6 Jan 2018

Toothy Predators on the prowl as the storm passes!

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Big fish are on the feed moving close inshore to feast on the food dislodged by storm Eleanor. Several anglers have enjoyed success as the waters have calmed. The window of opportunity is often short as a bitter North East wind is now tearing down channel chilling any angler out there to the bone.

Ali Laird enjoyed the session of a lifetime when he  fished a North Devon rock mark to land a fine tope of 29lb 10oz(Above) and spurdog of 9lb 15oz and 9lb 8oz. (Below)

Fellow club member Dan Miles Redmore was also delighted to land his first ever shore caught tope weighing 33lb 10oz.

 

1 Jan 2018

Spurdog on the feed in stormy seas

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North Devon Angler Jon Patten kindly gave permission for me to replicate this account of his latest trip.

With the chance of a spur on the horizon myself and a couple of mates ventured out in the middle of the night in pursuit of spurdogs
After a long drive through wind.. sleet… snow.. hail and very high winds
We arrived at our location to find a lumpy sea….perfect although the rain was now coming down in stair rods and extremely uncomfortable against our faces
But at least the wind was behind us
We cast our baits into the murky depths of the Bristol channel in pursuit of our quarry
Rods rattled instantly as the baits hit the sea bed with small bites…… bait fish were in the area for the spurs to feed off
We didn’t have to wait long before the first spur showed…mostly smaller size between 6/7lb with bigger specimens showing aswell later in the tide
Little flurries of them went through and our spur numbers rose
2 hrs into the ebb must have seen a mass of fish go through as spurs hit our baits in a big way
It was mayhem
We landed 18 fish in total and then released after a photo…. with Several nice doubles to add to our tally…. it was pure madness
Red letter day to say the least and we did manage 1 or 2 breaks in the weather to boot.

Jon is sponsored by Shimano, Reeds, Veal’s Mail Order, Sea Power UK and Jim’s Lures.

 

The biggest spurdog pulled the scales to 12lb 3oz.

 

1 Jan 2018

New Years Eve – Success

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Kevin Legge closed 2017 with a specimen spurdog of 11lb 15oz that was tempted just ten minutes before midnight on New Years Eve with celebratory fireworks lighting the night sky as his angling companion Dave Brooke took the pictures. Four hours later Kevin started the New Year with a spurdog of 9lb 9oz.

17 Dec 2017

Combe Martin SAC Christmas Competition

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A dozen club members fished in Combe Martin Sea Angling Club’s Christmas Competition that saw five specimen fish registered. The winner was (myself) Wayne Thomas with a spurdog scaling 12lb 3oz.

Kevin Legge was runner up with a spurdog of 11lb 10oz. Kevin also landed a spurdog of 10lb 6oz and a bull huss of 10lb 3oz.

(Above) Kevin Legge with his 11lb 10oz spurdog

(Above) Kevin Legge with a spurdog of 10lb 6oz.

(Above) Kody Chugg was third with a fine specimen conger of 23lb 1oz.

Members fished a wide variety of marks along the North Devon and Somerset coastline where they landed a variety of species including whiting, dogfish, thornback ray, grey mullet and pouting in addition to the specimen fish registered.

 

 

10 Dec 2017

Shore Spurdog

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The first spurdog of the winter season have been caught from rock marks along the coast. These toothy predators should be around for the next couple of months at least and have become the go to species since the decline of cod in North Devon waters. Chay Boggis landed this 5lb fish during a twelve hour session at a deep water rock mark.

6 Apr 2017

Bluefin – Spurdog season lingers on!

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Holsworthy Sea Anglers enjoyed a great day on Bluefin with skipper John Barbeary out of Ilfracombe. This was the  clubs last session on the spurdog this season.  With Club Members Steve Dawe, Steven McDonald,Brian Hopcraft,Stuart Lockyer ,Graham Verral, Paul Smith, soon to be member John Doswell, and Paul Cozens. The boat went straight out to the spurdog mark this time as we picked a lot better tide and could stay there all day. The spurs started coming in thick and fast right away with John kicking it off with a cracking 19lber on mackerel. Everyone caught steady all day on squid and mackerel baits with equal amounts of spurs and doggies, a token conger to Graham Verral and a lonely  bull huss to Paul Cozens.Graham Verral had the biggest club spur at 19lb and second highest bag of them with 20 in total, most spurs went to Steven McDonald who ended up with 25 on mackerel baits and a total between us of 115. The club thank John Barbeary for another good day at sea.

22 Mar 2017

Specimen Spurdog and big conger on Bluefin

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(Above)Rob Scoines & josh Atkinson with a fine brace of eels Robs weighing 38lb and Josh’s 33lb 8oz

 

A party of local anglers enjoyed some hectic sport off Ilfracombe aboard John Barbeary’s ‘Bluefin’. Spurdog provided the bulk of fish caught with upwards of 50 brought to the boat. Several quality conger to almost 40lb were also boated putting a serious curve into the anglers rods.

The biggest spurdog of the day was a fine specimen of 16lb 8oz to the rod of Bill Caasar. (Below)

It is likely that the spurdog sport will continue for some while yet with bull huss also likely to increase in numbers.

Josh Atkinson with a specimen spurdog on of several double figure specimens he landed to 14lb 4oz

 

19 Mar 2017

Spurdogs still showing off Ilfracombe

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Pete Gregory enjoyed a good days sport on Bluefin with spurdog still showing with bull huss numbers increasing probably because they can now get to the bait before the ravenous pack of spurdog.

A brilliant days fishing out from ilfracombe with john barbery on board his boat the ” Bluefin ” . About twenty spurdogs landed as we are coming to the end of the season , so not as many as in previous trips , but the shortage of bull huss in previous trips was reversed with lots on this trip as the waters are beginning to warm up . Lots of dogfish as usual and a few congers to twenty pounds . It was suggested that if all six of us put in a fiver for the biggest fish caught this trip , something i tend not to get involved with on most trips which would give the winner a thirty pound pay out . Just as well as it ended with me winning which made the trip extremely cheap .