Keith Armishaw enjoyed a Red letter day off Ilfracombe on Bluefin . Thanks to Keith for this report .. I had the chance to escape for days fishing with son Lee who had never caught a spurdog – so we got on board Bluefin out of Ilfracombe with John Barbeary. I took plenty of muppets seeing the difference they made to the catch rate last time out. We started trying for bass but only had a couple on the flood tide, so it was on to the spurdog. Lee had a two bait rig and I used a single bait and what a trip it turned out to be, we had around 90 on the boat between 7 of us with Lee catching 30 up to 14lbs against my meagre 18. Jonathan weighed in with a couple of good huss and a conger but what a session. We then tried for bass on the return trip catching around around 30, and only 5 dogfish caught all day. We even headed in early as we were all fished out and didn’t fancy an inshore mark after the bass as this is where the dogs were taken. An unbelievable day…
South Molton Anglers take a trip aboard Bluefin




Eight Year Old Boats 16lb huss and ray
Mixed sport off Ilfracombe on Bluefin
Bull Huss giving good boat sport
Bull huss sport on Bluefin
Holsworthy Sea Anglers take a trip on Bluefin!
Report from Steve Dawe :-
Holsworthy Sea Anglers trip aboard Bluefin was as usual full of banter and despite there only being 3 of us members attending plenty of fish were caught. Around 35 Spurdog boated today, several Huss and sadly not a single Dogfish. Paul Cozens proved he can still fish with bait but lacked the ability to keep his lead, rig and bait in his own part of the sea. He did have a nice Huss and plenty of Spurs, Chris Hodgson started late due to spending a lot of time untangling Paul from his line, but managed spurs to 16lb and Huss. I managed to sneak the biggest Spurdog out at 16lb 8oz, I have one hand on the Trophy now till Paul books more trips to knock me off!. As usual John Barbeary delivered a cracking days fishing sacrificing yet another T bar to Davey Jones Locker.
Calm Waters for boat anglers – Bluefin
John Barbeary has taken Bluefin to deepwater marks off Ilfracombe where anglers have boated spurdog to 18lb and conger to 20lb. Keith Armishaw boated a 12lb thornback. The spurdog packs are now starting to disperse and summer species will soon start to show. The calm seas and blues skies have certainly boosted spirits with spring on the way and hoped for mackerel and tope.
Spurdog and smoothound for Springtime boat anglers
Steve Dawe enjoyed a trip out of Ilfracombe aboard John Barbeary’s Bluefin:- see his report and pictures below…
“So nice to get out again with so many cancelled trips this year, today was aboard Bluefin chasing Spurdogs. Not as prolific as they can be but we still managed several double figure fish. The Eels were a bit scarce and a few Huss turned up but my fish of the trip was a lovely Starry Smoothound right at the death. Great company Chris Hodgson, Steven McDonald and as usual John delivered some great skippering. Next week we are back out from Ilfracombe on Bluefin with Holsworthy Sea Anglers.