Appledore Shipbuilders member Kevin Pike boated a new personal best smoothound of 17lb 6oz during his latest offshore excursion.
Smoothound are hunting the shoreline
Summer fishing has starting to take off with smoothound showing in good numbers from many North Devon marks. Whilst peeler crab is undoubtedly the top bait hardbacks can work just as well and have the advantage that they discourage the dogfish that seem to be about in plague proportions.
(Below) Kyle Blackmore has been enjoying some top rate sport from the North Devon Coast landing numerous smoothound to just under 10lb, a stunning bull huss and several codling and bass.
(Above) Ian Hooper and Nick Job have also been getting amongst the hounds!
Sea Angling Round Up – Smoothound, bass on lures, 500lb shark!!!
There are encouraging signs along the coast with smoothound showing from regular marks a couple of weeks earlier than expected. Ian Hooper and Nick Job fished a popular local shore mark and landed several hounds to almost 7lb and Cameron Atkinson landed a good hound in Appledore Shipbuilders Competition. ( See Results Below).
Combe Martin SAC Member Mark Jones ventured out with his lure rod and was pleased to Catch and release a pleasing bass of over 4lb.
Reel Deal Skipper Dan Hawkins took a party of anglers in search of an early shark and succeeded with Ross Needs from Bristol bringing a huge porbeagle estimated at 500lb to the side of the boat after a battle lasting 2hours and 10 minutes. The fine fish was carefully unhooked and released and swam away strongly. (Below) See video on Facebook Page).
(Above) Cameron Atkinson took the top three places in Appledore Shipbuilders Monthly Rover landing a dogfish of 2lb 71/8oz for first a smoothound of 7lb 81/4oz for runner up and a dog of 2lb 6oz for third. 19 fished the competition.
Bideford monthly rover results
1st Paul Downing thornback Ray 10lb 6 115.277%
2nd Dick Talbot bull Huss 9lb 101/2oz 96.562%
3rd dick Talbot dog fish 2lb 9oz 85.416%
4th Paul Downing thornback Ray 6lb 5oz 70.138%
5th Jon Stevens dog fish 2lb 0 1/2oz 67.708%
6th Andrew Clements thornback Ray 5lb 11 1/4oz 63.367%
Early Smoothound is an encouraging sign!
Paul Hutchings enjoyed a short after work session at a local rock mark and landed his first smoothound of the season weighing 6lb 9oz. This is very early for the first hound to show with May generally considered to be the normal start of the smoothie season.
Spurdog and smoothound for Springtime boat anglers
Steve Dawe enjoyed a trip out of Ilfracombe aboard John Barbeary’s Bluefin:- see his report and pictures below…
“So nice to get out again with so many cancelled trips this year, today was aboard Bluefin chasing Spurdogs. Not as prolific as they can be but we still managed several double figure fish. The Eels were a bit scarce and a few Huss turned up but my fish of the trip was a lovely Starry Smoothound right at the death. Great company Chris Hodgson, Steven McDonald and as usual John delivered some great skippering. Next week we are back out from Ilfracombe on Bluefin with Holsworthy Sea Anglers.
Smoothound to 13lb at local rock mark
Chay Boggis Tempts Three Specimens on return to the shoreline
Chay Boggis returned to the shoreline after a few months otherwise occupied. He managed a 12lb 10oz hound a 10lb 8oz huss and his first shore caught tope! Fresh bait from Braunton Bait box did the damage”.
Smoothounds still prowling the coast
Smoothound are still providing some rod bending action along the coast. Paul Hutchings landed six including two over 10lb in a short after work session this week.
Smoothound sport
Ian Hooper and Nick Job enjoyed a good evening fishing for smoothound landing several of the hard fighting species to 9lb 1oz.
Ray and Hounds off Minehead for CMSAC
Six members of Combe Martin SAC enjoyed a boat trip off Minehead on board Osprey Skippered by Steve Webber. The day started off with a cool North East breeze that made for an uncomfortable lop on the water. Despite this fish came steadily to the boat all day with smoothound the dominant species at our first mark in Porlock Bay. The biggest of the hounds was a low double. A range of baits worked for the hounds with crab, prawn and squid all tempting these hard fighting members of the shark family.
As is always the case banter flowed freely throughout the day that kept spirits up when heavy rain fell for a short while and grey skies shrouded the hills. John Shapland boated a fine huss of 11lb 8oz. (Below)
After a couple of hours targetting the hounds Steve suggested a move to the sandbanks to try for a few ray.
It wasn’t long at our new mark before we found a few ray with small- eyed ray, thornback and spotted ray finding our baits.
(Below)
The best specimen of the day turned out to be a fine small eyed ray that gave a spirited tussle before reaching the net that was expertly wielded by Skipper Steve Webber,
As the tide flooded we made a couple more moves before anchoring off Dunster to try for the hounds again. The hounds here in the murkier water were very light in colour and whilst not so numerous appeared to be a slightly bigger stamp of fish.
As the day started to drift towards its conclusion the sun eventually started to break through and enable us to peel off some of the layers. Nick and his son Jack were not up until now enjoying good sport and seemed to have a knack of finding the dogfish that punctuated every ones day as always. Fortunately persistence eventually paid off and something bigger nailed Nick’s bluey hook-bait.
After several minutes of tension there was some disappointment when the hard fighting fish turned out to be conger of perhaps 10lb.
Everyone on the boat by now really wanted Jack to catch a decent fish and Steve baited Jack’s hook with a generously donated helping of peeler crab. After a few minutes Jacks rod was bouncing on the gunnels and at last Jack enjoyed a bending rod as a hound fought strongly before reaching the boat.
Shortly after this it was time to head back to Minehead with its tourists crabbing down the harbour wall and devouring ice creams in the hot sun. We couldn’t help but wish it had been this calm and still all day. We ended the day with a flourish as several hounds came to the boat with John Shapland having an uncanny knack of finding the hounds.
