Porbeagles are the quiet sharks of the angling world. They rarely get the accolades that even the humble blue enjoys. Yet look at the record books. The world record stands at 507lbs from Scotland and reliable estimates by UK charter captains put some recent lost fish at over 700lbs. Evidence from commercial long-liner landings also show porbeagles over 800lbs definitely exist. Put this weight range with the stamina and hard fighting characteristics of the porgie, and you’ve an adversary that ranks with the best.
It’s no wonder then, that the porbeagle has a cult like status amongst UK sea anglers. Due to our unique island coastline and close proximity to the European mainland, we’ve developed our own way of fishing for them. This feature is a breakdown of the porbeagle, UK style!
THE UK FISHERY
The UK porbeagle fishery developed slowly. Up to the mid 1920’s, any porbeagles landed were “lucky” captures, sharks hooked while fishing for other lesser species. By the late 20’s and through the early 30’s, the Marquis of Sligo and Dr O’Donel Browne first started to specifically target porbeagles off Achill Island on the west coast of Ireland and accounted for sharks to 365lbs. A remarkable achievement considering these sharks were caught from canvas covered “Coragh’s”, traditional Irish open boats, and beaten on heavy split-cane salmon rods and cutty-hunk lines.
The war intervened, but porbeagles to 224lbs were recorded by anglers aboard boats from Looe in Cornwall. By the early 50’s charter boats started to catch porbeagles off the Cornish coast, especially Looe again, where, in August of 1957, Mrs Hetty Eathorne captured the then World record 271lber fishing aboard the boat “Little One” skippered by W. Butters.
Come the 60’s, and the fishery really came alive. Porbeagles to 324lbs were discovered around the Isle of Wight in the English Channel by charter captains Trevor Prince and Dick Downes, and also off Weymouth. There were porbeagle captures off the Welsh coast too, but again Cornwall was the top venue.
To the north of Padstow, Cornwall near Crackington Haven lies a rocky headland called Cambeak. Water depth here can be as little as 25ft over reef and rough ground. This shallow area was to produce world record sharks consistently, and culminating in a 465lb porbeagle for Jorge Potier in 1976 and Derek Runnel’s 458lber the following year. And there were much bigger fish lost!
The oil boom in the north of Scotland through the 70’s was also to make a large contribution to UK porbeagle knowledge. Anglers working on the oil rigs spent shore leave fishing from the local boats. Losing small hooked fish to big predators during the retrieve soon made them realise sharks were resident. Specific shark trips were organised and accounted for porbeagles off Lerwick in the Shetland Islands to 450lbs in the late 70’s.
From 1980 to the present, Wales saw it’s first 200lb porbeagle, a 205lber taken off Aberdovey in July of ‘89, and the Welsh record has since been increased to 294lbs with a porgie taken off Porthcawl, South Wales, plus that new world record at 507lbs was established off Dunnet Head in Scotland. There are also reliable accounts of two porbeagles over 600lbs hooked and lost off Dunnet!
DISTRIBUTION
The hotspots still remain around the Isle of Wight and lower English Channel, the Channel Islands, the Bristol Channel and Wales, and the north-west and north coasts of Scotland. Porbeagles are resident around the whole of Ireland too, but with a greater likelihood along the west coast facing in to the open Atlantic.
Other areas also hold them. Though porbeagles have not yet been landed on rod and line in the North Sea, they have been caught commercially off the Yorkshire and Northumberland coasts proving their residency. Porbeagles have been hooked and landed from the Luce Bay area in south-west Scotland, and lost off Oban. I also feel there’s an untapped fishery over the wrecks littered throughout the southern North Sea, especially off the English Essex and Kent coasts.
MIGRATION PATTERNS
The migration of porbeagles around the UK is only now starting to be understood.
The old theory was that the packs of smaller sub 200lb shark moved north to south through the summer following the mackerel shoals, with the bigger solitary sharks remaining out in deeper water. Not true! There appears to be different geographical groups of shark that move in to certain areas around the UK at specific times.
There’s a vanguard of bigger more solitary sharks that work in from the deeper water west of the Scilly Islands from late March onwards. These arrive around the Scilly Islands and off Cornwall by early April. They feed on pollack over the shallow reefs and stay until June before working back offshore. These are the fish over 300lbs, but their numbers have been badly hit over the past decade by commercial long-liners.
