Combe Martin SAC member Ross Stanway set his alarm for the early hours of 2021 and embraced the icy conditions to get his angling year underway. Fishing from a local rock mark spurdog, bull huss, conger or cod were the expected catch. The first fish to rattle the rod was small conger of around 6lb. Then Ross hooked into a good fish that fought hard and swam deep in the water. Ross was hopeful that he had hooked a rare double figure cod. To his surprise the culprit was a specimen smoothound scaling 12lb 9.5oz a fish more often associated with the spring, summer and autumn!