Each month we catch up the fish magnet himself, Mario Asprou to find out where he's been fishing and what he's been catching! Here we take a look at what the month of June has produced for Mario including some explosive shore smoothhound fishing and a successful session down on the South Coast of England targeting undulate rays.
Hounding with the Medusa
The start of the month I concentrated my efforts on smoothhound, we've had a great run this year and it would prove to be an ideal opportunity to try out the Tronixpro Medusa Rod. Over the sessions I had some great results with plenty of smoothhound between 5lbs and 9lbs. The Medusa performed flawlessly and I was really surprised at how well it handled the rough ground on the marks I fished. It also proved itself when battling the bigger hounds, able to subdue the bigger 9lb fish with ease.
Generally when fishing for the bigger fish I'll use larger hook sizes than I did on my sessions in June. I opted to use the 2/0 Tronixpro Big Dog Hooks and they worked really well. Very strong and every fish I caught was hooked perfectly in the corner of the mouth.
Here are a few pictures from my June Smoothhound Sessions.
Solent Undulates
One of my targets this year was to catch an undulate ray, something I've yet to catch. Towards the end of June I decided to head down south to the Solent area to try and catch my first one. Reports were rife that a good few fish were coming out so I was excited and optimistic that my prospects for catching an undulate were good.
I fished throughout the day and the night, first having some good quality bream fishing during the day with my Tronixpro Medusa, waiting patiently for the darkness to descend so I could finally get a crack at the rays. As darkness fell I glanced some movement on the tip of my Medusa and struck into a fish, after a firm fight I'd landed my first ever undulate ray, it bounced the scales at 6lbs 10oz and I was a very happy angler! Following this fish I landed a further undulate this time going over 10lbs. As well as the undulate rays I caught a decent variety of fish including strap conger, smoothhound and the inevitable dogfish.
Below are some some images from my Solent undulate trip.
Keep your eyes peeled for my July adventures, until then, tight lines!