Popular Post Scotch_Egg2012 Posted January 30, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted January 30, 2022 (edited) Headed back out to last week's mark to see if we could bag some more Spurdogs. We had a small weather window and around 10am it was almost a spring like day 12 degrees on the thermometer and the see totally flat. Spurs didn't read the script and didn't show but we had a nice by catch of Blonde rays, Smoothound and a very nice 40lb+ Tope which we managed to loose whilst trying to get it on board, weren't prepared for it so had to improvise the landing on rigs that weren't up to the task the end result was very predictably challenging and not entirely unexpected. The big ones are always a pain to land. Edited January 30, 2022 by Scotch_Egg2012 Dicky, mick, thejollysinker and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 Nice going Scott. 👍🏻 Shame about the tope however!! Scotch_Egg2012 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotch_Egg2012 Posted January 30, 2022 Author Share Posted January 30, 2022 47 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said: Nice going Scott. 👍🏻 Shame about the tope however!! That's the 3rd bigger one we've lost boat side going to find a different way of landing them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 3 hours ago, Scotch_Egg2012 said: That's the 3rd bigger one we've lost boat side going to find a different way of landing them I'd be interested in how this pans out as I would not want to hurt a fish unknowingly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzook12 Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 54 minutes ago, Malc said: I'd be interested in how this pans out as I would not want to hurt a fish unknowingly. We generally tail them over with a rope Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotch_Egg2012 Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 10 hours ago, suzook12 said: We generally tail them over with a rope That's the route I'm looking at Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Lovely session. Very envious. Well done both of you. 👍 Scotch_Egg2012 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike farrants Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 nice couple of rays and a good sized tope - the one in my profile pic was around 40lb, and was a right struggle to get in - we went for the rope round the tail method but in a 6knot tide that wasn't easy - pushing the rope up-tide around the tail was near impossible - it took us 20mins from the side of the boat to get it in the boat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Best to T Bar off in the water, it’s safer for you and the fish… If you’ve got a water level door or swim platform you can drag onto that but an angry tope can cause a surprising amount of damage… Scotch_Egg2012 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzook12 Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 4 hours ago, Odyssey said: but an angry tope can cause a surprising amount of damage… Amen to that!! They do like to give a flash of those pearly whites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotch_Egg2012 Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 6 hours ago, Odyssey said: Best to T Bar off in the water, it’s safer for you and the fish… If you’ve got a water level door or swim platform you can drag onto that but an angry tope can cause a surprising amount of damage… We only try to weigh the bigger ones as they're likely to be a PB or boat record, anything below 35 estimated gets T barred off. I was trying to land exactly like that onto the swim platform and then through the stern door, the rig must of had a nick or been rubbed as I got it out up to it pectorals before the 80lb rig body parted just off from the wire. I hate leaving tackle in fish so wasn't best pleased with that. suzook12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotch_Egg2012 Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 (edited) 10 hours ago, mike farrants said: nice couple of rays and a good sized tope - the one in my profile pic was around 40lb, and was a right struggle to get in - we went for the rope round the tail method but in a 6knot tide that wasn't easy - pushing the rope up-tide around the tail was near impossible - it took us 20mins from the side of the boat to get it in the boat! We faffed for a similar amount of time, tried the net. Did think rope but we were in 4kts of tide so scrapped that idea. I think the dog grabber type tool is likely the way I'll go if I want to boat them. Edited January 31, 2022 by Scotch_Egg2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 45 minutes ago, Scotch_Egg2012 said: We faffed for a similar amount of time, tried the net. Did think rope but we were in 4kts of tide so scrapped that idea. I think the dog grabber type tool is likely the way I'll go if I want to boat them. Rope will twist a treat… Get a massive landing net or tail it with a trailer if you want to land it 🙂 Scotch_Egg2012 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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