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Moreton Island 14-16 February '07

Terry H

By Terry H
in Saltwater

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Terry H Newbie

Terry H

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Wednesday morning (Valentines for the non-dedicated!) Ben and I caught the ol' Combie Trader over to Moreton for our 'date' with sharks. One frustation of the trip was already known. My new Olympus camera hadn't arrived yet, and so I'd have to take the old camera. To add to this, my mates new camera was in for repairs.

I was using my new Tiagra 80WA (100lb line), and Ben was using my Okuma T-50W (60lb line). Rigs were two 16/0's on the Tiagra and two 14/0's for the Okuma.

We arrived at 10am and casually made our way to the location, and had a double eel bait out at 12:50pm on the Tiagra. We tried to relax until late afternoon, but it ended up consisting of us hiding from the sun in anyway possible. We didn't have to wait long, and at 2:20pm the growl of the Tiagra sprung us out of hiding. After my nice run up the beach with rod in hand, line continued to race off the reel for a short period of time (approx 20 seconds) before going limp. Bait was left out incase the shark decided to finish his meal, but alas it wasn't the case.

Come 5:30, both baits, two eels on Tiagra and one on the Okuma were deployed and the waiting game began. Once again we didn't have to wait long, and at 6:35 the Okuma screamed into life. Ben quickly set the hooks and the battle was on!

In between taking a photo of the rods just after deployment, and this hookup the focus setting on the camera was adjusted and so all photos after were out of focus. Back to the shark....

It was clear pretty quickly that whatever was on the other end was a very nice fish for the gear he was using, and after 20 minutes, he still hadn't gained any line on it! Then I had a 'brilliant' thought and comment. \"Looks like the Okuma will be retired at 7pm\". Note: roughly 6:55pm when I said that. Come 7pm, to the second, the line goes dead. 25 minutes into the fight, no line had been gained and then we got rubbed off on the ledge.

Disappointed, we took a seat and waited patiently for the next strike. At approximately 7:30 the bait was picked up and moved a short distance before being dropped, sandbag still attached. Shortly after at approx 7:45, the Tiagra was once again growling like a beast, however this time the bag was cut but there was no hook up. The bait was left out, in hope that the shark would come back. Come back it did, and at 8pm the hooks were set, and line flew out of the reel. Noticing that this shark was apparently taking line off pretty easily at strike, I pushed the drag past the pin to sunset. The shark maintained it's course for the mainland, albeit considerably slower. After a hard for 30-40 minutes, the massive dorsal and tail fin of the 9ft Great Hammerhead shark (to the fork - 11ft to the tip of tail) was clearly visible in the shallows. Then the unthinkable occured. My camera's flash wouldn't charge! Disaster. So there's only a crappy picture of the hammer.

The next day (Thursday) baits were deployed at around 1pm. Around 3 or 4pm I thought to myself 'I hope the bait goes so I can rig up big for the night' and instantly there was another run on the Tiagra with no hook up. The shark took the eel around the head and avoided the hooks despite my efforts. Shortly after the Tiagra, the Okuma screamed into life again, with line flying off at a phenominal rate. Unfortunately, in Ben's haste when he pulled the rod out of the holder he must have dropped it to freespool and the meanest birdsnest I've ever seen occured. The shark continued it's fast paced course and 'that's all she wrote' for that battle.

Both rods were redeployed around 5:30-6pm and weren't touched all night.

Post edited by: TerryH, at: 2007/02/16 20:01

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Guest got a big one

Guest got a big one

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i think i can answer that for ya it fisher191 it was not let go at all . here are some pics of it chopped up dead scattered on the beach, and also stinking maggety eels left on the beach, its people like terry that are ruining the enviroment and the sharkfishing spots like morton, THANKS TERRY :(

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Line Tangler Dave Newbie

Line Tangler Dave

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Mate, the question about letting that shark go, or keeping it for the jaws was for Terry. This is a site about fishing and for those who enjoy fishing. So although I'm not in the habit of ignoring points of views offered by other AFO members, I'd like to say that what we do with fish we catch is pretty much our own business. You've obviously got your own agenda here, but making personal attacks is not the way to do it. This post is about a fishing trip to Moreton Island, so if you want to say something different, maybe best to start your own post with a separate topic. Cheers, Fisher_191:)

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Guest got a big one

Guest got a big one

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what im getting at is they shouldent be killed and scattered all over the beach. forcing the ranger to bury it agian, thats not good, , the ranger is now putting in for sharkfishign to cease at morton now, cause he is sick of burying caught sharks, from a select few of sharkfisherman,

also other have ahabit of tieing there sharks to 4wds and towing it up and down the beach repeditivly, we have to remember this is a major tourist spot for brisbane and by doing this its not helping at all,

Post edited by: got a big one, at: 2007/02/19 13:37

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Line Tangler Dave Newbie

Line Tangler Dave

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Tying sharks to a 4WD? I didn't see that mentioned in the article, and besides, I doubt very much that Terry would do such a thing. But then again, if he did, that's his business.

