I thought I would use this time to take a look back and remind you of some of our spur dog trips last year. Unfortunately we only had the last 4-5 weeks or so of our spurdog season as we weren’t allowed to operate until after March 30th. I was a little concerned that we had such a short window so weather and tides may not coincide and allow us to get offshore for them. As it happens I needn’t of worried as we were lucky enough to get several days chasing them.
I knew the fish were there as my wife Stacey and I had taken the boat for a run out towards the end of the lockdown and some nice fish. of course Stacey had the biggest at over 17lbs and the fish gave me hope that we would find some decent fishing before they moved off for the summer.
Shortly after things opened back up I had a group of regulars out and with weather and tides looking good we pushed offshore. The lads are seasoned anglers and so had realistic expectations for the trip. Some of the lads had caught spurs with me before and others were on their first trip targeting them. On the way out Tom told me he hadn’t caught one before so a spurdog of 2lbs would be a very welcome personnel best. I couldn’t make any promises but I said this was an achievable target.
We started off with the usual lesser spotted dogfish nicking our baits but we soon had a scent trail down and our first spur dogs came aboard. There were one or two males mixed in with these too which can be a good sign for the day ahead. Its fair to say that most of the spurs we have caught over the years are female and pregnant. These fish tend to be from 10-15lb average, when we have had the bigger numbers of spurs they tend to be ‘pack’ fish so the usual big females come out but there are several males mixed in too.
We had a move to another mark over the turn of the tide and the rest of the day saw a steady stream of fish come aboard. Many of them were those big double figure fish. of course Tom managed his 2lber, then some nice doubles but topped the day off with a fish of over 22lbs! this is the biggest spurdog we have had aboard to date and at one time would have been a British record. We ended the day with 37 spurs and over half of those were double figure fish. we also saw the usual dogfish, whiting, a couple of hounds and a few roker.
We had a few more trips off here as the tides came back around to fish for spurs. Its funny how fishing can change from one day to the next. The weather was spot on for a few days and we pushed off with another mixture of seasoned spur dog hunters and others after their first one. We were rewarded some more cracking fish, first spurs and improvements on personnel bests. Our first trip of the next run saw 8 spurs, 9 hounds some rays and the usual dogs and whiting. The spurs we had were all doubles and the biggest 20lb on the nose. The next day saw us double the numbers of spurs, there were similar numbers of double figure fish but some smaller ‘pack fish mixed in too. Sam had a spotted ray this day too as well as the biggest spur at 18.8lbs. we had hunted around over a few marks by the 3rd day and so were confident on where to fish. As it happened things started off pretty slowly. At this point I was glad that I hadn’t blurted out what we had caught the previous few trips! Which is part of the reason I keep quiet to be honest. we had a short move and tried one of my other marks for the next tide. sure enough things kicked off on the turn of the tide. the lads had a pretty hectic afternoon between 54 spurs and 15 hounds. There were over 50% that were double figure fish and the rest were pack spurs. Several of the biggest spurs were approaching the 20lb mark but we settled for a couple of fish over 19lbs for our biggest.
We had another run off there later the same week, it was interesting to see the change in numbers and stamp of fish once again. The tides were going against us and the wind was more than I would have liked. It made anchoring and holding the tide a pain to be honest. we still had 14 hounds and 13 spurs but only one or two better spurs. The biggest fell to Ian at 15lbs once the wind and tide had sorted its self out. We even had several tiny pups that day which seemed very young. Perhaps these had been birthed by those larger fish we had been seeing on previous trips. Not all was lost though as while we waited for the tide we tried some other marks where we found a few early bass, coalfish, codling and a nice brace of pollock for Stacey. While moving between marks we even saw a pod of white beaked dolphin. This was the first time they had been reported in this area for over 20 years and the first dolphin I have seen in 33 years off of this coast.
The season tailed off a bit after this trip, we had a few more spurs on the next set of tides before they all left and we turned our attention to tope. Which I will be looking back at in my next report.
I have a few spaces left for early season offshore this year, I will run trips from now until the end of April in search of spurs, hounds, rays and a chance of Bass or even cod. To be honest anything can (and often does) turn up off there. These trips are not suitable for novice anglers , please join us on a general trip first to get a taste for it.
Please get in touch for my availability or to be added to my list of individuals for last minute trips in weather windows.
Call Scott 07956411528
Or visit www.essexseafishing.co.uk
