Spur of the moment

Its not really time for another blog but a Spur of the moment chance to get on a trip after Spurdog came up, having had 3 similar trips already cancelled this year I jumped at the chance. The window in the weather was only for a day so I was delighted to hear from John the skipper that the trip was on. Chris wanted to get his first Spur and offered to drive which was perfect after my drive over the weekend. The morning arrived and the phone alarm started its welcome to the morning soothing tune rising in volume the more it was ignored, why is it that the alarm tune you choose sounds great the night before you get up. It was 5.15am and still pitch black, I once again forced the dog to get up and come for a walk, the cars all sparkled in their cloaks of frost and a super bright full moon surely meant a big tide. The drive to Ilfracombe was a tad dicey with a few large patches of ice waiting for the unwary, however we arrived by 07.15 and kitted up for a day afloat. We stepped aboard John Barbery's Ilfracombe based charter boat Bluefin, and exchanged pleasantry's with the rest of the anglers on board, John swung the boat to face the sea and as the sun rose we headed out into the channel.

There were 7 anglers on board including Chris and I and it was great to meet up with Pete Gregory for the first time this year, we have a few trips chasing different species this year. Pete suffers from the same affliction as I with respect to being blind as bats without our reading glasses and at one point while we found our lines tangled neither of us could see to untangle the mess and called 70yr old skipper john to be our eyes. Pete genuinely left his reading glasses in his van by accident, i however am still in denial and purposely forget mine, this getting old is starting to effect my fishing, i might soon need size 6/0 hooks to nylon! A couple of half decent Bullhuss made an appearance to the other guys rods and when my rod signalled a good bite I assumed another species would be added to the list, it was indeed a Bullhuss but far from decent, however it still ticked the box so a quick photo was taken. Look carefully below there is a Huss there somewhere.

Once the tide started to ease we were able to steam out towards the Welsh coast and try and find a Spurdog or two, the weather was chilly but still a glorious day. The new mark still had a fair tide running and our 1lb leads were off to Milford Haven so we moved up to 2lb leads and were then able to keep the leads on the bottom. Congers and Huss started appearing but still no Spurs this was worrying I only needed one, I changed the bait to a whole whiting and this was taken instantly by a feisty Conger which used the tide to give the impression it was possibly a spurdog, very sneaky.

Finally the first Spurdog arrived to one of the guys but no pack attack followed, a bit strange for a voracious pack fish, the Congers however were on fire and I had a couple more in quick succession as did Chris. Photographer Chris had moved to the other side of the boat, he said it was as there was more room but I think he was fed up of me saying " Chris can you take a picture of this", its difficult when your trying to fish yourself so I wouldn't of blamed him. I decided to change my bait to a Mackerel head and lengthened the trace, the difference was instant with the rod bouncing sharply as the lead reached the seabed. I struck as the fish headed uptide I was sure it was a Spur as the fight is different from that of the Conger, after a few good dives the fish broke the surface a huge Spurdog that I thought could be a new personal best. John seeing the size quickly grabbed the net and scooped my armour plated fish up and into the boat. We put the fish in the sling and she weighed an incredible 19lb beating my best by 2lb, I was over the moon and the added bonus was this was species 16.

The tide was now at slack water and the eels were really starting to feed unlike the pesky Spurdogs, Andrew Atkinson had a couple of beauty's the best going 40lb see below, some great eeling today.

Pete stood next to me was getting plenty of Huss but as soon as they saw his face they seemed to spit out the bait and dive back to the comfort of Davey Jones and his locker. This is a bit of a trait with this species and I think we all suffered from the Huss dropping the bait when they got to the surface and I don't think Pete was to blame for all of them. Below Pete convincing a Huss to stay attached.

The tide was once again streaming away and the 2lb anchors were once again attached to the rigs, not the best thing when your using 12lb to 20lb test tackle. John pointed out we were going to move back inshore in 10 minutes as the tide would be too strong to stay any longer, Chris could here the fat lady starting to sing when he had a violent bite. Sure enough a Spurdog had decided to reward his perseverance by making an appearance, he was delighted and once again fishing gave out another one of its rewards.

We moved to the new mark, the tide strength was much lower close to the North Devon cliffs and we were once again able to drop down the size of the leads. This inshore mark was also full of eels and I landed 5 in a row before picking up another Spurdog, Pete managed a couple of spurs from this mark before the weather closed in and it was time to head in. It had been a fantastic if not somewhat opportune day and once again John on Bluefin delivered a fantastic days fishing and the festive coffee cups were something new. We set out today with the hope of getting a spurdog, me for my challenge list and Chris for his first ever, so it was job done and what a bonus the big spur was. It wasn't only the Huss that didn't seem to like the look of Pete as on our journey to the harbour gulls dropped a crab leg and a large hermit crab shell from the sky narrowly missing Petes head. Thanks to the boat crew today, great banter and help, i hope to fish with you all again aboard Bluefin fairly soon.