pinnacles and kelp beds. In short it is rough and tackle hungry, but that’s where the fish are. Another obstacle to struggle with is that the best marks often have numerous lobster pots set at both close and long range. These are often set on long lengths of rope that swing in front of you with the tide and you need to consider this when fishing. The pots though, are obviously baited, and it’s this continual scent stream that helps bring the huss in to the area, so you need to learn to live with the pots.

Tackle needs to be strong! I tend to fish powerful beachcasters such as the ABU Atlantic 464 which has the power to bully big fish up and away from the snags, plus the ability to launch big baits and leads out in to a head wind when necessary. I’m fortunate enough to have been fishing and testing prototypes of the new Penn 535Mag 2 reel which will be available hopefully this coming autumn and this reel is perfect for this rough and tough fishing. It casts exceptionally well and holds around 275-yards of 30lb mono, but has a 6.1 retrieve ratio so can really get big fish moving, plus reduces tackle losses when retrieving as it gets rigs and leads up in the water column quickly.

I always fish a 60lb shock leader when after huss. Although strong for casting and giving you something to grab and steer bigger fish on to rocks with, it actually also acts as a weak link. If you get snagged and pull for a break by hand, the line will mostly part at the leader knot losing only the leader and rig. This preserves your main line, which I prefer to do.

I tend to fish mainly pulley rigs for huss. These are made from 80lb mono as they will be in direct contact with the rough stuff. I make mine from a section of line about 60-inches long. Tie a SALT Lead Clip Link to one end. Slide on 5mm bead, a Salt Pulley Rig Bead and another 5mm bead. At the free end of the mono, 24-inches above it, tie in a figure of eight knot. Now slide on a 5mm bead and tie on the hook to the free end. Above the hook and bead tie on a 5-turn stop knot. The knot and bead act as a bait stop to avoid the bait sliding up the hook snood during the cast. The hook should be a single 5/0 to 6/0 O’Shaughnessy pattern. Huss are greedy fish and there is no need for a two-hook pennel system. The hook goes in the Clip Link when casting and will release on hitting the sea’s surface.

Huss are generally predatory fish eaters. The best baits are squid, mackerel, bluey and sandeel. On some marks sandeel is the top bait, but whole squid is also a killer. Another good one is a mackerel and squid, or bluey and squid cocktail. The mackerel or bluey puts major scent in the water, but the squid is the chocolate chips on the ice cream and can increase your catch rate as opposed to fishing just individual fish baits.

I put all this in to practice on a recent dusk in to darkness session in North Wales. Low water fell at dusk, but ideally it needs to be full dark before you can realistically expect the huss to turn up. So it proved this particular night with a bite showing about an hour after low water with the light pretty much gone in the western sky.

The fish rattled the rod tip then pulled it hard over. I gave it a little slack line and waited for it to pull on the rod top again before hammering the hook home as I was fishing at range. There was good weight on the rod and the fish hugged the seabed twisting and turning through kelp fronds. It took steady pressure to get the fish out of the weed, and then up in the water away from the snags. It fought well and broke the surface way out with my powerful headlight beam finding the fish. I could see it was close to pot buoys and I had to steer the fish away from them by walking to the left and dropping the rod to the side. Once clear of the buoys, it was then just a case of easing it in to the edge of the rocks.

My buddy lifted the fish gently on the shock leader. We took a photo and estimated its weight at between 7 and 8lbs, then released it. It was the only huss of the night, but a good start to my spring campaign and there’ll be more huss for us in the coming months, and I hope much bigger ones too!

I find this period good for the odd big flounder that seems reluctant to join the rest of the clan far offshore making little flounder and they tend to hang around in the surf and leave late. This same period can also produce the best dabs of the year, but also a mixed bag that might include turbot, rockling, whiting, school bass, coalfish and codling.

I always fish two rods. One cast as far as possible carrying a 2-hook clipped up rig armed with Kamasan B940 hooks, size 2’s. This rig tends to target the dabs, but has also seen me take the odd March thornback ray, early plaice if fishing in daylight, as well as rockling.

The bulk of fish coming my way will be on the second rod cast close in, usually with 60-yards and often less than half that with the baits right in the white water surf band. With these baits being in the tumbling surf tables, I choose a three boom rig. In rougher seas the booms I use are the short, stiff Shakespeare SALT shore booms. These avoid the worst of any tangles, though I do keep my hook lengths to no more than 10-inches in length and make them from stiffer 20 to 25lb Fluorocarbon. In calmer seas with little surf, I use a longer 8-inch softer boom that gets the hook lengths further away from the rig body line. I also drop the strength of the Fluorocarbon to 15lb and make the hook trace length up to 15-inches.