The main run of pack shark weighing up to 300lbs come inshore during June and July, but again move back offshore as sea temperatures peak through August. This group of sharks form smaller splinter groups. Some work through the lower English Channel and linger around the Isle of Wight. A second group moves north through the southern Irish Sea filtering in to the Bristol Channel off Swansea, then north again in to Cardigan Bay. They stay inshore through to early August before moving back offshore.
The Irish west coast porbeagles spend the early part of the year out in deep water in the open Atlantic, but move inshore during the late August period and stay through to December. Some fish move south around southern Ireland, others come in on a more northerly track and populate the rough ground and deep water off Northern Ireland, especially around Malin Head and over the many WW2 wrecks off Culdaff. It’s also a splinter group of a few fish from this pack that are contacted off the south-west Scottish coast.
The most interesting group migration is that of the north Scottish porbeagles. These are, on average, by far the biggest of the British porbeagles and predominately female. Given that the Norwegian coast has produced female porgies to 800lbs for the long-liners through past winters and the close proximity of the Norwegian coast to Scotland, then it’s highly likely that the Scottish shark are part of this Norwegian stock. This is backed up by the best of the Scottish shark fishing taking place during January, February and March indicating a westerly migration towards Scotland. These shark then move north through the summer towards Iceland and east towards Norway come fall. This is proven again by commercial summer captures of big porbeagles in the waters around the Shetlands, Faroe Islands and south of Iceland.
THE EFFECTS OF WATER TEMPERATURE
The UK has recently enjoyed a period of generally mild winters. This has disrupted the usual porbeagle migrations. With sea temperatures being on average one to two degrees higher than normal through recent summers, numbers of porbeagles resident in the expected areas have fallen.
Anglers have blamed heavy commercial over-fishing for the decline in numbers, but large numbers of porbeagles are still being contacted by commercial fishermen out in the open Atlantic west of Cornwall and Ireland where depth of water gives a more constant water temperature. It’s also significant that the biggest fall in porbeagle numbers is noticed in the shallowest inshore water areas where summer sea temperatures are naturally highest.
In open water with a good depth, you’ll find the porbeagle cruising deep in the colder months where the temperature is more stable, but come summer, they’ll be above the thermocline between it and the surface.
This is proven partly by the porbeagles food choices and stomach content analysis. In winter, they’ll be living mainly on cod, whiting and other bottom dwellers. In summer and early fall, they move higher in the water to intercept the mackerel and herring shoals. However, the porgie is unpredictable and will make forays from surface to seabed and seabed to surface immaterial of the time of year if activity or hunger drives him to do so.
When sea temperatures rise above 16C or 61F, the porbeagle will move back offshore and drop deeper. This is also a trait of the mackerel, which, at times of very hot and persistent weather, will break up and scatter in to small shoals and go deeper. Both the porgie and the mackerel retain a much higher blood temperature than surrounding sea water which may well induce this mini offshore migration and account for the ease with which they suddenly switch from deep water to surface swimming and back again.
WEATHER PATTERNS
Porbeagles take best when the sea is rough with a good swell and steady wind. Some anglers feel this is due to the suspended baits having more movement. I feel it’s due to the surface light being broken up more and being diffused making it less able to penetrate through the rough seas surface. This makes it easier for a large predator to stalk the bait fish shoals without being easily seen.
I’ve also found that cloudy days are much better than sunny cloudless skies. I have caught in calm, clear water conditions, but never as well. The best days are overcast skies with a fine persistent drizzle. Heavy rain is not so good!
On days when the cloud cover is low and the sea rough, expect the near surface baits to get hit first. In calm, clear seas, then the deeper baits are more likely to be attacked. This is because in clear water the porbeagle locates and attacks bait fish shoals from below maximising their dark backs as camouflage. In subdued light and poor water clarity, it’s easier for the porgie to initially charge bait fish shoals and part them in panic to scare up a meal.
Porbeagles feed best when the wind and tide direction are the same. The more the wind direction angles away from the tide flow, the less likely you are to catch.
