About Bloody Time.

[jack]

Andy and I fished on Sunday last...[You know,that was the day the fish were too hot in the water and were desperate to be pulled out !] We had 9 Smoothhound all under 10lb.and 2 dogs .discounting an endless scource of makerell....However, we were using both whole live baits and either half a fish or a full fillet. The bite indications were excellent, and we lifted rather than struck into each fish. But each one gave little more than a slight head-shake,and came peacefully to the boat-side,to be lifted out and returned.They showed more life in the boat than in the water !!.Neither of us having caught Smoothies before,is this normal behaviour ? [the fish,not us ]...jack

[jack]

One of the old mans...jack

[Sam]

they usually liven up proberly has something to do with them suffecating

 

me and dad would love to come out sometime if you ever have any free spaces

 

sam

[Afishionado]

One of the old mans...jack

Next time have the decency to pose for the picture with the camera facing the land , and idealy with two or more prominent land markes in thebackground . That way I can work out where you were and go there meself .

 

Mad Mike

[Paul D]

Jack,

 

The smoothies we catch in the solent usually head off like a steam train !

Could be because we are fishing in around 16ft of water I guess but Gordon caught one out on X-Ray and that took a while to bring up as well.

 

How heavy was the tackle / weights you were using ?

[Manic Moore]

I am certainly no expert but they look like pack tope?

[Paul D]

Jack,

 

Did they have teeth ? ( as in visible teeth ) ?

 

 

[Afishionado]

I am certainly no expert but they look like pack tope?

 

D'you know now that I have blown the pic up I think your right

 

A little too browny grey, no steel blue topside with little stars.

 

Mad Mike

[Adam F]

Correct - they are Tope. Smoothies are fairly common around Poole, but not like we get up the Solent - if you caught 10, my guess would be they were Tope.

 

AF

[Wedger]

Had me guessing too when I first had one, but there is a fool proof way to tell at a glance. The tope is the only shark of this type to have a disticnt cleft in the tail below the upper lobe. In the smoothie it is absent. The neat and distinct triangular teeth of the tope also distinguish it from the smoothie which have grinding plates with rough denticles.

 

Acid test.......... When retrieving the hook, and the said fish clamps down on your finger, quite apart from the varying level of pain, there will be one of two bits of evidence which tells you which fish you have.

 

Black fingernail = smooth hound............. Claret on the deck = tope........

 

 

[JIMBOB]

Teeth and a translucent nose and caught on macky (smoothhounds dont like fish baits much). There 100% tope.

James

[jack]

Thanks all of you for your replies..When we caught them we assumed they were Tope, {believe it or not,this was our target species ] but we had no previous experience.I looked them up when I got home and they seemed to be too skinny for tope.I will get Andy to stick his finger in thier mouth if we catch any more [purely in the interest of scientific research of course].

Do tope,especially pack ones usually just give up ?. we both had 30lb line ,6/0 or 8/0 hooks with 6' of 100lb trace.and 6oz leads . on the drift ,in a flooding tide. Finally no-one ever had occasion to ask us before,"where we were fishing" Thanks Mike. We were about 1 ml. toward Poole from the Needles Light on the outside edge of the Dolphin Bank. I am sure that this isn't a secret Mark !....cheers all...jack

[Wedger]

Jack,

 

You'll do pack tope all day just there. They rarely go into doubles (not while I'm out anyway ). Try dropping a couple of hook sizes on a finer snood and fishing a long fine sliver of mackeral belly

 

Wedger