I like to fish both rigs to a static grip lead. Fish won’t always chase baits in these cold, early year sea temperatures, so make your baits an easy static target for them and you won’t go far wrong.

The night this blog is based on saw me on the beach three hours before high water and I’d fish through until the hour after high water. The surf tables were light, but breaking up to 40-yards out. It was cold with a light easterly wind and with bright stars.

I’d baited the boom rig with two frozen mackerel baits and the middle with sticky black lug. The long range rig went out with sticky black lug baits tipped with sandeel and mackerel.

It was no surprise to see the close rod tip start to show action first. I began with a whiting double, both on mackerel. These were decent whiting which have stayed late here in North Wales this year so far. I added more whiting, but then as the depth in front of me increased as an inshore gully filled with the flooding tide, I dropped the baits just 20-yards out right in to the middle of the gully.

Barely a minute passed before a small rattle shuddered the rod tip. It was obviously a flattie and I left it. It rattled again, then pulled over. I felt the tugging of a flattie as I reeled in but there was more weight there and a sizeable whiting with a plump flounder on the bottom boom broke surface. I weighed the flounder before releasing it which was short but thick bodied and was surprised when it went over 1.5lbs. I kept adding whiting, inevitably had a couple of dogfish, then another flounder, more whiting, followed by a single dab. All were on mackerel, nothing fancied the worm.

The long range rod had been a waste of time until high water. But as soon as the flood got underway I started getting bites at long range to lug. These were tetchy bites, so I dropped down to size 6 Aberdeen’s from size 2’s and started picking up dabs, but not big ones, plus more rockling before packing up.

I tend to keep these trips short to no more than four hours and time them either over high water or to coincide either side of low water, which are the best times generally speaking. I rarely fish by day, always at night as the fish forage closer in at night and in better numbers. To be honest, smaller neap tides can be just as good as bigger spring tides, so I don’t worry too much about the tide I’m fishing.

My baits are nothing special either. I rate frozen mackerel as good as anything for these early year flounder, and this will also take the dabs and whiting, though for the dabs I prefer frozen sticky black lug and tip with mackerel or sandeel to pick out the bigger fish. The turbot take sections of sandeel or razorfish, with the bass, codling and rockling hitting the lug again.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make at this time of year is to continue on fishing big lug baits hoping for cod that for the shore angler in most areas just won’t be there. It’s far better to drop down in hook and bait size and target specifically what species are likely to be in front of you and enjoy the moment. The bigger fish will return soon enough and you’ll keep your confidence high in the meantime!

The weather forecast, as usual, was way out. What should have been an easy 10mph southerly breeze turned out to be a steady 25mph side wind gusting to 35mph…oh and it was raining too, which also wasn’t forecast!

Not letting circumstances cloud my optimism I set up and fished the first hour down to low water with no result. But just after low water a series of bites produced a few inevitable dogfish, plus small conger to 5lbs or so.

I felt a longer cast might find a better fish, so eased off the magnets on the 535 and blasted a big mackerel and bluey cocktail way out in to the night. The side wind made fishing, and especially bite detection, difficult at times.

The bait had been out about ten minutes when I noticed a slight slackening of the line and then a retightening. I watched this carefully expecting the rod tip to pull over, which it eventually did, but only just. Not enough for me to strike yet. I had the feeling that the conger, which I was sure it was, was feeling the line tension. I released a few feet of line to give it some slack, and within a few seconds the line fully tightened as the eel made off with the bait and I struck.

There was a good weight there and the fish kicked hard. It fought close to the seabed for the first few yards, but rod and reel pressure soon tired the fish and it broke surface about 15- metres away from the rock ledge. It looked a double figure eel, but with me deliberately using heavy traces with bigger fish in mind my mate was able to gently swing the eel up and directly in to a convenient rock pool.

It weighed a shade under 10lbs and a few casts later I got one just over 8lbs. A good start to the year! It would have been nice to start the year with a double figure fish, but sizeable eels are good fun to catch, so no complaints!

Just a week later I was out on another deep water rock ledge, this time on a big spring tide. The wind had gone due east and this is never a good wind direction for fishing in my area. I changed tactics for this session and put up two rods, one with a big bait for the conger and hopefully huss, plus a rod armed with a 2-hook rig with smaller size Aberdeen hooks for any smaller species.

