Boat Smoothound

Most anglers wouldn't recognize a smoothound if they caught one, let alone be able to tell the difference between the two types recorded in UK waters. Most are dismissed as small tope, and even anglers that have caught and identified smoothies have achieved this mostly on gear that's far too heavy with the out gunned smoothound cast aside as a poor fighter.

Nothing could be further from the truth. They are sleek, highly maneuverable fish that in shallow water and on the right gear go every bit as well as tope of the same size.

IDENTIFICATION
The quick way to separate smoothound from small tope is by the teeth. The tope's teeth are triangular and ultra sharp capable of chopping prey clean through. The smoothound's teeth are flattened and blunt similar to a rays and designed for crushing crabs etc, and not for cutting.

The smoothhounds dorsal fin, when viewed from the side, is also set nearer to the pectoral fins than that on the tope which is positioned more rearwards. The tail indentation on the smoothound is less deep than that on the tope, and the smoothies lower tail lobe is small but on the tope both upper and lower lobes are roughly equal in length.

Telling smoothound apart from starry smoothound is less easy. The starry 'hound has white starry patterns spread across it's back, whereas the smoothound is the less common of the two and has no markings on the back.

The skin texture is also different. If you run the finger tips from the tail towards the head across the skin of a starry smoothound, you'll feel that the skin is smoothish. Do the same on the smoothound and the skin feels rougher and more shark like.

WHERE TO FISH FOR SMOOTHOUND
They are a warm water species and are therefore based in the southern half of Britain, but in localized communities.

They are most common in the Solent and around the Isle of Wight, off the Kent coast and especially in the outer Thames Estuary area. Some fish push further into the North Sea along the East Anglian coast and even into the Wash, but their numbers are far fewer.

Heading westwards, occasional fish are contacted along the Cornish and Devon coast, but for consistent catches you need to look to the waters of the Bristol Channel, especially the South Wales coast.

Again, odd fish show along the southwest of Wales around St Brides Bay and inside Cardigan Bay over the reefs, but the next and essentially last hotspot is along the west facing shoreline of the Lleyn Peninsula and also the southern shore of Anglesey at Aberffraw. Fish beyond this invisible boundary are very scarce.

SEASON
On the English Channel marks as far as Kent they show during May and some fish make it as far as the Thames Banks before the end of the month, but it's June that sees numbers peak. They stay, though appearing less frequently, right through until late September.

The Bristol Channel fish again show in mid May peaking in June, but numbers remain higher than in the east throughout July and they stay through to late August before they disappear.

Further north off the Lleyn and Anglesey, they show in early June staying inshore until late July, then vanish.

WHAT SMOOTHOUND EAT
The teeth are the giveaway. They catch and crush crabs! Crab forms the largest part of their diet and considering few boat anglers use crab baits in comparison to shore anglers, then this goes someway to explain why smoothound are at the lower end of the catch table for offshore rods.

Shore crabs dominate when feeding close to shore, but over reefs they are preoccupied with edible crabs, squat lobsters and hermit crabs. Only rarely will they take fish baits or worm.

HOW THE TIDES EFFECT THEM
Over the inshore reefs, the bulk of fish move in with the middle sized tides climbing towards the larger springs. The fish will stay for maybe two or three tides, then disappear.

It's not often that smoothound come close inshore during tides dropping down towards neaps.

On the more offshore grounds, or in areas where the tides are funneled and naturally fast on neaps, then the feeding goes on unabated and even the smallest tides can produce good numbers of fish.

Both close in to the shore and also offshore, they tend to show just as the first real push of the flood tide gets going across the reefs, but work the bays and gutters during the peak flow period moving back to the more exposed ground as the tide run eases towards high water.

Some marks will produce fish on the ebb, but these tend to be the ones some way offshore and not those close in near the beaches.

WHAT ABOUT THE WEATHER?
Most written work tells you to target smoothies when the weather patterns are settled with gentle warm breezes and sunny skies. It's good advice, but not totally accurate, for the fishing can be excellent close inshore during rougher conditions with onshore winds
around force 4.

The smoothound, having that preference for crabs which get disturbed from their homes in shallow water during lumpy seas, come inshore to mop up the extra food that becomes available. Dinghies especially, can do very well at this time. Once the seas really rough up though, catches fall away.

Smoothound feed mostly by day preferring overcast skies, though in areas like the Bristol Channel where the water is permanently coloured even really bright days fish well.

MARKS AND FEATURES
Offshore ground to look for are sand banks with a degree of heavier gravel present, particularly if this is close to rougher ground or adjacent to a shallower reef. The smoothies seem to patrol the edges of the reef, then swing over passing through the gutters at the bases of the banks and then back onto the rougher ground.

They'll also work over muddy patches or cleaner patches of sand amongst heavier rough ground.

Finding suitable fishing areas is easier inshore. Find the junction where the rough ground coming out from the shore meets the cleaner ground of deep water and concentrate here. More accurately look to sit the boat just out from a small reef or at the head of a small out run of rocks flanking small bays upto 150yds across.

Don't be put off by the influx of small amounts of freshwater. Smoothies like an element of weakened saltwater proved by their preference for existence around the major estuaries mentioned and inside the Solent. Small streams, rivers etc, can pull smoothies onto ground that may not otherwise look ideal.

