Fishing for Tope at Blue Anchor Bay

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by
Tristan Bawn

Another trip to Blue Anchor bay in Somerset nearly turned out to be a washout, but hey it's August!
We arrived at the sea-wall in the nick of time. The tide was reachable with a decent cast and a big tide was predicted so we were hopeful of a good session. Although the weather was looking a little suspect.

We chose a spot on the sea-wall where the beach varies from sand to slightly rocky areas where we hoped something would be patrolling - especially the dogfish and tope.

Our rigs consisted of a 2-hook clipped rig with size 1/0 hooks and a single hook clip-down rig. On the single we put on a nice chunk of mackerel and on the two-hook rig we used two strips of squid.
As Alastair was new to sea-fishing we were sharing rods and taking it in turns to strike on a clear bite. This time I was to have ‘first go’ at striking and it didn't take long before the rod with squid on started to bounce about and out of the choppy brown water came a small tope! Not a monster but a tope all the same, and the first fish to be caught on the sea-wall so far. A great start.

Around 20 minutes later Alastair struck on the same rod and also lifted a small tope up the sea wall. This was great because it meant another new species for Alastair and it was just in the nick of time as the heavens then opened and we dived in to the car!
Alastair with his Tope

That was about all for us on that tide but as it started to get dark we could see excitement building further up the wall where a small lad was fishing with his dad. The lad lifted a strap conger which almost as long as himself. It was great seeing him so happy with his catch and posing for his picture.

There was also talk of a few big smoothounds being caught there so we will be back for sure. No huge fish but a great trip none the less.