Daylight Snobbery
Recently, I found myself questioning my own judgement regarding bull huss after a comment made by Gethyn Owen during a trip out over Holyhead Deep. We were chatting about the prospects for the day, particularly the chances of some good spurdogs and tope, when Geth said “And don't forget, there'll be loads of good double figure huss down there too”. It was the words good and huss used in the same sentence that did it. I have absolutely no problem in catching huss. When they come along, they come along. But there is no way I am going to spend time and money deliberately looking for them. It was then that I was reminded that having your own trailed boat potentially offers a range of privileges that many keen charter boat anglers are simply not party to. And those that do live in favoured areas where there are lots of other things to try for should also think themselves very lucky too. Because for a great many boat anglers, and in particular those fishing the west coast of England and Wales, bull huss it seems are much appreciated, offering the only realistic opportunity of catching double figure fish on a regular basis. Add to that the fact that currently they appear to be super abundant, are not very demanding, and can give a reasonable account of themselves as some of the lads on board with Geth hauling them up from 130 feet down in quite a fair lick of tide soon found out.
I must confess that I hadn't really given the subject that much thought before. But now that I have, I freely concede that bull huss are actually economically important fish throughout great swathes of the charter fishing industry, which without them, in some parts of the country most certainly, would see their levels of business suffer if they were suddenly to disappear. Fortunately, there is not that much commercial interest in the species....yet. That said, I am occasionally asked by people to bring an odd one back for the pot, in particular by a couple of Londoners reminiscing on how much they enjoyed eating rock salmon when they lived down 'The Smoke'. It might be no bad idea then to take a closer look at the species not only in a little more detail, but also in something of a new light.
Bull huss don't so much put up a fight as make life rather difficult, particularly when they start twisting and flexing in a strong run of tide. Things don't get much better when you net them into the boat. A point worth making here is that you should really net all 'shark' species, and also support their body cavity when lifting them up to prevent major blood vessel damage in their un-supported body cavity which can ultimately lead to death. But I have to concede that the fish themselves don't exactly make life easy. In fact, size for size, they have to be one of the most difficult fish in UK waters to handle and retrieve a hook from due to their sheer physical strength and rough tough skin which apart from having the potential to inflict quite nasty graze type wounds to unwary handlers, is also the devils own job to free a barbed hook from. So for that reason alone, its worth squashing down the barb on your hooks with a pair of pliers, leaving enough of a raised bump to hold the bait and help keep the hook in the fishes mouth, while at the same time, assisting greatly in working it free later on in the boat.
There is no need to fish.heavy hand tackle for huss. I've had plenty of the things on a light spinning outfit. The main consideration here is not the fish itself so much as the prevailing conditions where you are sending the baits down. Fish as light as conditions will allow you to and you shouldn't have any problems. Down at the business end however, it's a slightly different matter. Bull huss don't so much have biting teeth as rasping teeth. So it pays to make your trace up using fairly heavy mono. Certainly 60 lbs bs, and even 80 lbs isn't over the top. There are lots of different ways to set up for huss. But as they are bottom feeders with a very well developed sense of scent detection, then the best approach has to be a four foot flowing trace with a de-barbed 6/0 hook and a nice fillet of mackerel, or better still, a squid and mackerel cocktail. Huss for their size have quite larger mouths and could easily tackle much bigger baits. The only draw back with fishing big baits is that it encourages their infuriating habit of holding on to a bait while not hooked, then after all your efforts, simply letting go at the side of the boat. Smaller baits tend to encourage a much more decisive approach on their part.
You can catch huss over all sorts of sea bed substrate from heavy reef right through to sand, and in doing so their colours and patterning will differ. Huss from very heavy kelpy ground tend to be almost black with tiny tightly packed spots, whereas those from more patchy ground have bigger, more widely spaced markings that are much lighter in colour, sometimes with an almost pinkish hue to their background colouration. And it is for this reason, particularly when they have the smaller more tightly packed markings, that confusion steps in as evidenced by the number of failed claims for mis-identified record lesser spotted dogfish over the years. Yes, they can be similar. But at the same time they are especially easy to tell apart too either by looking at their nasal flaps, or the positioning of the dorsal fins on their backs in relation to their anal fins below, for which reason I'll do a little ID item at the close of this article.
Like all sharks and rays, bull huss belong to a completely separate class of fishes from all the rest of the species we commonly catch in that instead of a skeleton of bone, their muscles are built on to a framework of cartilage. There are other difference such as the way they get rid of their nitrogenous waste which explains why some sharks, and tope in particular, can actually small like a wet nappy. They also have a tremendous sense of scent detection. But most obvious is they way they reproduce. After internal fertilization, all sharks and rays produce very small numbers of extremely well developed offspring. But they achieve this in one of three different way including live births. Bull huss, like lesser spotted dogs and all the rays have gone for the option of depositing their eggs in tough leathery capsules with long twisty tendrils at the corners which become entangled around sea weed and kelp fronds, providing refuge for the developing young.
So next time you catch a huss, think of the tremendous amount of effort that has been put in to producing your catch, and treat it with all necessary respect. For while it may be an abundant species at the moment, and one that some people, myself previously included, was not too bothered about, if it were to go the way of spurdog, which only takes a slight change in its current commercial status, it would be well and truly missed.
IDENTIFICATION –
Bull huss usually have larger well spaced dark spots over a sandy greyish background whereas LSD's tend to have numerous very fine dark spots spread over some shade of brown. But you can't simply rely on markings alone. Fortunately, there are two fool proof anatomical ways to separate the pair. In the LSD, the two dorsal fins begin well behind the point where each of the anal fins beneath them end, whereas in the bull huss these points are directly one above the other. More easily differentiated however are the nasal flaps. Those of the LSD almost join in the middle and slightly overlap the front lip, whereas in the bull huss they are widely separated from each other and positioned well clear of the upper lip.