THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

anging from pollack and bass through to turbot, brill and rays. Live, dead, whole, or cut, they make
excellent baits, particularly when kept alive in aerated or sea-water pumped live-well systems.
They can get quite big at times too. I've
had a few real 'snakes' over the years
when drifting offshore banks and sandwaves
fishing specifically for them as
you can around the Channel Islands and
Isle of Man.
Easy fish to catch by the bucket full if
you choose the right areas to feather.
Less so when they come up as odd ones
out of the blue mixed amongst mackerel,
which they fairly regularly do around the
Mull of Galloway, Anglesey, and a few
other areas I've fished.
This is the largest growing sandeel species, which can on occasions exceed twelve inches in length, and
as such is the one most likely to be caught on rod and line.
In fact, at that sort of size they become active predators in their own right, well capable of and willing
to take smaller sandeels. A species with a coastal distribution throughout all home waters, though
nowhere is it as abundant as some of the other smaller sandeel species.
A long slender fish of typical sandeel layout with a long continuous single dorsal and anal fin, forked
tail, and noticeably protruding lower jaw.
Apart from its potential size, the main distinguishing feature of this species is a distinct dark spot on the
snout in front of the eyes. The upper jaw is not protrusible. Colouration is bluish green above, becoming
silvery below.
CORBIN'S SANDEEL Hyperoplus immaculatus
Bucket List status – result
Exactly the same as for the greater sandeel in terms of catching and basic elongate appearance, but a
species with a much more localised distribution, favouring the western approaches including the
Channel Islands, extending northwards to the southern tip of Ireland, then re-appearing along the west
coast of Scotland, where in all cases it is an offshore species usually found well away from land.
Like the greater sandeel, the upper jaw is not protrusible, which is what sets these two species apart
from all the others. Then to separate it from the greater sandeel, there must be no dark spot on the snout.
Colouration is greenish blue on the back, and silvery white ventrally. Grows to around twelve inches.
A species I have caught and identified mixed in amongst greater sandeels around the Channel Islands
on odd occasions.
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