A SARK SHARK IN THE NIGHT
If you’re ever sitting on the fence, deliberating whether to go fishing, just do it. Every cast puts you a little bit closer to that personal best fish. We’re all guilty of procrastinating, and the truth is that a night blanking on the coast is nearly always better than watching mindless television. This is the story of my first proper tope, and the circumstances that led up to it.
A decade or so ago, I was fishing in Hampshire chasing turbot and rays at a place called Paddy’s Gap with an old pal, when I happened to reel in a baby tope all of 15 inches long. At the time, it was always good to see a new species but it was certainly nothing to write home about. I have watched on as friends have caught them through the years, often travelling as far as Wales (from Dorset) and as far as Sussex in the opposite direction. It’s a species I have certainly wanted to catch but I’ve never really been motivated to make the journey specifically to target one. Since I moved to the Channel Islands, and after following the adventures of specimen anglers like Nigel Bowditch closely, it has been a species that I’ve cast baits out for without much luck at all.
HIGHS TURN TO LOWS
In November 2020, weeks after arriving on the island of Sark, I had a run that could only be a tope or a shark of some kind. Sadly for me, the timing could not have been worse, as a giant squid was tangled up in
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