Tope fishing

[tommy a]

Chaps,

Ive been told of a place where there might the odd tope or two near where our boat is moored. What I need to know is how I go about tempting the buggers to venture in my direction.

Was thinking of putting a load of makeral and squid all chopped up in a biat dropper or onion bag over the side and then freelining a fresh makeral fillet - does this sound about right ? Will this scent draw them our way - is that how tope fishing works ?

Any help would be bgreat thanks.

Tommy

[Ben]

i have only tried it once befor but we just used a normal bottom rig but with a wire trace and a big hook on the end, bait was a fresh whole macky or a macky flapper
i know people do groundbait like you say though

[JuanPablo]

tommy not sure if the boat is in wales or exmouth??? the groundbaiting is a way to attract the tope to your area but unfortunately it also attracts those pesky dogfish!!! therefore i would advise going for a big flapper bait rather than a fillet!
if the boat is in the bristol channel just remember that the tide lumps through so quickly that if you groundbait during the main flow or ebb it will be a couple of hundred yards downtide before it hits bottom! for this reason i would groundbait heavily for 1.5hrs over low tide then as the tide starts to flood, if you are in the right ambush spot the tope should be passing through and pick up your scent trail!
definately go for wire trace and dont forget to have a rubbing leader on aswell as the topes skin is like a super sized dogfish and having more power enables them to frequently rub the line and wrap themselves up and generally do what the hell they like with your end tackle! lol
other than the end tackle being beefed up you can use a nice light uptider or 12lb class rod no problem -