Species hunting is a specialist skill needing dedication and a bit of luck. Brent Heywood, from Wales, spent 2023 targeting as many species as he could, ending the year winning three species hunting competitions with an incredible total of 71 different species to his rod. Tim Macpherson reports on his remarkable achievement
Species hunting is one of my favourite angling pastimes – I’ve only ever taken part in day or weekend species competitions over the years and never had the time to dedicate a whole year to it – partly because I write about angling and tend to spread myself across all sorts of angling adventures. So, I was intrigued when Brent approached us with his story.
Brent hails from Llandudno in North Wales and works as a chef. His job gives him some flexibility allowing him to get out fishing when tides and weather provide the right conditions. Like many of us, he started fishing when he was a small boy, mostly freshwater to begin with, but at the age of 18 he started fishing on Llandudno Pier with his friends. He then took up fly fishing and for a while it became his passion. He fished places like Llyn Brenig, Arnfield and Llyn Trawsfynedd.
It was here he got into lure fishing – which, of course, easily lent itself to sea angling. There is some fantastic lure fishing to be had in Wales – particularly for bass which became his new passion. In one season he caught over 300 bass which is quite an achievement in itself. His biggest was an impressive 11lb 8oz specimen caught in 2022 at a venue near Llandundo.
Six years ago, Brent joined the Shore Huggers UK Species Hunt and was hooked on it. In his first year he landed 34 species and carried on through the next few years building his skills and experience, culminating in 2021 when he won their competition with a total of 47 species. The following year he injured his shoulder.
While recuperating he was worried he’d never cast again; however, once recovered his determination to continue species hunting returned and, in 2023, he joined up with three different species hunts and set himself a target to win all three and to improve on his best effort in 2021. In the end he won all three competitions easily, recording an astonishing 71 species across the year. To put this in context most other annual species hunts I’ve been able to find tend to be won by between 50 and 60 species – so 71 is a pretty good achievement (here it’s worth pointing out that the current Angling Trust Species hunt is led by an angler with 69 species and it’s still got three months to run).
HOW DID HE DO IT?
As Brent said, “What can I say? It’s been exhausting, exhilarating and very enjoyable. I’ve travelled to places that I would never normally go to. Pretty much every day off work I was fishing somewhere, weath
