Smooth Hound Fishing, Reculver

Double Trouble Strikes Twice

Reculver, Herne Bay, Kent. CT6 UK

High At Sun Set, The Magic Time

There are a few times in the year when timing is crucial to fishing, and unfortunately getting that just right isn't enough most the time, getting yourself on the beach when the Hounds are running though is tough enough, but getting there when all else is right is another thing. All though all venues are different, but I believe the key is knowing what your looking for, the moon state, spring and neap tides, high and low water times and dusk and dawn times. I had been keeping track and a month ago had picked a night where a high tide coincided with dusk during a neap tide, which was important as the weed never seems to be as bad during a neap and weed has ruined many a Smooth Hound session over the years, the two seem to go hand in hand. Having picked the time you still need the luck of the weather too, I'm not convinced that wind direction matters too much, as a calm and warm spell with high pressure for at least a week is perfect. Also a great indication is the fact Crabs are peeling. I had picked my tide to go hunting the Hounds, and the leading up to it, the weather was perfect for the session. Things were looking good!.

The Last Piece Of  The Jigsaw

And things just got better! Another key part is bait, and Smooth Hounds love a Peeler Crab, I was content with some live Peelers that I had bought and not used, so I delunged them and froze them, I wouldn't of minded using these Crabs as bait for the session, I knew they were good as they could be, they were ready to peel and hadn't been defrosted and re frozen ruining the quality, but I really prefer fresh bait, and divine intervention from Face Book, and a well timed post "Live Peeler Crabs for sale" caught my attention, I couldn't resist, it was a too good of opportunity to let by, and after a hour and a half wait on the motorway side stop with the wife "bless her", mind you it was us who was early as to drive home and back wasn't worth the time or petrol, true to his word the guy turned up and I returned home with a bucket of 32 live Peeler Crabs ready for the session tomorrow, putting them in a cool box with a few ice packs, with lots of wet (bottled water, not tap) news paper ripped up to be a bit like weed, it done the trick and they were all still alive the next day.

Reculver Shore Line

The time had come, and things couldn't of been more promising for a successful session, my brother Scott was to join me, all though he had a few disappointing and fruitless Smooth Hound sessions with myself in the past, normally ruined by weed or bad weather, he didn't share my optimism, I on the other hand felt 100% confident of him catching his first Hound. we arrived at low water, hours before the time I expected to catch, but there were a few reasons for this, one was to have the pick of the beach as it can get busy during the summer months. And two, it gave me a chance to view the water with my Eagle Eye sun glasses, proving an invaluable tool for fishing yet again, standing at a high point next to Reculver Towers I scanned a mile of sea at low water with the sun shining and it being calm, I could see every clump of rocks and deeper channels quite clearly with the glasses, without them I could only see half the detail. I decided to fish a deeper gully that stuck out for me, about 40/50 meters long and running parallel with the beach, it seemed deeper than the others I saw, and looked just about at casting range for myself at high water,

Double Trouble First Strike

New PB Starry At 14lb 3oz

We decided to fish straight away and set up one rod each, both reels had brand new line on them and new leaders, specially for this session, all part of the planning. rigs was a simple pulley rig made with a clear and soft 60lb mono straight through from lead to a single 1/0 Mustad Big Gun hook. with Peeler Crab peeled with bait elastic whipping it onto the hook, I cast out to the gully. we didn't get a bite for hours, but the time went quick, mostly spent picking weed off our rigs, but at least we had a chance of catching a fish,. As dusk set in the tide started to slow, and the weed disappeared, the rod had been out 5 minutes and the rigs were not being pulled round. I said to Scott, this is the time! and I wasn't wrong, after a few suspicious knocks on my rod tip, the rod slowly bent into a nice curve and line started to taken off the spool, slowly at first then getting faster and faster. I picked up the Rod with the fish still taking line, it stopped abruptly, I took the slack and lifted gently and firmly to set the hook, the fish started to run, again taking line, wow I love this! As my fish turned and swam towards me, I had to reel real fast to keep up with it to keep in contact with it, Scott said your under my line, I looked up at his rod tip and followed the line out to sea, "no I'm not" I said, I looked at his spool which was spinning as line was being stripped off it, "You got a run too!" in the excitement of my fish we both didn't see it, but now we both had hounds hooked and with rods in the air played them.

