A DAY FOR HEROES
Everything goes right on this charter trip.
Two days before the coronavirus lockdown set in, I was lucky enough to get out on a boat trip that produced some amazing reef and wreck fishing. If you saw my article about conger fishing on board Kelley’s Hero III, out of Hayling Island, Hants, in Sea Angler issue 583, you will know it was a fantastic session – but that was just a few hours out of what had already been a hectic day.
Prior to fishing the wrecks, we’d anchored on a nearby reef in search of bull huss, and then we decided to drift a couple of wrecks in search of pollack, before finally settling down on the eels. Those first few hours on the reef were nothing short of amazing too, with more than 50 bull huss coming to the net, along with a whole host of other species, including pouting, pollack and cuckoo wrasse. It was a truly magnificent day afloat, and one that has kept me going throughout the lockdown period.
Bull huss are a member of the shark family and found predominantly around the south and western coasts of the UK. They love rough ground, and if you’re going to target them, then that’s where you should be looking. The reef we fished was the perfect habitat for them, because they like to hide among rocks and crevices for protection, and it is a perfect place to scavenge for food.
It’s quite common to catch bull huss when fishing for tope and vice versa, and for this reason you really need to think about the business end of your tackle. However, for this trip we weren’t expecting any tope because it was too early in the season, but by late May and June it is really worth thinking about what you could possibly hook and to tackle up accordingly.
TACKLE & BAIT
When it comes to rods and reels for targeting bull huss in deep water, you can get away with almost anything that can handle 10oz-plus of lead weight. A 12/20lb-class boat rod will be ample in most cases.
We were using a range of rods from 4-10oz uptiders to 12lb-class downtide rods, all matched with suitable reels loaded with 20-30lb braid and with a 50lb mono shockleader to combat the rough ground and, of course, the skin of the huss.
Rig-wise, all you need for this type of fishing is a simple running leger. Because bull huss have rasping teeth, it is advisable to go for a heavy mono trace if you plan on catching loads of them. I use 80-100lb mono to give better bait presentation and to save having to retie rigs after every half-a-dozen fish. It is also a good move to use 100lb mono when the tope start making an appearance.
As far as hooks go, you’ll need to use anything from a size 5/0 upwards, and circle patterns can be used to great effect too.
Bull huss love a fish bait, so if you can catch some fresh mackerel you will be ahead of the game. However, frozen mackerel, squid, and Bluey are all good alternatives, especially early in the spring when no fresh mackerel are available to be caught. For this trip we had all the aforementioned frozen baits, but it was the frozen mackerel that the huss wanted on this particular reef.
THE SESSION
Skipper Bex Florence expertly manoeuvred the boat in front of the reef, while Ian Dale let the anchor go. In no time at all we were settled and ready to drop down the 170ft or so to the seabed. We had the perfect tides for doing this, because they were relatively small, but even so we needed more than a pound of lead to hold bottom. I imagine this place would be unfishable on a big tide!
Within a matter of minutes, we had the first tell-tale nodding rod tips as the huss found the baits. I fished like an absolute clown for the first two hours. I just couldn’t get a bite or keep a huss on my hook, while everyone else around me was catching. It made for a great laugh on board, though, and everyone, including Ian and Bex were ripping into me constantly.
I don’t know what was going on, I’m guessing I had the conger and pollack on my mind and wasn’t really fishing 100 per cent. I didn’t mind though, it’s usually me dishing out the verbals on board, so to be bombarded from every corner was certainly payback time.
Once the scent of our baits began working its magic, the huss came on the feed with a vengeance, as two, three and four anglers hooked up at once. As the tide began to slacken, so did the bites, and a couple of the lads on board decided to drop down with smaller two-hook scratching rigs to see what else was down there.
As expected, there were plenty of pouting and a few dogfish, but there were also a some smaller pollack and a few cuckoo wrasse too – a great sign of a healthy reef system. In what seemed no time at all (time really does fly when you’re having fun) we were hauling anchor and getting ready to head to the wrecks.
PLENTIFUL POLLACK
As the tide began to push again, the plan was to fish for an hour or so over a couple of nearby wrecks to catch a few pollack, before dropping anchor on one of them to try for the conger eels.
We’d already smashed the bull huss plan out of the park and were full of anticipation of what the pollack fishing might bring. On the very first drift over wreck number one we had two feisty pollack. One came off, but the first one on board was a quality mid-double.
The action was not as thick and fast as we had hoped, but a steady stream of one or two fish per drift made it a worthwhile effort, and after we had boated enough for everyone to take at least one home, Ian decided to take us for a look over another wreck. This one only produced a couple of fish, but we’d caught enough on the first wreck. It was at this point that Ian suggested we head back to wreck number one and stick the pick down to try for the conger eels – the rest is history! Hopefully, I will see you all back on the water soon.