On June the 4th, John and 11 year old son Nicky arrived from Leicester for a days fishing. The Mackerel has disappeared and we managed to get a few sandeel. The only mark we could fish was a trifle rough but plucky Nicky - on his first trip - stayed with it all day (the other two boats gave in and ran for shelter). He and his dad had well over a hundred Pollack to 8 pounds. The sandeel took the bigger fish but Nicky must have had 20 fish on a small rubber eel. Well done to him.

The same day Pike angler Dave Hygate from Edinburgh arrived for two days fishing with other members of the freshwater club. They had a few decent fish on the 4th but hit the jackpot on the 5th with the best days Pollacking so far this season. Dave Hygate caught our biggest Pollack for two years with a fish of 14 pounds 4oz on a Pike spinning rod. His next two fish were 9 pounds and 7 pounds.Well done Dave for a great performance! We must have had well over 200 fish that day and all 4 anglers had fish approaching ten pounds and if they had had heavier line (14 pound Trilene was popping like cotton) they would all have had doubles. I had my first double of the season with a fish around 12 pounds.

At last on June the 6th we managed our first trip for the Tope. Onyer Marks set out to the Scares with regulars Jim and son Scott Lyndsey from Lesmahagow. It wasn't buzzing but we had four Tope to 32 pounds and a specimen Bull Huss of 15 pounds.

The 7th of June brought a great trip for East Kilbride Anglers aboard Onyer Marks Too. They had plenty of Pollack to 7 pounds but the fish of the day was a 5 pounds 8 oz Ballan Wrasse for Alex Bryans, which is 1 oz. off the Scottish record (weighed on primitive £5 scales) and the biggest Wrasse we have had in 14 years chartering.

Saturday the 8th of June saw Tope for all boats, with Go West being the top boat with 8 Tope for Jay Goulding's party from Morecombe. This is the first time Spike on Go West has had more Tope than me, so well done to him. I managed 4 Tope and four double figure Bull Huss for John Lambert's regular party from Leeds. The next set of small tides should produce the big numbers we have come to expect in June and July, weather permitting.

The weather changed and we lost Sunday 8th and two boats worth of fishing on Monday 9th to the weather. I was persuaded to go out by crazy regulars Jimmy Storey, Mick Firman and John from Cumbria - and what a day it turned out to be! We were just a few hundred yards offshore in a South Westerly six. Apart from John taking the only Tope of the day we had 12 Bream to 2.5 pounds . Even Mick was distracted from Gurnard fishing. From me not fancying going out, it turned into to be a trip to remember. This is a rare event for us as we have previously only ever caught one Bream before this day. I just hope this wasn't a one-off fluke. Time will tell!

Don McKeracher's regular party from Alloa fished the weekend of the 15th and 16th of June. They had plenty of decent sized Pollack, with the best fish going to Brian with a Pollack of 11.5 pounds on Onyer Marks Too. Spike, on Go West, helped himself to his first double of the season (picture left). 

I have been booked solid for Toping trips, but because of the poor weather am struggling to produce as I can't get to the grounds. However, we have been picking up a few Tope inshore on the Ray marks and the same mark that produced the Bream. I have had Bream on this mark the last 5 times I have fished it, so it has become a very popular bad weather mark. From the three skippers point of view, it's nice for us to offer something different to our regulars!

Noticeable performances this week was 3 Tope for Alan Blenkinsop from Richmond aboard Onyer Marks, and 3 Bream and a fifteen pound conger for John Armitage on Onyer Marks Too. We have a small window in the weather tomorrow, June 20th, so the three boats are hopefully getting to the Scares Tope grounds for only the second time this season!

At last the season has really got under way, The three boats fished the Scares on Thursday 20th of June. Although it wasn't buzzing all boats had fish. Top boat was Onyer Marks Too with seven Tope to 45 pounds with the aforementioned John Armitage hooking 5 of them. Well done to John.

I managed 6 Tope to 42 pounds and a 15 pound Bull Huss for Scott and Ranch Brockbank and Kirt Musgrove from Morecambe.

Spike on Go West had 5 Tope, for Dave Allen and Lee from the North East. Kurt Musgrove also helped himself to a 10.5 pounds Pollack the following day on Onyer Marks.

Ruben Saunders and friends arrived from Carlisle and fished the weekend of 22nd and 23rd of June. He had a field day on the Pollack with many fish to 9.5 pounds and the weekend was completed with 4 Tope on the Sunday. Ruben's quote was "fishing doesn't get any better than this."