No 2. For Scotty

My Hound was close in now and as I pulled him toward the beach, it changed direction and jumped out of the water, it was big! unable to lift the Hound out of the water over some rocks by the line , I decided to grab him behind the head, but couldn't get a good grip, luckily he turned and I grabbed his tail, lifting him out the water he was heavy and a lot bigger than I realised at 1.25 meters long. now Scott had landed his Hound and we struggled to keep them both calm for unhooking on my carp landing mat, which I took as I don't like to see them put on concrete as Hounds in my opinion are catch and release species and the mat helps to stop them damaging themselves. A double hook up! and me with a Starry Smooth Hound weighing 14lb 3oz and Scott with Starry Smooth Hound of 8lb 6oz. I was so happy I had just caught a new PB and a fair specimen of a Hound, and I was even more happy for Scott to finally land his first, It was game on, we both re clipped our waiting spare rigs all ready previously baited and sent them out, with the weed still gone and as the tide turned it took another 30mins before the tell tale enquiring knock knock on my rod followed by a slow pull down then line getting stripped from the spool getting faster and faster.

Time For Home

I was in again, and like before whilst I started to play the hound, Scott's rod done the same, we were both in again, another double hook up!!, boy am I glad we only fished one rod each, or we could of really been in trouble. again we both had to land our fish by ourselves, I weight and released my fish, like Scott had done before so I could take a photo of his Common Smooth Hound, weighing 8lb 1oz, whilst mine was a Common Smooth Hound a bit smaller, weighing 6lb 4oz. We were both over the moon by now, singing songs and dancing, it didn't matter that the next cast showed tell tell signs of being hit by weed and after 10 Min's both rods were bending down tide hard as the weed started to pull the rod rounds. we reeled in for the last time and removed the weed from our leads and baits very happy boys. Sometimes fishing is luck, but I felt like this was so well planned with so many elements coming together that we couldn't fail, I think that both the double takes proves that Hounds run in packs and all though the weed dictated that we only had a hour window to catch, we had made the most of it! Hounds are fantastic to catch, hard fighting and giving such a good account of them self's, I can see why many consider them to be the UK's shore sport fish

Carp Fishing, Sky Lake, France

Lump ALERT....Lump ALERT

Sky Lake, France

Beautifal Sunset At Sky Lake

Well that time of year has come, and my yearly pilgrimage to Sky Lake in search of big water pigs had arrived. to say I was excited was a understatement, relaxing in the sun, no work, cooked for all week, and camping next to a beautiful lake with a crowd from Essex, I know it's not everyones cup of tea, who really does like West Ham fans?, but they really are a great bunch of lads, and such good fun to be around I couldn't wait to leave. We all met up at Dagenham Football club where we was picked up and made our way down to Dover, All though we were all a little concerned, we managed to avoid operation stack on the M20 and any traffic. Operation stack is where they close off the motorway and use it a lorry car park usually when the French go on strike or when the ferry or channel tunnel and not operating, again normally because of the French. But luckily with only a hour delay at the port, we hardly noticed the chaos and arrived at Sky Lake early sat morning wide awake and rearing to go after a relatively sober and bum aching journey.

A Days Worth Of Bait

The signs looked good, fish were topping from the off, and the previous lads that fished the week before had done well, my only concern was the blistering hot weather forecast which can make fishing difficult at times, but none the less was a welcome change to the normal bad weather I get on holidays, having spent a few weeks preparing my tackle for the trip I set up my new rods, 3 x Greys Prodigy GT5's paired with my 3 x Shimano Super Baitrunner XTR 8000RA spooled with new 18lb Fox Exocet mono line, I'm not ashamed to admit I asked Rob the co owner of the lake to help me pick a spot at range to fish, using my marker rod he found a spot at about 90 meters which was just on the edge of a gravel bar, the cast landed on the gravel, then pulling the lead back, up and over a little edge and onto smooth sand/silt, this was where I would fish 2 rods, one with a snowman rig with 22mm boilee and one with double 22mm boilee, all the boilees we used were Steamies "Sky Lake Specials" by Individual Baits, and I baited with 2.5 kilo of 16 and 22mm boilees and a bucket of particle over the top in an area the size of snooker table, my third rod had a stiff hinged rig with a white pop up on a choddy hook, I kept this ready and cast it to any topping big fish within my boundary.

