HARD-HITTING HUSS
Here’s how to make the most of short windows of opportunity to get your share of big fish
How you can hit the bull’s eye.
You may have noticed that bull huss are showing a definite increase in numbers. It’s probably because they are capitalising on a food supply, namely herring that are also showing a major increase, and are normally predated on by other species such as spurdogs and cod. Whatever the reason, it’s good news for offshore anglers.
This increase in huss has been noted off Devon and Cornwall, throughout Wales, and along the west coast of Scotland. Being a regular visitor to Ireland, I’ve
witnessed the same pattern of increasing numbers along the south, west and north-west coasts of Ireland too.
Now skippers have adapted the way they fish for bull huss, rightly using them as an optional species and reliable time filler during a tide cycle when you might otherwise be kicking your heels.
These periods of huss fishing might only be for an hour or two, then you change targets to suit tidal conditions.
Faced with a relatively short window of huss opportunity, what’s the best way to target them, and is there anything you can do to catch yourself a few more while the going is good?
TOP TACTICS FOR HUSS
If you’re positioned on the stern of the boat, try to use a lead weight just light enough to trot down with the tide a few feet at a time when you lift the weight up off the bottom and release a little line. This is critically balancing the weight and bait, but allows you to drop back and put your bait first in line as a huss follows up the scent trail. This is a simple edge, but can make a real difference when fishing on a full boat.
If you have enough room to fish two rods yourself, then using a rod with small baited feathers for whiting and poor cod to create an activity zone at the back of the boat can make a huge difference. The huss will home in on the vibrations in the water when the whiting hordes attack the baits, and then will find the bigger baits strategically positioned hard on the seabed. Creating this zone of activity is how the bigger catches of huss are made because it will draw in big numbers of fish.
FISHING EFFECTIVELY
If your boat position is on the gunnels, then you have a choice to make. Try to gauge how the boat is sitting at anchor in relation to the flowing tide. Boats, due to cabin structure, will often sit at an angle induced by any side-on wind. What we mean by this is that the boat may not lay straight in the tide.
The effect of the wind on the cabin can push the boat at an angle slightly away from the true direction of the flowing tide, depending on the speed of tide or wind strength. If you think about this, and watch who on board is getting bites, you’ll see one side of the stern and one side of the boat gets the vast majority of the bites. Understand this and it’ll tell you how to fish effectively.
If you’re on the side of the boat nearest the flowing tide, then continue to fish downtide as normal because your bait is part of the main scent trail. If you’re on the side away from the flowing tide, a bait dropped straight over the side is out of the scent trail. This is when you should opt to cast away from the boat to put your bait on its own, with its own scent trail for individual huss to find.
If you’re fishing downtide off the gunnel, make sure you choose a lead weight heavy enough to fully anchor your bait to the seabed. This avoids tangles with other anglers towards the back of the boat and keeps your bait static on the seabed with a strong scent trail leaking from it. In this situation, it can pay to reduce the hooklength to under 30in to present the bait hard on the seabed.
SET THE HOOK
One thing you need to do when you strike a huss is to wind down on it until you feel its weight, then hit it hard to make sure the hook finds a home. That’s the key to landing huss, especially big ones – to make sure the hook penetrates the jaw. This is another reason for fishing with braid, which has no stretch and puts the full force of the strike directly through to the hook point.
Some anglers like to add beads and other attractors to huss rigs, and one that does work well is an upside-down muppet so that when you lift the bait, the muppet’s legs flare out and pulse. Red especially, but also lumo yellow muppets seem to work best.
Catching your fair share of huss is only a matter of getting the basics right.
All these little bits come together to give us the best chance in what might be a very short window before the skipper moves on to target another species. Be ready to maximise your chances with huss. ■