Wexford hounds again - 17/06/2021

[Teegerstk]

Hey all.
Had to get back out tonight after a recent success a few days ago at a local mark. Conditions were pretty good aside from a northerly breeze but with a fairly consistent southerly/sw/westerly breeze over the past few days I wasn't too worried.
I only had my refrozen peeler crab tonight so I guess there was a bit of doubt in my mind that I wouldn't see much results but they proved worthy indeed.
I set up right away at about mid-flood with half a peeler- 10 minutes later I was vacantly taking in the scenery and noticed my line was slack. I initially assumed my pulley rig had been bumped loose by the tide and wasn't too bothered to reel in the slack until I noticed the line moving upstream. "Just the wind" I thought to myself- but wait, it's moving against the wind! The hammer dropped in my head and I grabbed the rod and struck. A short tussle later and I had landed my first hound of the night- not a bad one.
I noticed this one had some lacerations towards its abdomen, it didn't look like a seal bite anyway?

smoothie1.jpg

It was quickly released and within 10 minutes of a recast I hit in to another- one of around 2lbs. It turns out taking photos is challenging enough when there's no other nice people on the pier to take a pic so a few either came out blurry or the phone fell over!
I think I need to bring my DSLR next time!
I managed to get a pic finally on my fourth hound of the night- another decent enough one. I found that they were all around the same size- a few somewhat decent sized ones and a few pups.
Something else worthy of noting- it seemed that the smaller hounds fought much harder than the stockier ones. Not that any were that big but it still surprised me- one of the largest gave at most a dogfish sort of bite, while one of the smaller ones landed sent my rods and tripod absolutely flying!

Smoothie.jpg

The bites quietened down after the fourth- pack movement I guess but it wasn't long until the pulley rig rod keeled over again for what I presumed to be the last hound of the night. I worked it around the head of the pier towards the steps when I suddenly hear a whizzing behind me. I briefly thought that I had left the drag too loose on my other setup and that it was the tide pulling on the rod but it was the prolific sound of a smoothie peeling line off of the spool. The initial smoothie was almost landed and most likely tired so I set the drag to loose and hopped over to the other rod, somehow luckily still on dry land. I struck in to the fish and then set the drag as loose as possible before running back and quickly landing the first hound. I then released it and diverted my attention back to the second rod, and eventually landed my final hound of the night. The whole ordeal while fleeting really had me in a flurry for a few minutes- quite funny in hindsight. I have a trimmed video I uploaded showing the two culprits and a small bit of the action that ensued:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV68EgQ2ORo

Overall, a great night out, 6 smoothies in total. Especially considering it was only around 2 hours or so's fishing. In between the hounds I did land a little flounder on crab claws- nice to see a bit of variety.

flounder.jpg

It looks like it'll be hounds on the cards for the rest of the summer hopefully, although I am due to head out west again this year in search of a ray. All in due time!
Tight lines all.

[Gonzo]

Brilliant report man! Looks like it was a great session! The hounds a great for keeping ya busy

[Sean Mac]

Great report well done on your session, those hounds would surely pull a rod in!!

[Dogbert]

Nice fishing and some nice hounds again.
Tides should suit them better by Sunday or Monday.

[Sharky Shark]

Great stuff Teeger! Well done, fun times! See ya in Aug for a few casts!