Cedric McMillan, arrived with the usual Hex crew on the same Saturday to fish aboard Onyer Marks,  we had Pollack and four good sized Tope. Cedric fished by himself on the Sunday and was rewarded with 7 Tope. He left a seriously happy chappy. On the same day Spike on Go West had our best Tope of the season with a Tope of  60 pounds for regular Guy Stewart from Coatbridge. The pleasing thing about these last few mentioned Tope is that the majority have come from a mark less than a mile off shore in just forty feet of water. In fact it's the same mark that is consistently producing the Bream. Believe me, the Tope go like a wild banshee in these shallow waters.

Monday the 24th of June saw the best days Tope fishing so far this season for Brian Hurst, Dad Brian Hurst and colleague Mark Roberts from the Midlands aboard Onyer Marks. They had 14 Tope with Brian Hurst Senior picking up the best Tope of 45 pounds. This is by far the best ever inshore day that I have had with 12 of the 14 Tope coming from the 40 ft deep Bream mark. WHO NEEDS THE SCARES? The last four days have produced some great fishing in near Westerly gales, when probably the majority of Britain's Charter Fleet has been tied up because of the weather. Long may the Westerlies continue!

Tuesday 25th, and I had one of my most enjoyable Toping days ever. Brian Hurst and Mark Roberts had 20 Tope between them. The buzz factor was that the Tope were flying in the shallow water and were doing 360's around the boat, and twice we had to remove fish from the anchor rope.

On June 29th With poor weather being forecast I decided to return to the Bream and Tope mark with regular Baildon, Yorkshire, anglers Graham and Richard Boardman and Richard McVey. Within 30 minutes Richard McVey thought he had snagged the bottom, I pulled for a break and felt a fish move. After a 5 minute battle he (Richard Mc) eventually pulled in the biggest Conger I have ever seen in Scottish waters. It was well over 6 ft. long and must have beaten the Scottish record of 48 pounds. Estimates put the fish just over 50 pounds. No one was more surprised than me to see a fish of this calibre from Muscle beds. Before I had time to return the fish Graham Boardman was in to a 45 pounds Tope. We had three other Tope that day.

June 30th saw Jonah (alias Alistair Robertson) break his duck with three Tope to 45 pounds aboard Go West. He had four trips booked with us last year and each time brought a gale eight with him. This year, on his Oban 2002 and May trip, he also brought gale eights. We nicknamed him Jonah and people were ringing to book trips and asking when Jonah wasn't fishing! On June the 30th he finally brought some decent weather and was rewarded with these three fine Tope. Well done to him for persevering.

To sum up June I can only say, that considering the weather we had some fantastic fishing. I appreciate not all anglers went home as happy as they might have done due to the weather, but the inshore Tope fishing was a big bonus to us, particularly as we were hitting the Bream on the same mark. We in fact fished the Scares (our best Tope grounds) just twice in June. The Pollack fishing was steady if not buzzing, mainly because we couldn't get round the Mull for nearly the whole of June.

What a start to July we had, with the regular Wirral anglers (holders of the most Tope in one day record of 42 Tope) They fished Monday to Friday and basically wanted as many species as possible in the five days. I had heard that commercial fisherman had been netting a few southbound at the top of the bay near Sandhead. We set off in search and within 10 minutes of anchoring had our first ever Smoothound for Howard Royle. (see picture) Two minutes later, one of the fish baits went screaming downtide and we had the first Tope of 10 that day.

I had never even dreamt Tope would get that far up the bay. In 25 feet of water and no tide, Float fishing (our first ever Tope on a float) and freelining proved most effective. I was also greatly surprised when Howard also landed our best two Rays, one a Thornback and one a Blonde Ray (see picture), for 5 years and a Bull Huss for Ken Buchaanan.

On the Tuesday we turned our attention to Pollacking and had another fantastic day with Double figure Pollack for Brian Hobbs and Len Fenton. It was a very enjoyable week with 24 species being caught in total.

Spike on Go West followed me up the Bay on the Monday and had a decent ray and our first Tope caught on a fly Rod for Crawford Campbell. Both Go West and Onyer Marks Too had some fantastic Pollacking during the first week of July. They didn't land any doubles but a constant stream of fish in the 6-8 pounds bracket and plenty of break offs. The other regular Wirral party organised by Tommy Hughes fished on Onyer Marks Too on the 4th and 5th of July. They had a great time on the Pollack, with plenty of Pollack around the 6-8 pound bracket and finished the last day with an hour on a Conger mark and had four fish in the 20 pound region.

All boats had Tope on Saturday the 6th, with the best fish of 50 pounds going to Edinburgh angler Brian Chalmers aboard Onyer Marks. The following day, after a quiet morning with just one small Tope, I visited the Scares with the regular crew from Hexham for just three hours and Cedric McMillan had our biggest Tope of the season with a female fish in the low 60's. This was closely followed by 2 males of 45 pounds and another female of 36 pounds. Special praise is merited for 11 year old Alex McMillan who caught one of the 45 pounders.