The night was again slow to start, but I picked up dogs, shore rockling and a couple of tiny strap conger close in. As the tide flow picked up I found a few more conger on the big baits, but none of these would have made more than 6lbs. I also added some small huss, in fact these were some of the smallest huss I’ve come across for some time. The session ended with no big fish, but the post New Year period is always hard going and you can’t expect to bag up every time. It is about catching what is in front of you first and foremost, then adapting tactics to target any possible big fish.

An interesting note to these trips is that the two marks are only a couple of miles apart, but the first mark that produced the bigger eels always fishes best with mackerel and bluey fish baits, at the second mark the eels want only whole squid. Fish can be hard to understand at times!

I’ll be out after flounder in my next blog, as the January to February period can produce some good surf fishing for these.

For many, 2012 had little chance to live up to initial expectations. To say the weather has been bad is an understatement. The constant flooding, high winds and constantly coloured seas tainted by flood water has made the fishing hard and seen many missed or lost trips. Having spoken to scores of anglers and skippers in the course of the year, received hundreds of e-mails and good old fashioned letters, it’s obvious most sea anglers have had a less than easy time. A few inevitably have done well catching great fish and enjoying generally good fishing, and to those I offer genuine congratulations. But most sea anglers, me included, can look back on only the occasional red letter day.

My red letter days were catching shore cod on the fly in Iceland to over 6lbs, two fantastic days off Wicklow with skipper Kit Dunne on the Lisun bagging several Irish specimen smoothound. A string of big cod aboard Malc Jones’s Sea Angler 2 off Plymouth, the best just shy of 20lbs, and all on light tackle and soft plastics. I had some big tope in Ireland, some big boat huss, plus a great day catching shore pollack on the fly.

Yet we anglers are forever optimistic. As a new year dawns our thoughts forget what’s gone before and we look forward to new opportunities, new species and ever bigger fish.

I’ve said before I never make New Year resolutions, but in 2013 I have several things I aim to do. One is to fish much more than I was able to last year. I didn’t get any new species in 2012 either for the first time in many years, so I’ll be looking to bag at least two this time around. I want to get more short session plug sessions in for bass during the summer and autumn as I did well for numbers of bass in 2012 using this tactic. I also still have that 50lb shore conger I want to land as prime target, and I’ll be putting time in on this as next autumn arrives. Just a few intentions then and it never hurts to have a basic plan in mind. But as ever, I will keep an adaptive approach and work around whatever the year throws at me.

My thanks to all those who’ve mailed and posted their thoughts, problems and catch reports throughout 2012. It is always a pleasure to hear from you as to what’s happening around the UK, and indeed overseas as well.

I’d also like to wish you all a very happy Christmas, offer my very best wishes for 2013, and as ever say Tight Lines for the New Year to come!

My own area of North Wales saw some of the worst flooding, and as a consequence catch reports fell away. What tends to happen is that many anglers choose to wait for both the conditions to improve and for others to get out, catch some fish and report back before they will commit to a trip themselves. But I’ve still been out fishing, and by targeting fish that I knew were there, I’ve enjoyed some good sport.

I deliberately chose venues well away from estuaries, and even ignored beaches where I knew small streams flushed across the sand. This to give me access to water that at least had some stable salinity levels. I also concentrated my fishing over the three hours before high water and the first hour of the ebbing tide, as this period sees incoming fresh sea water dilute the effect of any present flood water to a major degree.

My targets were mainly whiting, dabs and flounders. The reason being I knew in the conditions that these would be the fish I was most likely to catch. I see little point putting out big baits in the faint hope of a decent cod, if my logic tells me the fish will be elsewhere and out of range.

I kept my tactics simple too. I fished two rods as always, one in close cast between 25-yards and 60-yards fishing baits right in amongst the surf tables, and the other out at maximum range for the dabs, but also as a “suck and see” option.

My choice of rigs was a three boom rig in close, and a 2-hook clipped up rig at range. The boom rig, in these conditions, will out fish any other rig for me and on the trips made was often catching triple shots of whiting, mixed in with the odd flounder. The long range rig took way less whiting, but found me dabs in good numbers as the dabs stay further out than both the whiting and the flounder on the shallow beaches I fish.

Bait choice has been simple. I use fish, mackerel, bluey and sandeel for the whiting, and sticky black lug for the dabs. All bait with a high scent factor! The winter flounder I find take a mackerel or a bluey bait just as good as they do worm, so I tend to work the fish baits pretty much all the time on the boom rig in close, and will only use the worm at short range if catches are slow and I need to experiment to find out if the fish want combo baits, as can sometimes occur.

