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