July 2004

Simon Williams Tope Season (so far) - Caenarfon Bay

Spectacular results.  Simon's report follows:

Just to update you on what has been the best Tope season I've seen in 20 years, certainly in terms of numbers.  Myself and a colleague have had 98 Tope in 12 days  fishing!  All the fish were tagged & released or released.  I ran out of Tags very quickly!  Personally I had 76 of them with the best three going 37,37 & 38lb, all on 15lb. test. However most of the fish were between 20 & 30lb.

Combine this with the fact that most of them were hooked in 7-10ft. of water and you can imagine the fireworks! 

Three Days in particular were spectacular!   Day 1, fishing alone, I landed,weighed and released 21 Tope in 7 hours between 18-30lb.- total weight 439lb.  Not to be outdone on Day 2, also fishing alone, I landed (W&R) a further 23 Tope in 8 hours between 16-37lb, 4 over 30lb. - total weight  538lb. This is a  Personal Best in terms of a one day solo catch in terms of both numbers and overall weight.  I kept a better record this day - pencil & paper between runs!!  Total runs - 37!!  Missed 9 and lost 5 - 3 hookhold, 1 leader break and 1 bite-off.  The 'bit-off' occurs when having hooked the Tope  it changes direction so fast & hurtles back to the boat (jaws snapping!) biting through the 70lb. mono leader above the wire on the way!  Moving on to Day 3 - my fishing colleague Keith had arrived for a day's fishing - after my garbled telephone call to get down here - NOW!  We landed (W&R) a further 21 Tope between 10 -29lb out of 32 runs. Slightly smaller average today - total weight 360lb.

Three day total 1337lb. Season total to date 2137lb, between the two of us.

The season is not over yet but the Big Scores have slowed down.  But there's more chance of a big fish now.  As for the season to-date - I've never seen anything like it before in the U.K.  Incredible!!

Conclusion of Simon Williams Tope Season - Caenarfon Bay

This follows on from Simon's first report and covers the latter half of July.  So what of his expectations of a big fish?  Read on.

July produced a further 22 Tope.  Personally I had 16 of them, with my best going 39lb. on 15lb. test. 14 of them came in one afternoon!  I don't know what happened to the 40lb+ fish this year though.  I've only heard one confirmed report of a 55lb fish from Caernarfon bay.  That's compared to Cardigan Bay which has had at least 6 fish reported over 60lb in weight.  Yet the two bays are next to one another.  It's just a different area I guess.  Still I mustn't complain - 120 Tope, for the season, between two is the best  we've ever had.  Total weight 2591lb.  I fished last Saturday - 31st July -. and did'nt get a single run!  Definitely time to go Bassing!  I had a brief shore session on the Sunday and had a 3lb fish.

Fly Caught Zander from Upper Seven

Ron Yee seems to make a habit of catching double-figured Zander on the fly - fish that easily beat the existing IGFA tippet class World Record.  Unfortunately - as was the case with the 14-08 fish he caught in February 2003 on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal - there were no witnesses around at 5:30 in the morning!  The fish was subsequently released.

Here's the fish.  Click on the thumbnail image below to view the full-sized picture.

A fin-perfect specimen of a 12lb 10oz Zander taken 'on the fly', fishing a 12lb tippet.  The fish of a lifetime for many but not even a Club record!  That's held by Ron with his 14 1/2 pounder taken from the Gloucestershire & Sharpness Canal.

Marlin World Cup

Anglers throughout the world compete in this tournament every 4th July.  And this year four of our members - Denis Froud, Peter Gurd, Peter Thomson and David Greenwood - participated in Ascension Island, the Azores, Cape Verde Islands and Madeira respectively.  They fished aboard Harmattan (skippered by Matthias Henningsen), Xacara (Ian Carter), God's Favor (Trevor Cockell) and Xiphias (Elio Neves).

This year the tournament, fished from 8:30 to 4:30 local time, was won by a 'grander' from Bermuda - 1189lbs.  Only the second 'grander' recorded in the 20 years of its running. 

