With the summer fishing now ticking along nicely I thought I would take a look back at our early season offshore trips where our main target is spurdog nowadays. It was a funny season really with us missing some of the best tides due to weather or not being booked. As ever the fish were hit and miss. This is often the case when targeting a particular species especially one as mobile as a pack of spurs. It’s easy to come to expect these fish after seeing some great catches in recent years but I always say I am pleased once the first one comes over the rail and ticks the box.
Its interesting to see how the size of fish seem to vary from one pack to the next, as does the colour. I certainly don’t think these fish are wall to wall in this area and I am concerned about increased commercial pressure in them.
although we started the season well the fish weren’t of the stamp we have come to expect around here. Surely enough we did find some nice double figure fish after a while and it was great to see some of the lads breaking their PBs. Adam had set out to catch a decent spurdog this year and achieved it with a nice mid-double but was pipped to the biggest fish by Chris with a lovely fish of over 18lbs! it wasn’t just Spurs coming out of course and we saw some decent bass, hounds, rays and even a stray codling for Wayne. All the while those delightful dogfish and whiting keeping us busy.
On a couple of sets of tides when the spurs went off the boil we went in search of other fish. the lads adapted nicely and we had a pleasant trip on the plaice as well as a couple hours catch pollock and coalfish on another day.
Numbers varied from a couple of days with no spurs (although other species) to a few days on 6-15 spurs among the other fish. to be honest after many years of successfully targeting these fish I am quite pleased with these numbers particularly considering I havnt heard of any other local charter boats catching as much as one this year I cant complain. Of course the promise of a red letter day is what keeps us going through the hard days. We cant always have them but they are days that we dream of. Thankfully we managed to luck out a red letter day once again this year too.
With no signs of spurs for a while it was looking like we wouldn’t see any at all until around 14.20hrs Alex got into something that was fighting very much like a spur. Sure enough a very dark ‘black dog’ broke the surface and was netted. She was a decent fish of high doubles and a new PB for Alex. I commented that hopefully this could be the sign of things to come. It was around half an our later when the next spur came aboard. Yet again a big dark upper double figure fish. it was around 1500hrs when the pack really descended upon us. before we knew it we had various multiple hook ups on our hands. On several occasions every rod that was in the water was onto a fish. there were PBs being smashed all over the place. We had another 2 hours of fishing before I had to drag the lads away from the fish and start the long journey back to Essex. just to give you an idea of how busy the fishing was even when we packed up they were still well on the chew. Barry had just landed a high double figure fish as I started the engines. As I went to haul the anchor he was already re-baited so I said to cast out and I would tell him when the anchor had lifted from the bottom so he would have to reel in. so he cast out, let the weight settle on the bottom and held his rod all while I had already been hauling the rope in. right on que he had a couple of pulls and was into another fish. by the time I had stowed the anchor he had the last spur of the day which they had already weighed at 18.8lbs.
That put the tally to 65 spurs in all (although I may have missed a few in the frenzy) there were 4 over 20lbs and several more over 19lb with most fish mid-double figures and one or two that may not have made the 10lb mark although we didn’t weight them or give them a second glance to be honest. not bad for around two an a half hours of fishing, put it into context in comparison to the other local charter boats currently operating in the this area we had more in the last two hours than most of them have had in their career! Although it may not beat our best day which was 88 spurs, this truly was fantastic angling and we were lucky to experience it. I owe it to the lads who invest their time and money with me each year in search of these fish and others.
We will of course be hunting spurdogs again next year so feel free to get in touch to book your tides. Please remember this is only really suitable for experienced anglers with their own tackle. If you don’t have suitable tackle then you are welcome to join us on a general trip until you find your feet.
On our general trips lately we have seen some fantastic numbers of bass, smooth-hounds and still some rays.
Please get on touch with me for full boat bookings or individual spaces. I can also add you to my messaging list when I am trying to put offshore trips together. Please note that Galloper is a big, fast catamaran with a genuine 60mile code of practice. Not something many local boats can boast these days. All of this helps with our offshore trips and very few local boats can boast a a success rate like ours either.
The hounds will be inshore in numbers until September and we should see plenty more good days and decent fish between now and then.
I have plenty of spaces on general trips for full boat bookings and individuals. I also have spaces for tope, plaice and bass coming up soon so please get in touch.
Remember it is often worth giving me a shout if you are cancelled else where and still wish to get out, as we have lots of sheltered fishing available and a big catamaran which makes it even more comfortable.
Spaces as follows
01/06- general trip full boat bookings from £490
06/06-full boat available from £490
07/06 full boat available from £490
08/06 full boat available from £490
11/06-offshore tope trip 3 spaces @ £100pp (own tackle required bait supplied at extra cost)
13/06-plaice and bass trip 2 spaces @ £110pp
14/06 full boat available from £490
15/06 full boat available from £490
16/06 full boat available from £490
19/06-8 spaces @ £60pp
24/06- offshore tope trip 5 spaces @ £100pp (own tackle required bait supplied at extra cost)
25/06- offshore tope trip 87spaces @ £100pp (own tackle required bait supplied at extra cost)
29/06 full boat available from £490
30/06 full boat available from £490
Not all dates advertised, other spaces available for full boat bookings upon request
For regular updates, availability and more information please visit www.essexseafishing.co.uk find us on social media or call Scott on 07956411528
