sharking in brisbane river

[kevinchen19870316]

Can;t wait to try some sharking in brissy river as the T seems to be going higher and i can finally get rid of my long-sleves.

so is it the time shark begin to show up in the river? i am in toowong and i don;t wanna travel a long way for sharking. as for bait, i think i can get some prawn or dead mullet, maybe eel. i don;t have a net so live bait is just a dream for me.

any suggestions?

[Schultzy]

Kevin,

Reliable sharking in the river won't start for another month, depending on the weather of course.

Don't worry about not having livies. A friend of mine from work (Big Gav) used to do OK using mullet bought from the bait shop for sharks.

We used to jig herrings on bait jigs at the coast and keep them in the freezer for shark bait. The sharks seem to love the smell of herrings & bony bream.

If you get desperate I could probably organise to get a bag of bony bream for you.

One of the best things about sharking in the river is you don't have to worry about getting seasick.

When My boys were very small we used to fish for sharks from the public jetty at West End, just across the river from Toowong so all you need to find is your nearest access to the water and go for it.

Post edited by: Schultzy, at: 2007/08/16 15:26

[Hamish MacDonald]

most photo's seem to be around the 2-3 foot mark. how big do the sharks get in the river. im not size obsessed when catching fish or anything. i just find it generally interesting as i know there are some monsters in the bay. why not the river

Ham

[Schultzy]

Hamish,

You're right, the average is about 85cm though fish from 1 to 1.2m are certainly not rare. The best I've measured in the freshwater reaches was 1.56m, tagged and released. We've had big sharks bite through the wire too. That's OK because when we are tagging for the Uni it is me who has to tail them and handle them while dehooking, measuring, tagging, etc. Anything over about 1.5 is a little hard to safely manage in the confines of a small tinny. Much easier on a nice open sandy beach where you can give them some room.

We have caught sharks of up to 100cm in the Kookaburra park area with bite wounds from larger sharks trying to eat them. Maybe larger males venturing upstream in search of some easy meals.

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

This shark was 92cm, that is not a love bite!

Post edited by: Schultzy, at: 2007/08/16 14:41

[Hamish MacDonald]

thanks for the photo neil.

i heard rumour one that big females went up river to give birth. any proof of this? if so that would mean some real big girls maybe?

Ham

[Schultzy]

In the Brisbane River it appears that the big girls tend to drop their pups quite close to the mouth. We've caught new born pups of 72cm still with chord trailing from umbililcal scars at Fisherman Island and in the mouth of Boggy Creek.

Most of the pups then make their way up the river to escape the attentions of larger sharks. They'll spend much of the first five years of their lives in the river, some staying in freshwater for all of that time.

The big mommas head back into the bay and offshore to eat the tuna on the end of my line beside the boat:ohmy:

[faulked]

hows this for a big boy i think they caught it at morton not to sure its simon harmons not mine im afraid [img size=292]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/dougsimon.jpg

[kevinchen19870316]

thank u for the info Schultzy. Yeah, u r right, i turn to sharking simply because this is the most easily caught drag-screaming species i can fish without seasickness.

i will be using the normal 100 size baitcaster so a good fight is guaranteed as long as what's on is a shark.

alright, just a month, and i will say goodbye to the bass and tighten the drag for the sharks

[MichaelJ]

:woohoo: see the hooks they used for it :laugh:

[kevinchen19870316]

what about some burley like tuna and pilly, shark should be quite sensitive to the smell of them

for me, another problem is the strong current here in toowong area. i tried once on rising tide and i just couldn't keep my bait from being washed to the bank till the tide stopped.

[Angus]

Kevin: When we fish land based for sharks in the river we use some serious lead. (Nothing less than a 16 ounce snapper lead). It looks like overkill, but its 100% required. The current in the river as you say is bloody strong.

