(In association with Mike Thrussell’s web site sea-fishing.com)
Shore fishing for tope always gets talked about in the past tense. It’s those supposed good old days in the 60’s when shore tope were numerous and easy to catch. At least that’s what the old timers tell us. Fact is, shore tope were no more easy then than now. You’ve just as much chance of hooking a shore tope today, providing you focus on it.
You’d think that the dinghy anglers working close to shore in shallow water would also score better than they do. Problem here is that they suffer from the “Bigger fish are always further out” illusion. 
Tope are not generally deep water predators, their size and shape suggests they are designed to work the shallower inshore areas where competition from other large fish is non existent.
Dinghy anglers and the beach boys are actually targeting the same fish. This feature explores ways in which you can score best with a hard fighting opponent that most anglers pass off as “Yesterdays fish!”
SHORE TOPE
Where to fish
Shore toping needs to be concentrated along the southwest and western coasts of England, Wales and Scotland.
Working westwards, possible venues are the Milford Shingle Bank in Hampshire and there are reports of large, fast running fish hooked and lost by anglers after sole at Taddiford. Chesil Beach sees occasional tope hooked, and undoubtedly the coves of Dorset hold tope.
Prospects improve into Devon with most clean sandy coves, open beaches and rocky headlands putting you within casting range of the packs. Into Cornwall, it’s the same with numerous sandy beaches and coves, but far more rock headlands like those around St Just and also Godrevy Point and at Padstow, all of which have produced past tope. Most famous of all is Baggy Point in North Devon where ray White took the Current UK shore record at 58lbs 2ozs back in 1982.
Forget the Bristol Channel other than for the occasional sub 10lber, but southwest and west Wales gets you back into the open beach and rocky headland country beloved by tope which produced big fish during the 60’s and 70’s. In North Wales, the beach at Dinas Dinlle was another shore tope mark where history was made with fish to 48lbs.
Smaller sub 15lb fish are occasionally hooked along the Fylde Coast and dinghy results suggest that bigger fish are possible, but summer shore fishing in the area is a shadow of that in the winter when the cod are running. The Isle of Man gives the most consistent success with fish reported to 50lbs from several marks, especially the Lhen.
Big potential in Scotland with marks at Balcary and Rascarell a good bet, but again not fished much in the summer. The rock marks on the Isle of Whithorn and the beach at Luce Bay, and then take your pick from any rocky headland giving onto clean sand and the seaward marks of the saltwater lochs along the whole west coast.
SEASON
After mild winters, in Devon, Cornwall and Southwest Wales April fish are possible. On the whole it’s more likely to be late May and especially June that gives the best chance. Early July can give odd fish, then through to mid September is poor, but the fish move back tight to shore for a brief spell around the end of September and early October.
In Morecambe Bay north through Scotland, then expect the fish to be closest during June and early July only, but in Scotland tope are possible anytime after mid June from the deeper rocky headlands through until late October.
TIDES AND WEATHER
Tope like a running tide, so the fish only come close in during the big tide cycles. Surprisingly though, the very biggest tides are not the best. It’s the smaller cycle of big tides after the full moon rather than those after the new moon that bring the bulk of fish in.
Middle sized tides and the neaps are waste of time, unless you’re fishing very deep water off a rocky headland in the autumn.
When fishing the edges of coves and the headlands, the first two hours of the flood can produce fish, but better is the two hours before high water. Few marks produce fish when the ebb tide is underway.
Most success seems to come if you can combine dusk with the pre high water time. This applies especially from the beaches, and to some extent from the rocks.
Rocky headlands produce fish best in overcast conditions by day, though individual fish are not put off by bright sunlight. Tope tend to move offshore by full darkness, though a bright full moon can keep fish feeding much longer. Dawn should also be a good time, but records show fewer fish hooked during this period.
Tope only move inshore during prolonged periods of high pressure bringing warm, humid weather, no wind and flat calm seas. The best conditions of all are the evenings when the air temperature is oppressive under an overcast sky with thunder imminent.
FISH HOLDING FEATURE
Tope are free ranging fish with ground feature not of prime interest to them. What is important, is to try to find a vantage point that puts you onto the edge of a tide run. Always opt for the ends of the beaches towards cliffs and rocks, rather than the middle of the beach. This is why the rocky headlands are so good, because the tide is concentrated around their points.
