RECORD BREAKERS
A stunning day’s light-tackle action.
For the past decade I’ve been making the annual pilgrimage to Holyhead on Anglesey to fish with charter skipper Gethyn Owen. My trip in June coincides with the arrival of the smoothhounds in Church Bay. After last winter’s storms destroyed the marina and pontoons, I was wondering if this year’s trip would be going ahead but, true to form, the skippers of Holyhead knuckled down and were all soon back in the game.
Gethyn is well known for putting his anglers on some amazing hound fishing, and this trip was to be no exception, with a crew of five anglers smashing the boat record for numbers caught in a day, and me catching the biggest hound of the season so far.
I have been lucky enough to have boated no fewer than seven hounds topping the magical 20lb mark over the years, with a 24lb 12oz beast the best, and the one I caught during this trip brought my tally up to eight. I guess I’m consistently lucky!
Joining me on board My Way 2 with skipper Gethyn were my friend Jim Midgley and my fellow Sea Angler contributor Mike Thrussell, along with his son Mike junior.
BEST TIME
Skipper Gethyn specialises in shark species during the summer, and his boat lays claim to holding the Welsh records for the smoothhound, tope and spurdog.
Every year, Gethyn’s crews enjoy some of the best light-tackle sport fishing the UK has to offer, but what makes it all the more exciting is the real possibility of boating a 20lb-plus hound.
Gethyn has lost count of the number that have graced the net on his boat. Just check out his website (www.goangling.co.uk) and see for yourself – at the last count it was around 30 fish topping 20lb.
Hounds don’t have any rules about the type of ground they feed over, as long as there is a good supply of food, especially crabs. The inshore waters off Holyhead provide the perfect habitat, and that makes the trip even more enjoyable. The best marks are within 20 minutes of the pontoon.
The majority of fish move in with the mediumsized tides that are increasing towards the larger springs. It’s usually the end of May that signals the arrival of the hounds here. This hectic sport can continue right the way through to the end of July, before Gethyn turns his attentions to the offshore tope sport.
TALKING TACKLE
Because most good smoothhound ground is found in relatively shallow water, the bulk of fishing will be done at anchor with light tackle. The key is to use a good quality fixed-spool reel with a super-smooth drag, plus a sensible mainline, like 30lb braid.
With this combination you will be able to have maximum sport, but still bring big fish to the boat, even in a fast tide. If you’re not confident enough to use really light gear, then go for a 12lbclass or 20lb-class boat rod, or even an uptider.
I was lucky enough to be testing the new Icon MX 6-12lb class boat rod (see page 106) during this trip, and what a fish I caught to test it with.
The most common rig used for smoothhounds is a simple running leger. The easiest way to set this up is to attach a small boom to the lead weight, run the reel line through the boom, slide a bead on the line and attach a swivel to the end.
For the hooklength, you will need around three feet of 30lb mono, preferably fluorocarbon, with a size 4/0 fine-wire hook on the business end – something like the Sakuma Manta is ideal due to its wide gape and ultra-sharp point.
When using a boom to attach your lead weight, it’s worth considering your shockleader knot. Make sure the internal diameter of the boom is large enough to slide over your leader knot. This is for two reasons – the last thing you want is for the boom to get jammed on the leader knot while you’re attached to a big fish, which will make playing and landing the hound all the more difficult. The other reason is for the safety of the fish. If, for some reason, you get snapped off, then the leader can pass through the boom easily so that the hound isn’t trailing a lead weight around with it.
As a rule, for most areas you shouldn’t need to use a leader if you’re fishing with 20lb mono or 30lb braid mainline.
TYPES OF BITE
You get one of two types of bite from a smoothhound. Either the fish will be finicky and you will get a couple of nods on the rod tip – or your rod tip will simply slam over as the hound scoffs your bait and bolts off. If the hounds are being finicky, you will need to pick up your rod and feel for the bite to develop. Then you simply wind down into the fish.
Be prepared for a heart-stopping run once the hound realises that it is hooked. Make sure that your drag is not too tight - a double-figure fish can easily strip 50 yards of line in one run.
Smoothhounds, like all sharks, are predictable once hooked. They will tear off line from your reel as they run downtide or across the tide, but they will always stop then turn round and swim back uptide. This is one of the reasons why you can get away with using ultra-light rods, because the hounds will always swim back to the boat.
It’s merely a matter of allowing the fish to run, keeping the tension on and winding like mad as the fish returns to the boat, then hanging on as it makes another bid for freedom. Eventually, the fish will tire and you will be able to get it to the boat for netting.
RECORD SESSION
Armed with a box full of peeler crabs and hardbacks, we set off from the pontoon at a rather reasonable 9am, and by 9.20am we had
our first baits in the water. It didn’t take long for the hounds to oblige, and within the first hour we’d amassed 12 between five anglers.
About 10.45am I had the shyest of bites on a large hardback crab. It was really subtle, so I picked up the rod to feel what was going on. A couple more tentative pulls on the rod tip ensued and I lifted into something solid – it was that feeling when you wind down, lift into a fish and the tip just keeps on going, like you’re snagged on the bottom, but then the bottom begins to move.
This hound was in a different class to the double-figure fish we’d been catching so far. From the start I knew she was big, I could feel the weight through the rod. Then all hell broke loose as the hound kited off in the tide, stripping yard after yard of line from the reel. She turned quite quickly and began to swim straight back at me, so I wound faster in order to keep up with her.
Once she was near the boat, the real battle began because she was hanging really deep under the keel, making an occasional powerful run away and then swimming back again.
After a good scrap she surfaced, and Gethyn was waiting with his net. I’ll not forget that moment in a hurry. It was the first time I’d seen the fish and she was huge, so fat that she only just went into the net.
Gethyn soon had the sling and scales ready and within 60 seconds the beast was weighed and I was holding her up for a photo, before gently slipping her back into the water. Gethyn broke the news that she was bang on 23lb 8oz, my second-biggest hound ever. I was over the moon, as you can imagine.
She swam away really strongly, having only been out of the water for a couple of minutes – what a fantastic sight to see.
It all happened so quickly that I had to stop fishing for five or so minutes to let it all sink in. I was buzzing with adrenaline, so I sat down with a bottle of water to look at some of the pictures.
Once I had composed myself I began fishing again, wondering if there was another 20lbplus hound down there. As it turned out mine was the biggest of the day and, at the time, the biggest of the season.
The sport didn’t stop – it was consistent and hectic at times. As the time approached 2.30pm we had managed to boat 72 smoothhounds, and we only stopped fishing because we’d run out of bait. It was that crazy, I actually caught five smoothhounds on the same crab bait. It started off as a whole hardback, then gradually shrunk to being just a small piece of flesh about the size of a 20 pence piece with one leg hanging off it – that was what I caught the fifth hound on.
We’d smashed the boat’s record for the number of hounds in a day by quite some margin, and with no bait to carry on fishing we decided to return to port and hit the pub to celebrate.
I can’t wait for next year’s trip, maybe I’ll boat ‘twenty’ number nine?
BOOK A TRIP
To book with Gethyn Owen, tel: 07971 924046 or visit his website: www.goangling.co.uk.