Glugged Snowman

What can I say, boy did I struggle to cast my rods to the spot, not with accuracy but distance, falling short by 10 to 2 meters every time, yes! of coarse I used every excuse in the box, I blamed it on the rods being to soft, the reel spools are too small, the line is too heavy, the baits are too big, even the wind, the truth is although all these lame excuses would of all contributed a little I just wasn't used to the new rods, going more sea fishing recently and smashing longer stiffer rods, I had just lost the finesse of casting shorter and softer carp rods. I really struggled for the first few days and even had 18lb line cut into my finger to the bone on a cast which I believe was due to the drag not being tight enough and slipped. regardless with a borrowed finger stool and plaster protecting the cut, perseverance and sheer determination and the will to cast rather than the easy option of boating the rigs out, got me fishing where I wanted to be, and by day two all was good, I was hitting the mark within a few casts. With my camp set up, and my 2 main rods out, I put the third with a pop up over towards the corner of the lake where a few fish had crashed about 20 yards from the bank with a few loose boilees catapulted over the top. It was time to crack open the beers, and wait for darkness, although a day fish seemed just as likly as the fish were very active and crashing all around the outside edge of the lake.

Grasses Stick Together! 31lb 8oz

It didn't take long, and just after dark whilst I was snoring away after a very long day my 3rd rod tore of with a screaming bite, I lifted the rod into the fish and a very powerful fight ensued, acutely aware of my lose of carp fishing finesse and the fact I was on a barbless hook, I took things carefully and patiently, which was just as well as it took me a while to wake my neighbour Karl with gradually getting louder shouting. I couldn't believe the length of the fish and though it was a monster common, but then I realised that it was a Grass Carp, oh no I though, having in past years seen a few of these go absolutely mental once netted, but not this one, my first ever Grass Carp, and not a bad size at 31lb, it was well behaved and allowed us to weight it as it didn't thrash about, but was as calm as anything, testing the fish I picked it up and decided to try for a photo, and even then he behaved. I couldn't of been happier a new species to my list and a new PB. The rest of the night for myself was quite, But I didn't get any sleep at all, Karl had caught a few and I spent most the night excitedly running around the lake to help or photo other peoples fish, definitely fish fever running through my veins.

The Predator Got Spotted

I didn't really change tactics, I had a lot of movement in my baited area every night, either line bites, missed runs and the tell tale slow up and down movement of the bobbin which I believe is caused by big fish moving the water and weeds that are touching the line, very often a precursor to a run. I put the same amount of bait out to my spot, and recast my 2 rods. As the week wore on it got hotter and humid, and during the days the lake seemed to get quieter, I didn't mind, to keep me occupied I float fished my swim catching plenty of Rudd but hoping for a tench, and with my new polarised NASA spec Eagle Eye sunglasses I saw a pike sitting in the weeds, which otherwise probably would of gone unseen, within a minute a quick set up change, I had a small lure on a wire trace and dropped it in front of the fish, he saw it straight away and took it on the second cast, well I couldn't resist, and my biggest pike of the year at 8lb 1oz a very lean fish, which was hooked, landed, unhooked, weighed, photoed and released in record time of about 2mins.