The week beginning July 8th was a mixed week regards the Toping. The inshore Tope seem to have disappeared and the Tope are heavily involved in their breeding cycle. I tagged three fish for Mike Monday and his 2 lads from Hull on the 9th, whilst Spike had 8 tope aboard Go West for Cumbrian regulars Jimmy Storey, John and Mick Firman. The same lads fished with me on the 10th and 11th and we had 15 Tope each day to 50 pounds. I must say the lads worked extremely hard for these fish as they wouldn't take a static bait. Leads firmly planted on the bottom produced nothing. The trick was to fish a light lead and constantly drop it back. Many of the male fish were heavily scared, from sex play and they were milking up on the deck. I suspect the fishing could be difficult whilst this is going on.

Graham Monteith's usual crew arrived on Friday, the 12th July, for three days fishing on all three boats, and all went home happy with the results. Although the Tope weren't buzzing all boats had plenty of Tope on the Friday and Saturday, and Go West and Onyer Marks had some great Pollack fishing to 8 pounds on the Sunday. Luckiest angler has to be Scott Gibson, He has never fished for Tope before. I anchored up and Scott dropped in, hit the bottom and immediately his reel screamed off for a 28 pounds Tope. He baited up, dropped in and the same thing happened again, only to loose the fish at the side of the boat. 2 Tope in the first five minutes of his first ever Toping trip is unbelievable, so well done to him!

The weeks beginning July 15th and 22nd produced nothing out of the ordinary. The Pollack trips produced the usual plentiful supply of Pollack to 9 pounds. Craig Evan's party from Newton sea anglers arrived on the 21st and had some great Pollacking with Three double figure Pollack. 

The 4th of August again produced plenty of Tope for our three boats with the most falling to regular Copebridge Anglers, with 10 Tope aboard Onyer Marks. Best fish of the day and worthy of a special mention was a Tope of 40 pounds for 10 year old Stephen Murphy.  Darren Bamborough's party fished on Onyer Marks on the 5th and had 10 Tope with a fish of 47 pounds for Nathan Oldham from Cumbria. Spike had 5 Tope aboard Go West including a male of 47 pounds for Davis Gass.

David Gass and party fished with me on the 6th of August and had a further 10 Tope to 37 pounds. Best performance was by Harry Burgess who had 5 out of the 10 Tope.  On the same day, Spike on Go West fished off Port Logan and had a double figure Pollack for Jill Howarth and had two potential doubles eaten by seals. On the same trip Ken Campbell from Campbelltown had a 47 pound Tope whilst congering on a bit off rough ground.

From the 7th of August until the 17th, the weather again hampered our efforts on the Tope with over a week of windy conditions and no inshore Tope. The Pollack fishing was steady away with plenty of fish to 8 pounds with the odd bigger fish being caught. Big Andy from the Borders had a 10 pounder aboard Onyer Marks on Saturday the 17th of August and his party organised by Peter (Billy the Fish) Dalglish had a great day on the 18th August with 18 Tope to 45 pounds. Spike on Go West had 8 Tope on board for Welsh anglers on the 18th and Malcolm had four on the same day for the other Welsh contingency. They in fact had 2 boats for four days and had good fishing everyday. Hugh Mckelvie and Party (all tope virgins) fished with me on the 19th and were highly pleased with their 11 Tope to 47 pounds. Alan Everington put in a good performance on the 20th with 3 of the 6 Tope caught on Onyer Marks on the 20th. The rest of the week produced some fantastic Pollacking with Doubles for Alan Wagget's party from Skipton and for Pete Stanfield's party from Morecambe with a rake of good Pollack to 12 pounds.

Paul Sharp booked Onyer Marks Too on Aug 24th and 25th and was seriously pleased with his double figure Pollack. Regular Brian Hurst was up on the 26th and 27th with his 10 year old son Joshua. Special mention is merited for Joshua, who never stopped fishing for one minute in the two days and had some good Pollack to 8 pounds. Brian has done a fair bit of Trolling for Bass and we decided to have a go, on the way in, and within five minutes we had the first ever Bass aboard Onyer Marks.
Brian has shown us the way, and to prove it wasn't a fluke I had a two pounder the next day. Lets hope this is the first of many. The last few days of August produced a steady supply of good Pollacking with fish to double figures most days. To sum up August, it was a good fishing month with some great Toping at the beginning of the month and some good consistent Pollacking at the end of the month.

