After watching The Gambling Angler on YouTube, or Jansen Teakle as he is also known, I decided to get in contact to arrange a guided shore fishing session in the Bristol Channel. 

The allure of large Smoothhounds, Jansen’s expert tuition and stunning scenery was just too much of a draw. 

I, like many people had put personal time a little on hold as young children arrived, but now they are joining in with adventures more, I have been keen to get back into previous adventures I had enjoyed, one being sea fishing. Although I had done some shore fishing, my knowledge is still pretty limited, so I was really keen to learn as much as possible. 

Jansen emailed back with a date, location and a very optimistic outlook for the session due to weather conditions and tides, I can’t tell you how excited I was to get a bait in the water! 

We met at a secret location on the Bristol Channel which I’m not going to give away as it would lead to over fishing and as a angler not good etiquette. These locations take years of learning and I felt very privileged to have been taken there. 

The weather was overcast but warm with a good height for the tide and Jansen was excited to welcome me to the shore, He seemed very excited that everything was aligning for perfect conditions for a Smoothhound, little did I know just how special this session was about to get. 

We had arrived early to make sure we had our spot saved on the beach so we had time to talk rigs and find out a little more about fishing backgrounds. As my angling background is more coarse fishing, I’m good with the basics, but the rigs, reading the tides and conditions on the shore have always avoided me. Jansen quickly explained how we arrived at fishing the spot we did and it all totally made sense, of course 30 years of experience can’t be condensed into one session, but I really got a good introduction to it. 

Wild Ragworm was the choice of bait with Squid as a back up or for adding to the tip of the hook. Jansen explained Ragworm would cover lots of different species which opened us up to catching a lot more so was the best choice for the session. Especially with the chances of catching Rays, Smoothhounds, Bass and Sole we wanted to keep options opened. The choice of rig was a pulley rig which helps keep the weight out of the rocks when a fish takes the bait and also on retrieving your rig to recast. Simple but very effective rig. 

Although the tide seemed half a mile out on arrival, it quickly raced in as its know for on the Bristol Channel and we were ready to go. Even though the water was shallow apparently this is the time when Bass might show so Jansen launched out a pulley rig with a large Ragworm on it. 

I must admit I was excited and a little nervous about what might happen next as my biggest fish from the shore had been a 6lb Conger and with double figure Smoothhounds around I found myself glued to the rod tips. 

After a short while we had a small tap and then another, but Jansen told me to wait and let the bite progress, which we did and then the tip flew around and I struck in to my first fish. It felt glued to the bottom of the channel as I retrieved it and I really didn’t have a clue until it broke the surface that in fact I had landed a nice Thornback Ray! 

A really nice Female Thornback Ray around 6lb and a PB for me, could this get better? Well shortly after another Thornback Ray was on the beach, this time a male around 8lb and another PB!

Another angler on the beach by this time who we had talked to earlier brought over a very nice Smoothhound as I had never seen one before and it was a real beauty. A great sign for us too as Smoothhounds hunt in packs so the excitement level, already high was growing. 

A small bite then turned in to a nice slack line and Jansen gave me the nod to strike into it. 

Bang, I instantly felt a solid weight on the end and then suddenly I gained plenty of line on this fish. But again a sudden run found be stagger forward on the pebbles and laugh as the fish gave me a very strong pull. This had to be a Smoothhound and boy did it fight! 

As a freshwater angling background they only way I can compare it is to a large Barbel. 

As it got nearer to the shore it tore off from left to right on surging runs and really fought hard. Even as Jansen grabbed it by the tail in the surf it still had plenty of fight in it. Finally a stunning 6lb Starry Smoothhound was on the beach and it was a stunner! 

I was absolutely over the moon with catching it and Jansen’s expertise in guiding was paying off. After a hand shake to thank him and the other two anglers coming over to congratulate me on my first hound, which incidentally was really nice of them, Jansen had already launched another baited rig for the next one. 

Sometimes you have to take note of Red Letter sessions, one of those days when everything just works and this sessions was one of those. The scenery was stunning, the tide was good and the fish were feeding, it was just amazing and you could feel the excitement in the air. 

From that moment things went a little mad! Bites came thick and fast, from drop back bites, to surging runs, and it felt like every fish in the Channel had turned up. 

At one point we had two Smoothhounds on at the same time and Jansen somehow managed to grab both at the same time from the surf. 

The fight in these fish is just quite amazing and there was just no rest. When a pack of hounds turn up you need to be ready! 

A huge drop back bite led to the biggest one of the night at around 9lb and what a Smoothhound it was! A massive PB for me and a truly memorable fishing session. 

I think you know you have had a great session when you catch so many fish you lose count, and we did, but we think we had around 8-9 Smoothhounds. 

I can honestly say when we arranged this guided session I never imagined we would have the evening we had. It was just simply the best shore fishing session I had ever been a part of and one that would be hard to beat for many years to come. 

Jansen’s expertise on the Bristol channel is second to none. The way he explained how the session was going to work, the tackle we were going to use and how to strike the bites and play the fish was excellent. The Gambling Angler had provided everything advertised and more. 

Beautiful location, fantastic guiding and stunning fish caught. 

If you would like to have a guided session on the Bristol channel with The Gambling Angler, contact Jansen on the following website, you won’t regret it!