Kookaburra Park 14-08-07

[Schultzy]

Dropped the boat in at Kooka for an hour before work last night to flush the salt from the motor. Spent an hour throwing the cast net just to see if livies were still around (ready for September). Got about a dozen of those big bony bream that are just too large for good livies (but we use them anyway when bait is scarce) lots of small bony bream, anchovies & glass perch. Drifted right back up in front of the ramp and started getting good, shark sized bonies about 20cm. Was scoring half a dozen per throw.

Managed to get spined in the index finger by a little spotted scat hiding in the top of the net, now nicely swollen.

If you are up there chasing livies, look in 3 to 5m of water and idle around until you see them on the sounder.

[img size=500]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/bony.jpg

Too big.

Post edited by: Schultzy, at: 2007/08/15 12:56

[Cowfish13]

I think a lot of people wouldn't consider that fish to big for bait.

[James W]

terry might have used it for tigers over at moreton:P its a big one

[Cowfish13]

That's who I was refering to:). But he would probably would use it as a live bait to catch the live bait that he uses for Tigers.

[Schultzy]

Up at Kooka where the average Bully is only about 85 or 90cm they can take too many bites from one of these without hitting the hooks. Smaller baits achieve hook-ups without needing to wait for the little bities to have a feed first, just click into gear as soon as they start to swim off with the bait.

These really big bonies also swim too hard when the big tides are running, pulling line off the reel unless you crank the spool tension up quite tight.

Unfortunately using a big bait at Kooka doesn't mean you'll get a bigger shark. The little blokes are so agro they hammer the biggest bonies and mullet you can find.

The four and five footers we get there are quite happy to eat nice manageable , 15 to 20cm bonies.

[James W]

shultzy- up north they have a fish called a \"mud herring\" same as our bony bream?..or different?

[Schultzy]

No Jim, the mud herring is a different animal. More closely related to the saltwater herrings we get down here. Last time I was chatting with a mate who works for CSIRO reef research in Townsville he mentioned sampling four different species of herring in the area, most without common names. I think the locals simply call them all mud herrings. The most common of the four is Southern Herring Herklotsichthys castelnaui.

[James W]

cheers for that mate;)

[Cowfish13]

I know that most Bullies at Kooka are smallish, but when you see the sized of the the baits that Terry uses on Moreton, that bait is small.

[Schultzy]

Yes Will,

I used to exchange e-mails with a keen land based sharker in \"Seth Efrica\" who used bull shark pups for livies. He used to land some monster whalers of several species on little bullies. It is a harsh life in the big blue.

[Angus]

Nice one Neil. Yeah we usually pic up a few of those monster bonies as well. But im with you, i prefer smaller baits. I like to picture in my head the shark taking the bait in one go, rather than needing to disasemble it

I find the hooks much easier to present on a smaller bait as well. Poddy mullet are my favourites.

Angus