Warwickshire Police Fishing Club booked 2 boats for three days for a Pollacking trip, on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th. They had some great fishing with the best Pollack of 13 pounds 4 oz. going to Bob (name and picture to follow ~ I sense a great caption contest in the making here... - Webmaster) aboard Onyer Marks. Malcolm on Onyer Marks Too had one of his best trips of the season with many Pollack around the 7-8 pounds. Spike on Go West had regular Graham Monteith out on the 3rd, he had a double himself and plenty of 6-9 pounders for the lads. The Tope are proving elusive at the moment but should appear inshore any day now.

On the Bass front I have tried on three separate occasions during the beginning of September and had a few Bass every time. I know need to concentrate on other methods as I have only tried trolling Red Gills and Plugs. The inshore Tope didn't show during the first few weeks of September so I went exploring some new ground over towards the Isle of Man. On September 16th I set off with regulars Graham Boardman and Richard McVeigh, with just 8 fresh Mackerel and a dozen from the previous day. Imagine my delight when within 5 minutes of anchoring and no rubby dubby we had 2 Tope on board. We had a fantastic day with 20 Tope altogether. The following day with the same anglers we had a further 15 Tope. This mark has perhaps opened up a new door for us as the previous best day in September was just 8 fish. The only drawback is that it can only be fished on the smallest tides.

Spike on Go West fished the same mark on the 20th with regular Jim McClenahan and friends, on a much bigger tide. They tagged 3 Tope and missed a few more and had two 15 pounds Bull Huss. Spike recons it was only fishable for about an hour either side of slack water. The weather changes to Easterlies so, we haven't been back there since the 20th although I hope to fish it on the small tides at the beginning of October. I had tagged a 40 pound Tope for a sprightly 72 year old, off Port Logan on the 19th September. The fish totally ignored the large Tope baits including a livebait and picked up a set of baited feathers. This has happened before at this time of year, I wonder if the Tope feed off small sprats etc at this time of the year and baited feathers are more like their quarry.

Nicholson Sea Angling Club chartered three boats for the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of September, Although the biggest Pollack weren't feeding they had a lot Pollack to 8 pounds and Cod to 6 pounds. All trips have produced a steady flow of Pollack throughout September although the bigger fish have been harder to come by in the latter weeks, due to High pressure, brilliant sunshine, and a severe algae bloom. It is nice to be out there on the hot sticky days, but it doesn't help Pollack fishing.

October

October was a steady month regards the fishing. The mackerel moved off earlier than normal and the large shoals of Herring failed to show. The situation wasn't helped by three 60 ft. trawlers working constantly for three weeks within 2 miles of Port Logan. The Tope were patchy, we would tag 3 or 4 fish one day and they would then disappear for a couple of days.
The large wreck 4 miles of Port Logan fished its head off, with Pollack to double figures and Coalie to 7 pounds. The inshore Pollacking was as consistent as ever, with plenty of fish although the double figure fish proved elusive.

2002 Summary

The season started with our annual pilgrimage up to Oban, which was considered a resounding success by the majority of the anglers. (see index for reports)

Looking back over the past season, I can honestly say it was one of my most enjoyable, mainly because we had new challenges with the Bass, Bream, Smooth hound and inshore Tope. Early on in the year we found tope in new territory, mainly because we couldn't fish our normal ground due to the inclement weather. The Tope fight much harder in shallow water with little tide and proved great fun.
The shore anglers were catching Bass in ever increasing numbers and our efforts were proving fruitless, but with a bit off help from regular Brian Hurst we eventually found how to catch a few. Much research needs doing with the Bass regarding sea conditions, state of tide, type of lures etc. etc. but we made a promising start.
This was also the first year we regularly hit the Bream. (we had only ever caught one before this season) and I hope they will return in numbers next year.
We also had our best Rays for 7 or 8 years. As there aren't any local commercial men fishing for them now, the ray fishing should get better and better.
Perhaps the highlight of the season was the Tope fishing at the end of September. Traditionally at this time of the year we are fishing inshore for the Tope but they failed to show in large numbers. So I went 4 miles further South than our normal grounds and found Tope City. We had a week of 10 or more tope a day until the big tides and weather made it unfishable. Whether or not this can be repeated next September, time will tell.
All in all it was a good year for fishing, with perhaps the offshore general fishing being the real disappointment. Providing the government doesn't bottle it with these proposed bans for bottom fishing trawlers the fishing will improve dramatically. History shows that the best fishing in living memory was just after the Second world when trawlers were tied up for 4 years.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers for their business during the 2002 season and to wish you all a merry xmas and a happy new year.


~ Cheers! Ian Burrett  

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