The merry month of May is a time for celebration, the month children traditionally dance round the May pole. May is also a time of celebration for anglers, even with the hard winter we endured, the summer species will have arrived or will have before May is out.

The two principle species to watch for are black bream and smoothhound. Both fish are guaranteed to liven up a day’s sport, especially the hounds, a small, muscular member of the shark family that punches above its weight. Smoothhounds are often mistaken for small tope, however, differentiating between the two is easy; just look in the mouth and if there are grinders similar to a ray then it is a smoothhound. If it has sharp teeth, then it is a tope. The average size caught is 8lb to 15lb.

Two species are caught in our waters, the common Mustelus mustelus and the starry Mustelus asteriasf that has a line of white stars along its back either side of the dorsal fin. The British record is almost identical for both species, for the Starry it is 28.2.0, caught in the Bristol Channel in 1998, while the common caught off Heacham, Norfolk in 1969 stands at 28.0.0.

Both species are wide spread around the coast of the UK and are predominately caught on peeler or soft back crab; hermit crab is also favoured as bait, especially in the eastern Solent area, the more populated area for both species.

Black bream have increased in number and size over the years and this year they could be joined by red bream that have been slow to venture back into our waters. I say this because towards the latter end of last year there were reports of red bream caught after a long absence; I was witness to two boated on one trip to the Eddystone reef off Plymouth. Both were around 1.8.0, and catches were also reported from Cornwall.

For these hard scrappers a two hook down flowing trace is an ideal choice, one hook above and one below the weight is another popular rig; hooks 1/0 and 2/0 with beads above will be best suited - their mouths are small. Bream have a cosmopolitan diet so bait is not a problem: ragworm, peeler crab, mackerel and squid strip are all top baits. My favourite are the baby squids bought frozen from tackle shops, which are between an inch and two inches long. Thread on several with the heads towards the hook point.

Finally, don’t forget bass, too, will have reached their summer feeding grounds so, on spring tides, drift a sandeel over  reefs or sand banks where they have been caught in previous years, alternatively lures like the sidewinder and redgills can also be successful.