June was terrible weather wise for getting out in the boat so I was restricted to a couple of shore sessions plus a charter trip with Casey J fishing trips from Peel. The weed was a big problem for the Bass but the 1 rock session I had was a success. But like I said in general June was a bit of a right off so I’ll go straight on to July and our heatwave.
Now July 2021 was much more like it, long spells of settled high pressure, you’ll not hear a single complaint from me about the weather we had, it was brilliant. The end result from that was a lot of boat fishing and a proper chance to test and get things setup how I want. I started the month with a trip north that should have been around 14 miles but because I slipped with the touch screen I ended up closer to Scotland than the Isle of Man. 2 hours and 50 litres of diesel later I actually got anchored up on where I wanted to fish in the first place. A 4lb Tub Gurnard was the first fish up and I really thought I was in for a bumper day…until something happened that set the tone for the rest of the month, bloody Spurdogs. Over the next 9 hours and covering over 30 miles I caught and released 73 Spurdogs. I couldn’t fish more than 1 rod, I couldn’t have a bait down long enough in the water for much chance of anything else. Yes the first few are nice but after 2-3 hours believe me it gets dull. And it carried on like that for the whole of July, in 5 trips in to deep water I caught over 200 of them, some nice fish as well, 26-27lb but at the expense of everything else. For those not in the know these fish are like hoovers, they will destroy any small fish they can get in their mouth. Once the Spurdogs arrived I’ve barely seen a Whiting, Codling or Haddock, the only other fish out there are the Gurnard (too Spikey), Sand Dogfish and Tope. There are no techniques or tactics for avoiding Spurs once there you’ll catch them and little else. 3 marks I tried later on in the month had never had them on but this year they are literally everywhere in over 75ft of water. They come in past Northern Ireland, down the north channel and once here they settle. The inshore commercials both here and in Ireland have to be given quota again for Spurdogs, if they don’t in 2-3 years there will be nothing else left. Anybody who has been fishing with me or watched a video knows that I’m the opposite of keeping everything that comes up, 99% of what I catch goes back. Anything I keep or kill very much has a purpose. But I’ve also been brought up around commercial lads and understand the difference between fishing for fun and fishing for a living, they don’t need millions of tonnes but anybody who thinks Spurdogs are at danger or under pressure needs their heads read. Numbers have exploded over recent years at the expense of everything else and they’re a species nobody is allowed to keep despite their value. It’s bullshit.
If we’re not catching Spurdogs then we’re catching Tope. Because once you get in to the shallower water they are everywhere as well, I have never seen so many Tope in so many random areas. No need for a mark, area or spot, just throw down half a Mackerel in 50 feet of water over clean ground and you’re almost guaranteed Tope action. In fact don’t even worry about the clean ground so much because you’ll find them on most of the rough ground areas as well now. Finally the last trip of the month was an old fashioned Callig bashing session. Anchored up on a rock with a rod down in the very rare hope of a Black Bream I spend a very pleasant few hours pulling up 3-4lb Callig one after the other. I also got to test the Gladius Mini drone which was nice.
If you look away from what I’ve been doing the rest of the island tells its own story. It’s been a really good Mackerel season so far, the Bass fishing is off the charts, I have never heard nor seen of so many Bass being caught from the Isle of Man. I’d love to get another session on the boat for them but unfortunately with only a 4 hour windows out of the marina and the boat being a lot slower than I reckoned for (it’s losing around 9 knots from growth on the hull, way more than I figured and I would have defo had the hull done before the season started if I’d known. The plan was to have it out, cleaned and back in quick last month but I’ve been let down on that one), it’s just a no go. By the time I reached are best boat marks for them I’d be an hour fishing then have to come home. Tope fishing from the shore is again as good as it has been in many years.
In general it’s actually a really good summer for fishing around the Isle of Man. The only but, and a big but it is, being that the offshore fishing being totally destroyed by Spurdogs. Hopefully and I’ve got everything crossed for this they will eventually get fed up and move on sometime this month (August).