Ali Laird landed this fine smoothound of 12lb 6oz from a North Devon Rock Mark.
Bideford Club Record hound
Rob Harris writes:-
Fished A North Devon surf beach early hours this morning. Smashed my pb hound! Poor quality pictures as I was on a solo mission and had to strap my phone to my seat box! a couple doubles landed along with dogfish and this beauty weighing 21lb! Caught on spider crab and squid. I actually missed a couple good runs whilst dealing with dogfish so decided to fish with my reels in gear, this paid off as the fish hooked its self in the corner of the mouth, all be it nearly ripping my rod out the rest
Rob Harris has landed a huge shore caught smoothound of 21lb 1/2oz to set a new Club record for Bideford Angling Club. The was an easy winner in the clubs 24 hour rover that was dominated by smoothound. The above pictures are not the best but they do give a good indication of the proportions of this very special fish. It has been an unprecedented start to the season with the potential for more outsize specimens over the coming months.
1st – Rob Harris smoothound 21lb 1/2oz
2nd – Lee Watts – smoothound 12lb 71/2oz
3rd – Andrew Clements Smoothound 11lb 73/4oz
All the smoothound were released alive after weighing and photographing.
More big hounds and more to come
Cameron Atkinson and his boat partners caught around 30 hounds between them with the biggest falling to Cameron a new personal best weighing 16lb 12oz. I have also recieved a report of a huge shore caught hound that I hope to report on later this evening.
Smoothound Sport Continues
Ian Hooper and Nick Job enjoyed a session from a North Devon Shore Mark beaching several hard fighting hounds on calm sunny evening.
Jack Pike Boats 18lb hound
Jack Pike boated this stunning smoothound of 18lb. Its been a great start to the smoothound season so far with plenty of double figure fish from both boat and shore.
Boat Fishing Sport Round Up!
Thomas Atkinson won Appledore Shipbuilders Boat Competition with a fine smoothound of 17lb 10oz. Andrew Atkinson was second with a hound of 13lb 4oz and third Michael Hammett with a hound of 12lb 6oz.
Appledore Shipbuilders enjoyed a great good day on the hounds with the average size around 9lb they also had a couple of tope around the 20-25lb mark along with a few small pollack and a few small huss.
Anglers are also finding goof sport off Ilfracombe aboard Dan Hawkins boat Reel Deal with beautiful weather and flat calm seas hard fishing at times but some good early sport The Tope are starting to show more often now along with Huss, dogs and bass.
Fine hound for Kody
Combe Martin SAC Member Kody Chugg landed this fine smoothound of 12lb 10oz during his latest trip to the North Devon shoreline.
Hounds and codling rewards a short after work session
Paul Hutching inspired by recent success popped out for a short after work session and was rewarded four hounds to 8lb and a brace of codling. Paul tells me conditions were challenging with a big swell pushing.
Top Smoothound Sport
The smoothound season has burst upon us with some superb catches from recognized marks all along the North Devon Coastline.
Combe Martin SAC member Kody Chugg enjoyed a great session with smoothound landing twelve of the hard fighting members of the shark family to 10lb 4oz.
(Below) Paul Hutchings landed seven hounds to 12lb 14oz.
Smooth operator
Ali Laird followed up his recent success with this fine specimen smoothound weighing 13lb 1oz he also landed a bull huss of 8lb 14oz. The next couple of months are potentially the best of the year for a wide range of species. Fishing can be excellent after the storm but take care as there are going to be some big seas over the next few days.