On the open beaches, pick out areas of sand banks through which the fish can work, and obviously any deeper channels, gutters and dished out areas that also filter the tide run.
BAITS
Tope are not opportunist feeders like most other predators. They move in close in the early summer to feed principally on sandeels and to a lesser extent on school bass and small flatfish.
In the autumn, it’s not surprising that their inshore movement coincides with the whiting shoals migration onto the beaches.
So, for early summer fish use sandeel, either fresh, or frozen like Predator and Ammo products. In the autumn, go for a whole whiting.
Tope will take fresh and frozen mackerel and herring baits, but as you can see, mackerel does not feature to any great extent in the topes inshore diet. The tope are inshore when the mackerel are still offshore in the spring, and when the mackerel are moving back offshore in the autumn the tope are coming back in.
Presentation is very important. The sandeel, either fresh or frozen, should have the tail fin and head snipped off, then pass the hook down through the tail and out through the body repeatedly sewing needle fashion until the hook point comes out at the end of the body cavity. Now whip it to the hook for casting with thin bait elastic.
Herring and mackerel baits should not be whole fish, flappers, nor fillets. These give poor casting results and can see the hook point masked by the bait on the strike. Instead, cut only the tail section from the fish, remove the fin, then pass the hook through from the tail end bringing the point out just past the middle of the bait. Again, binding it tight with elastic thread. This tail section needs to be no more than 3 to 4ins long.
Whole whiting in the autumn should be up to 5ins long. Slash their flanks with a knife to release the scent. As with the sandeel, pass the hook sewing fashion down from the tail along the back between the dorsal fin and lateral line towards the gill cover. Try to get the last penetration of the hook to be just in front of the gill cover, then pull the hook through underneath the gill cover and through to give a strong hold with the hook point clear. Bind the tail with shearing elastic to the line for streamlined appearance.
Presented this way guarantees you an unobstructed hook point and also maximizes casting distance when the bait is hooked up to a bait clip.
TACKLE
Listen to stories of lost shore tope and it’s either snapped lines or not enough line to stop the fish running that’s cost the fish. The correct choice of reel is crucial.
Only two reels have the necessary pedigree. That’s the ABU 7000 series and the Daiwa SL30SH. They both have a reliable clutch that will not burn out and has a wide degree of pressure setting, but more importantly they will both take well over 300yds of 15lb line and cast a sensibly sized bait to long range. Both these reels come supplied with a reel clamp and this should be used, even if your rod is fitted with a proper reel seat instead of coaster fittings.
Fixed spool reels do have a place. Second choice to the multipliers from the rocks, but not necessarily from the beach. They hold more line and allow you to cast out as the tide is flooding and then walk backwards leaving a bait maybe 200 to 300yds out, yet with enough line to play the fish. The problem is in a much weaker clutch system and the line having to dogleg around the bale arm roller.
Rods need to be true casting blanks, but with a semi forgiving tip. This requirement is dual purpose to both ease the stress on the bait during casting and also to swallow some of the sudden stress that a tope changing direction and diving can put on the relatively weak line. A top of the range casting pole like a Zziplex Bullet, Daiwa Whisker Tournament, or Conoflex Tournament are by necessity too stiff to fully protect 15lb line against a tope. At the same time, the blank needs lots of power in the mid and butt section to dish some stick out during the fight.
RIGS
Another area where the greatest consideration is needed. Most anglers fish a fixed paternoster using a 3′ hook length, but this is not a good choice, either off the rocks, or off the beach.
The problem is that the with a fish hooked the hook length at only 3′ can come in contact with the topes tail, the tope could be over 5′ long. Also the trace to the lead is dragging behind and prone to snagging when the tope is brought close in. The following pulley rig casts well and creates a much longer hook length.
Take 4′ of 60 to 75lb mono. Tie a size 4 rolling swivel to the base, then slide on a 5mm bead. Now pass one eye from another size 4 swivel down the line, another 5mm bead and then tie on a third size 4 swivel which takes the hook length. The hook length is in two. Tie in 18″ of 50lb line, then 18″ of 60lb wire with a size 6 rolling swivel as the connector between line and wire.
