TOP TOPE ARE TAKEN...
■ Tope sport has kicked off for shore anglers fishing the coast of North Wales, with fish to more than 50lb caught.
A 50lb-plus tope took a live pollack fished by Dave Cave, of Holyhead, Anglesey, while targeting a local rock mark over low water.
There was a first tope of the year for Matt Phillips, of Pwllheli, who was fishing at the local Gimblet Rock. The 38lb fish, one of two he landed, fell to a joey mackerel.
While fishing on Kelley’s Hero, out of Hayling Island, Hants, Arthur Mahoney caught a 33lb tope caught off Selsey.
Fishing a whole mackerel on a wire trace,
Benito Gilmore, of Aberaeron, Ceredigion, caught a 29lb 2oz tope at a local mark.
Kenny Hughes caught a 28lb tope on a rock mark in North Wales. The fish took a whole fresh mackerel on a size 8/0 hook, while Tomos Wyn Hughes caught a tope measuring 56 inches long from a local mark on the Llyn Peninsula, Gwynedd. He fished a mackerel fillet on a pulley rig with a size 5/0 hook.
Kody Sherwood, of Taunton, Somerset, boated a tope of 36lb 8oz while fishing on Reel Deal, skippered by Dan Hawkins, out of Ilfracombe, North Devon.