Common Smoothhound Trail

One of my favourite fish are smoothound, but their season here in Wales is short and coincides with me usually working away, so I miss out. Now it may surprise a few of you, but though I’ve caught rakes of starry smoothhound over the years I can’t ever remember catching a common smoothound for sure.

Many anglers think the two are the same fish and discount them as being two different species, but this is not correct. The starry smoothhound is the most common in our more northern waters and feature broader and lighter ridged dermal denticles, plus the nasal flaps are narrow. The common smoothhound is more a Mediterranean fish sporting narrow dermal denticles with heavier ridging, plus the nasal flaps are broad.

I was due to work with Terry Batt and Nicola Sanders aboard their Bradwell based boat “Cacheflow” recently. I was on the camera most of the day, but managed to get a couple of hour’s proper fishing right at the end of the day.

The guys onboard, and especially Nicola, had been catching smoothhound consistently all day with Nicola out fishing everybody and getting a good fish somewhere around the 14lb mark, but they’d all been starry’s so far.

I put a big hermit crab and two soft hermit crab abdomen’s on for bait and whacked the rig across tide releasing plenty of line to make sure the lead got a good grip.

Less than 10 minutes later I watched the tip tap a couple of times then stop. A few seconds later the tip pulled over then snapped back as the fish pulled the lead free. Winding down to the weight of the fish, and setting the hook to make sure, the fish bored off taking line. I was using very light gear and just 14lb line, so I needed to be sensible just how much pressure I put on the fish.

The fish stayed deep for much of the fight but turned with the tide dragging line off several times, then powered for the seabed as it came up through the water column. The fished showed on the surface and Nicola netted a nice looking smoothie around 9lbs. As the net swung close towards me as it was lifted in I couldn’t see any stars on the fish’s flank.

Closer examination proved the fish to be a true common smoothhound and I couldn’t believe my luck. It’s my 93rd species in my quest for 100 in UK and Irish waters. Though inwardly ready to punch the air I managed to retain my composure. I finished the day with a small starry about 4lbs.

This fish brought a profound bit of advice a now dear but late friend once said to me back to mind, and basically it was to fish at every opportunity even if for just a short time as you never know what you might catch. I wonder how many times we’ve thought, “Nah, can’t be bothered”, when in reality we might have just kissed goodbye to something very special! I certainly have and it makes you think!