NICK SMITH REPORTS ON THE LATEST HAPPY DANGLERS TRIP OFF ILFRACOMBE

Well what a mixed day of fishing for it turned out to be for the Danglers, with frantic fishing for some and hard going for others. Plans were to hit the spurdogs aboard John Barbeary’s boat Blue Fin from Ilfracombe. As we steamed out into a mild swell and drizzle expectations were high, and with 3 of the 9 angler’s having never been after the spurs before, the old hands among us was were wondering if we hit the packs that John has found many times before would they keep up? Having reached the mark and with the anchor holding we all quickly got our baits, mostly squid and various fish baits to the bottom and it wasn’t to long before Paul Lorrimore hit into the first fish, a respectfull conger of around 20lb. A short while later Pete Gregory leaned into a tidy bite and landed what was to be the first of many double figure spurs, rods began to bend all over the boat. The fishing throughout the day was a tale of 2 trips, with the guys fishing along the sides finding the going hard work, although they all managed at least 3 – 5 spurs each with a few doggies and congers mixed in with those on the back having a frantic session with multi hook ups on many occaisons. Young Toby Bassett certainly being the guy on form, with quite often his bait finding fish as soon as he hit bottom. Though he did tangle my gear while I was playing a decent fish and jokingly said he was just fraying my braid, before my braid did break……obviously Toby got a bit of stick for the remainder of the trip but it was all just good banter as always with the lads. The 3 novices all got their PB’s with specimen spurs, with the largest spur of the day reaching 16lb and in total I would estimate at least 50 – 60 doubles were brought over the gunnels where they were swiftly unhooked and returned.