In Search of a Spur

We decided to get a bit more water under the boat today and head out to a deeper trench in search of a Spurdog and anything else that might be lurking down there. It seemed silly not to with a day off work, light winds, sunshine and neap tides.
As the squid and some of last weeks herring hit the bottom the dogs came out to play. They were on the baits in minutes - especially the herring. I had to stop using the herring for a while and stick to squid - it was ridiculous!
Fighting through the dogs though we did manage to find the odd fish. First up to see the camera was a small bass around 3lbish....

My uptider went absolutely berserk soon after this and as I struggled to catch up with the weight of a fish I could feel something really giving it some stick at the other end. As I caught up with the fish and the rod loaded up it soon yanked violently back.....that'll be an eel then. It certainly gave me the run around in the full flow of the tide and just as I got it to the boat for a potential photo, Dave's down tide rod took off with what looked like a Spur. While he fought his fish I managed to get mine in the boat for a happy snap before slipping her back...It was a thick set devil somewhere in the mid thirties.

Dave's fish did in fact turn out to be the target species....a nice looking Spur around 12lb....

I had a better fish on after this but low and behold - another smaller conger came to the boat and was soon T-bared off at the side along with a few choice words!
It was Dave today though that seemed to be finding the better fish in amongst the dogs with the last one of note - a plump little spring codling!

 With a couple of lobsters in the pots for good measure, it didn't make for too bad a day! Looking forward to next weeks 4 day Easter weekend with crossed fingers on the weather.....