ACE OF SPURS
Watching your baits get mangled by a constant stream of dogfish is not for everyone, but, as James Madsen reveals, persistence paid off for his pal Steve Ace…
Plagued by dogfish, Steve Ace stuck it out.
“The fish was going up and down in the wash and I ran to grab it, thought better of it because of the sharp spike on its fin and ended up getting drenched by the next wave”
We had been experiencing a fairly mild and windy winter again this year, and this particular weekend was no exception. A strong south-westerly gale had swept the coastlines of the United Kingdom, with winds in excess of 50mph.
It can take a fair bit of motivation to get yourselves out in such conditions and, for many, it can remove the word pleasure from fishing. To be fair, in this respect we are reasonably blessed in the Bristol
Channel because shelter can be found to avoid the worst of the wind.
Steve Ace, who works in a Bristol tackle shop, is one person who is always up for a session, whatever the weather.
FISHING ADVENTURE
A big spring tide in January with strong south-westerly wind meant that a trip to Porlock Bay, located between Porlock Weir and Hurlstone Point in Somerset, was on the cards.
Having returned from his latest fishing adventure in the far north of Norway, Steve was keen to join me for a session at Porlock Weir. This area of the Bristol Channel fishes well on bigger spring tides, mainly because the tidal movement stirs up the silt and colours the water.
Water clarity, or lack of it, gives most species of fish more confidence to feed. Obviously, this is more important when fishing in daylight.
January is a great month for targeting specimen fish like conger eels, bull huss and spurdogs around Porlock Bay. Mind you,
there aren’t many months of the year when Porlock can’t throw up a good specimen of some description. I left our plan of attack to Steve, who wanted to fish from low water up to high and then one hour of the back tide.
Our main objective would be to catch a spurdog. Only in recent years has it even been thought possible to target spurdogs from the open beaches around Somerset. In the past you’d rarely see anglers catching them anywhere east of the more western regions of North Devon.
Now, I’m being honest here when saying that neither of us was confident of seeing a spurdog in this session. The season’s spurgdog fishing had been very poor compared to recent years. There had only been occasional fish caught from some of the popular marks around North Devon, and very few, if any, caught on the Somerset coastline. Even the charter boats around Minehead were struggling for winter spurdogs.
Nevertheless, we set up with spurdogs in mind. Having said that, the only real difference was the addition of a wire biting trace on our pulley rigs. We both opted for a 65lb wire, I like the nylon-coated 19 strand from Cox & Rawle.
There is no need to go too big with your hooks for spurs because they don’t have huge mouths. A hook up to size 4/0 is sufficient. I like Cox & Rawle hooks for this sort of fishing, and the Uptide Extras are perfect in size 3/0, along with a 4/0 Octopus for the second hook of the Pennell.
It’s reasonably heavy ground around Porlock Bay, so a mainline of around 0.40mm (20-25lb), along with a good leader knot is recommended. You can also expect a good amount of tidal pull in this area, so we use 7-8oz grip weights to hold bottom on the bigger spring tides.
TIME TO CHANGE
On arrival at Porlock Weir, it was obvious that a many other anglers had the same idea. After all, this was a good venue choice taking into account the time of year, weather forecast, wind direction and the promise of no rain.
Steve and I squeezed in as best we could. I was quite happy with my spot on the beach, but Steve had other ideas. We set up and began fishing just after low water, which was around 1.30pm. My phone rang at 2.30pm and Steve proposed a change of plan.
After a brief chat, and because the wind was much lighter than originally forecast, we agreed to pack up and move to Bossington, a beach found in the far right-hand end of Porlock Bay. He had a hunch, and who was I to argue?
This would mean slightly different fishing times, as the best of the sport at Bossington on the big spring tides is generally around two hours either side of high water. Before that, Steve had to clear that change of plan with his better half, but that’s a story for another time.
At Bossington, the tide pulls strongest around three hours into the flood, and it was still steaming through when we started fishing. The bigger specimens like it when the flow decreases, but the dogfish aren’t that fussy. I had a dogfish attached to my sandeel and squid baits in around six minutes. Dogfish can be a real pain when specimen hunting at Bossington and they seem to particularly like frozen baits.
There had been a few blonde rays landed on the beach recently and that was my reason for trying a sandeel and squid. While I love catching dogfish in matches, continuously winding them in for pleasure is not my idea of fun. This was the secret to our success in this session – fresh bait, or as Steve likes to call it ‘fresh death’.
FRESH BAIT
You can be catching dogfish after dogfish on frozen baits, then you put out a fillet of fresh pouting and they are all but gone. From the off at Porlock, both Steve and I had a rod dedicated to catching bait, fishing small hooks filled with frozen black lug to target whiting, pout and poor cod; anything would do.
I got lucky at Porlock catching a poor cod, Steve did not. At Bossington, my first fillet of the fresh poor cod must have only just settled on the bottom before my line went slack. A conger eel of around 10lb had instantly fallen foul of the ‘fresh death’. I looked across to Steve and he was still bagging up on dogfish.
My rod tip stayed static for some time, no doggies meant the baits were at least having a good soak, thus increasing my chances of catching a decent fish. A few lighter twitches on my rod tip resulted in a plump threebearded rockling, to which I gave a loud cheer as it was pulled out. It was no prize fish and I was only joking around with Steve. It was potentially more bait, and bear in mind that he was struggling for fresh bait at this point.
This type of rockling is great to look at, being bright red/orange with black spots. I looked down and began to feel sorry for it, but looked up and there was Steve beside me with his filleting knife. Humanely dispatched, Steve ran back to his rods with his prize.
For the record, I’d like my generosity to be noted because only five minutes later I heard him shout: “Jim I’ve got a spur!” As if giving him my bait wasn’t enough, I got a right soaking landing this fish. It was a bit silly really. The fish was going up and down in the wash and I ran to grab it, thought better of it because of the sharp spike on its fin and ended up getting drenched by the next wave.
You don’t want to get struck by the spine of a spurdog, either from the one at the base of the tail fin or the other at the dorsal fin. Likewise, you don’t want to drown when landing a fish. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the moment and do silly things, so be aware. Ironically, by the time that wave cleared, Steve’s spurdog was nearly two metres up from me. Now soaking wet, I grabbed the end of the tail, supported the head and passed it to Steve.
MORE THAN LUCK
On first view, this looked a cracking specimen because it was both long and fat. We popped her in the weigh sling and she registered 14lb on the scales. Several photographs were taken and then the fish was released. It was an amazing specimen, a new personal best and a Weston Outcasts club record. Steve was very happy and told me she put up a good fight.
Caught about 30 minutes after high water when the tide was still quite slack, consequently – because there was little to no tide – it had bent the rod tip right over with its first bite. Steve then had direct contact with the fish. Apparently, when winding her in she felt both light and heavy, probably as it kited from right to left.
As we walked back to the car, we agreed it had been a lucky fish to catch, taking into account the serious lack of spurs caught this season. Having said that, I’ve been fishing with Steve for long enough to know that when you’ve caught as many good specimens as he has, it’s really more than just luck.
Knowledge and experience are key things, along with putting in the rod hours on the beaches, at the right time of year. Spurdogs can be caught in the Bristol Channel between the months of November through to March. Remember, they don’t like clear water on the shallower beaches, and a good majority of anglers target them at night.
It’s also worth noting that it was undoubtedly the fresh bait that made the difference in this session. Without it we would have most likely continued to catch only dogfish. ■