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Advice for new comers-take it or leave it

Fishguts

By Fishguts
in Saltwater

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Fishguts Newbie

Fishguts

Posted
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Over the last month, myself and my crew of shark guys have been planning a landbased trip a few hours up north.After a while of consideration and contemplation we decided to got to woodgate (an area renouned for large shark activity).So i spent a few nights this week catching baits and after a couple of hundred dollars later for fuel,traces,food etc we were on our way.The dry was hot and seemed to take forever as everyone was excited to get the baits soaking,sitting in the back seat were 3 80W Tiagras,900H and a tld25 literally begging to let loose.Finally we got there around 8am and began the loooooong process of preparing bait and what not.Anyone who does this kind of big game landbased fishing knows how time consuming it is and the effort that goes into.Our team all know there roles and everyone splits off a

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nd does what they gotta do,wethere it be preparing baits,sandbagging and traces,kayaking or even planning aim points for bait drops.Its all about playing your part in the big machine to make everything run smooth.After working endlessly over an hour preparing 5 reels with 8 eels and sandbags,covered in sweat and ready to have a beer, we were ready for deployment.Then another 30min/45min of solid kayaking,the baits were in and we were fishing!!! Hours passed,then more hours passed and still nothing.....i decided to go for a row in the kayak to pass some time and was surprised to see a small tiger around 1m in the shallows which was more than happy to let me kayak beside it :) after a while i came back in,day turned to night,a fantastic moon arose over the ocean then even more time passed and the moon was now gone.In the early hours,we heard a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz it was the TLD! unfortunately we failed to meet a hookup,weather it be not sitting in the mouth correctlyor human error,we had lost 1 chance.Confident and excited,it was almost time for sunrise again (waters had been soaking for nearly 24hrs) and finally....we pulled the plug,it was time to bring the baits in.All our time and effort had brought us nothing but a short run through the night.An hour or so later we headed home,hot,tired and ready for a shower.

The moral of this story for people who are just starting out sharkfishing or big game landbased like this is,dnt ever be disapointed that you caught nothing or ever doubt yourself,i know for a fact that myself and a lot of people i know i have done triple the amount of trips compared to there actual landed sharks.Its all about trial and error and a lot of patience,so dnt ever give up,even if you get nothing 5 times in a row ,because all you can do is play your part properly and hope theres some sharks around,there not as common as catching a bream but they're still there.Ive met a lot of people who do things the same way i do and have said things like " man i suck aye,ive been sharking for ages and havent even caught one',it sucks hearing things like that coz it makes people give up,i use to be exactly the same but i kept pushing through and putting the time into it and now i can look back on my efforts and be happy with the outcome ive achieved.So yeh,i fished for 24 hrs straight and did a lot of hard yakka this weekend and came out of it with absolutely nothing! BUT,i had a fantastic weekend with mates and some good memories to go with it,and im not disappointed because i know ill be out again in no time to give it another go :) Thats just my opinion for any guys out there who are waiting for the big one,stick with it,coz your day will come soon.

cheers

matt

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Liber_359 Newbie

Liber_359

Posted
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Thanks for sharing Matt, that was interesting & fishing for sharks from a kayak sounds pretty damn fun to me - btw have you ever been towed along by a big one yet?

As for myself, I'm super-eager to get into this side of fishing big-time - just working out what gear to get for LBF for now, so being a newbie I find this sort of post inspiring. My only personal experience with shark fishing is off the end of Shorncliffe Pier years ago where one spooled me of a hundred or so meters of line in about 10 seconds! :laugh: That & I remember that it felt heavy enough that if I lifted the rod to set the hook sooner I would have saved some of my 20 l/b line.:P In retrospect I can see that I had the drag set way too light, but I wasn't really expecting a surprise hit like that either, I was actually targeting a big, fat ray, but they don't move anywhere near as fast. I got so 'Sharked'. That 'Spooling' was such a thrill in itself I didn't care that I didn't stand a chance at catching it.

Though I don't have much practical experience purposely 'Sharking' yet , I used to be so obsessed with sharks in general when I was a kid that I was nicknamed "The Walking Shark Encyclopaedia" at school. I also use to surf a fair bit so I've had enough close encounters with sharks to wet my appetite even further (can people please stop putting burley in the water at Double-Island Point if I'm surfing there? Wld be much appreciated!:ohmy: ) & after coming across this forum I'm now super-keen to get some tackle & having another go, no matter how often I get spooled, snapped off, or even absolutely nudda. Sharking seems like a unique area for estuary fishing passion, like how some people devote their whole lives to catching 20kg+ Jews, another big & elusive estuary 'Bounty'. I don't get why some folk think of sharks as pests, I like the idea of keeping a shark fishing diary too, for observations etc, while I wait for a taker. On the subject of Sharking & Jew-fishing, does anyone know if its possible to target both at the same time with one outfit/bait/lure etc? Sort of like a middle ground between the two?

Anyway, it's good to see some passion in this little niche of estuary fishing. Best luck for everyone having a go. Ha, maybe if enough people start sharking (currently underfished) , the Bream & Flathead might stand a better chance at growing to old age once more. Then everyone would be happy I guess :laugh:

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Fitzpatrick Newbie

Fitzpatrick

Posted
Posted

Great advice mate,

As an irishman, the fishing out here is sooo different to back home. It can be very daunting targeting a new species. Not knowing correct gear, baits and especially places can be very off putting.

So keep up the detailed reports and and snippets of advice because every little bit helps. Forums such as this are a wealth of info and invaluable to the experienced and not so experienced.

look forward to future words of wisdom,

Fitzer. (major newcomer):cheer:

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