The other thing I find keeps me catching in these tough times, is to keep both baits and hooks small. I use Aberdeen hook sizes 2 and 4 mostly and adjust the size of my baits to these. And for the whiting try adding one luminous green bead above the hook, as this seems to increase the catch rate in murky water of bites are hard to come by.

Some anglers in the weather conditions we’ve endured try to continue fishing as before and don’t adapt. Inevitably their catches are poor or non-existent because they carry on targeting fish that are just not there. Many years ago I did the same and you get in to a rut of not going fishing at all. Yes you mainly target smaller fish, but it keeps you fishing and catching, and maintaining momentum and confidence is important. These thought through short session trips, as and when possible, achieve exactly that.

We knew from last year’s stocks that there would be a fair number of fish in the 10lb bracket giving anglers new to offshore fishing their best chance yet of bagging a double figure fish. But last winter also saw fish in the 15 to 18lb class, as well as 20lb plus fish, also a few 30lbers and even a couple of 40lb plus fish. This indicates that those fish surviving from the 15 to 18lb range will be 20lb plus fish now and these are already showing, especially in the English Channel. The 20lbers from last year are now pushing close to 30lbs and the 30lbers really piling the weight on and not far away from reaching that magical 40lb barrier. If there are any of those 40lbers from last year still swimming, then there is a real chance of a 50lb fish this year from one of the deep water wrecks. Much will depend on the weather either side of Christmas, and especially in the New Year as to whether an angler gets lucky and puts his bait or lure in front of one of these leviathans. It’s all about time at sea reducing the percentages in favour of the angler and that we have little control over.

Now most anglers will still think that fresh bait, typically three big squid, a whole cuttlefish, or maybe a whole mackerel flapper is the way to target these fish. It is still effective, but my feeling is that lures are the way to go for these big fish and here’s how I intend to set about bagging one of these comeback cod.

My rod and reel need to be powerful but light in weight and sensitive to what’s going on below. For this specific job I’d personally choose the Penn Rampage 20/30 Braid rod and match this to the Penn Fathom 15 reel loading with 30lb Fireline. However any 20lb rod matched to a 20lb class reel with 30lb braid will do the job nicely.

I always attach a shock leader of 30lb Fluorocarbon to the braid. This acts as a shock absorber when a big fish hits the lure and dives during the fight, plus adds a clear buffer zone between the coloured braid and the end tackle.

The rig is simple. Slide on a long plastic hollow boom, then a 5mm bead and tie on a size 4 rolling swivel. To the swivel I add 5-feet of 50lb Fluorocarbon. As I mention so many times, I prefer the Fluorocarbon as it’s stiffer than mono so tangles way less, but more importantly it is much more abrasion resistant than mono when coming in contact with wreckage. For my fishing, Fluorocarbon is vitally important!

With a suitable lure attached to the end of the trace and a weight added to the link on the boom, the fishing technique is to drop the lure and rig to the bottom, when you feel the lead hit bottom, remember the 5-foot length of the lure trace and retrieve about 8-feet of line. This positions the lure up off the seabed about 3-feet. Now simply lift the rod up and down using only the wrist to add an easy up and down motion to the lure. You’ll find the fish take mostly as the lure drops back towards the seabed. Make sure the weight attached to the boom is big enough to keep you fishing vertically. It is okay to angle the line away from you a little, but you must keep tight to the seabed for this method to be effective.

If bites don’t come at this depth, retrieve 5-feet of line and try at this depth level. Usually though the cod are within 10 to 15-feet of the bottom and very close in to the wreck. Any that’s another point, although tackle losses are not overly heavy using this method, you will lose some gear, but the big fish are in amongst the wreckage, so live with it if you want the big cod!

What about lures? The new Shakespeare Devils Own Hellfire weighted shads did well for me on big cod during field testing last winter, and did so again on a trip to Iceland last summer, so these are a proven lure for big cod. I will be using mainly the larger 6-inch type. All the colours genuinely caught for me, but I did especially well on days when the water was clearish with the Pearl/White type. This is because the light from the surface reflects through the body of the shad and creates the illusion of life. If the water is carrying some colour after a blow, then I’d fish a bright coloured shad, maybe one of the Berkley Ripple shads in a yellow/purple.

