Freelining for Tope

Tope are beginning to be permanently married to the uptide technique. Yes, in some areas downtiding is more practical and successful, like in the southern section of the English Channel where deep water dominates, and in southern Scotland, but overall you cast to catch tope.

What a waste! Tope are like all fish, their habits and habitat change with the tides and the seasons. Stick to casting, and your season will be shortened and limited. By adapting to different methods and different ground you can maintain contact with the tope right the way through the summer.

One such method is freelining. It's practical in all the recognized areas, both east and west, where tope move into relatively shallow ground, but it's rarely used.

Cardigan Bay tope

Too many charter boats, and dinghies for that matter, seem obsessed with the idea that all the biggest fish live further out in deep water. They actually pass over the tope in the initial stages of their journey to the distant horizon. It's a case of the "Grass being greener".

The type of sandbanks and reefs you're looking for lay within a mile or so of shore, and have only 25 to 35ft of water over them. Tope often show in far less depth than this when the food supply warrants it. Neither are these fish small, east coast fish should run 20lbs plus, and west coast fish run anything up to 50lbs.

As a further hint, try fishing close to where you know school bass herd sandeels, and the pockets of slightly deeper water over reefs where mackerel and particularly scad collect. Tope are partial to the odd schoolie and scad.

Also target the outer fringes of sandy coves where the tide races past the quieter water inside the bay.

USING THE TIDE
There needs to be some tidal run over this inshore ground, but being so close inshore it should be lessened, and ideally, be just enough over the early flood period to let the bait go 50 to 60yds away from the stern of the boat before touching bottom.

If you can position the boat at anchor to sit slightly to the side of a main run of tide as it flows along an obstruction, like the edge of a sandbank or reef, then do it. Tope run along the edge of the tide picking off smaller fish trying to work their way into calmer water. Incidentally, tope always work hard on the seabed swimming into the oncoming tide.

Locate the uptide edge of a reef or sandbank and anchor above this so that the stern sits about 70yds away. Allow the bait to wash downtide until it rests at the base of the incline. The tide flows upward over this edge leaving a pocket of quiet water wedged tight against the lowest part of the incline. Food gets washed in to here and the tope know this.

The size of tide is also critical. In areas of fast tides, expect the best fishing to be on the smaller neap tides. It's not so much that the tope are not present on the bigger tides, but you'll find it impossible to fish with a freelined bait, and more likely, the available food supply will be elsewhere in more sheltered waters.

Where tide runs are not generally fierce, the period of tides just before and just after the bigger springs prove best. But not the biggest tides of the cycle. These rarely fish well.

WEATHER
The best fishing is always when the sea is calm and you can see the passing tide creating little boils and whirlpools on the surface. Hot conditions are good, but bright sunlight tends to keep catches down. Overcast conditions, even drizzle are the best.

BAITS
You have a choice here, but it has to be whole for the weight, obviously. Mackerel is favourite simply for ease of purchase. Scad are excellent and prove tough for the inevitable crabs to make inroads into when the fishing is slow. Whiting are good, as are pout, small pollack, and especially codling. The baits need to be about 8 to 12ozs in weight, or you can chop slightly larger fish in half which does add scent. The whole baits should have their flanks slashed to add juices to the water too.

Surprisingly affective is squid, mounted in doubles and trebles to give a big bait with lots of scent. It's tough again, too!

BAIT PRESENTATION
The bait is big and will likely be turned by the tope head on after being picked up sideways in the mouth. To use this to advantage, mount the hook, either through the eye sockets of the deadbait, through both lips with the hook point coming through on the top lip, but best of all is by passing the point of the hook in just infront of the eyes and back out through the skull as in the photograph. This gives a solid anchorage, good presentation, and excellent hooking potential.

After long periods of settled weather, the tope become lethargic and less keen to feed. You can still pick up fish by choosing the smaller baits, cutting the tail off, slicing up the backbone to free the fillets which stay attached to the head, yet retaining the backbone
for increased scent distribution.

Fighting tope on light tackle

Experienced anglers fishing an area where small pack tope are the norm may choose to drop down to a 12lb blank and smaller multiplier. Risky, but fun!

TRACES
With main line of only 18lbs you'll need a rubbing leader of heavier 50lb mono just in case the tope tries to rub up against the leader, or worse, tries to roll up in it. This often happens. The length of the leader needs to be about 15ft, which allows the leader to be on the reel spool when the fish is at the boats side. Some anglers tie a swivel to the end of the leader and tie in another 5ft of 50lb mono for extra security.

The actual hook length needs to be 18ins of 50lb wire with a swivel crimped at the leader end, and a small open loop of wired crimped at the other. A 1/0 oval split ring goes onto the wire loop and allows damaged hooks to be replaced when necessary.

Speaking of hooks, there are only two real options. Either the Cox and Rawle Uptide Extras, or the tried and tested Mustad Viking 79515, both in sizes 4/0 to 6/0. There is no need for heavy wired hooks on 18lb line. Reducing the barb a little helps the penetration of the hook and makes removal easier.

METHOD
Baited up and ready go, then just let the bait fall overboard and be swept away by the tide. As it leaves the boat, let the reel spill line from the spool under a controlled thumb. Only give line as the bait wants it. If you release too much line too early, the bait will fall to the bottom, wedge, yet the spilled line goes on downtide and can snag the seabed if a tope takes the bait and heads off to one side of the boat instead of downtide.

Having slowly released about 60 yds of line, then leave the reel in free spool, but with the ratchet on, and wait.

Bites are generally dramatic and instantaneous. Little if any prior warning is given on the rod tip. Within a split second the ratchet screams to full pitch as a tope steams in, grabs the bait and runs. Do nothing. Let it run until it stops. By this time you should be picking the rod up and knocking the ratchet off leaving the spool in free mode controlled only by your thumb.

This static period sees the tope move the bait to the swallowing position, ie head first. Only as it starts to move away confidently do you put the reel into gear, lift the rod to the near vertical, and allow the line to tighten which is enough to pull the hook fully home under sensibly set drag pressure.

The first run is the best taking upwards of 50 to 100yds of line with the tide as an ally. There is a lot of head shaking and protest before a second, much shorter run ensues. From now it's just dogged pressure and resistance as they are brought to the boat. But watch for a final surface run into the tide, then downwards as they see the stern of the boat loom large.

Once beaten, they should be grabbed by the wrist of the tail and the dorsal, gently lifted in to the boat, hook removed, fleetingly admired, then returned quickly and gently to the water.

CONCLUSION
Freelining techniques suit the versatility of the two man dinghy crew better than a larger party fishing aboard a charter boat. Some skippers do use the method very successfully, but only with understanding crews that are willing to sit it out through long periods of inactivity. Few do!

The shallow draught of the dinghy, it's maneuverability and quietness in the water make it the ideal platform for close quarter topeing. Get the right dinghy and crew, in the right place, and the numbers of tope taken can be staggering.

There is also the likely hood of one of these big, whole, naturally presented baits being taken by a monster bass that frequent the same type of ground.

TIPS
Slightly stagger the distance away from the stern of each bait you fish. Tope patrol particular set routes. A bait 5 yards outside such a route may be ignored.

Cut one or two of the baitfish up into small inch cubes and add these to the tide a couple at a time every 30 seconds. These will lodge in holes and against rocks adding a faint scent to help the tope home in on your area.