The base swivel needs 9″ of 60-75lb mono tieing on, then slide on a bait clip, followed by a 3/0 Mustad oval split ring to take the weight.
The best hooks are either the Mustad Viking 79515 for the bigger fish baits, or the Mustad Aberdeen 3261BLN for sandeels, either in 4/0 or 6/0, depending on bait size.
When the fish is hooked the hook length pulls through the top swivel until it meets the bead infront of the base swivel making a hook length of about 6 foot and minimizing th chances of the topes tail contacting the hook length and also avoiding the free hanging lead snagging in the inshore rocks and shallows.
STRIKE AND FIGHT TECHNIQUE
Having cast out, set the reel in free spool with the ratchet on. Tie both the rod and rod rest down, but use a long lead on the rod so that you can strike the fish and play it without having to remove the lead. On a sandy beach, use a monopod stuck deep in the sand rather than a rod rest.
Tope usually nod on the rod tip before taking line, but then they’ll scream away taking up to 75yds of line. Let this go against the ratchet only using the tip of the thumb to stop overruns if necessary. The tope will then stop.When it stops, put the reel into gear, flick the ratchet off and wait until the tope takes off again letting the rod arc over and pull the hook in against a lightly set drag. This tactic generates another long run from the tope. Use side strain by dropping the rod to the side to turn the fish if required.
The tope will slow and may show itself on the surface in shallow water. When it wants line, let it take it. When it stops, start pumping the fish hard to tire it. That second run is nearly always the most difficult to subdue. Following runs are slower, more dogged, but shorter.
Expect the fish to run parallel with the surf when it gets into the surf tables and it may try to roll, both from the beach and rocks. Rock hooked fish will dive down below your feet in a final escape attempt.
On the beach, wade in and grab the fish’s tail by the wrist and drag it ashore. From the rocks, you’ve little choice but to gaff it under the chin where little damage is done and slide it up the rocks to a safe unhooking platform.
Either remove an easy hook with pliers, or cut a stubborn hook free from the wire and leave it in the fish to rot away. Return the fish by holding the wrist of the tail and the dorsal fin. Let the dorsal go first and hold the fish until it gets it’s energy back and wants to swim away. You’ll need to wade out to deeper water on the beach.
INSHORE BOAT TACTICS
Where to fish
The areas highlighted for shore fishing are obviously excellent for small boats to try their luck, but in addition dinghies working off the Sussex, Kent and especially the Essex coast can do well, and even those as far north as the Wash have excellent inshore potential which remains unexploited at present, though locals here tell of fish to 70lbs in nets and rod and line fish to over 47lbs.
SEASON
The season remains the same obviously for the south and western coasts of Britain, though the tope linger in ones and two’s later this bit further out until the middle of August then move to deeper water, but this differs slightly as you head eastwards. From Sussex through to Essex, although tope are taken in mid April, it’s May and June when the fish are working the more inshore sandbanks. Unlike the west coast there is little if any autumnal run with the fish pushing further out to sea and staying there from mid summer onwards. In the Wash, tope show late in May and run through June over this shallow, sandy ground, again disappearing by late July.
TIDES AND WEATHER
Everything said about the shore tope regards tides and weather patterns are applicable to this inshore dinghy work, except that the fish are less reliant on prolonged periods of calm weather and are happy to stay working ground within a few hundred yards of the low water line providing the depth is a constant 20′. Only a really strong onshore blow will push them out.
FISH HOLDING FEATURE – CLEAN GROUND
Any change in seabed contour over clean ground like a swing to shingle, a series of shallow sandbanks, or tide gutters are places to sit and wait with baits in the water. The tope are usually in packs over this ground and sweep through an area cleaning up the food supply.
The knack for real success is to find a series of features that lay in line with each other down the tide. The tope swim with the tide across these feature lines picking off frightened fish that scatter as the tope arrive.
Such ground really needs to have a depth of about 25-30ft to hold the quantity of smaller food fish to keep a hungry tope happy. They feed mainly on whiting, flatfish, scad and small codling here, maybe eels near estuaries.
Slack water periods are usually slow, with the fish appearing at the start and end of the main tide run.
