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.
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.
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
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 .
(Above)Andrew Atkinson with a fine specimen spurdog of 18lb.
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.
