A great year for Smoothound

Smoothound are one of my favourite species of fish from the shore. They fight like demons and even on fairly heavy beachcasters, they put up a great show. So you can imagine how happy I am that we are seeing so many Smoothound on chesil this year. I managed to get hold of some Crab and fished Chesil with my friend Gavin yesterday. The water was pretty coloured after the couple of days of wind that we had, but that didn’t put the fish off. I managed a nice Smoothound on my first cast, which Gavin seemed to forget to photograph. Luckily for him, I did get some pictures of his fish, even if it was only a baby Hound.

We got all the Smoothound on live Peeler Crab and Pulley rigs or our favourite Up and Over rig, which is becoming our go to rig for all our large species fishing.

Whilst we were on the beach we did see a lot of bird activity close in. It looked like the Bass were herding up the baitfish and hitting them hard. We did witness a couple of Bass being caught.

Ben Stockley was fishing a mile or so further down the beach and had a great session. He managed 5 hounds between 4-5 lbs, 2 Small Eyed’s both around 3lb apiece, 3 dogs and a Plaice which took the top hook on a pennel with a 4lb hound for company underneath.

Myself and Gavin Parsons have been busy working on what we hope will be a very exciting project. We are going to attempt to run a live fishing show on YouTube. The show will be presented by myself and we hope in time to have a number of guests from all disciplines of fishing. We believe that the best part is you will be able to interact with us live. You can ask us questions, which we hope we can answer there and then. We also want to feature your content. Have a look at this short trailer to see the sort of fishing action we will be showing. It would really help if you could subscribe to our YouTube Channel. We need to get 1000 subscribers to allow us to unlock a number of YouTube features that will benefit future videos so if you want to help us out click the Fishing Tails YouTube Subscribe link 

So when would be the best time to stream that show? The show will be recorded, so you can watch it at anytime but if you want to ask questions and interact with us, you will have to watch it live. We believe that a Thursday evening is the best night, but which time. We have set up a poll of when we think will be the best time for a 1/2 hour show. Let us know what you think.

Chesil Beach: Medium swell up to 2m with lightly coloured  water

Portland: Swell with lightly coloured water.

Portland harbour: calm and clear water

Weymouth Bay: Calm with clear water

Chesil Beach forecast: Once again we will struggle to catch Mackerel until the water clears a bit, which it should within a day. As you seen from my report earlier you can expect to catch some good Smoothound, especially if you have live Peeler Crab. If you don’t have Peeler, then frozen Hermits work and a Squid and Ragworm cocktail can often tempt a hungry hound. You don’t have to cast for miles to get the Smoothound’s, they will oten come within 60yds of the shore.

With some colour still in the water you will get Dogfish during the day, as well as at night. There is a reasonable chance of a Bass close in, but the Gurnards don’t seem to be showing.

Portland: Despite a bit of colour in the water the rock marks will clear quickly and the Wrasse will be on the feed. Pollock are a good possibility if you are prepared to fish at dawn or dusk.

Portland Harbour: The big tides should be good for Bass in the harbour, as well as Pollock and Wrasse. Once again the Bass are in close, so keep your casts to 30 yds and you are more likely to pick up a fish, rather than at 100yds. I am hoping that we will see some Gilthead Bream showing soon.

Weymouth Bay: The inner harbour is much clearer now. I spotted a good number of Mullet cruising around. Use a small Mepps spinner with a bit of Ragworm attached to a single hook, to tempt the fish. Have a quick look at this Thin Lipped Mullet article for more details.

Preston should produce some Gurnard, Dab and Flounder during the day, with the chance of Rays and Smoothound at night.

Guiding: The new guiding season is underway once again. Although we can’t keep any Bass at the moment, we can certainly catch them. I am hoping that the winter fishing ban and the new commercial quotas, combined with an increase in the minimum landing size, will make for some great Bass fishing. I specialize in lure fishing and I am offering Fly fishing this year as well. I am still more than happy to go after the multitude of species in this area with bait, whether that is big Wrasse, explosive Smoothound fishing or targeting the tastier fish such as Plaice and Bream. If you want to book a session or find out more information drop me an email at [email protected]