smooth-hounds on the west coast

just wondering has anyone ever caught a smooth-hound from the shore around galway or anywhere on the west coast

i met a lad while was fishing on Monday night and had a good chat about fishing and he told me he did a bit of diving as well,he said he dived on a beach 2 weeks ago and saw some smooth-hound,dogs and ray

what would be the best bait to use to try for them?

Iv never heard or seen a smoothound anywhere on the west coast! I would imagine what the man saw were possibly spurdogs?
But to answer your bait question, peeler crab would be the top bait for them.

Peeler is top bait but you can bulk it out with squid.
an old fella I worked with lives in Lehinch and he said that it was full of smoothound at one time but then they all disappeared around twenty years ago.
Interesting old fella, he has photos of himself handlining blue shark out of liscanor bay before he could afford a proper rod!

fished clifden last month gerry and one lad had a smooth hound (you know the mark ). i didnt see it myself but he does most off his fishing on the east coast and has had many smooth hound and tope during the summer months so i believe he did . we spoke to the skipper next day and i think he gave a guy a call about it ,said he was from the local fisheries ,kevin i think his name was . damian

Iv never heard or seen a smoothound anywhere on the west coast! I would imagine what the man saw were possibly spurdogs?
But to answer your bait question, peeler crab would be the top bait for them.

thanks chris,i was thinking he might be mistaken,i thought it might have been tope he saw but he seemed to know his species fairly well,i heard a lot of reports from near the mark and everyone said the mark wasn't fishing great,maybe if smoothounds or spurdogs have moved in to the area it might have moved other species out

fished clifden last month gerry and one lad had a smooth hound (you know the mark ). i didnt see it myself but he does most off his fishing on the east coast and has had many smooth hound and tope during the summer months so i believe he did . we spoke to the skipper next day and i think he gave a guy a call about it ,said he was from the local fisheries ,kevin i think his name was . damian

thanks damian,its good to hear of one at that mark,the mark i was told about was 15miles away from there,hopefully they will get more popular around the area