Huss'tastic

The great thing about the Greater Spotted Dog Fish or Bull Huss, (much better name don't you think?), is that it pulls. My word does it pull. A true shark and bottom dwelling, this beast of our coastal waters grows to shock and awe proportions. The best I've seen is well over 20lb and one day I'll have a useful set of scales aboard to prove it. Its a sad but true fact that scales and boats don't go together. Firstly the rocking platform makes the feat of actually weighing, difficult and secondly they are forever getting damaged - modern scales can't handle being at sea.

They are always slow in appearing and its generally half to three quarters of an hour into a trip before they show. A nice two knots of tide is my preferred day with the scent trail from the baits running down the tide. How far these fish will travel up a scent trail is anyones guess but I think it could be as much as a mile. And if you got chum down to the bottom and keep adding new I think they'd come from further than that.

I love to see them; I love people to catch them and I love even more the expression on peoples faces as they try to hold onto one! Talk about strong, when they twist a big one is a real handful. I rig simple running ledgers to a 30lb trace of about half a metre and make sure that all aboard are fishing hard on the bottom. That's where these fellows are....

The greater spotted is different from its smaller relative the lesser spotted (doggie) in that its really quite edible. The rock salmon in a chippy and its almost worth the effort to prepare it. I say almost because skinning them is a devils own job unless you are experienced. A commercial fisherman will do it in seconds but without that kind of practise its really not worth the effort - well for me anyway. I like them simply because they impress me and those that re lucky enough to catch them. Huss'tastic fishing.