It was back in June 2021 and the catching of a Tope from the shore was at the forefront of a few conversations with my long time friend and fishing companion Chris, it was a species we found interesting from both having a love of all things sharks. A rough plan was put together, from a few internet searches and speaking to a few anglers it was going to be a toss up between Scotland or Wales, from previous experience I’ve found Wales to be busy with both anglers and holiday makers. Scotland was to be our destination and with Luce Bay been the Mecca for the Tope festival’s for the Boat anglers it must be a good starting place, we spent hours looking at Google Earth searching for likely spots that offered access to clean ground and where you could expect the tide lines to be within casting range. After earmarking a few promising spots it was all on the weather window and the big tides coinciding, it wasn’t long before the forecasts looked favourable and we were soon loading the van for a road trip.
We had both been at work all day Friday and not wanting to waste any time so we opted to drive through the night, excitement was high and the journey passed in a blur and before we knew it we were pulled in the lay-by behind the first mark. I suggested a couple of hours sleep before hitting it hard but Chris was already out the van raring to go, we donned our studded waders and head torches and went to investigate. The mark we had found wasn’t what we expected the rocks were pretty hard going and didn’t really offer us much of an opportunity to fish, it was still pitch black at this time so other than what we could see under torch light we were searching blind, so straight back on Google Earth. Just to the right of this rocky out crop there looked to be a cobble beach, it had to be worth an investigation and we hiked round, this looked better and over low water we would be able to get a line well out in to the tide. By this time the sun was just starting to make an appearance and we witnessed a beautiful sun rise over the mountains on the other side of the bay.

The weather running up to this trip had been settled for a good 3 days prior and the lads on the boats had been catching well from the reports we had seen with a lot of Mackerel shoals present in the bay, things were coming together nicely. Personally I think it pays to pick your windows of opportunity and try and go at the drop of a hat rather than just setting a date and sticking to it regardless. It was fast approaching low water now so we didn’t waste any more time getting back to the van for the gear and set up base on the pebble beach, not knowing of anywhere close to hand on our first visit that could guarantee us catching a bucket of fresh Mackerel I opted to order some earlier in the week from a local fishmonger I used to work for years ago. An expensive option I know but expensive bait is better than no bait and we were here to fish for Tope, the bait was extremely fresh coming from a day boat landed at brixham arriving at the fishmonger Friday morning after traveling on the overnight transport and my Wife saved the day collecting them whilst I was at work. My set up was pretty straight forward the big boy rods came out to play, a Pair of Century T1000’s fished with braid on a fixed spool reels, long pulley rigs with a bite trace of 90lb wire. Baited up with fairly decent offerings of fresh Mackerel and cast out as far as possible, with the size of the baits this was probably about 120-130yards these gave off an incredible slick on the surface from the fresh oils and blood from the bait.

It was time to keep a scent trail going out down the tide and hopefully a few Tope could pick up on, to achieve this regular casts of about half an hour at a time would keep the constant flow of attraction out there. By the second set of casts the tide had just started to flood in, and out of the blue the left hand rod just nodded once and bent double in the rest with line screaming off the spool and a huge slick broke the surface where the fish had taken the bait. I couldn’t believe it we hadn’t even been here long I picked up the rod cupped the spool with my hand and leaned back in to the running fish instantly the pressure increased, “Fish On” this was an angry fish viscous head shakes followed by 50-60 yards runs of pure power that couldn’t be stopped. This happened multiple times and lasted for over 10mins but slowly I gained ground on the fish, and it was soon in the shallows charging about it was at this point I noticed it was only just hooked in the lip and with these death rolls it could soon unhook itself.
As it came in again I said to Chris to grab my rod and I would grab its tail and secure my prize this went smoothly and to plan and she was mine,

I quickly unclipped the rig and sent Chris back to the tripod with the rod and to bring our big weigh sling down. Once the fish was safe in the sling we carried her up to an unhooking mat at the top of the beach where it was level and set about unhooking and weighing this mini Great White, to say it was only just hooked through a small bit of skin at the edge of its mouth it was still a forcepts job to get it out. It was at this point I realised both Mitzi and Chris were scared of this apex predator. We got it lifted up on the zeroed Reuben’s and after the needle had done one complete revolution decided to settle on 38lb, what a creature I was definitely more than happy with that result and especially so early in the day. Some brilliant pictures were quickly taken and back she went, I held her in the edge for a good 5 minutes before she decided it was time to go and just watched in ore as she swam off in the crystal clear Scottish waters

The rest of the trip was not as eventful with a couple of dropped runs presumably from smaller pack fish and a couple of the dreaded dog fish rounded the session off, really I couldn’t have asked for more, a Tope and beautiful weather on the first trip. Even though Chris didn’t get a Tope he was just excited to return as I was and the journey home was spent planning our next assault on the Scottish waters and Mission accomplished.