How can I stop catching Dogfish !?

Hi

I regularly go to a particular mark where I cannot catch anything except Dogfish when bottom fishing I usually use Mac. Tonight I am going to try lugworm in the hope that something else might be interested....

Does anyone have any ideas as to why I am only catching Dogfish, am I doing something 'wrong' that is attracting only the dog ? I'm a beginner and a little bemused.

FB

You could try using floating traces, this will get the bait above ground out of the reach of crab as an added advantage and certainly makes it less attractive to the doggies, you might still get the odd one but using it could raise your chances for some other species finding your bait first. Try different coloured floating beads too. Everything failing, change your angling location.
Good Luck!
Martin.

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Mackeral is one of the top baits for dogfish so that would explain the ammount your getting as the doggies are zeroing in on your bait before anything else can. the lug bait should help try a few short casts, if your on a beach you should be able to get some flatties on the lug, doggies will still take lug but not in the same way as mack or sandeel.

unfortunately sometimes if the dogfish are there in numbers they will take your bait, I've had them on mackeral, squid, lug and rag , but then if on another occasion your blanking after a few hours of chucking good bait into the tide the prospect of a pesky dog slowly becomes appealing if it could save a blank
but back to the question of keeping them off your prized bait, I'm told that to tie a small rubby bag of mackeral guts and heads should be smelly enough to keep the dogs occupied and away from a lone hooked bait now this may be a problem if casting any distance as it is very bulky, in the past I've tied a mack head to my weight using bait elastic, but only with limited success.

you could try not fishing! anyway whats wrong with the doggies.

change location,distince, try float fishing rock marks, when you catch nothing but whiting, you will be glad of a dog or two!
skip the mac bait for a while.
try piers, beaches and breakwaters in close.
keep an eye on this forum for reports,,,,,
ye can't beat a dog over a blank!
wait til you get a bullhuss or smoothie!

You could try using floating traces, this will get the bait above ground out of the reach of crab as an added advantage and certainly makes it less attractive to the doggies, you might still get the odd one but using it could raise your chances for some other species finding your bait first. Try different coloured floating beads too. Everything failing, change your angling location.
Good Luck!
Martin.

Oh! my god

take up golf !

Use its enemy as bait... Try a catfish...

lads how do you stop catching mackeral i put my feathers in to the water and bang again shold i try putting dogfish on as bait lol

it might just be a doggie mark mate. in which case your gonna have to try a different location if you want to avoid them. we fish one particular mark that is predominantly inhabitated with doggies. there are other demersal species there, but the dogs always find the baits first. regardless of what baits we use. the only way around it is to keep the baits well off the sea bed. but then you will miss the demersal species and only be targeting the pelagic and mid-water species. good luck any way man.

Thanks for all of the comments/recommendations guys.

In answer to some of the suggestions...... I hate Golf more than I do cricket so that's out of the question What's wrong with Doggies?......... they are ugly - and too easy I tried the float trick to keep the bait off the bottom and I also used Lug last night, guess what.......... I got DOGGIES

I think I have to come to the conclusion that this is a doggie mark and move on. Shame, it's really convenient for me.

Is it true they are an endangered species ? You could have fooled me if that's true

One more question. Can you eat Wrasse ?

Dogfish will gladly take lug and rag - as i have found when trying to catch bass. But one bait that I have never got a dog on is mussel (although maybe that was just luck). That will be attactive to flat fish and bass and a range of other fish.

Howdy Doggies can be unavoidable at times but there are plenty of marks i've fished which will be not stop doggie action one night and the next night the dogs will be thin on the ground... Mackerel as the lads said will draw doggies in from all around so back off on the Mackerel... worm baits while still catching doggies won't be anywhere near as bad as fish baits.... one thing to bear in mind where there's doggies there's usually plenty of other species too try fishing a couple of hours just before the light starts going too as the dogs really come on the feed in darkness.... tight lines.

hey i love em doggies! always compition with my mates always see who pulls in the biggest and most!

6 tonight. All taken on pin whiting Great craic

How can you stop catching them?!?!? I've tried 5 times this year purposely to catch them and still haven't! Last year I didn't have a problem getting them but (maybe) they are more scarce this year? They are now being used commerically as bait for lobsters and crabs and are often caught in huge quantities (60 full boxes of them outside the window as I type). Anyone got any clean sandy marks in Waterford where I can finally get on of them?

the answer to the wrasse question is yes as in all sea fish its down to taste you can eat all fish except the poison ones {weavers} ect you would be suprised the amount of people that eat[ wait for it] dogfish there really nice to eat once you skin them like you do ray and try stirfrying it with some veg it might change the way you view doggies

you can eat all fish except the poison ones {weavers}

there was a post here a while back about weavers being edible, recipee and all i think. wouldnt fancy it myself tho
as for the doggies, am i one of the few people who love em?? i love fishing from them on ballycotton pier with my spinning rod and a running ledger baited with a bit of mack. i had about 15 one night, mighty craic on such light gear. some day a conger will take it tho and wreck my reel
ive had them on almost every mark ive fished except in estuarys, might be somethin to do with the fresh/salt water or it might just be that they've never taken the bait..
might be worth a go but use crab or maybe rag as bait.

Well with 60 boxes being used for crab bait I guess they are not an endangered species !

The very first one I caught I took home and gutted and found it a very unpleasant experience. I am not at all squeamish and have gutted many fish for many years but I found gutting a Doggie very unpleasant. But if you reckon they are actually tasty I might try it again, I didn't eat that one. How do you skin them? What does a weaver look like ?

I guess if you caught any fish over and over again you might want to catch something else. I have to say it is a piece of pxxs catching them doggies here. Last night we went to another mark, caught nothing and so went back to our doggie mark just so we could get 'something', and we did - Doggies of course Got our fix and went home.