Smooth Hound

Distribution:

There are two species of Smooth Hound to be found in Ireland. The Common Smoth Hound and The Starry Smooth Hound. Funilly enough the Common Smooth Hound is the less common of the two. They are a fairly localised species of shark and limited pretty much to the East coast. The Wicklow and Wexford beaches are the main spot that this hard fighting fish can be found with Cahore, Courtown, Brittas Bay and up as far as Kilcoole and Greystones. Other spots can sometimes throw up fish but these are the most noted. Record fish have been taken from Five Mile Point.

Habitat:

Smoothies are to be found over sandy shores and sandbanks. Seeming to shun rocky areas these sharks can often be found in relatively shallow waters from 20 ft to 100 ft. Smoothies tend to group together in small packs of sharks about the same size. A good supply of crustaceans in an area will usually insight them to hang around. Because Smoothies only really frequent a small stretch of our shoreline targeting them should be kept to areas they are known to reside.

Smooth Hounds feed primarily on crustaceans such as hermit crabs, shore crabs, velvet swimmers and eddible crab. Others include shrimps, squat lobsters and prawns. Smoothies seem to be religous about their diet and crab seem to be the best bait to target them. Hard back shore crabs will take Smoothies as will Hermits and they will ocasionally fall to Ragworm although only sometimes and the smaller fish. Crab is the way to go. Smooth Hounds seem to shun fish baits.

Bait:

Season:

Smooth Hounds are a summer species. They usually start to arrive in May and can stay until October if the weather is fine.

Tides and Weather:

Smoothies feed well in dull conditions with a good flood of tide. The warmer water livens them up a little, so a spell of good weather will bring them in force

Tactics:

The usual method for catching Smoothies is to uptide using a running ledger rig. A 12 LB outfit is ample for these hard fighting fish and will best demonstrate their power. After sinking your line the drag should be set as loose as possible without letting the tide strip off line and allow the Hound to run once he has picked up the bait. Hooks should be kept to just the one as two large fish swimming in opposite directions will smash you up. A good Smoothie can strip 50 yards of line off your reel in one go after this initial run you should strike and not bully the fish to the boat as to let it demonstrate it's fighting ability. Try to target areas where Smoothies are known to reside  as these sharks are a real possibility in certain areas, they are very rare almost everywhere else.

Smoothhound Profile

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