Angus

[reef_raider]

went to hornibrook on tuesday night... couldnt buy a bite... not a touch on the big gear and a nice bite out of one of the herring but that was it

[Terry H]

Kevin: No need for burley in the river. Besides, as you have found out before, the current is pretty strong. You'd have a huge burley trail running through the river, and no doubt it would take a bit of burley to keep that going for any period of time.

faulked: Simon Harmon caught that 12 ft bully at Fraser Island. It's a bloody great catch! For those interested in the capture, the story about it is here: http://groups.msn.com/TEXASSHARKFISHING/simons12bullshark.msnw

whatnow: 16/0's. In my opinion, a nice size hook for big eel baits

Post edited by: TerryH, at: 2007/08/16 18:34

[kiara_poltegerist]

guys, what's the best hook size for your shark rigs? i've just gotten some 8/0 and 10/0 VMC circles for AngGo and Viper. Should i go even larger on size? 12/0 upwards? What do you guys think about the VMC circles? or should i get them some 4X Gamakatsu suicides also?

got them a bunch of wire for traces; 40lbs thru to 200lb nylon coated, along with 250-350lb ball bearing swivels. Enough for the river?

[Schultzy]

If you are fishing the river for little bullies avoid the temptation for overkill with your gear. Remember that the sharks in the river only average about 4-5kg, about the same size as a good school jew.

I use 4/0 Mustad big red hooks on 60lb wire most of the time. We regularly land 1.2m sharks on this tackle.

If there are bigger sharks about biting wire off, I'll step up to 5/0 big reds and 90lb wire. I always use nylon coated wire in the river.

The bay is a whole different story.

Post edited by: Schultzy, at: 2007/08/17 01:19

[Liquor Box]

Angus wrote:

Kevin: When we fish land based for sharks in the river we use some serious lead. (Nothing less than a 16 ounce snapper lead). It looks like overkill, but its 100% required. The current in the river as you say is bloody strong.

Angus

How do you set up that rig?

is it a paternosta? do you use a float? is it with live bait?

I have bought 50lb braid for my new rod, would this be alright?

[Terry H]

You would have a lot more fun on lighter line Liquor Box. Providing you had your drag set right, you could probably land 7-8fters with that 50lbs braid

Where angus (I assume) is talking about, to my knowledge, we never fished with floats. However further up the river, like the junction and kooka park a lot of the guys there use floats to keep the baits away from crabs. You can tie the sinker onto the swivel, hook or leave it running like a simple sinker - swivel - trace - hook rig

[werewolf]

Kev if you can't get a hold of livies, Pike Eel fillet is my next favourite. Sharkies love it.

BTW another shark vs shark pic. This one is a bit smaller than the previous pic but still impressive.

[img size=448]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/100_1076s-fd753b7d8f8792bd17877f00dd8de224.jpg

[kevinchen19870316]

i will use no more than 30lb line i think, and a 16OZ sinker...that's...well, i will give it a go.

do sharks fight as hard as other fish?

[ellicat]

I've not got a threadie (yet) Kevin, but I dare say they'll give you more of a thrill than a flathead;)

[Terry H]

If you want a good fight out of the sharks in the river, I would go lighter than 30lb, otherwise it will be over pretty quickly

[werewolf]

yeah mate 30 lb is def overkill on all but the rare bigger sharks that come up the river.

I use 15 pound and for simply fighting the little sharks it would be more fun to go lighter, but the big baits, sinkers and current in the terrain I fish makes the 15 a necessity.

[Terry H]

Yeah, a place like Schulz canal I'd just run 4lb... I'll have to target some of those little fellas this summer.

[gs1983]

Fished the junction last night near the moggil fairy. Got 15 baits not huge but good size boneys. In the four hours I was there I landed 1 bull about 85cm in the first 15 minutes then never even got a touch for the rest of the time. The sharks are very slow in the river. I'd give it another 3 week until the cold wether starts to ease then they should but taking bait in droves.

[Oztrav]

if you dont have a net to get live bait just use your bream gear and some prawns and catch your livies