HABITAT
I’ve already mentioned that porbeagles will feed in very shallow water of just 25ft like that found off Cambeak in Cornwall. My own fishing is done in depths of no more than 70ft in my home waters of Cardigan Bay in Wales. It’s not the depth you look for, it’s the ground feature and the effect of the tide.
Porbeagles like some tide run. They deliberately seek out areas where tide runs are condensed and increased such as areas around rocky headlands that deflect the tide, reef areas, deeper channels between the mainland and an island, or between two islands. They use the fast tides to increase their attack speed, and shoals of smaller food fishes get overwhelmed and swept along by the tide making them more vulnerable.
Over clean sandy seabeds, expect porgies to be located around rising sandbanks that deflect the tide run. They work along deeper gutters and channels, and will often swim inside a tight area where mixed ground will camouflage them.
The best haunts for porgies are reefs, especially the deeper ones where sheer rising rock walls and pinnacles cone upwards towards the surface. The sharks swim around the pinnacles, work along the walls of rock, also work through the deeper gullies running along the reefs deliberately trying to flush food fish out and then give chase.
A good time to work a shallow reef is when lobster or crayfish pots have just been re-baited. The fresh smell in the water can really bring the porgies on the feed.
Never ignore wrecks. The pollack, cod and ling that inhabit the wrecks are the ideal food source for a big shark, plus the wreck gives ambush cover when patrolling. This is often an anglers first contact with a porbeagle. Over a wreck or a reef, a retrieved hooked cod or pollack is “hit” and snatched on the way up.
When hunting sharks around rising rock pinnacles and reefs, they’ll be on the downtide side of the structure, only moving uptide when the tide flow eases away. An easing tide flow will also see them rise in the water layers, but an increasing tide flow will see them drop deeper towards the bottom where the strength of the tides is less.
CHUMMING
Like all sharks, porbeagles respond especially well to the use of chum. But this needs thinking about. You need a chumming system that gets smell down to both deep and shallow water swimming sharks. Here’s the method I find successful.
I use 2ft sections of drilled plastic drainage pipe with screw threaded lids for chum containers, these are suspended from the stern of my 18ft boat. Bigger boats can go for 6in pipe. These contain fresh chunks of mackerel (Bostons), the chunks just cut straight through the body to retain the guts and blood. This fresh blood is critical. The water washes through the holes in the pipe and puts neat blood directly in the water.
I also use a mincer to mince down fresh mackerel and then mix in animal feed bran and lots of pilchard oil. I figure guys Stateside could substitute the pilchard oil for bunker oil. Leave this mixture to soak for a couple of hours prior to use. I then put this in an open weave onion sack from the Supermarket and tie this to the stern so the base just touches the sea surface as the boat rolls. This puts an oily slick across the surface of the water, plus the bran slowly drops down deeper in the water and helps create both a wide and deep scent lane. But I haven’t finished yet!
Next, I cut small half inch cubes from a fresh mackerel and drop these in the water one every 20 to 30 seconds. These sink slowly and will eventually reach the seabed to attract and raise up any seabed swimming sharks at long range.
FISHING TECHNIQUES
When ever possible try to anchor for porbeagles. It’s far more effective than fishing on the drift. Why?
It’s to do with the chum trail. The perfect drift fishing conditions are wind against tide to hold the boat up and minimise the drift speed in relation to the passing tide. This allows the chum trail to travel well away from the boat to create that deep and wide small lane for the sharks to follow. Conditions with wind and tide travelling in the same conditions see the chum lane dropping vertically down below the boat with minimal scent travelling away from it. Your chum lane just ain’t working as well as it should!
Other good drift conditions are a side wind against the tide which again holds the boat up a little, but the tide makes the chum trail flow away from the boat.
Now to anchoring. Put the anchor in, and immaterial of the strength of the tide, the scent lane will always travel away from the boat and maximise it’s usefulness. Ideally, you should be anchoring just above known seabed feature that you think will hold sharks, then give ‘em that scent lane to find you.
Just to prove the point. Ever since I’ve been anchoring, and this includes very deep water anchoring off the south and west of Ireland, my catches of both porbeagles and blues has trebled.
