Getting ready for a recent trip out on a charter boat I had an idea which on the day turned out to make the trip one of the most fun times out on a boat I have had. The trip was meant to be an experimental session after tope with AAA charters of Ipswich, the skipper Pete Everett had invited us out with him to see if we could find some and me, Jack turner and Paul Lowe were more than happy to oblige. Getting the gear ready for the trip I picked out the usual heavier gear for tope fishing but whilst doing so I had an idea, with crab in the fridge I would also put a rod out for hounds but not just any rod, my little 9 foot 2 inch , 15 to 42 gram savage gear salt spinning rod, I was sure this rod could take a hound out easily, yes it would be a great fight but I was sure I could land them and paired up with a 2000 sized Rovex Ceratec reel loaded with 10lb ultima power steel this combination was going to prove sporting to say the least.
The day of the trip came and we turned up to Levington marina just outside Ipswich, we boarded the boat and I showed the skipper my little rod and told him of my idea, this was met with raised eyebrows and a smile followed by him saying “good luck”, I was looking forward to using it, would it work or would I get smashed up!!! It wouldn’t be long until I found the answer to my question. We headed out to the Gunfleet sands which are situated around 5 miles off the Essex coast, the water was flat as a pancake and the warmth was building as the sun started to poke its head out from behind the clouds, it was looking to be a scorcher of a day and sun cream was at the ready, we anglers spend a lot of time outside and being fair skinned I won’t take risks with the sun and my skin. We anchored up in nearly 100 feet of water and with all the tope baits out I set up my little hound rod, the rig was extremely simple, a fixed paternoster type rig consisting of a large long loop made in the mainline then cut around ¾ back, with the smaller length of line going to the lead and the longer snood going to a single Varivas 2/0 big mouth hook, attached to this was a 6oz lead, because I was literally just plopping this up tide the rod was fine and handled it with ease. The tide was coming to near bottom and run was at a minimum, everything was perfect, I flicked it out uptide and waited for the lead to hit bottom, once down I let a little bit more line out and sat back and waited, it didn’t take long for the rod tip to bounce violently and a fish was hooked, the bend in the rod was immense and I was sure it couldn’t be a hound as even though it was thumping it was coming far to quietly and pretty soon a large dogfish was seen coming up from the depths. Once unhooked and released I turned to the others and laughed saying “if a dogfish does that then what’s a hound going to do to it”. Then after 4 or 5 doggies it happened, the tip pulled over and kept going, winding down into the weight the rod lurched over and held there, I turned to the others and shouted “hound on” and what fun it was, I could feel every little head shake and every lunge but the rod held up and pretty soon a small hound of around 4lb was boated. Another half crab was dropped down and within minutes the rod pulled round again and another hound was on, after another great scrap a slightly larger hound was on board, now I don’t like to be greedy but I had caught a couple of target species, which had given the rod a good work out but I was really hoping for a larger fish just to feel what the scrap would be like on this very light rod. Pete the skipper had just had the target species of a small tope on one of the heavier rods when my rod smacked over violently, the flimsy tip just kept going and the ratchet was clicking wildly, I picked it up and could feel straight away my wishes had been answered and a much larger hound was hooked. The rod was bent double and this fish was not happy that it’s day had been ruined, it thought it was about to chow down on a tasty juicy piece of crab on the sea bed 100 feet below the surface and was now slowly making its way up to join us bobbing about in the sunshine.

The rod was locked out solid but the ratchet was doing its job releasing line every time the hound made a run for it, all that was going through my mind was this was on 10lb line straight through so I was prepared to let this lump of angry fishy muscle take its time to make its way up, there was no chance of bullying the fish at all. After a few screaming runs where the fish just teared of in any direction it felt like going I started to get the upper hand. With Jack and Paul looking over into the clear blue water Paul was the first to see the hound making its way up from the depths, a long grey shape emerged from the darkness and he said it looked a better fish than the last 2 I had caught and pretty soon it was on the surface, after a couple of big last ditch lunges the hound finally succumbed and was on board. What awesome fun that fight was!! After pics the fish was released and made its way back into the darkness below. Well that proved it could be done and after a few more dogfish the tide started hammering through and there was no way this rod could be used, it wouldn’t handle the lead needed to hold bottom but I wasn’t bothered, I was still grinning from ear to ear, the buzz of the fights was immense and I had honestly not had that much fun fishing for a while, and I would highly recommend anybody going out on a boat in the future to take a very light spinning rod with them and try for a hound on light gear, trust me you will be smiling from start to finish.