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River Sharking 23-02-2007

werewolf

By werewolf
in Saltwater

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werewolf Newbie

werewolf

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Once again I had managed to pip the rest of the boys – Steve, Steve’s two minions and Romeo – to thewater by a whole 5 mins. That said it was pretty much just on dawn anyway and not too long after the top of the tide. I already had a handful of tiny livies, and one respectable “Variegated Piranhaâ€Â. Bait was much harder to get then last time, and not surprisingly the first half of the tide was pretty quiet as a result (we find there are more sharks around if there is plenty of baitfish). That said, the best midsized livie got smashed after 15 minutes in the water and after a few hairy moments with the landing net, Romeo hoisted ashore an 83 cm 4.1 kg bullie for Steve. This is Steve’s second shark on his second Brimsfishing Charter lol!

Steve’s shark was caught just past 6:00 AM, and with only a few half hearted runs for the next few hours, the portable BBQ was dragged out and bacon, sausages and eggs were enjoyed by all. Yum.

The small bottom fished baits were surviving unmolested for a change, so I swapped tactics and set a big live gar out under a float. I didn’t have to wait for long before it got nailed. The poor little 8 pound baitrunner just started screaming, and I stood by the rod holder, eagerly waiting for the shark to stop and swallow the bait. It stopped alright, but kept the bit of gar it was holding onto! I really need to make some two hook rigs…

Oh well. Encouraged by the surface run, I baited up with a foot long Bony Bream next. When there was no action for half an hour, I checked the bait and found it had been eeled. Damn. The last big livie I had was the piranha which had survived the last three hours bottom fished. Out it goes for a whole 15-20 mins and it got absolutely smashed. I had the drag wound off on my 15 pound outfit to let the shark get the bait down, but after emptying 2/3 of the spool without slowing, I tightened the drag, struck, and got nothing! Bugger only little mullet left.

Half and hour later as I was losing interest, a little livie bottom fished got smashed. Finally I’ve got a hookup! The rod was bouncing violently in the holder as I ran towards it. There was a huge splash on the surface and the line went limp. No no no! I knew what had happened before I wound in the last foot of scuffed mainline. That’s what you get for being lazy and using premade traces. Too short and another tail rub off (which cause the rod bounces). You would think I would have learnt my lesson after similar bust offs on previous trips…

After the big bony got murdered Romeo swapped to surface fishing and got a few good runs on strips of said bony with no hookups. We left around 11 AM and Romeo’s last run wasn’t long before we left. I think we will be trying surface baits a bit more in the future. Pics to follow!!!

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blue_mako Newbie

blue_mako

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Nice session boys. Why is it that when you head out to Kookaburra Park you only land a quater or less of what hits your lines. It happened to us when we went there last time as well! :P .

That 'Piranah' thing you guys caught is a Scat. They are quite rare, especially that far up a river and fight pretty well apparently when caught on lures. They are related to Butterfish. We have caught one or two of them in the castnet in the Lower Reaches and released them since we didn't think they were exactly the best bait for the job. Worked well for you guys though! :P .

Troy

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jeff f Newbie

jeff f

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troy, scats arent exactly rare. they are really common in gold coast canals, i've got dozens of small ones in a single throw of a cast net plenty of times and being so spikey they are a real pain to release, but you are right about them being a fighter when caught on a line. they taste pretty good too.

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werewolf Newbie

werewolf

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Jeff - you know it mate;)

Troy - thanks for spoiling my fun with the piranah:silly: :whistle: But yeah as far as hooking these sharks go, the game really varies depending on bait size. If it is a juicy morsel that can be taken in one bite fishing with the drag on produces pretty good hookup rates (given that traces are long enough that you don't get bitten/rubbed off:pinch:), but once the baits get bigger than about 6 iches I really don't know what to do! I'm thinking two hook rigs would be a must after my poor success on big baits this trip! As far as fishing big baits with the drag engaged or on free spool I really don't know.:blink:

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jeff f Newbie

jeff f

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on sunday morning one hit i missed was on a 30cm bony bream, afew minutes later lozzel called out to me that my bait had drifted past his boat with the head and the tail end neatly bitten off. so there was no way that the hook under the dorsal was ever in the sharks mouth. next bait i put out i hooked through the nose just in front of the eye. about ten minutes later a shark jumped about 20 meters behind the boat with my line hanging out of its mouth. the reel in freespool hadn't even given line yet, i picked up the rod, wound like buggery and struck when it came tight. giving a good hookup. i landed him planning to release it but the hook had torn its gills realy badly so i kept it and gave it to travis as i allready had two in the boat.

so next time i'm using large baits i plan to try hooking them through the nose again to see if this increases the hook up rateB)

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werewolf Newbie

werewolf

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Interesting tactics Jeff, I have never tried it myself. I was planning on just trying two hook rigs but if the sharkies are so damn good at avoiding a single hook, two might put them off completely. That said both of Steve's sharks have been on two hook rigs using only bite sized baits. My hookup rate on big livies is sweet zero!:silly:

Jeff do you fish all your baits in freespool???

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Lozzel Newbie

Lozzel

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Werewolf, Idont know much about Shark Rigs, but when fishing for big Macks. We would use a 4 -10 gang with a trailing hook on a 8\" wire trace coming from the last hook on the gang.This was placed near the tail of the bait.Improved hook ups as sometimes the macks would hit at the tails first.

After using a 2 hook rig on the week-end with a 12\" bony and not hooking up, I was thinking about using a trailing hook on my rig to try next time.

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Oztrav Newbie

Oztrav

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Would rigging the gar up like a soft plastic, if it was dead already ie start the hook through its mouth then have the hook come out bout halfway down its back, put it on a float with the occasional twitch. I think this could improve hookup rates with deadbait while being whole should keep the pickers away this should also tend to have more hook exposure I dont know if i have explained it correctly but i hope i have.

Just another idea

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Angus Rookie

Angus

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Werewolf - As usual mate well done!

Troy - Last time i was down at Bretts i got 3 big and loads of small scats in one cast. I thought i had some seriously decent fish in the net. Not other bait fish were around so i used fillet of one for bait. Catfish like them but that seemed to be it.

Angus

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