BAITS
Whilst lug or rag baits will pick up fish, you're really doing yourself no favours deliberately using these baits with 'hounds in mind. Give them what they want. Crabs!

If you're fishing within a few hundred yards of shore, then shore peeler crab is good. These need to be big baits using a whole crab the size of a 50p piece up to twice this size. Cut half way through the peeled crab, then push the hook through along one side, round the bend in the crabs uncut half and up the other side. Now bind the whole lot to the hook. This gives a solid piece of meat, but with loads of juices pouring out.

Inshore or offshore, the best bait is edible peeler crab. Use the same size of bait, but you'll need to cut the pieces off the body as edibles are mostly much bigger than shore peelers.

Also excellent is hermit crabs. Fresh ones can be deadly around reefs, but Atracta Baits also do frozen ones which are a good alternative. Bind these two or three at a time into bunches with elastic to give the 'hounds a good mouthful.

FISHING TECHNIQUE
Because most good smoothound ground is relatively shallow, the bulk of fishing will be with the uptide method.

It's all about anticipating where the fish will run through as they work with the tide. We've already mentioned anchoring near to out jutting rocks and at the entrances to small bays. This allows you to search the ground somewhat systematically by both casting varying distances and also more in an uptide direction and then gradually downtide searching out the gutters and underwater alleyways.

Where the inshore ground is more even, then it's a case of trying to find the deeper basins where any food washed free will fall and that the fish will inspect as they pass by and casting in to these. Again, you'll need to experiment with casting distance and direction.

It's no bad idea to reposition the boat occasionally if bites are not forthcoming by dropping it back on the anchor rope about 20yds at a time. It doesn't sound much, but it can make one heck of a difference to how many fish you catch.

This will be static fishing as in deliberately snagging the lead in the rough ground. If you fish with a weak link to the lead the bite and initial run will be enough to break the lead free.

It's much the same when anchoring within casting distance of sand banks. The idea is to get the bait into the gutters at the banks base which is where the 'hounds expect the food to be. Occasionally dropping back on the anchor rope helps locate such areas.

For this latter method, if the tide is not pushing too fast, try using a wire free lead and let it roll across the seabed following the natural contours. Smoothies are quite happy to pick up a moving baits as long as it's not motoring along.

In a faster tide, then it's true uptiding with grips leads and rod tips set into the tide.

Bites tend to nod on the tip a couple of times then the tip pulls fully over as the fish bores away. Often, there is no warning, just a savage wrenching over of the rod tip. Smoothies can sometimes turn and swim back into the tide before allowing themselves to be swept backwards. You'll need to wind quickly to make sure the hook is in and holding.

On the offshore ground in deeper water, then downtiding with normal short boat rods will be preferred. As before, it's a case of getting the boat anchored just right above suitable ground or banks. Pick a lead just light enough to allow the bait to trot downtide and then come to rest in amongst where you expect the fish to be.

With this type of fishing, bites tend to be gentle pulls and then increasing pressure as the bait is taken and the fish moves off.

In all cases, it pays to have the clutch set slightly lighter than normal to allow for the sudden dashes for freedom that 'hounds like employ. A 10lber can strip 60yds of line off with ease. They'll also come to the surface and thrash about in very shallow waters, even half
broaching.

LANDING A SMOOTHOUND
Smoothies, even when played out, can still be active when it comes to the landing procedure. The best, securest, and safest way for you is to use a net.

Make it a big one like a salmon type or specially designed sea landing net with a front width of at least 20ins and frame length of 30ins. Also make sure that the actual netting is deep enough to take a fish that could weigh over 15lbs and exceed 4ft in length.

TACKLE
Choose the lighter uptiders aimed at upto 5ozs of lead, or alternatively, use a shore bass rod of about 11ft casting 4ozs for the inshore fishing. Match this to a 6500 sized multiplier loaded with 15 to 18lb line depending on how shallow and how rough the ground you are fishing is. Really bad ground and rapid tide may require an 8oz uptider, 7000 sized reel and 22lb line.

For downtiding, a standard 20lb class outfit is the best choice, though in deeper, faster water such as along parts of the south coast, a 30lb outfit may need to be used. If the tides allow, go for a 12lb class combination that's still well in charge of even a big fish.

RIGS
For uptiding over rough ground, go for a fixed paternoster. Take 30ins of 50lb mono and either use a crimp/bead trapped swivel, or tie in a blood loop about 24ins from the bottom. At the base, tie another loop in with two granny knots adding a short length of 15lb line to take the weight.

Use either a pin to hold the lead in for casting, or the bend the end of a long tail lead over and position this inside the loop. Both will release as they hit the water. I prefer the long tail method which can be cast without any fear of the lead coming free unlike the loop and pin system, neither does the mono loop that takes the wire tail wear. The wire is round and the mono stretches under pressure protecting the mono loop from any damage.

The hook length needs to be from 40lb line and should be about 18ins long. The best hook is a Mustad Viking size 3/0 or 4/0, though with edible crab baits you may want to make these longer and slimmer so use the Mustad Aberdeen 3261BLN size 6/0.

When downtide fishing and uptiding over cleaner ground, use the same rig, but place the swivel or blood loop close behind the lead to keep the bait on the seabed, replace the lower mono loop with a split ring to take the lead, and lengthen the hook length to about 3ft.