Spurdog

The upper body of a spurdog is usually grey or a dark charcoal colour. It is covered in small white spots, it’s under-side is white.

Petes 15lb spurdog from 200ft on a Shakespeare Tipster
Petes 15lb spurdog from 200ft on a Shakespeare Tipster

A spur is also referred to as a spiney dog, the most noticeable feature being a protruding spine at the front of each of the 2 dorsal fins. The spurdog is a slow growing shark. The females are live bearing and carry the pups for over 18months. Litter sizes vary but can be up to 20. They can be found in depths well over 500m and feed from the mid to bottom layers. This specie is mainly a fish eater, gorging itself on mackerel, herring, whiting and pouting etc. I have also found a good squid bait also to be extremely tempting.

Carl and his Welsh Record beating 20lb 3opz spurdog
Carl and his Welsh Record beating 20lb 3oz spurdog

Being large pack fish who roam the sea beds continually feeding, it easy to see how commercial long liners can eradicate this particular species from a given area in a very short space of time. With the European wide ban on long lining the spurdog is making a slow recovery. As pack sizes increase, hopefully they will be allowed to recover in coming years.

Abi with her first spurdog, a cracking double figure specimen
Abi with her first spurdog, a cracking double figure specimen

 

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