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12/01/2007 Upper Bris. R. Bullies

werewolf

By werewolf
in Saltwater

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werewolf Newbie

werewolf

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This is rather long, so if sharking bores you... :P

Determined to repeat the success from my last trip, I crawled out of bed at 3:50 AM, determined to get to the water early while livies are easy to get. I arrived at the water around 4:30, with Charles only 10 minutes behind. When I finally acquired a good supply of livies (including a foot long bony bream). I baited up casted out. It wasn’t long before a small herring that I was using got annihilated. The rod just buckled over in the rod holder and spat out line against a firm drag! I ran over, fought it for a whole 10 seconds and then the line went limp. Bugger! I wound the rig in to find that the circle hook had simple pulled. Damn I forgot that I was fishing a circle on that particular rod and struck hard when I grabbed the rod. Whoops. Fisherman 0 – Sharks 1.

A short time later another one of my livies got eaten, but this fish was looking considerably smaller. Calling it for a catfish, I wound in the smallest shark I have ever seen; a monster at 59cm. A few quick pics and its released. It was caught on a circle, bottom fished. Fisherman 1 – Sharks 1.

In between the action I noticed that the Big Bony bream was no longer sending noticeable kicks up the line. I wound it in and sure enough it was gone. I put a foot long mullet on this rod and it too suffered the same fate. The rod just bent down slowly, hissed a bit of drag and then went slack. I’m gunna have to start making a few big bait rigs. I only had a single 8/0 in the tail of these two big baits, which obviously wasn’t sufficient.

This time a small poddy was casted out. It was in the water 10-15 minutes and it got slammed! I was watching it as it hit. Just like the first run of the day, it just buckled over and started losing drag! Unfortunately this lasted a whole five seconds before the rod flicked back rather suspiciously. I wound in the limp line, to find the last foot of line badly kinked before it got chomped. The wire trace must have got tangled around the mainline and the rest is history. Fisherman 1 - sharks 2.

Next up I baited up with a slightly bigger bait then the herring that had been working well. It had body/tail similar to a bream but the head tapered to a point and it had a telescopic mouth. It’s not what I would call a Bony Bream, but regardless it made a good livie. This little guy was in the water for about 10 minutes before the expected happened. The hit wasn’t as spectacular as some of the previous runs and didn’t cause too much of a problem until we got it to the bank and saw the size of it.

Crap this is gunna be hairy. The bank that we were fishing off has a very narrow point of access to the water, and as we were just passing high tide, was rather slippery and muddy. To make matters worse, the line had got tangled in another on the way in, causing all sorts of dramas! But hey Charles has got the heart of a lion and down the bank he goes and grabs the wire. Big mistake. The shark goes into a death roll and the wire ripping through his hands manages to cut both of them! Okay lets try the net. Another fisho passed the net down to us and Charles managed to get most of the shark into it (man I need a bigger net). This poor little net is one of the fold up portable versions, and man it was straining trying to lift the sharks bulk.

This was getting messy fast, so while Charles was again holding the trace, I put my rod down, grabbed the gaff and climbed down. Well I tried to, except I slipped and ended up with a foot beside the shark’s head. Crikey. Not wasting anymore time I slipped the gaff into its gills and hoisted it up. Finally! Talk about a debacle! I am definitely looking into getting a bigger net, cause that was not fun at all trying to land that one…

Once I could finally pick the shark up, I could feel its weight. The Mustard Penetrator hook was pretty much stuffed. I know they are stacks weaker then the Big Reds, but the thinner gauge appeals to me for keeping livies kicking longer and setting hooks. The lie detector showed it to be 4.56 kg and 85cm. Nice, new PB again! This shark was cleaned and iced down. Yum. Fisherman 2 - Sharks 2.

The bite slowed down a bit but I still managed another hook up later on. This was another big hit, and decided it wanted to be elsewhere! I would start winding on a bit of line and then it would take off in a big run in the opposite direction. Crikey maybe I won’t bother putting 8 pound on that spare spool… This fish was fighting far better than the 85 cm model, so I was starting to get pretty excited that I would crack the 90 or even the metre! Even when I finally got it in close, it was staying down deep so we couldn’t get a visual on it. I would just get it to the bank and then it would swim off in the other direction forcing me to run to one edge of the bank to keep the line clear, then it would go the other way! Crikey. Finally it surfaces exhausted and Charles scrambles down and grabs it. Turns out, this shark was only 75 cm and 2.9 kg, but it was the best fighting shark I’ve faced so far! When I got it back into the water it wasn’t looking so good, its gills were pumping but its tail wasn’t doing much. After a few minutes of trying to face it towards the current I gave up and started lifting it out to join its friend in the esky. Nope it didn’t like that idea and tried to bite me and started thrashing! I shoved it away and it swam off strongly. Man you let you guard down for a moment and they won’t hesitate to have a go at you. Fisherman 3 - Sharks 2.

That’s pretty much a summary of the action up to 9:30, when I had to leave for an appointment. Oh there were also a couple of catfish caught, and the fishos beside us lost a shark at the bank on a live catfish. Pretty much every livie we put in got eaten at some stage. I even pinned the last few in the underside (I think Jeff suggested that one) to try and get the livies to swim up in case crabs were getting them. The last shark was hooked fishing a livie in this manner. I had a few monster mullet in the cast net at one stage too, but they just seem to jump straight through lol. This was also our first 3 shark trip:woohoo: Pics to follow!

Post edited by: werewolf, at: 2007/01/13 08:59

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blue_mako Newbie

blue_mako

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Nice Sharks mate. You sure get enough meat of them hey? We once kept 2 Bullies and a Bronzie from 2-3 foot for a feed for three of us. Just one 2 footer was more then enough to fill us all up. Might I say personally caught flake is one of the best fish fillets I've ever eaten. I much prefered the Bronzie over the Bullies though.

They were caught in the Bay out from Nudgee on one of those insane sharking sessions we had out there last year.

Troy

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werewolf Newbie

werewolf

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thanks Jeff, good luck for tomorrow! The early session is sure fishing well at the moment. We were still getting hits after 9 AM (left at 9:30 for appointment, and landed the last shark at 9ish) but I guess we had only seen one boat all morning. But yeah, if you get there early and can secure some livies you should be in for a good time:)

ps - I bought a better landing net today, no more close calls for meB)

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werewolf Newbie

werewolf

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:woohoo: that would be unreal fun. I have considered doing the same from the canoe, but one little mistake with an angry shark boatside, and things would very quickly hairy!

If sharks sharks from yaks takes your fancy, check out the reports archive section on extremecoast.com and also their video sections. They have landed some rather big toothies offshore from their yaks:blink:

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werewolf Newbie

werewolf

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lol looks like terry has given you marching orders jeff:)

terry: we do tail grab a few sharks, thats what my old man was doing for me two weeks back. I have never seen them be able to twist up enough to grab your wrist, but they would be more likely to latch onto your stomach or thigh if you get careless and hold it too close.

Some places we fish there isn't easy access to the water so trying to manoever a shark to get to its tail can be a bit exciting;)

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