Gaverick
Well-known member
Me and Phil185 had a trip down south yesterday. We've had a few trips down to the Holderness coast last year but never managed to catch anything so this year we went prepared.
Set off at 10am, called into NETS for some crab and rag and then headed down to meet Scott from Squids In Sea Baits to pick up some more crab, squid and Mackerel. A very friendly guy and gave us some quality bait for a good price too and advice on where to fish.
We arrived at Aldbrough for 3pm just in time for low water. We fished the beach until 8pm until the water came up to the cliffs and forced us off the beach. We hadn't had anything at this point so decided on a move to Dimlington gas works.
Arrived there and fished the last hour of the flood and prepared for the night ahead. Had a bit of food and chucked out some crab, rag and squid baits. At around midnight I got a small rattle on the rod, stood next to it and waited for the next rattle, I struck into it and nearly fell over as I reeled in a load of slack line. Caught up with the fish and the fight began. My rod was hammering away felt like I had hold of a jack hammer and the fish locked my reel up a few times so I just had to hold on until I could retrieve more line. Eventually beached the fish to reveal my first ever Starry Smoothhound. Happy is an understatement, I've never had a fight like that before with a fish and it felt great.
Anyway here is a picture, sorry about the quality only had my crappy phone camera.
We continued to fish in the hope of catching more and sure enough about an hour later Phil got a rattle. It was the same story with Phil having to reel in slack to catch up with the fish and then a long battle to get the fish in. Phils fish was slightly bigger although having never caught a Smoothhound and not having scales we weren't sure of the weights, we guesstimated around 5-6lb. Phils fish was also his first ever Smoothhound and caught on Mackerel fillet.
Our first experience of Smoothhounds was great, I couldn't believe the strength of them, just trying to hold them still for a photo required all my strength. We left the beach at 4am and got home at 8am shattered and went straight to bed. Can't wait to start regular winter fishing on the North East coastline now.
Set off at 10am, called into NETS for some crab and rag and then headed down to meet Scott from Squids In Sea Baits to pick up some more crab, squid and Mackerel. A very friendly guy and gave us some quality bait for a good price too and advice on where to fish.
We arrived at Aldbrough for 3pm just in time for low water. We fished the beach until 8pm until the water came up to the cliffs and forced us off the beach. We hadn't had anything at this point so decided on a move to Dimlington gas works.
Arrived there and fished the last hour of the flood and prepared for the night ahead. Had a bit of food and chucked out some crab, rag and squid baits. At around midnight I got a small rattle on the rod, stood next to it and waited for the next rattle, I struck into it and nearly fell over as I reeled in a load of slack line. Caught up with the fish and the fight began. My rod was hammering away felt like I had hold of a jack hammer and the fish locked my reel up a few times so I just had to hold on until I could retrieve more line. Eventually beached the fish to reveal my first ever Starry Smoothhound. Happy is an understatement, I've never had a fight like that before with a fish and it felt great.
Anyway here is a picture, sorry about the quality only had my crappy phone camera.
We continued to fish in the hope of catching more and sure enough about an hour later Phil got a rattle. It was the same story with Phil having to reel in slack to catch up with the fish and then a long battle to get the fish in. Phils fish was slightly bigger although having never caught a Smoothhound and not having scales we weren't sure of the weights, we guesstimated around 5-6lb. Phils fish was also his first ever Smoothhound and caught on Mackerel fillet.
Our first experience of Smoothhounds was great, I couldn't believe the strength of them, just trying to hold them still for a photo required all my strength. We left the beach at 4am and got home at 8am shattered and went straight to bed. Can't wait to start regular winter fishing on the North East coastline now.
