FAST & FURIOUS
The best tactics for shore action.
Amember of the shark family, the smoothhound is widely distributed and commonly caught south of a line drawn from roughly the Mull of Galloway across to the Holderness coast in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Hotspots are the South Coast and southeast beaches, and both sides of the Bristol Channel, but good fishing also occurs along the Lincolnshire coast up into East Yorkshire, also from North Wales, and also the Lancashire coast. In Ireland, the Wexford and Wicklow beaches give the best of the fishing.
WHEN AND WHERE
The season for smoothhounds in good numbers runs from late April or mid-May to mid-September generally, but it is normally June onwards the further north you fish.
Fishing from the shore for them is best on the bigger spring tides, especially the middlesized ones rising up to and including the highest springs. Catches tend to decline as the tides fall back towards neaps. They like some run in the water. There are areas where they can be caught either side of low water, but to give yourself the best chance, target them in the two hours after low water to one hour before high water as a general guide. Ebb tide fishing is normally more inconsistent.
Daylight is often as good as night fishing, but by day, as is so often the case, better catches occur when there is overcast cloud and more subdued light levels.
Smoothhounds seem to prefer more settled seas with light winds on shallow marks, but rougher seas and deeper water can be good and produce some of the larger fish. Ideal conditions are onshore winds up to Force 4.
Because they eat crabs mostly, rough-ground beaches, or those featuring areas of boulders, rock and weed beds will be worth trying. That said, if sandy beaches are bordered by rough ground or there is rough ground just offshore from the beach, then fish will run the surf in the right conditions.
The Lincolnshire beaches are generally shallow and often devoid of obvious features, so look for shallow gutters or gullies and areas where there are shallow depressions.
Hounds can sometimes be taken from rock marks when you can cast into deep water, and also from breakwaters, piers and jetties.
TACKLE AND RIGS
Smoothhounds can easily run in to double figures and often require a long-range cast to locate the best fishing. This dictates the use of a typical 12-14ft beachcaster rated to cast up to 6oz and matched with a tough reel, such as the Penn 525 series, loaded with 20lb line and a 60lb shockleader. Alternatively, a Continental-style rod in the 14-15ft length matched to a fixed-spool reel with a long-cast spool loaded with 30lb braid and a shockleader works equally well.
The best rig over most terrain is a pulley
HEY HEY WE’RE THE MUNCHIES
You need to be selective with your bait. In most situations, peeler or soft-backed crabs will be the best choice. However, hounds take hardbacks as well because its exactly what they are looking to eat.
In all cases, bind the crab to the hook with bait elastic and make sure the hook point is clear and not masked by the bait. A good tip is to secure a few crab legs to the upper hook above the main bait. This entices the fish to take the bait from the hook end, resulting in more hook-ups.
Other good baits are hermit crabs. With these, the line and hook are fed down through the soft abdomen and the hook positioned through the tougher shell at the head end. Bind it with bait elastic for longer casting.
Whole squid can be effective, but is hit-and-miss in some areas. Hounds take fish and worm baits sometimes, but nothing comes anywhere near crab baits.