Smoothhound Fishing, Reculver

Release The Hounds

Reculver, Herne Bay, Kent CT6, UK

Reculver at night

The weather has settled a bit, and as the country blooms and turning green, the anglers are turning their attention to summer species. mackerels, garfish, soles, bass have returned to within catching distance from the shore, including the Smoothhound! Only one problem, it's May, and that means May water, May weed, May rot, whatever you know is as, it's a fishermans worst nightmare, an algae bloom which happens around May resulting in billions of tiny strands of weed floating around in the tide, they soon clump together around your fishing line and wrap themselves into tight knots forming tight balls of weed that takes an eternity to pick off as its so tough, its stops you reeling in as it wont pass through the rings, it smells, and most will get sore finger nails picking the stuff off. It can ruin any fishing trip and takes some dedication and a slightly different way of fishing to tackle it head on when its at it worst.

Peeler crab, top bait for Hounds

Well, even though I knew the May water was about, I also knew the Hounds were having their first run along the North Kent coast, coming in onto the beaches to feast on the first moulting crabs of the year. Having just bought 50 live peeler crabs to use as bait, I couldn't resist, It was to be a short 2 hours up to high tide and 2 hours down session, fishing in the darkness, and Reculver was to be the venue, renowned for it's Smoothhound fishing, a mixed ground, shallow venue, naturally full of Crabs and Ragworm. I arrived at 10.00pm, it was fairly busy, so I opted not to fish the railings and walked to the right, and found a nice big space along the shingle beach. I set up 1 x continental rod, and 1 x beach caster, with pulley rigs, 60lb mono straight through from lead to hook, which was a single 2/0 Mustad Big Gun hook, baited with a whole peeler crab only taking off the back shell, then wrapping it to the hook with bait elastic, and cast both rods out.

First Hound of the season

Well, the tide was kind, and holding bottom was no problem at all, but after 20mins, one rod was being dragged downtide slowly, reeling in revealed clumps of May water every meter along the line for at least 50meters!!!, this took me almost 20mins to clear, I was cursing much, knowing the second rod was going to be alot worse. but then it took a big knock down, and bounced around a bit. luckily I had my brother along, although he wasn't fishing, he grabbed the rod and started the process of reeling it in, picking the May weed off, it was at least 10 minutes before both rods were full reeled in and deweeded, and luckily the small 3lb Smoothhound pup which had taken the bait was still hooked, my brother obviously claimed the fish, which I didn't mind I was just glad for the help. Baiting up both rods and renewed with optimism that more Hounds were to be caught, I decided to beat the May water, the best way would be to fish 1 rod, and keep it out no longer than 5 minutes. I cast 1 rod out, and waited 5 mins, I then cast out the second rod, immediately I reeled in the first rod rod, deweeded the minimal weed that had started to gather then re baited and recast, fishing like this meant I always had a bait fishing in the water, although hard work, constantly reeling, deweeding, baiting and casting, it was the perfect tactic for beating the Maywater over a short session, only down side was I did use a few more crabs, than I would of liked.

Single 2/0  Mustad Big Gun Hook, never let me down

Now I felt like I was fishing, and it worked, I missed a bite, a ferocious pulldown and violent rattles, definitely not a Smoothhound bite, I suspected a Bass, but failed to hook it. a few casts later resulted in a classic Smoothhound take, the rod tip wobble, a slow big pull down and then line being stripped from the spool on the light drag. I let the fish run, when it stopped, I tightened up the drag, and reeled in the slack line, then lifted the rod hard and to the side to confidently set the hook, I was on, and on the continental rod too! it wasn't the best fight I've had, but considering the light rod, it was fun, even tricking me to believing the fish was bigger than it was A Starry Smoothound weighing 4lb 14oz, a testament to how good a sport Smoothhound are to catch! Although still a small hound, I was delighted to catch one so early in the year, and things will only get better! The next cast resulted in a small Bass of about 1lb 8oz, And then the tide stopped, the weed had disappeared, and then I thought this is it, now with 2 rods out fishing, I thought here we go! but nothing! not a touch or a wobble, the tide turned and the weed returned 2 hours later, signalling home time, A lovely little session and target species achieved, and even better was, they are only going to get bigger, spurring me on to target them again, looking for them bigger doubles.