queensland Soft Bullies

[Sulfuras]

Got onto my third Bull Shark today. Pretty stoked considering its well past summer now, he went 82.5cm which is slightly smaller than the 83cm I got yesterday. Has anyone else noticed how soft they are? Compared to some of the other stuff i pull out of the river Bullies seem to be pretty fragile. So far i've only been able to release one in good condition; fortunately he was hooked right through the lip and I got him back into the water asap. As for the other 2 they swallowed the bait without so much as chewing and ended up with 2 large 4/0 hooks down into their stomachs. A situation that seems to be always fatal. Someone told me that if i cut the line as far down as I could that the hooks would rust out eventually and the shark would survive but today I did this straight away and upon release the shark was motionless and started sinking belly up so I bagged him and will have a shark burger from him later. I think maybe the hooks and bait block its airway or effect its ability to swim properly? Would have been nice to have set him free though. Maybe I will start using circle hooks as i've heard they come out easier. Any comments or ideas?

[fishingnut]

I dont think Id do too well being dragged around by my guts via my mouth.....

[Davo_Dinkum]

not sure on the sharks ,but if u do a search on them u will find heap of info here.

[Beejay]

Yeah have to agree, I have done alot of shark fishing the last 5 years in the bay of Manly and the majority of sharks I catch over the summer months arent Bullies, they are a slimmer longer model of shark which are olive colored with black tipped fins.

I have found that these reef sharks fight way harder than a solid bull shark.

Once hooked, the bullies generally do a slow lap of the boat while you retrieve them and then they are easily netted or grabbed by the tail and put into the boat.

The reef sharks tend to thrash around alot more than the bullies as well.

Dont be fooled though, the Bullies are good at playing dead and there teeth will do extreme damaged if left unchecked to a stray finger or set of Toes.

Small shark is great eating, done in a good beer batter when fresh its very hard to top....cheers Beejay

[Sulfuras]

Yeah i've done a bit of research and just heard about circle hooks being easier to retrieve. I've been using chunks of eel that seems to be working great as bait but like i said 2 out of 3 times have resulted in the shark being hooked in the gut. Oh well they are pretty good eating - any chance you could tell me how to make this beer batter beejay, i've just been eating the fillets with some lemon and salad!?

[ellicat]

Circle hooks are far harder to dislodge than "J" hooks or Octopus hooks etc. You do tend to hook the fish in easier to get at places though.

Never heard that bullies don't release well before. Maybe you're keeping it from the water too long.

[Beejay]

Beer Batter

Ingredients

2 and half cups flour

salt and pepper

1x light beer at room temperature (I use Hahn Light)

1 teaspoon of paprika (Gives the batter a nice golden color)

Method

Mix flour, salt and pepper, paprika, add beer gradually, stirring well until smooth. Allow to chill for 1 hour before using batter.

Cut the shark into small strips about 15cms long x 3 cms wide, roll them in flour first, then completely coat them with the batter.

Drop into Hot cooking oil and cook until golden in color.

Serve on a plate with some paper towel on the bottom to soak up excess oil from cooking. All you need now is your fingers and some tartare sauce or mayonaise...cheers Beejay

[Angus]

Sulfuras wrote:

Yeah i've done a bit of research and just heard about circle hooks being easier to retrieve. I've been using chunks of eel that seems to be working great as bait but like i said 2 out of 3 times have resulted in the shark being hooked in the gut. Oh well they are pretty good eating - any chance you could tell me how to make this beer batter beejay, i've just been eating the fillets with some lemon and salad!?

Mate circle hooks do make all the difference. we have fluked several now at bulimba without even using wire as they were perfectly cheek hooked.

I have never considered them "soft" myself. On teh contrary usually when we get one in you still have to be very cautious as they like to try and turn back and try and take some revenge! However I have never gut hooked one so yeah...

Angus

[uglyfish]

I only use circle hooks now,I get em off eBay for $3 for a 100

[Sulfuras]

Thanks for that Beejay I will definately give that recipe a go tonight!

And yeah thanks for the info guys I will try positioning the hooks out the side of the bait chunks to encourage a cheek hook until I run out of J hooks then I will start using circles. $3 for 100 seems like a pretty damn good deal compared to BCF haha any chance you could give me the name of the ebay seller Uglyfish?

In the mean time I will try to be more gentle with the bullies regarding time on the line and out of water etc. Suppose they are only pups after all :laugh: