PB Smoothound

[Scotch_Egg2012]

Caught last year off of Boulder bank

19lb 10oz Starry

[mike farrants]

lovely fish that! nice one!

[thejollysinker]

great catch, put up a great fight don't they?

All the evidence suggests they are all Starry hounds btw. There's been a couple of published studies by various groups that would indicate that all Hounds in the UK area are Starries. They caught shed loads of them and did DNA tests which would indicate that this would be the case. Just because there's no spots is not a reason to say it's a common, the difference is very hard to tell visually, it's a bit more complicated than that.

If you're interested, have a read of these links:

simple genetic identification method for Northeast Atlantic smoothhound sharks (Mustelus spp.) | ICES Journal of Marine Science | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

Starry-smoothound-Species-Profile.pdf (toolkitfiles.co.uk)

We used to have access to one of the 'private' beaches in the Solent and caught shed loads of them, often well into double figures and had great fun 🙂

Tight lines, Gary. 

[suzook12]

I think thje record was caught local to here, Heacham beach springs to mind