UPTIDING
For any clean ground in water under 30′ you’ll be wise to uptide. Dinghy anglers are bound to know enough about uptiding without our need to explain it again here, however, there are a few tips that might add to the catch. Mix up an amount of minced mackerel and herrings, adding bran and pilchard oil in a small plastic container with small holes punctured in it, tying this to the anchor chain. This doesn’t really attract the tope, but it does pull smaller whiting, dabs, etc, which in turn interest the tope.
With two anglers aboard, fish two rods each and span the casts out at differing distances, say 20yds and 40yds, but with one rod cast straight out from the stern downtide and into the dubby slick.
The best baits are small whiting cut in half, flapper whiting, or a dab cut in half diagonally then using the head section with the guts for scent. Mackerel is okay, but even fresh does not take the same number of fish that the other baits do. By all means use eel section, but it seems to be a much better bait along the east coast than it does elsewhere.
UPTIDE TACKLE
With no snags to worry about choose a multiplier like the ABU 7000 or Daiwa SL30SH holding 300yds plus of 15lb line. You can afford to choose an uptider with a length nearer 10′ than 9’6″ in a dinghy and this gives more control over a tope which will come to the surface and thrash about, the action created by a longer rod is also more forgiving from the tip to the middle section which protects the 15lb line.
For a real thrill, drop to a carp rod or 10′ spinning rod, 10lb line and a small multiplier and the lightest lead you can hold down with. You’ll then realise just how much a 5oz lead weight affects the power and fighting capability of a fish.
FISH HOLDING FEATURE – REEFS
Tope are really at home over the shallow reefs that work outwards from the shore. The depth may be no more than 15′ in places, but the tope are there and feeding. Two fish form the bulk of their food in spring over the western reefs, school bass and scad. Add black bream to this list where appropriate, anything else is just unlucky. In the east, school bass are the topes main inshore interest.
They use the tide again to work along the reefs lower contours, often picking a line following the edge of the reef where it joins the clean sand. But when bored with this, they swing across the reef itself casually nosing in to deeper holes, working around the weed beds, gaps in the reef and even crossing the top of the reef to drop down the other side.
Reef fish prefer to work the down tide side of the reef as the tide is running, but can be everywhere and anywhere over slack water periods.
FREELINING
This is THE killer method over the shallow reefs. You need a bait with bulk and weight, so go for a whole mackerel or scad, though a large whiting or small pollack or coalfish is better. Slash the flanks to release the scent, then pass the hook once through eye sockets or down and out through the bridge of the nose.
The boat should be anchored near enough to the incline of the reef on the uptide side. Freeline the bait away slowly keeping the line tight until the bait reaches the junction of the reef. That’s one way.
A better method is to use a balloon to trot the bait to exactly the spot you want the bait to be, then release the balloon and let the bait fall to the seabed. Do this by tying a length of 25lb mono to the hook length swivel, then as you knot the balloons tag end form a loop in the mono and trap this just held inside the balloon knot. A couple of good pulls on the rod will pull the balloon free and release the bait.
TACKLE
You need to stop or turn these fish, so up the reel line to 20lbs, maybe even 25lbs if the ground is really rough. Use an uptider with lifting power through a stiff middle and butt section. The best reels are again the ABU 7000, or the Daiwa SL30SH and the ABU 9000C for more line capacity.
BOAT RIGS
For uptiding, use a flowing trace rig with a 6′ hook length from 4.5′ of 50lb mono and 18″ of 60lb wire ending in a Mustad 79515 Viking hook size 6/0. Have the hook length mounted just above the weight to keep the bait close to the seabed. Also use a short 15′ 50lb casting leader as added protection against the topes rough skin.
For freelining, tie 4′ of 60lb mono to a size 4 rolling swivel, then add 18″ of 60lb wire and again a Viking 6/0. In a really strong tide you may need to put a half ounce or ounce ball weight above the hook length on the leader.
BIG FISH POTENTIAL
Both in the west of Wales and in the Thames Estuary May and June sees large female tope close inshore to drop their pups. If you want to break the tope record, then this is the time to do it. It’s a hunch but The Wash also has a run of large females at this time, but very few boats are trying for them.
