Duration: day charter
Tide: high around 12:30
Weather:calm and sunny
Bait:mack, jellies
Rigs:various
Results:me: spurdog, pouting, pollock, poorcod.. everyone else: spurdog, pollock , pouting , ling, codling, dogfish, mackerel
Report:
headed out in the morning to what was looking like a good day to be out sunbathing, the lack of breeze meant that drifting would be done with the tide and not with a wind,
got out to the first mark and everyone was given spinning rods with leadheads and jellyworms,
i brought out my own spinning rod (9foot berkely urban spirit) and small reel with 15lbsd braid and 10lbs leader.. i attached a sliding boom and put on 10lbs flouro with a size 1 hook and long strip of mackerel...
just as the bait hit the bottom i could feel a small 'tap tap', nice one i though, fish are feeding.. then the rod started to double over and the drag started to slip..
i tightened the drag up a little and started to play the fish, and got it close to the boat and 'ping' lost a good fishy, only the snood was gone so with that i put on 25lbs line and size 1/0 hook.. and stip of mackerel... dropped down and again 'tap tap'.. this felt like a nice fish as the rod bent over again.. then 'ping'.. reeled in to see the snood had been bitten through.. oh.. myself and max (skipper) came up with the same conclusion... there must be spurdog about.. so a quick rummage in my bag to find a wire trace, and one was found with a snap swivel to attach any hook, so bake on with a 2/0 and a nice lump of mackerel..
and in no time the rod was bent over again... as this fish was coming in it was a good time to set the drag so it would give line a few lbs before breaking.. and success.. a spurdog was brought to the surface, and landed, a quick photo and tag and off it went to the depths it came from..approximate it to have been about 10lbs, and the skipper was logging the tag number asked what weight it would be and then i remembered the electronic scales in my bag.. bit late now but if we get another...
the drift went quiet and another drift as set up, but only pollock and a ling came up for the others, we moved out to another mark that was producing pollock the day before, so a quick change of rigs again, this time a flowing trace with 2 size 1's attached..
baited with small strips of mackerel (about an inch or two long) and pulled up a pouting, baits went back down and that old familiar 'tap tap' oh dear i'm going to lose another trace now ran through my head.. and this fish was giving it all it could.... but still no 'ping'.. .. after about 5 minutes it came to the boat and did another few runs before wee netted it aboard.. a nice sized spur that was hooked right in the scissors.. tagged weighed and a quick pic then quickly released.. 13lbs 10oz.. not only a good spur but a specimen too
now i was a happy camper, after years of trying to catch one i not only get more than one but a specimen too.. and all on a spinning rod rated at 20g-60g.... the skipper gave a five minute call before moving to another mark, and as the rods were starting to be pulled in, 'tap tap'.. looks like we could be here fore a while... now this fish was not too happy about being hooked.. it was running backwards and forwards and every time i got it half way up it would run back down.. after about10 mins and a couple of sore arms later i could see it coming up in the water.. the skipper was sure it could be a tope, oh dear i thought.. and i was only using 25lbs snood lines on a size 1.. as the fish became more visible in the water it was obvious this was a big one( well bigger than the rest), finally landed tagged and weighed in at a nice 14lbs 02oz..we moved off to another mark also known as the bar on inis oirr
for a quick pint and catch up with the other charted boat that left the same time we did, stories of cod was what they had wile we had stories of spurs.. I caught 3, and 3 more were landed by the others..after a couple of pints off the black stuff i headed back to the boat to see what i could pick up in the harbour.. set up with smaller hooks and strips of mackerel it wasnt long before pollock were biting..
the rest of the lads came back and off we went again.. a short trip to another mark and this time i put on jellies, but managed to keep losing them to the weeds..
as always time was against us so back to port we headed on flat calm seas with clear blue skies... tales of fish will be told for some time to come now..
Well done Steve on the specimen, they some seriously nice fish you have caught there, congratulations 
