Deal Tope Festival

Tope (Galeorhinus Galeus), are one of the largest fish that can be caught from the sea off Deal. A member of the shark family, they have not got the reputation of intentionally attacking people; although their razor sharp teeth and sandpaper like skin have occasionally inflicted a wound on a careless angler. Being voracious carnivorous creatures they can attain a body weight of over 100 pounds, while the British rod caught record stands at 82 pounds 8 ounces.

The annual summer tope festival held by the Deal (1919) Angling Club was always well attended. The Saturday evening before the event, club members held a mackerel catching competition. This would hopefully supply enough bait for the Sunday’s festival – it would also be a time to talk tactics and tackle. To catch tope, a whole mackerel would be presented on a very large hook. Attached to the hook would be up to 20 feet of wire – as the fishes’ sharp teeth and rough skin had a tendency to sever ordinary line.

To participate in this specialised competition many of the anglers had booked their favourite boatman and boats a year in advance. Though tope could be caught inshore, the most likely haunts would be the Goodwin Sands and even beyond. This meant the anglers skill would not only be tested, but also that of the boat skipper as well.

The weather was the governing factor when the boats set off at the starting time of 10 am. It would not be unusual for the wind to become fresh with a ‘sun’ breeze chopping up the Channel waves against the ebb tide. Many of the anglers arrived back ashore at 4 pm wind and spray swept after their days fishing.

The weigh-in would be held outside the clubs HQ. There were never vast amounts of tope caught, but as the competition minimal size limit was 20 pounds, there was always impressive fish of 30 and 40 pounds for the anglers and public to view.

Unfortunately the tope catches started to dwindle by the late 1970s and the club advertised the event as the largest fish of any species comp. Many of the previous winners were now becoming too old or had passed away and the festival was eventually shelved. This was, perhaps, progress, as these magnificent fish were killed purely for sport; since their eating quality was very suspect.

However, these festivals were all part of Deal’s historic angling past and names such as Bill Rolfe, Arthur Allsopp, Bill Peacock and Stan Kent were inscribed on the silver plates that surrounded the plinth of the winner’s cup. Nevertheless, this was not only a male dominated festival and women such as Hilary Green, Marjory Sitwell and Queeny Peacock were often victors.

IF THIS WAS HELD NOW THE AUTHORITIES WOULD BAN IT. HARPING ON ABOUT FISH QUOTAS & SIZES, AS IF WE COULDN'T GOVERN OURSELVES.
Still nice to see pics of what fishing used to be like.

Great pics again Dave, it does show how we need to preserve what stocks we have left

good old days, would be great to get back to those sort of catches