The search for an early summer tope found me revisiting old haunts. Wicklows northern beaches, which were a second home twenty years ago rarely get a visit nowadays, gurnard, pin whiting, small dabs and dogfish, the survivors of a once great mixed fishery failing to stir the blood. Settled weather however had encouraged tope to venture along the shingle bank and a well placed whole mackerel might just get the rachet buzzing.
Popping out the first cast into a dropping neap tide round 22.30 pm with the ebb tide easing, slack water into the first two hours of the flood may produce a run. Even using whole mackerel to a 7/0, home constructed wire trace, seven foot of 150.lb mono to thirty feet of 60.lb shock leader, the doggies got busy pulling and gnawing until the bait was small enough to cram into their little mouths. Shortly into the flood a staccato rather than a sustained burst of the ratchet signaled a more significant interest, cue a nice little spotted ray which was more or less it for the session.
It was nice to cast a line eastwards again, Howth twinkling to the north and an ever expanding Wicklow town doing likewise to the south. The two Davids made for good company, a turf fire adding a touch of ambiance added to by the constant passage of ships heading towards Dublin port, deck lights betraying their presence. Tope didn’t show, however they are present and the summer, allowing for the impending solstice, in a fishing sense is only beginning……..