Come the day.  So how did our members do?  Well, apart from a 400 pounder that came from Cape Verde it was somewhat disappointing, in fact  - 'Points de zero', 'Ziltch', 'Nada'!

But that belies a great deal. 

In the lead-up to the tournament David Greenwood, in Madeira, firstly lost a 700 pounder on 29th June and then released a fish estimated at 500 on the Saturday - 3rd July.  There was a flurry of excitement on the 4th though when Balancal hooked into, but subsequently lost, a fish estimated to be in the 700lb range.

Now to Peter Gurd.  Together with Ian Carter Peter had used the three days preceding the tournament to scout potential locations in flat calm conditions and with reasonable water temperatures.  The mark of choice for the Sunday was to be the Princess Alice Bank.  But the weather started to change, with the wind picking up significantly.  Plan 'A' was not practical and water temperatures had dropped by some 2 degrees C.  They eventually worked their way into calmer and warmer seas in the lee of Pico, but no Marlin. 

As a consolation though Peter got the season's first Blue on the Thursday, the 8th - a released fish estimated at 750lbs taken to the north of Faial, off Riberino.  The next day former Club member Harry Marshall, who'd flown out to join Peter, released a similar sized fish on the Condor Bank.

So to Cape Verde.  As I've already mentioned Peter's (Thomson) group had the 400 pounder on 4th but on the Saturday (3rd) they released a fish in the 7 - 750lb range on 50lb class tackle.  A nice fish on 50, and one that took 2hours 15 minutes to leader.  The angler was David Bond. 

They released two further fish in their 5 1/2 day charter - fish estimated at 250 and 500lbs.  Peter reported that throughout conditions were unusually calm, with little or no wind to speak of, and bait was very scarce.

Now to Denis Froud in Ascension.  He, and mixed group of friends and Club members, had had an impressive 10 days before the tournament - more of that follows - but had only seen one Marlin that had failed to 'stick'.  Come the 4th and Denis was fishing alone.  Everything started well.  He released firstly a White Marlin and a Spearfish, had an abortive strike from a Sailfish and a Blue Marlin come up and look.  Then two Yellowfin Tuna.  All the signs looked good but the Blue failed to materialise.  That was until 11 minutes AFTER 'lines out'.  At 16:41 a big Blue took the lure fished on the left 'rigger and a 90 minute battle ensued.  With the fish successfully leadered it looked BIG and they elected to take it in.  17 hours later it went on the scale at 1043lbs - a Club record beating a 953 pounder, that co-incidentally won the Marlin World Cup for Jess Miller in 1995.

And, of course, Denis did get his Grand Slam - Blue, White and Spearfish.  Or should we in fact refer to it as a 'Grander Slam'?

Denis' 1043 pounder taken on the 35' Rampage Express Harmattan skippered by Matthias Henningsen. The Club's first weighed 'grander' from the Atlantic.

Ascension Island - the Fish Bite!

So the 4th July episode was just but one day in what was a very eventful trip to Ascension fishing about Harmattan, skippered by Matthias Henningsen.  Denis was accompanied on his trip by three friends and fellow Club member Jaap Tuit.

Whilst a full report will appear in the next edition of the Club's magazine I have just summarised their catch returns below.  It's important though to bear in mind that this is very much Tuna time, and the low season for Blues.

Firstly then how about the Yellowfin Tuna?  And at this time of year with massive schools of scad present in the waters Tuna shoals can literally be encountered 'busting bait' within a 100 yards of the beach!  So the group had 50 plus school YFT, fish in the 50 to 90lb range, and nine fish better than 220lbs.  220lbs is the limit on the scales currently on the Pier Head.  Denis' best fish was estimated at 225lbs and Jaap's at 250. 

The larger fish were taken, as incidential catches, trolling plastic for Marlin whereas the bulk of the small fish were taken in the evening chunking whilst anchored on the edge of the drop-off.

