WIN YOUR SPURS

IN THE LATTER PART OF THE LAST century, the once common spurdog was sorely depleted by commercial fishing, but gradually the pressure eased and it has taken nearly two decades for the species to show any real increase in its numbers and once again become a viable target for anglers in Britain and Ireland.

Without commercial pressure the spurs are able to grow more towards their natural ceiling size of around 25lb. With so many anglers keeping their own specimen list, there is no better time to boat that big spurdog or even catch your first to get the ball rolling.

I use the Irish Specimen Yearbook as my guide to specimen sizes. For 2020, it lists the Irish specimen size as a fish of 12lb (5.443kg). They give a total length specimen size of 105cm allowing fish to be claimed but released. I’d agree with 12lb being the target size in most areas of the British Isles, but a 14lb-plus fish should be achievable and a fish nearer 20lb is always on the cards.

WHERE & WHEN

Although spurs are resident around the whole of the