Redirection of fishing gear starts to catch hundreds — smelt, is it? (6)
I believe the answer is:
stench
'hundreds smelt is it?' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'redirection of fishing gear starts to catch' is the wordplay.
'redirection of fishing gear' becomes 's' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'starts' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'to catch' becomes 'tench' (tench is a kind of fish).
's'+'tench'='STENCH'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stench that I've seen before include "Awful smell" , "Horrible smell" , "Unpleasant odour" , "Foul odour" , "Offensive odour" .)