Hound mania!

Around this time of year the south west coast of Scotland sees a run of smoothound looking for peeler crabs to chomp through.  Wigtown bay near Kirkcudbright is a great location to catch one of these fantastic, hard fighting fish.  Scottish smoothounds average 5lb, with the odd fish into double figures. Peeler crab for bait is a priority.

A stunning 13lb Starry smoothound caught by Gary Pye who would have smashed the Scottish record with this fish.  Gary who was fishing nearby on the same day, caught and released this tremendous hound, hats off to him!

As already stated above peeler crab is a must, most rigs will work for smoothound but my choice is a pulley rig made with a 30lb mono hook length to a beefy 3/0 hook, something like a sakuma manta extra is a great choice.

Info

Rock or beach marks with a good tidal strength are places hounds love!  Fish often appear out of nowhere as the tide gathers strength. Hounds are pack fish, catch one and you'll normally catch many more.

Today weather and tide looked great for a shot at these powerful fish, so accompanied by pals Brian Jackson and Andy Copeland who knew this mark quite well we headed off early doors towards the south west of Scotland.

Casting practice for me on arrival and the quiet contemplation of a good catch to come!

First fish of the day went to Andy with a lovely bullhuss that weighed in at 8lb, a great start!

From then on for five hours it was a steady stream of smoothound and dogfish with some hectic hound mania at times!

Even the horrific site of my rod stand blowing over and my new rod descending into the depths didn't stop the mayhem.  (Andy fished it out eventually thank goodness, a lesson learned big time!)

Gary Pye and his pal Darren Swan are the masters at this location, taking tope to 30lb, rays, hounds to 13lb and huss to. Unfortunately I was unable to get pics of these fish as I was marooned on my own small island that I'll now forever call lucky rock.

Blurb is good, but as I'm not normally a blurb full type of person to be honest so here's some pics for you that are better than a thousand blurbs....

Brian Jackson, new nickname (Hound dog)

Andy Copeland who made it out alive, well it was a big hill!  Rod rescuer to!

What a fantastic days fishing with at least 50 fish between the three of us with the opportunity to witness some very special fish by Gary Pye and pal Darren.  Until the next time, over and out, tightlines from Mr Wrasse Rogers aka (Jarrow Viking)