Sorry \"Got A Big One\", didn't mean to get into a debate with you over this. All I was saying was probably best to start a new topic if you've got something to say, rather than taking over Terry's post, or perhaps send him a PM. Cheers, Fisher_191:)

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Terry H Newbie

Terry H

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Fisher: To answer your question, the shark had suffered some injuries before we landed the shark and despite our best attempts to release it, it didn't survive. No, I didn't keep the jaws.

So what happened you might ask?

The shark was burried well above the high tide mark, and was dug pretty deep. Similarly, the eels were either burried or dropped well past the drop off.

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Line Tangler Dave Newbie

Line Tangler Dave

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Hi Terry. That's a shame it didn't survive, but then again, that's fishing. If your intentions were to release the shark, then you've had a go and that's all you can do. If the shark died by itself, then I would have kept the jaws myself, as those teeth in the photo looked pretty big. I've tried getting a set of jaws out of a shark once (2.5 foot bullie that looked pretty had it by the time I got it in), but it just didn't work as seemed to be mainly all cartilage.

What kind of injuries did it have on it? Bite marks from even bigger sharks or something??:ohmy:

Cheers, Fisher_191

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werewolf Newbie

werewolf

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hell yeah I would've had a crack at the jaws! Bummer that it died but it can be unavoidable.

The only set of jaws I have tried to extract have been from a small bully. I cleaned em up sorta ok and then after I left them to dry I read about how you are supposed to set them. Lol maybe next time. I'm waiting to get a slightly bigger bully then my usual run and try jaws from it:)

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Line Tangler Dave Newbie

Line Tangler Dave

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Werewolf - how did you try doing up the jaws from your shark? Don't know if I'd ever try the shark jaws thing again, unless of course someone showed me how to do it properly. First (and last) set of jaws I put the entire head in a pot and boiled it. Ended up with a horrible mess and a pot that I never wanted to cook in again. That particular pot has since been tossed :) I got that idea from watching the movie jaws, but apparantly that's not the way to do it, just a movie con job. Someone else told me to throw it on a meat ant pile, but then again someone else told me that's not right either. Another method I've heard was to pick the meat of bit by bit with a knife or something:blink:

Terry - that's interesting about sharks rolling up on traces. I've never heard of that before. I've heard people talk about \"tail whipping\", so have always thought that lines get busted off because the trace is too small for the shark, and the tail cuts it, and never considered that a shark would roll up like a crocodile. Interesting!!

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blue_mako Newbie

blue_mako

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It takes quite awhile to do the jaws. Jordan and I have done a 4.5 footer and a couple of 2-3 footers. We just roughtly cut out the jaw and work our way down with a skinning knife to the cartlidge and take off as much meat as possible then put it around some well know ant locations and let them do the rest.

You have to wedge a stick between the top and bottom jaw and the jaw hinges as they dry up when you leave them for the ants to eat and they tend to close up a bit and curl. He has a couple of the Jaws at his place, I might ask him to take a picture of them and post them up ;) .

Troy

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Brian D Newbie

Brian D

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On ya terry - nice work - petty about the release not happening but I'm sure you did everything possible to get it back. After all who wants to bury something that big.

To: got a big one

Mate don't come on the site slagging off at us - go somewhere else. What Terry did was perfectly legal. Granted it was not the best result but it was not a purposely planned attack. I've fished with Terry and he doesn't even like killing a catfish so the case in point of \"people like that\" I think there should be more fisherman like Terry.

Good on ya Terry.

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  • 4 weeks later...
greggy Newbie

greggy

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mackmauler i reckon theyre from a dusky whaler -definitely not a bull!

if terry did as he said then i cant see him doing anything wrong. great hammers have a tendancy to fight to the death - we've had one that went 12foot conk out in that exact spot and the same thing, had to bury her. have had a couple up north as well. scalloped's usually have some kick left though. it is infuriating to hear that some are however practicing unsound techniques when sharking over there. yes, the rangers are at the end of their tethers, and i just hope it aint too late to reverse their feelings. a plea - do not fish moreton unless youre willing to fully respect and know the do's and dont's of big shark fishing! if you dont think you can deal with em appropriately, stick to the rivers. dunno if anyone on here is to blame or not, who knows, but it has to be said either way so we all know and respect it. here's to many future years of the good medicine!

greg

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jeff f Newbie

jeff f

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Angus wrote:

Dont worry Greg.

Reports to date on this site have been made my responsible people.

The topic was inflamed by someone who just felt like creating an argument.

Angus

hey angus how can someone who is not a member post any way i thought you had to be a member. his name had \"visitor\" under it.

good on ya terry ,great catch,love your reports on catching monsters, keep on doing what you do and ignore the overly opiniated sh**stirring a***holes

Post edited by: jeff f, at: 2007/03/17 09:35

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