Castaways Sea Angling Club member Gary Hillon fished a North Devon Rock mark to a catch a fantastic specimen Spur of 17-7-8. The fish was tempted on a sandeel squid cocktail fished on a 4/0 pennel pulley rig.
Ryan Dunbreck also had a fine Spur of 14-6-8 a new Castaways Catch & Release record.
The Atkinson Family Fished a local rock mark in search of an eel, huss or a late spurdog. Andrew Atkinson caught 3 spurs to 11lb 12ozs and Cameron Atkinson caught not only his first shore caught spurdog but he managed 2 spurs to 11lb 14ozs (new pb), Josh Atkinson managed to tick off the eel with a small one around 15lb and the huss with one about 4lb meaning we achieved all target species. Also had loads of dogfish!
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.
Tarrant Wotton set out on a bitterly cold evening and was rewarded with a fine specimen spurdog scaling 10lb 8oz. With the winds expected to via away from the North East this coming week there is every chance of enjoying some late winter sport before thoughts turn to spring.
Veals Mail Order Managing director Harry Brake has undertaken several trips to North Devon in search of the elusive spurdog and was rewarded with a fine personal best scaling 13lb 10oz. The fish was tempted with mackerel head and guts whipped on to a pair of Varivas 6/0 Big Mouth Extras, 25lb Varivas yellow sport.
There is still time to land a spurdog from the shoreline this winter with several landed during the past week by anglers targetting the species. James Atkinson landed a brace of spurs weighing 10lb 7oz and 8lb 4.5oz both fish were tempted using a squid mackerel and herring cocktail.
Jon Patten also enjoyed success landing a brace of spurs weighing 11lb 1oz and 12lb 10oz using large mackerel baits.
James Atkinson enjoyed success when targetting spurdog tempting a specimen of 10lb 13.5oz using squid, mackerel and herring cocktail.
Late winter is a good time to target specimen ray as Combe Martin SAC member discovered when he hooked this specimen small eyed ray of 10lb 4oz. (below)
There is still time to hook into a spurdog from shore marks all along the North Devon Coast and with things roughing up this week and evening tides and expect to get a few reports. Kevin Pike rose early at the weekend to tempt a fine spurdog of 10lb 4oz. Many thanks to Kevin for letting me use this excellent image.
Combe Martin SAC members fished their roving match at Clovelly on Saturday 28th January and it was Matt Jeffery who won the mixed brace competition with a plump dab of 11.5oz and a whiting of 1lb. The hoped for spurdog failed to materialize though Matt confided that something grabbed a whiting on his last cast of the night.
Dan Miles Redmore with a one of a fine brace of spurdog of 13lb 4oz and 12lb 5oz.
Jon Patten has a knack of finding the big fish and enjoyed success this week landing a fine spurdog of 14lb.
The fish was tempted with a large slice of mackerel presented on 6/0 Varivas Big Mouth Xtra hooks.
