Long range peeler crab tactics lures big smoothie
St Athan, Glamorgan angler John Austin has reason to smile - this 16lb plus smoothhound is a new personal best!
It was caught from Aberthaw beach, South Wales when John used his Century Kompressor rod to send a peeler crab bait bound to a pulley Pennell rig over 100 yards from the shore.
He had another fish of 9lb during the same session along with a few codling.
Smoothie success on tope trip
A tope session off Ireland’s North Wicklow coast threw up this surprise smoothound for John Millerick from Dublin.
John and his friend Peter McGraith were fishing mackerel flapper baits for tope when they decided to switch to peeler crab to see if there were any smoothies about.
He didn’t have long to wait, with the 8lb fish taking the new offering almost instantly.
Later on in the session the two friends finally connected with their target species when they boated and then released a fine 33lb tope.
Super Starry Smoothound falls to squid!
Suffolk angler Paul Fitch, who operates his own boat, the wonderfully-named ‘She Likes it Rough’ out of Shotley on the River Orwell, near Ipswich, is seen here showing off the superb 25lb 4oz starry smoothhound he caught during a recent trip out.
Skipper Paul used a Pennell-rigged squid bait legered hard on the seabed to make his catch, which isn’t a million miles off the British record.
The current best for a boat-caught hound stands at 28lb 2oz.
