Each Winter anglers take advantage of the great sport available in the deep water off Ilfracombe where huge packs of spurdog prowl hunting whiting and herring. Catches of over a hundred spurdog a day are not uncommon with double figure Bull Huss and big conger also testing anglers tackle to the limit. This Winter has once again seen John Barbeary take anglers to fishing grounds that have provided some excellent catches as illustrated below. For details of Bluefin click on the above link.
Steve Dawe enjoyed a successful first boat trip of 2020 catching loads of Spurs to 15lb+, 4 Bull Huss, 3 Congers and a bonus 35lb Male Tope. Many thanks John Barbeary on Bluefin for some great skippering. Most of the fish were tempted ion fresh herring baits.
Spurdog to 18lb and double figure bull huss are featuring in catches off Ilfracombe with John Barbeary’s ‘Bluefin’ taking anglers to the proven marks.
Calm weather has enabled John Barbeary to take anglers off Ilfracombe to enjoy some frantic sport with spurdog and bull huss. Each winter huge packs of spurdog prowl the Bristol Channel hunting for whiting, herring and sprats. The commercial ban on fishing for these members of the shark family has resulted in a population explosion that is generally welcomed by anglers who return the fish to the water.
Large packs of spurdog are on the hunt in the deep waters of the Bristol Channel off Ilfracombe. This 15lb specimen was tempted by John Passmore and was one of sixty plus fish taken early in the day!
Norman Martin returned to Slader Reservoir with his pike fishing tackle after an encounter with a toothy critter during a recent North Devon Tackle Club Match. He was rewarded with this hard fighting mid double.
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…
Spurdog and bull Huss are giving sport off Ilfracombe with John Barbeary putting anglers on the fish. The early arrival of spurdog will bring hope amongst shore anglers that this season could be a good one for the species that have filled the winter gap in shore sport from diminished cod runs.
Autumn nights give the chance of a wide range of species with ray, tope, conger, bass and Huss all on the agenda. Shaun Quartly fished a wet and windy night at a popular Ilfracombe mark and caught a small eyed ray of 8lb 10oz.