SETTING THE BAIT DEPTH
When drift fishing, you need to take the wind and tide direction and strength of tide flow in to consideration before deciding the depths at which to set the baits.
If the wind and tide direction are the same and the chum trail lays vertically underneath the boat, then the baits need fishing tight to the boat both shallow and deep. I’d set just two baits in these conditions, one at 25ft simply lowered over the boat-side with a light lead weight on to keep it straight down, and the other 20yds away at 60ft or deeper and suspended underneath a party balloon to keep the baits close to the chum for the shark to find.
In ideal conditions, wind against tide and the chum trail flowing nicely away from the boat, then you can set out four baits. Put three underneath party balloons at 25ft, 35ft and 60ft, and keep that one just lowered over the gunnel. Spread the balloons at 20yds, 50yds and 75yds away from the stern. If the tide is very fast, say on the biggest spring tides, then the chum trail will flow away from the boat at a shallower angle near the surface, so fish the suspended baits shallower at 18ft, 25ft, and 35ft. These distances are a guide, but I’ve found them very effective.
The bait lowered over the side of the boat is always worth trying. Porbeagles often move up the chum trail but miss the baits and then love to sneak in and sit just underneath the boat and keep an eye on things. This boat-side bait nails them every time, especially if it’s live!
Early in the season, the porgies can be feeding and hunting right on the seabed. It’s worth tying a sinker to the trace and ledgering a bait hard on the bottom. This can attract unwanted bottom species, but when they cease to feed, it’s a fair bet a shark is around.
Another trick to have up your sleeve is rod already rigged that you can rig a live bait on and freeline this to a porgie that comes in to the chum trail and hangs around near the surface a while. These fish are interested, but not interested enough to nail a dead bait. Put a live one in front of them and cent to a dollar they’ll make a bee line straight for it!
Occasionally, especially in flat calm seas, you’ll see a porbeagle fin working it’s way down the chum trail towards the boat. These fish do one of two things. They reach the balloons, usually the inner ones, then dive to inspect the boat. These fish often miss the baits altogether and you’ll never see them again. Just an occasional shark will turn back and take a bait, but not many. These are sharks with a full belly.
Far more likely is that you’ll never see the shark that takes the bait. Your first inclination that you have a take is when all hell breaks loose and somebody’s reel ratchet screams out loud as the sharks takes the bait and runs.
Let the shark run until it starts to slow and stops. They almost always stop as they turn the bait. During this pause, put the reel in gear and wait. As the shark starts to run again, hold the rod in the fighting position at roughly 45 degrees and just let the line tighten against the weight of the shark to pull the hook home against the strike-drag pressure, then back it off. There is no need for dramatic multiple strikes. This is a sure way to snap the line!
With the hook in, the porbeagle will take off on a fast and steady run either downtide or across tide, expect anything up to 300yds depending on the size of the fish. It will now slow and turn back in to the tide. Some fish now come back straight towards you at speed. Others turn and run again, but not as far. These runs will continue until the fish tires a little, then it will go deep and sulk. This can hurt with a big fish. You must keep them moving and the pressure on.
They’ll corkscrew as they dive and can wrap the leader around their tails. You won’t be the first angler to fight a 200lb fish tail first and think it’s a 500lber!
Their next tactic is to come up to mid depth and circle the boat. They’ll try to get around the anchor rope if you’re anchored and it’s wise to either buoy off the anchor and come back for it after the fight, or retrieve it once the shark is hooked. My advice is go for the buoyed off method. This circling is a sign that they are getting very tired. You should be able to lift them now and work them towards the boat, but watch out for one last blistering run when they’re right at the boat side.
I’ve seen this a few times, big porbeagles stop fighting and allow themselves to be lead back to the boat at surface level. Once near the boat, they’ll swim alongside, one pectoral fin out of the water and literally eye-ball the crew….then run deep and fast!
I release all my porbeagles at the side of the boat as I’m looking for thrills not kills, but if you want to bring one in, then get a rope around the tail. Once the tail is out of the water, the porgie is in deep trouble. I lift small pups up to say 80lbs in to the boat and unhook ‘em in comfort. Their easily handled on your own if you gently sit over them with your legs either side of them, and besides, it’s far better they go back without the hook still in and the lifting does no damage.
