I'm not sure to what extent anglers fully appreciate what a gem of an all round venue Liverpool actually is. Much is made of the cod fishing tucked out of harms way inside the river over the winter months, and rightly so. Yet the summer fishing outside to many people is a totally unknown quantity, which is a pity, because the open ground out beyond the main shipping lane has a very great deal to offer as I was about to find out when through Scottish international boat angler Mickey Duff I was asked to join Stan Dickinson aboard his boat 'Tuskar' for a run out to his favourite tope grounds.

Priory Wharf at 8 am at Birkenhead was the designated pick up point. By 8.15 we were making our way seaward past the Liver Buildings, and by 8.45 the world famous water front land-marks of the city centre were well to our stern. But we still had a good hour to go as Stan motored 'Tuskar' out into Liverpool Bay. And incredibly for a change, the weather forecast which for the day was for perfect conditions was actually bang on. In fact, perfect was the perfect word to describe the entire day. For despite a little early drizzle and murk, when the sun did eventually burn through mid morning, it relentlessly blasted down over a mirror calm sea full of fish for the following 8 hours. This was to be my first taste of offshore fishing out from Liverpool. Based on the days results with Stan, it most certainly won't be my last.

'Tuskar' in an Offshore 105. I've fished aboard this model of boat before on numerous occasions, but I have to say that I was particularly impressed with the Dickinson slant on things. It looked every inch as if it was an anglers rather than an angling boat. I think it was the attention to the fine detail that caught my eye, such as bait cutting boards fixed to the gunnel tops, the well thought out spray canopy, and the on-board lighting for the winter, all of which probably stems from Stan's days as a very successful dinghy angler before stepping up a size. A brass plaque bearing the message 'Too Busy For Bullshit' on the wheelhouse door summed the whole operation up to a tee. The wheel house beyond was equally well appointed with all the obligatory electronics, excellent toilet facilities, and a good clean galley which produced a steady stream of brews, sausage butties and hot pies. At one stage a tray of hot grilled meatballs even appeared. Somebody said they were the dogs bollock's but I didn't believe them, though I have to say they looked as if they could have been.

The first and most important job of the day was a stop off en route for mackerel. Colour in the water over the preceding weeks had been making finding mackerel inshore a bit of a task. But no such problems further off. Actually, feathering is one of those jobs that some people fail to grasp the importance of. Its easy to fall into the trap of thinking that it isn't proper fishing, its only bait, so no real effort or thinking needs to be put into it. On the other hand, the quicker and more efficiently you catch your required quota, the more effective time you give yourself for your target species. So having the right feathers and a good technique is important because not all feather lures are the same, and simply dropping them over the side and yanking them up and down indiscriminately is not guaranteed to produce a result. But no such problems this particular day. Mackerel were everywhere, and the lads on board knew exactly how to get the best out of them, both with the feathers, and later when they presented them on the bigger hooks.

The cleaner ground out in Liverpool Bay is classic tope country. Well, not only tope. But as top predator in the area they deserve the headline mention here, even though they would only be one of a dozen species caught on the day. When baited feathers fished on a second rod were sent down, some of the also ran species brought back up were as you might expect less favourably received than others. I don't think I need spell out what they were. That would be one LSD trip you definitely wouldn't want. But few people in my experience ever complain when they lift a nice gurnard aboard. Not even diminutive size it seems brings on murmurs of discontent. There is something about gurnards that anglers appear genuinely to like, particularly the bigger tubs. Liverpool Bay actually holds the British record with a monster just a whisker under 11½ pounds (and the thornback ray record too). We saw nothing even remotely close to that size. But a few of them were certainly well inside the one way ticket bracket. They were even regularly coming up on plain feathers whenever they strayed too close to the bottom. Quite a few greys and a couple of reds also put in an appearance.

With a very noticeable competitive thread running through the crew, it was agreed that there should be a £5 kitty for the biggest fish. Mickey Duff took an early lead which he managed to hold on to for quite a while with a lively 36 pounder he managed to sneak aboard by not having a ratchet on the Ambassaduer 7000 he was using. When Stan placed it in the weighing sling you could almost feel the tension as the £45 kitty took a noticeable shift towards Mick's position on the boat. That was until Bryan Catton's whole mackerel was picked up by a lively fish which powered off around the boat picking up several other lines as it went creating the mother of all tangles just when it was least needed. Fortunately, Bryan's line was pretty much running through the centre of the whole mess, which meant that with a bit of fair minded knife work despite the prize at hand which left everyone else in the vicinity re-tackling, Bryan eventually managed to bring either a 41 pounder or a potential 45 pounder depending on how you look at it to the scales.

Interestingly, to a man everyone was using heavy mono traces tied direct to the hook. Tony Parry at Rhyl first introduced me to heavy mono because its kinder on his hands than wire, But up to press, I hadn't puckered up sufficient courage to use it, though after this very successful reminder, coupled to the fact that I need to get myself some 200 pounds mono for skate traces, I don't think its going to be too long now before I give it a go. I asked Stan if he had suffered much in the way of problems with bite off's, to which he replied no. Then right on queue, one of the traces parted close to the hook. But that is the exception to the rule, and if you keep an eye out for chafing and clip out any problem bits, then really it should work as well as wire. The baits it presented were also of interest. With so many mackerel about, I thought some of the lads might have gone for live baits. Instead, again to a man, they used whole mackerel with the tail removed to prevent spinning and slits cut into the flanks to allow it to bleed. Actually, on a party boat this is probably a wiser choice than the live baits which would probably have gone swim-about into the other lines.

Tope weren't the only fish to come aboard, though with the degree of activity switching from one part of the boat to another, then elsewhere, they were making a lot of the running. Dogfish, thankfully, though ever present on the day didn't present too much of a nuisance. A few huss also put in a show, though not as many as anticipated with the current explosion in huss numbers in the months leading up to the trip. Then, as the tide slackened right away, Stan decided it was time to lift the anchor and head over to a nearby wreck for the last couple of hours. We started the proceedings on the drift hoping to pick up a few pollack, but they either weren't there or they just weren't having any of it. So the anchor was put down and 'Tuskar' was brought to rest over the lip of the wreck. Steadily, the smaller baits brought up a variety of whiting, pouting, scad, pollack, coalfish and yet more gurnards. For the bigger baits, conger and ling had been the target species, but to no avail. Tope were so numerous that they had even moved in over and around the wreck.

So all of a sudden it was game back on with the kitty leaving Bryan looking keenly over his shoulder every time one of the big baits was picked up. There were a few more fish topping the 30 pound mark, but not by a big enough margin to cause any sort of an upset which was a pretty fair reflection both of the day and of Liverpool as a tope venue generally. Boats fishing these grounds have taken very much bigger tope on occasion. But fish in the 30 to 40 bracket can be expected on most offshore days, in no small part due to the care and attention they receive when they get to see the inside of 'Tuskar' with a rag over their eyes to keep them calm while the hook is carefully retrieved, and the use of the weighing sling for those anglers with an eye on either the kitty, or scoring a personal best, and of course the complete well being of the fish. It may now be un-lawful to land tope in England and Wales, but you would be preaching to the converted in these parts (as with much of the rest of country I'll wager), which is why there are currently some many good tope about at present in the north west. And long may that continue.

'Tuskar' sails daily, weather permitting, and beginners as well as experienced anglers are welcome. Stan Dickinson can be contacted on Tel. 07739 555264.