Rig, smooth hound, spotted dogfish, Mustelus lenticulatus.

I have been fishing whenever time, tide and weather allow, early June was very good, plenty of snapper and Kahawai, which is when I caught this one, just under 8lb, one evening just in the last light. There is a usefull small rock angle which spits a gush of water with each swell, get the fish in the right spot and the wave lands them for you.



Since then, the pickings have been very slim, the odd decent Kahawai, small trevally, red gurnard and a few sharks biting off hooks. Some days there have been plenty of small 30cm kahawai, A bit more usefull than Dave's pin whiting, but not what we are really after. I have not seen a snapper for a month.
I did get this dogfish Thursday afternoon, about 6 lb plus 2 kahawai and a few missed bites. The dogfish is very similar to your starry smooth hound but yours are Mustelus asterias. Ours do not have teeth, just hard plates for crushing crabs, this is the largest I have caught for a years, though I did lose one that was about twice as big last year. This was caught on a bit of trevally, If I fish 2 rods I often put trevally on one with a bigger hook, unfortunately the sharks like it too!  



Thought you would be interested in this photo of a rig caught from a shingle beach on the South Island, not as many good eating fish down there, so these are targeted with crab or crayfish baits.

Impressive

Well done Rhod on another good report always interesting.

We are so lucky to have your international reports Rhod!