Greystones in Co Wicklow is fast-becoming the number one venue on the Irish coastline for tope fishing. Stephen Hanway can certainly vouch for that. As a member of the nearby Greystones Ridge Angling Club, this intrepid angler has become an expert when it comes to the art of catching these extremely large animals on his local patch.
In October 2018, Greystones came up trumps for the Dubliner with a record-breaking tope of 34.02kg (75lb), to exceed the 39-year-old record set by Cyril Young of 30.2kg in Carlingford Lough in 1979. Last weekend Nanway went one better with a fish that was “well over 70lb, but conditions were too rough to get to shore to weigh it”, he said.
The tope (Galeorhinus galeus) appears to have taken over at Greystones and is now regarded by many anglers as their number one target species. They are a powerful fish and give an awesome fight on rod and line and can grow to 80lb. However, fish in the 20-40lb range are more common.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, I can recall it was an entirely different species which, again, put Greystones on the map. Cod (or codling) were much in abundance. Fishing the “Ridge” out to the Mouldich Buoy was a sure bet to bring home a bag of fresh cod.
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The surrounding seabed was a wealth of mussel and, indeed, it followed suit for the angler to have a bucket of shelled mussel at the ready to entice these scrumptious species. The annual “Knights of the Silver Hook AC” (the oldest sea angling club in Ireland) competition, which attracted hundreds of anglers, allowed only cod to be weighed in!
To further cement the tope theme, the club will host a two-day “Monster Tope” festival at Greystones on August 20th and 21st, 2022, on a strict catch-and-release basis and anglers will be supplied with an ID card to clearly show photograph of fish.
There is an extensive list of prizes, including a first prize for longest tope of a Poseidon 500R, Diawa Kenzaki boat rod and €200 voucher for Southside Angling. There are no cash prizes.
Entry fee is €60 per person for the two days and a deposit of €20 to accompany entry form (non-refundable). Closing date for entry is July 31st.
For further details and entry form, contact club chairman, Robert Cooper at 087-250 8408 or secretary@grac.ie.
Basse success
Howth angler, Joe McPeake caught a rather unusual species last week wreck fishing for shark 18 miles out from Cork. While taking in whiting and mackerel at a depth of 300ft, he noticed a big fish darting out from under the boat.
He managed to land the fish, which was a stone basse of 6lb 5oz (just under the 8lb specimen weight), and was duly released unharmed. Stone basse are known to hide under floating objects and ambush smaller fish.
As for the shark outing, his day concluded with one blue shark to the boat and the loss of a porbeagle.
Brown-tag draw
To boost conservation efforts, anglers who wish to keep wild salmon from the Lower River Lee in Cork are being reminded that “brown tag” regulations are still in force until the season closes on September 30th, 2022.
The final online draw is scheduled for Monday, August 8th, and the deadline for entering is 5pm on Thursday, August 4th. For the fourth and final draw, 38 tags will be issued, bringing the total for the season to 152 brown tags.
Anglers interested in entering the draw are asked to fill out the form online through the following link: fisheriesireland.ie.
Those who are not allocated a brown tag are only permitted to fish for salmon on a ‘catch and release’ basis on the Lower River Lee.
Further details are available at fisheriesireland.ie, or by calling the Macroom office on (026) 41221 or emailing 2022corkleebrowntag@fisheriesireland.ie.
If you have an angling story to share, please send to me at angling@irishtimes.com.
