PLAYING THE NUMBERS GAME
Plenty of anglers like to dabble in a spot of species hunting, here’s how two of our readers got on…
A reader’s experience of species hunting.
About two years ago I had a meaningful conversation with my better half Kirsty because she said I was fishing too much. Now, being a quick-thinking fella, I did what any normal man would do .... I went out and got her some fishing tackle.
Knowing that Kirsty would get bored just standing and watching a rod, I decided to buy us both some LRF gear so she would be constantly busy. She took to it like a duck to water. We still used our normal gear too.
One of the local tackle shops in Sunderland ran an annual species hunt from March to November, so we signed up. The North East isn’t known for its abundance of sea species, so we knew a lot of travelling would be involved, along with a change of tactics.
Knowing where and when to target species is always a good start, and if you need to travel for other species, it’s important to do your homework on them and their marks.
STAYED LOCAL
We stayed local to start with and fished for the usual local species such as cod, coalfish, whiting, long-spined sea scorpion and rockling, and when the summer came the game changed.
I decided to try my hand with a Continental rod in the hope that I could pick a few other species up, like dragonet, plaice and turbot from the local beaches and piers. Fish such as smoothhounds, bull huss, congers and rays are not the norm along the Northumberland coast, and it’s usually easier and less timeconsuming to travel to target them.
Ballan wrasse are common throughout the summer, as are goldsinny and corkwings, but we knew other marks we planned to fish later in the summer held them, along with rockcook and cuckoo wrasse.
I have a background in lure fishing and this helped when targeting bass and pollack, although small pollack will all-too-often take a dropshot bait down the side of a pier wall. Kirsty really took to rock hopping and lure fishing, catching a 6lb 12oz pollack.
Our basic tactic was simple. On most marks we would fish a bigger bait rod and also a LRF/dropshot rod close down the edge of any features like pier walls, rock ledges and kelp beds. This paid off and we soon started racking up the species.
TIGHT BUDGET
We did have to travel quite a lot to get species, so this is worth bearing in mind when doing a hunt. One mark we fished was in the Highlands of Scotland (six and a half hours in the car) and another was Anglesey (four and a half).
You may be lucky enough to live near good marks, such as Holyhead Breakwater or Brixham Breakwater, that will produce 40-plus species with relative ease.
Tackle was nothing flash. I generally fish on quite a tight budget. We own Sonik SKS Black rods, which were used for most of the larger species, and my Continental rod is a Sunset Solica, which costs about £100. Reels were a Penn Spinfisher for Kirsty and a Penn Battle LC for me, with a Shimano Ultegra 5500 for the Continental rod.
When we fished the Highlands, we did step up a notch with the gear to try for a common skate from the shore, but again we used the LRF gear down the side of the pier and ended the weekend on 14 species.
The LRF kit was a lot cheaper. We started off with a couple of Shakespeare Agility rods, and Daiwa Sweepfire reels, but later upgraded to other rods, even though these rods and reels are more than capable.
For the LRF rigs, I prefer bait. A simple paternoster rig or dropshot with a tiny piece of rag will help you catch a legion of species. LRF purists will no doubt be screaming at me now, but it is a very effective method and an extremely easy way to catch fish and get newcomers into our great sport.
A species hunt is a real challenge and great fun too. Go ahead and try it, you’ll be amazed at what beautiful mini species are under your rod tip and all too often overlooked by most anglers. It can solve relationship issues too.
Amazingly, we managed to get around 30 species from the North East coast, so it just goes to show what’s about when you change tactics. The final tally was 42 species for me and 35 for Kirsty. ■