This year working together with Pure Fishing, amongst our many competitions we offered anglers the chance to win a Greys GR100S 20lb Boat & Abu Ambassadeur 7000C LW multiplier reel combo by simply catching the heaviest spurdog aboard My Way over a period of 6 weeks, commencing on April 01st and ending 14th May 2017.
Spurdogs have made something of a resurgence off the welsh coast in recent years, Spring is prime time aboard My Way with these sharks averaging double figures, a few exceeding the 20lb barrier with many spurs often being caught 2 at a time. It is safe to say that the fishing can be exhilarating; 200ft of water and small sharks soon test the metal of the angler and gear.
2017, despite promising so much, in my opinion never hit the top of the scale compared to seen recent years. It’s an interesting decline in the fishing this year, given the immense success of recent spring runs of spurdogs. We’ve a few theories regarding local cycles of fish and their migratory patterns, no doubt we will continue to catch spurdogs including some big girls through 2017 and in particular October and November, but now need another few years to see how things pan out on numbers and sizes.
During the last 6 weeks, we’ve caught plenty of spurs, many of which can be seen in our photo galleries, the majority double figure spurdogs, some impressive spurs that I would hazard a guess average 14lb in weight, but the 19 & 20 lbers have failed to show so far this year. Sadly though, this year we have also sat through a good few blank sessions on the spurs and other days were we have had to travel farther than normal and push anglers to the max on larger tides to locate a few, with only the bull huss being reliable enough when the spurs sail.
All this said, our heaviest spurdog this year (up until 14th May 2017)” and winner of the 2017 Pure Fishing Spurdog Competition is David Blake from Meltham & District Sea Angling Club. Davids spur pushed the scales to a very credible 17lb 10oz. David wasn’t scheduled to fish that particular boat trip aboard My Way, with the club having already filled the spaces on the boat; David had resigned himself to fishing off Holyhead Breakwater, while others tried their hands afloat. A last minute dropout though was sweet music to Davids ears and he jumped at the chance to fish with us and will certainly remember this day for a long time to come.
Above, David Blake with 17lb 10oz spurdog
For more information on the many Pure Fishing competitions and your chance to win some excellent rods, reels and tackle vouchers whilst fishing aboard My Way, read more here