I don’t and won’t gaff any shark. Big porbeagles will roll off a gaff and literally go berserk at the side of the boat putting the wire man at risk, and I’ve seen the tail smash fibreglass on smaller boats. I’m not trying to tell professional crews how to do it, just warning the less experienced what to expect. Roped up, tail out of the water ‘beagles tire quickly, but don’t trust ‘em!
I fish porbeagles from my own 18ft boat. We retrieve the anchor at the start of the fight and deliberately let a big fish tow the boat. This is worth remembering when hooked in to a real big shark, or any big running fish for that matter.
UK TACKLE
It’s worth mentioning that UK line class rods are rated different to US ones. Our UK 50 class is equivalent to a US 30 class in action and power. The length of UK rods averages 7ft which allows for a good action to be built in to the blank. I like rods to bend a little, then lock up pretty solid when the power is piled on for sharking.
A standard UK porgie outfit is a 50lb (US 30) class rod, 45 to 48lb line, plus a 6/0 reel either a Penn Senator or International. I mainly target porbeagles with UK 30lb class rods (US 20) and 25-28lb line as I’m looking for maximum sport. In very deep water and the chance of bigger than average porbeagles, then I go for stand-up rods rated 20-30 or 30-50 class.
I know it’s widely used in the US, but I’ve found single strand piano wire costs me fish. With porgies being very active at the boat side, plus corkscrewing during the fight, they easily kink the single wire and it will snap. I prefer 49 strand wire. Yep, they’ll work through a few strands occasionally, but I’ve never had this part.
My wire leaders I like to be 14ft long to allow for the shark rolling. I use two types.
In very clear calm water and for baits suspended close to the surface, I have 5ft of 400lb wire, now crimp in a Mustad or Berkeley big game swivel. To this, I crimp on 9ft of 250lb to 400lb clear monofilament and end with another swivel. The mono is less obvious in the clear water, plus you’ll find you’ll experience fewer dropped bites with it. than an all wire leader.
In deeper water and rough, less clear seas, I do go for an all wire leader. This will be the same 5ft of 400lb wire and the swivel, but the mono is replaced with 9ft of 250lb 49 strand wire and the second swivel.
I prefer to use bronzed pattern hooks, usually the Mustad 3406 pattern size 10/0. I’ll drop down to an 8/0 sometimes when freelining a live bait. Make totally sure that the hook point has been filed down to create an knife edge along the inner point to get it deep in to the sharks jaw.
BAITS & BAIT RIGGING
By far the best porbeagle bait is a mackerel (Boston) followed by herring, pollack and cod. That said, I’ve had them on farmed trout when fresh bait has been scarce.
For livebaiting, I just pass the hook through the upper root of the tail. I also use a bridle rig, but find that porgies, unlike blues, will take the bait and miss the hook too often for me to have total confidence in this method.
For whole large dead baits, I chop off the tail fin, then pass the hook point through the skin at the tail root and pull it fully through, now put the hook point back in to the last exit hole and repeat this stitching in and out down the flank of the fish until the hook point comes out about two thirds of the way down the body just to the rear of the gill-plate cover. This keeps the hook point fully exposed, but also hides the wire nice and neatly.
To get more blood in the water and give the bait a “just hit” appearance, I also rig a mackerel by chopping off the tail fin and the head just behind the gill cover and mount this using the same stitching technique from the tail down along the flank.
Here in the UK, we also use a “flapper” bait. A flapper is a whole mackerel with the backbone removed but the fillets left attached to the head. To mount the hook in this bait, pass the hook in to the mouth of the bait, out through the bottom jaw, then in and out stitching style below the head until the point appears just below and past the gills. Ideally, the point should be exit between the pelvic fins on a Boston mackerel.
To give you some idea of the porbeagles appetite, an Irish porbeagle weighing over 300lbs was gutted to reveal 62 herring! They can easily eat one tenth of their own body weight in a single feeding spree!
CONCLUSION
This has been a quick look at UK porbeagles. They’re sneaky shark rarely advertising their presence to you, but they need a specialist approach all of their own. Sure, you’ll catch the odd one when using techniques for other sharks, but not many. Could be you’ve got porbeagles right under your boat, you just haven’t realised it yet!
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