Ian Draper caught this massive 64lb tope from Peter Churchill’s Moonshine. This has been an awesome season for tope and Peter seems to find the best spots for his clients! To book, contact Peter on 02392 787295

I’ve been out a few times in June, and finally broke my duck for Tope yesterday. Plan A was to catch mackerel for bait and go to a couple of marks in Utopia in deep water in fairly big tide. Plan B was go to Sandown Bay in shallow water for easier fishing for bream if no mackerel.

Plan A actually worked! Me and my brother caught 4 tope between 8-14lb and lost half a dozen by striking too early, but great fights on fairly light tackle, especially when the tide was running hard.  Thought they would be double the weight from their size and fight, but the scales don’t lie…  The crushed hook barbs certainly helped for quick release. Plenty of doggies and a spotted ray in between the tope bites too.

I really must get the gear and learn the Alderney Ring method of anchor retrieval! It would have been impossible for me to haul anchor from the bow on my own halfway through the flood (would have been even worse on the ebb!) and I only just about managed it with my brother using the engine to carefully follow the anchor, and even then it pretty much wiped me out…

ps: unbelievably, I managed to survive all day until 10:30 pm without the football score being leaked to me

Perfect finish to the day watching the highlight 😊

Steve Fordred, Spoonbill

Our first trip on Osprey and success for co-owner Matt Morgan!

We headed out into Bracklesham Bay (not too far from the harbour entrance on the first trip!) and fished the ebb tide initially near the wrecks but moved further east until getting toward the broken ground near The Hounds, all in about 10-12m of water. This mark fished nicely with catches of Wrasse, small Pouting and Pollack and also the ubiquitous Doggy. Looking forward to hitting more marks, and catching more fish – the holy grails for us both are a double figure bass for Matt and a Turbot for me! Maybe one day…

Will Denby

Caught by Essex angler Dave Jordison, this tope weighed 40lb

Those who are prepared to experiment often find the new killer method (although there are plenty of experiments that don’t work!) The latest “discovery” is to use wafter baits for bream. These are buoyant artificial baits developed for carp fishing, which balance the weight of the hook and bait making it wave enticingly. They usually come in colours designed to attract in murky water, and a scent as well. Combined with a squid or cuttlefish strip  for bream they can be deadly. Last weekend, all the bream I caught were on 8mm pink tuna flavoured wafters, none took the plain baits. You need to use fine hooks – short shank Aberdeens are ideal, and thread the wafter up the shank. Nick a strip of squid or cuttle (I was using cuttle as you can see from the black stains) to the hook and hang on to the rod ready for that classic beam bite that drags your arm off!

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From Steve Holt:

I was going to go out on Saturday, but the forecast changed so went out today instead and what a superb day it was, almost tropical.

I decided to head for a mark I liked the look of on the Utopia but I first stopped off at Deans Tail to try for some Mackerel and was lucky enough to find 4 on my first drop, so I didn’t hang around for long before heading out to the Utopia where I dropped anchor into about 86ft of water, it was about a couple of hours after low water and the tide was already pushing through resulting in needing 1lb of lead.

The lead has barely hit the bottom when the clutch on one of my lever drags screamed away and I was in to my first Tope of the season, not a big one but still around the 20lb mark, then two minutes later the other lever drag screamed off and this felt like a decent fish and at times it was taking more line than I could wind in aided by the strong tide, after 15 minutes I eventually had it alongside the boat and realised I would have to net it tail first and let it drift in to the net  and upon lifting it in to the boat I could feel it was quite heavy, so I got it into the weigh sling as quickly as possible and it tipped the scales at just over 35lb, so well chuffed.

I had a couple more smaller Tope of around 15lbs. But that was pretty much it with the tide now screaming past the boat to the point that the anchor was dragging, the Utopia curse had struck again as with my last boat I could never get a Bruce anchor to hold on the Utopia until a local skipper suggested I try a traditional Fishermans Anchor which solved the problem, so tomorrow I will be out to buy a 10kg anchor.

I tries a few places on the way back for Mackerel, but nothing doing, probably because the tide was too strong, but next weekend the small tides are perfect for my new mark, let’s hope the weather plays ball.