I went back to the spot I was getting tope pups the other day tonight with some fresh mackerel caught on the boat during the day. Plan was to use a shamrock tope trace (10/0 forged steel hook, 200lb snood) on a pulley rig with a full mackerel flapper. The first cast with this was a disaster as it barely went any distance at all! So I left it out for a little while and obviously it got devoured by crabs..
Next tactic was to use a smaller mackerel tail cone bait, this cast much better. Meanwhile on the other rod I was fishing ragworm on a 2 hook flapper at distance, this didn't produce anything either. So a blank for this one but might try going for tope off the boat here some time!
