TBT#7 Hound History

Smooth-hounds are a really interesting species locally. Throughout the 80’s and first half of the 90’s they were never caught from the shore locally and I think the record was about 4lb. They started to appear in the late 90’s firstly from St Catherine’s Breakwater. At first there was no great numbers but there was enough to target them and slowly the record began to rise. Throughout the late 90’s the numbers and the size slowly increased and a pattern emerged of 2 notable runs, the first on the south coast which started early to mid May and ran through to around the end of June and generally produced the bigger fish. The second run was on the east coast, predominantly at St Catherine’s and was more July time and could often throw up big numbers but generally smaller fish.

I wasn’t really fishing in the late 90’s with my own business to run I just never had the time so I didn’t catch my first hound until 2000.

My first decent hound was in 2000, a fish of 10-12 which was caught during daylight on squid, at the time it seemed huge and at the end of the year when I did my diary I considered it a better fish than a 32lb Conger, a 15lb Undulate and a 6-1 Wrasse.

Gradually they got bigger in numbers and size and a couple years later I increased my pb by a couple of ounces with my first double from St Caths.

By the mid 2000’s doubles were pretty common and you could sometimes catch 3 or 4 in a session, some fantastic fishing. I had caught quite a few upto around 12lb when I had one that just dwarfed everything I had caught before and I remember being amazed by this fish of 17-12.

I would say by around 2010 the numbers had peaked and each year after there seemed slightly less but the odd fish just seemed to get bigger and in 2012 I caught my current PB, a fish that bounced the scales between 23-15 & 24-2 in my weigh sling which weighs 8ozs. It was a wet and windy night so I settled on a conservative 23-0, a fish clearly heavily in pups so a couple of quick photos before it was released. An amazing fish I still consider one of my most memorable catches.

The numbers were definitely starting to drop off now but there were still the odd really big fish each year, well worth putting in the effort for. In 2015 I had my second 20, a fish of exactly 20lb that went like a train.

The last doubles I caught was a memorable session in 2017. I arrived at the mark in daylight so decided to start with single big hard back crab to try and avoid small wrasse. I chucked 2 rods out and waited for the light to fade, dusk was always a great time for them. First cast and the first rod doubles over to what is clearly a good hound. After a cracking scrap it’s in the net and I put it in a rock pool as I went to find my scales. No sooner had I turned my back and the second rod doubled over and I was in again to another good fish. In the net it looked about the same size as the first. On the scales they went 18-7 & 17-14 now that’s a great first cast!

They turned out to be the last doubles I caught, lesson being when somethings good make the most of it because you don’t know how long it will last.

We still catch hounds and last year I had them to over 7lb, my best for a few years so maybe we will see them come back in size as well as numbers.

Who knows why we suddenly started catching them and why we stopped catching the bigger ones, the unpredictability is what keeps us fishing, you never know what might turn up next.