Beautiful Common at 29lb 12oz

I had landed a few fish, a Common of 29lb 12oz and a Mirror of 27lb 4oz during the night, but when you think lightening don't strike twice, it did! A shout came out across the lake, a bad siren sound effect followed by "lump alert!..... lump alert!....." a universal call to let the rest of the fishing group aware that a big fish has been caught! first introduced when Tiddy from our group landed the lake records, a fish called Reg weighing 75lb which is still the lake record 3 years later. But John had done the next best thing and landed a fish called Jagger at his biggest weight of 72lb 12oz, weighed on brand new Reuben Heaton specimen scales, and now the second ever biggest carp caught at Sky Lake. the fish was massive and a pleasure to see. With everyone happy and excited a small celebration ensued, and a few boxes of beers were drank, but it was short lived as people disappeared one by one as receivers sounded and kept us on our toes. The fish were moving around and was only a matter of time before someone got another run.

Lump Alert!, John With Jagger at 72lb 12oz, Awesome!!!

27lb 4oz Mirror 

I took a day off from Carp fishing with all 3 rods wound in, I took a small spinning rod and wondered off to the River which runs along the Lodge bank, I found a little swim, and fished the inside bank just under a overhanging tree, All though I never got the big Chub I was after I did manage 4 smaller ones on halibut pellet, maybe time would of picked out a bigger one, but I was here for Carp and more to the point my first 50lber. Back in my swim I re baited with bollies and pop up which had spent the day immersed in glug, and recast all three rods to my baited up spot, and again boated out about 2 kilo and a bucket of particle tight on my rigs. I promptly fell fast asleep. This week, I rarely had a good nights sleep, fish captures on the good side and gnats flying in my ears on the bad side, why do gnat always fly by my ears?!? that sound send shivers down me! As the week went on I went to sleep earlier and earlier to the point where I was fast asleep by 4pm, and getting woken up for dinner. It was the second to last night, and all 3 of my rod alarm were intermittently bleeping keeping me very alert, this went on for hours I knew it was only a matter of time, and I was right, A rod tore off in the early morning just as the moon started to rise, I picked up the rod and struck into a fish and landed my 4th fish of the week a mirror at 26lb 8oz, not the monster I was after, but a welcome fish all the same.

Cheeky Daytime fish 24lb 3 oz

I awoke to the last day, still no 50lb for me, but with 4 x 30lb fish and a new species and PB I have done well enough, but was hoping. Again all three rods were cast to the same spot, fish were there every night, and to change didn't make sense. After getting all three rods out and baited up, it was time to start packing up, ready to leave at 6am the next morning, Biveys packed up we all slept under the stars on the last night, with only the essentials were left unpacked. And what a beautiful night it was, the sky was clear and you could see the stars moving as the earth turned between the large gaps in the trees, shooting stars and the eerie squawking of Barn Owls, wonderful! I even had a last and final run of the week, resulting with another Grass Carp of 29lb 13oz, what long torpedo fish these are!, would love to get a real big one, this was a bit more feisty than the first and was released quite quickly, I had finished on 5 fish, and was well pleased with myself, not only that but everyone caught and between us we had 42 fish, and nothing beats seeing a 70lb+ fish except catching one of coarse, but that was John's honour this week, top rod, with the biggest and most fish, even winning the bets and taking £40 off each of the rest of the group.

A Starry Starry Night

As always I had a fantastic time at Sky Lake, with some personal technical dramas thrown in, ruining 2 t-shirts, a pair of shorts and track suit bottom, don't ask! the rock won!! and I had caught some lovely big fish, I'd like to say a big thanks to Andy, Rob and Bernie, for making us feel so welcome, lots of invaluable advise, great cooking, patching me up after my accident, and for the birthday cake! I've said it before and I'll say it again, with out the other lads there all tirelessly helping each other to land these big fish, boating out to get fish out of weeds, or even diving in, landing fish, reeling in rods, getting torches and shoes, taking pictures, and marking out lines, without this help I would not of done as well. Thank you to Danny, John, Karl, Paul, Tony, Dodge, Wayne and Steve, for such a good crack, and fishing wise, we do all right don't we?, I mean we do have the bragging rights as a group of having the Mirror Carp lake record "Reg" and now the second biggest Mirror Carp "Jagger" ever caught at Sky Lakes,one of Frances premier Carp fishing venues. Can't wait for next time!

Tony - 46lb 8oz

Steve - 42lb

Wayne - 44lb 14oz

Danny - 37lb