I also did well using the Hellfire worms in 8-inch. I fished these on the same rig, but used a 1oz Berkley jighead to weight the worm and fished it identically to the shads. The Berkley Powerbait Flex Slim 7-inch shad is another good lure, but again should be fished on a jighead.

When booking boats, you have to take the days that the skipper has free and that fall in with your work schedule, but if possible, try to fish the first three days after the smallest neap tide of the cycle. Looking back over my lifetime, generally speaking, these have been the tides that produce the best cod fishing with February the key month.

Good luck!

The tope fishing in the southeast of Ireland can be exceptional, but it is still somewhat in its infancy over the banks off Wicklow town, though Kit is rapidly putting that right with consistent catches of good tope.

Due to the fast tides found of this coast, the fishing is done at anchor with the scent from the collective baits streaming off downtide and filtering through and over the numerous sandbanks to lure in the fish. Kit also puts down some mashed up fish and chunks to increase the scent value.

The tackle required, even with the fast tides, does not need to be overly heavy. I chose a prototype Penn 2-speed reel loaded with 30lb braid matched to an MTI 20/40 braid rod.

I watched the lads aboard who had fished here before bait up with whole mackerel on 8/0 hooks, but my personal experience is that even for big tope, a whole mackerel can be too much. This fish will pick up the bait run with it, then drop it. I prefer a half or third of mackerel body and use a 6/0 hook positioned with the hook stitched down the length of the bait to leave the hook well exposed.

I also fish a 50lb wire trace about 15-inches long. Other anglers and skippers use 150 to 200lb mono, but fish get lost when they bite through this, hence the wire.

Eight baits went over the side. It was about 40 minutes before we had the first run, but this was a pick up, short fast run, then the fish dropped it. I re baited to make sure my bait was oozing fresh scent, then waited.

Some 10 minutes later, I saw my rod tip slightly pull over and spring back. I picked up the rod, had the reel in free spool with my thumb on it. I felt pressure come on the line and let the line gently spill off the spool as the fish picked up the bait and ran with it. I let it run for only 25-yards or so, then flipped the reel in to gear and let the rod pull over to the weight of the fish and set the hook.

In this tide the fish powered off downtide ripping line off the reel. It paused briefly, then went again. It sulked now, head down in the tide. It turned and ran again, then started to swim uptide with me frantically retrieving line to keep in touch. It turned back and sulked deep down behind the stern of the boat. Steady pressure started to tell though, and it slowly came up suddenly breaking surface about 30-yards away. It fought to the last, but was eventually lifted aboard by Kit. I mentioned coincidence, and guess what, this fish also weighed 35lbs when weighed in the sling!

One of my tope caught during the day

There were three other tope between 20lbs and 30lbs for William Walsh, Gerry O’Connor and Mike Hennessey, plus a few lost tope that picked up the bait and dropped it. But while all this was going on we had some real excitement at the cabin end of the boat too.

Willie Walsh with a fine tope.

Skipper Kit is a very experienced and successful boat match angler. Because he had experienced anglers on board he was able to put a rod out himself. This was a 12’ boat match rod with a supple tip used with a fixed spool reel. He was casting his bait uptide.

His rod tip hammered over and the reel started to whine as line ripped off the spool. He really had to hammer the hook in with this soft rod, but the fish was on and bored off down tide on a long searing run. This was a long fight, the tope taking line and hugging bottom, with Kit pumping the rod hard to get line back and pressurise the fish. It was stalemate for a while in the running tide, but gradually he gained on the fish. It broke surface right at the side of the boat and was lifted in for photos, recording and release. We weighed the fish aboard in a safety sling at about 37lbs! Though elated, Kit has been working hard trying to get an Irish specimen tope aboard his boat this past season, the specimen weight being 40lbs or by length a fish off 1.6-metres. So close, but still a great fish! However, everything comes to those that wait!

Kit Dunne with his light tackle tope.

A couple of months later and right at the end of the tope season, Kit got that specimen fish, a tope measured at a little over 160cms in length and with a big girth, so without doubt well over 40lbs, and to cap it all it was caught by his father. Having measured the fish, and concerned for its safety, the fish was returned to the sea immediately without official weighing, so we’ll never know the actual weight.

Kit Dunne's father with a specimen tope.

If you’re in the area next summer and would like to sample the excellent tope fish off Wicklow you can contact Kit Dunne on the following….

Kit Dunne Mob: 00 353 87 6832179
E-mail: info@wicklowboatcharters.ie
Website: www.wicklowboatcharters.ie