THE LESSER SPOTTED DOGFISH

The lesser spotted dogfish is the mainstay for shore anglers in Scotland for much of the year. It has avoided the commercial over fishing which has damaged stocks of other species such as cod, haddock, coalfish, whiting, and plaice, because it does not fetch a good price in the fish markets.
Although having recently been reclassified by scientists, who have renamed it the lesser spotted catshark, we will continue to refer to them as doggies, as this is how they are commonly known to anglers in this country.
The doggy is a member of the shark family, and shares a number of common characteristics; they have rough sandpaper like skin, two dorsal fins, and the upper tail lobe is longer than the lower. They don’t have a skeleton, just a backbone made of cartilage which is a gristle like material. For this reason the sharks and their relatives the rays, are known as the Cartilaginous Fishes, while other species which have skeletons such as the cod family, are known as the Bony Fishes.
The dogfish is a confirmed bottom feeder. Its mouth which is quite small is located underneath its head, and its underside is almost flat, which enables it to swim along close to the bottom, using its fantastic sense of smell which it shares with all the shark family, to locate its food.
Its eyesight is quite poor, and certainly it prefers to feed at night, which would seem to confirm that smell plays the greater part in its search for food.
Its body is sandy in colour, with many small spots of darker brown, which are grouped more closely together higher on its back, sometimes the upper back becoming almost black. The underside is always a creamy white colour.
The doggy is shoal fish, and where there is one there are usually many others, for they normally move in packs, this means that they are competing with their fellows for the available food, so they are often, but not always aggressive feeders, and they usually take anglers baits confidently, giving positive bites. 
The average size for a lesser spotted dogfish is around 0.80kg, although they can grow a fair bit larger. Gareth Griffiths holds both Club Records for the species, with a fish of 1.446kg from the shore, and a whopper of 1.958kg from the boat, which is also the current British Boat Record.

The dogfish is found all around the British coastline, and will regularly turn up on most marks, though it is not so often found in estuaries, favouring the open sea, and preferring area’s having a moderate to strong tide run. Patchy ground with a mixture of boulders and weed seems to be most to their liking. 
The South West of Scotland has always been noted as an area with a large population of this species, with Loch Ryan, and Terally Bay two shore marks often fished by our club, but lately Loch Fynne also has been producing good bags of dogfish in matches and pleasure sessions. The dogfish is not often encountered by anglers fishing the East coast of Scotland, but this may be to a large extent because they are generally targeting cod over rough ground marks, but they do occasionally turn up in anglers catches in this area too.
As mentioned already the dogfish is an out and out bottom feeder, so the only real tactic to adopt when fishing from the shore is legering, using standard tackle. Like most sea fish the doggy seems to need the tide to be moving to make it want to feed, as they will rarely be caught during periods of slack water (when the tide stops moving, at either high or low tide), but often the new tide will bring them on to the feed, especially if it coincides with nightfall, as they always seem to feed most strongly around this period. (continued on next page)
Dogfish will fall to most baits that the angler could think of using! They’re certainly not a fussy feeder, although at times as with most species certain baits will be preferred. Top baits include; sandeel, mackerel, peeler crab, and ragworm. Others worth trying would include; razorfish, lugworm, and mussel.

Current Senior Shore Champion, Gerry Elliott, is renowned for his skill in catching dogfish. In the recent series of Clyde & Western Region Winter Knock Out matches, Gerry won the Trophy for the Heaviest Bag, with a catch of 37dogfish, and in a Silver Lure all night Club Match a number of years ago, he caught 69 dogfish in a twelve hour period.
Below are Gerry’s ten top doggy catching tips, which should help you to land more of these, the shore anglers commonest quarry

AN EASILY CONSTRUCTED SINGLE HOOK CLIPPED RIG.
This rig should help you to increase your casting distance. Note that when using a clipped rig that it is essential that you use a bait stop. A sequin is best for this purpose, but a bead could also be used. The bait stop prevents the bait from being forced up the hook snood and away from the hook during the cast.