Spurdog

Spurdog are a great late autumn, winter and early spring catch that is not widely chased down on peoples lists but can be a great catch they will also come in quite close to shore and less than 50 yards I’ve caught them. Being a member of the shark family they have a long slender body and 5 gill slits Spurdogs are normally a grey in colour and can have white spots over their back, the grey wraps around the body leading to a white belly.
Spurs have no anal fin and two dorsal fins but beware as both the dorsal fins contain a spike which secretes venom and can be extremely painful if stabbed by one most dangerous time is at unhooking as they tend to writhe around a lot when beached also beware of the mouth as there are a lot of very sharp teeth. Typically spurs caught are 5-10lb from the shore but they do grow up to around the25lb mark.


Rigs:
Pulley rig: 80lb Rig body & 80 – 150lb hook trace leading to a 2/0 – 4/0 hook.
Running ledger: 80lb Rig body & 80 – 150lb hook trace leading to a 2/0 – 4/0 hook.
Pulley dropper: 80lb Rig body & 80 – 150lb hook trace leading to a 2/0 – 4/0 hook.
Clip down Paternoster: 80lb Rig body & 80 – 150lb hook trace leading to a 2/0 – 4/0 hook.

Bait:
Mackerel: cut a fillet off and cut it in half long ways and run hook through it and then whip it together with bait elastic.
Bluey: Small blueys are best cut them into three sections and hook once and whip the shank to the bait with bait elastic.
Squid: Whole squid of smaller size are perfect baits run hook through the bait and whip it on tight.
sand eel: double or triple up the sand eel and cut off the tails heads is optional depending on how quick you want the scent out there, hook through once and whip the shank down to the bait.

Grounds:
Spurdog will inhabit anywhere with food they travel great distance continually hunting and travel in packs so if you catch one get another bait out quick as there are likely more out there, they will travel over most grounds.
Spurs can also chase fish into mid water and hunt there as well so a bait strictly on the sea bed is not so critical with this breed.