It was during these chunking sessions that the group would also fish the bottom, 700' down, for the Six Gill Sharks.  Jaap released an estimated 1200 pounder, but he also cranked up what has to be the smallest I heard of to-date - a fish estimated at 150lbs.  At times the bottom appears carpeted with Six Gills but I guess once in a while the 'babies' do get to eat!

On some of these sessions the group found it next to impossible to get the baits down for the Six Gills - they were being intercepted by Galapagos Sharks.  But on one occasion Denis did get an offering down AND had to wait 5 minutes for a bite.  Believe me that's a long time when fishing for Six Gills in Ascension.  From memory the record's 38 seconds!  Any rate Denis finally got a classic Six Gill bite and after 90 minutes forced it up to the surface.  It was obviously BIG, the normal fight time appears to be around 40 minutes.  Matthias leadered the fish and it very rapidly dragged him across the deck before he was forced to dump the wraps.  Then there was a tremendous BANG!  Denis looked down and his 130lb stand-up rod had literally broken on the locking nut, just in front of the reel seat. 

So what was it?  Neither Denis nor Matthias saw the fish.  But the crewman did get sight of what he claimed was a shark in the 6 metre - 19 foot - category.  Even allowing for some slight exaggeration it was obviously very big.  Speculation as to what it was seems to centre round either a massive Six Gill, a Tiger or perhaps even a monsterous Galapagos Shark.

Sticking with the Galapagos Sharks they're plentiful around Ascension and the group did release 26 fish, whilst anchored and inshore, in the 100 to 200lb range.  However pride of place went to Denis who, two days before catching his big Blue, caught a male fish of 310lbs.  As such it's more than a 100lbs better than the existing All Tackle World record and naturally Denis will be claiming it.

Then billfish-wise.  In total the group had the one Blue, two White Marlin, 7 Sailfish and a solitary Atlantic Spearfish.  An interesting assortment!  The Sailfish went up to about 90lbs and the Whites to 80.

That just leaves some of the back-up species.  They had a solitary Wahoo, 2 Horse Eye Jacks in the 20 to 25lb range, countless Black Jacks and numerous species of Snapper from the shore.  Then anchored up they hauled up loads of Bullseyes, a deep water Snapper, and 20 plus Oilfish to 80lbs in weight.  (Treat the Oilfish with great care they have nasty hook-like structures on their scales!)  All in all they had something like specimens from 30 different species.

Well the section was entitled 'the Fish Bite' - well one bite more that the lures or baits.  A Moray Eel lurking in the shallows attacked the leg of a certain Dutchman, wading in the surf with his fly rod.  The eel's reportedly OK, but Jaap needed 5 stitches in a leg wound!

Reports from the Island

And in this instance the Island's not Ascension but the Isle of Wight.  Each Summer, in late July/early August, Thresher Sharks are encountered off the Island but they're never prolific, more akin to the proverbial Hen's Teeth.  In fact, looking back, I can only remember five having been recorded by the Club from this venue.  So that really puts into context Danny Vokins two Threshers.  Danny reported landing Sharks of 80 and 210lbs out past the Nab fishing 50lb stand-up tackle.

Alright this next piece is stretching a point.  But it was from two of our Isle of Wight-based members - Dave Moore and Mark Jones - who combined a family holiday with some fishing in Cuba.  Whilst they found the reef and shore fishing excellent the four days they ventured offshore were disappointingly slow. 

Mark had an excellent light tackle Amberjack - a 65 pounder - on 20lb test.  But they did hook into several unstoppable fish on the reef, probably Jewfish - sorry non-PC, in IGFA parlance, Goliath Grouper.  And trolling, just off the edge, Dave had King Mackerel up to 37lbs again on 20.

Also, fishing from the shore, Dave had a very creditable Barracuda - a 25 pounder - and an 8 1/2lb Gray Snapper.  Both were taken on 12lb test.

All in all they landed specimens from 15 different varieties.

Additionally Dave reported that they sighted some big Tarpon rolling, but they failed to hook into any, and that the Bonefish were similarly noticable by their absence.