queensland Raff's Shark Fishing And Moreton Bay Adventure

[Drop Bear]

Hey,

My Nephew has come up from Sydney to stay with us for a week. The plan is to take him shark fishing.

I thought I would start this thread to update you on how we go. Today we are heading down the road to try and catch 2 eels for bait. 

Tomorrow head out through the port to look for some bait schools to soak our eel in and probably float out some pillies to see if there are any mackerel around. 

Wed is heading to Myora and Moreton to look for Oyster Reefs. Any one who wants to be part of the oyster reef project would be welcome to come. 

Thursday we are going to try for some prawns. Full boat sorry. 

Friday... hmmm not sure yet  suggestions welcome. PS Nephew is 7.

I will take photos and post up. Wish us luck.

[The Mad Hughesy]

good luck mate. if you cant get any eels, nothing wrong with a whole mullet form the servo (though fresh is best)

[Drop Bear]

56 minutes ago, christophagus said:

good luck mate. if you cant get any eels, nothing wrong with a whole mullet form the servo (though fresh is best)

Ok thanks. I will grab some mullet from the local fish shop in Wynnum. No luck so far with the eels. Will try another spot. What trace do you use?

[Tybo]

3 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Friday... hmmm not sure yet  suggestions welcome. PS Nephew is 7.

The small male flathead are starting to show up around the Houghton Highway and in Deception bay. Drift on the sand flats with any sort of bait, and you should get onto them. When you find one, there should be many more very close by. Just a suggestion.

[The Mad Hughesy]

1 hour ago, Drop Bear said:

Ok thanks. I will grab some mullet from the local fish shop in Wynnum. No luck so far with the eels. Will try another spot. What trace do you use?

for eels or sharks?

eels...30lb mono with any hook you have.

sharks, weve caught a few on as small as 200lb wire in the bay. You can buy premade traces from wello point tackle shop I believe. actually most tackle shops sell pre made shark rigs now. 200-400lbs will cover most sharks in the bay. im eager to see how you go mate!!

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, christophagus said:

for eels or sharks?

eels...30lb mono with any hook you have.

sharks, weve caught a few on as small as 200lb wire in the bay. You can buy premade traces from wello point tackle shop I believe. actually most tackle shops sell pre made shark rigs now. 200-400lbs will cover most sharks in the bay. im eager to see how you go mate!!

Awesome. How big of a piece of eel should i use for sharks?

Do you wanna come along?

[Drop Bear]

[Angus]

Did that spot work out @Drop Bear ??

[Cobiaaddict]

Sharks are thick in bay. Try the old river wreck/ammo barge NNE of the measured mile area  . Hooked about a dozen fishing for snapper the other sunday night. All big whalers/bulls and black tip reef sharks. Ranged in size from 3ft to too big to put in the boat. 

[The Mad Hughesy]

19 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Awesome. How big of a piece of eel should i use for sharks?

Do you wanna come along?

thanks for the offer mate but I have to work. If I didn't have all of last week off to recover from an appendix removal I would have said yes haha

for the sub meter sharks I use a slab of eel about half the size of an iPhone (60-90mm). the 4-6 footers we have caught were on roughly 15-20cm long bits of eel. but if you want the bigger sharks, then the sky is the limit. some folk use whole eels for the monster tigers etc. depends on what size gear you plan to use too. The 6ft sharks are still loads of fun.

@Cobiaaddict is on the money for a good spot to give a shot. I like to sit far enough form the magic mile beacons so I can throw slugs at it for macks and float shark baits out the back

[Drop Bear]

On 4/16/2018 at 3:48 PM, Angus said:

Did that spot work out @Drop Bear ??

Sure did. There are heaps there.

[Drop Bear]

On 4/16/2018 at 6:04 PM, Cobiaaddict said:

Sharks are thick in bay. Try the old river wreck/ammo barge NNE of the measured mile area  . Hooked about a dozen fishing for snapper the other sunday night. All big whalers/bulls and black tip reef sharks. Ranged in size from 3ft to too big to put in the boat. 

Worked a treat... just couldn't get the blighter to the boat! over 2 hours and never saw it... dragged me for miles it did... Best guess was a xxos shovelnose ray. I had max drag on 45lb line. 2 hours and it never got more than a few meters from the bottom. Not a ray as it never sat on the bottom. just kept trucking along. Im right buggered tonight.

[Drop Bear]

9 hours ago, christophagus said:

thanks for the offer mate but I have to work. If I didn't have all of last week off to recover from an appendix removal I would have said yes haha

for the sub meter sharks I use a slab of eel about half the size of an iPhone (60-90mm). the 4-6 footers we have caught were on roughly 15-20cm long bits of eel. but if you want the bigger sharks, then the sky is the limit. some folk use whole eels for the monster tigers etc. depends on what size gear you plan to use too. The 6ft sharks are still loads of fun.

@Cobiaaddict is on the money for a good spot to give a shot. I like to sit far enough form the magic mile beacons so I can throw slugs at it for macks and float shark baits out the back

I put about a foot of eel on the 2 hook rig. got something... after 2 hours the wind was getting up and with a 7 year old on board wanted to go so turned up the drag but it still wouldnt move far from the bottom.. then gone. the FG knot broke... sadface. Thinking shovelnose ray

[Drop Bear]

10 hours ago, christophagus said:

thanks for the offer mate but I have to work. If I didn't have all of last week off to recover from an appendix removal I would have said yes haha

for the sub meter sharks I use a slab of eel about half the size of an iPhone (60-90mm). the 4-6 footers we have caught were on roughly 15-20cm long bits of eel. but if you want the bigger sharks, then the sky is the limit. some folk use whole eels for the monster tigers etc. depends on what size gear you plan to use too. The 6ft sharks are still loads of fun.

@Cobiaaddict is on the money for a good spot to give a shot. I like to sit far enough form the magic mile beacons so I can throw slugs at it for macks and float shark baits out the back

So I was going to try a bit up stream from the poop shoot tomorrow. Worth a shot? anywhere else I should try in the river?

[Drop Bear]

Took me for a merry ride she did.  I wish I had had some more time and played it for longer.

It was the first really long battle I have ever had with a fish. Any tips? It seemed that I was making no headwind at all...

[Drop Bear]

So this is how I made my shark rigs.

I had some long line hooks that I bought at Southport Trawler Supplies. 

They are super strong and really sharp and pretty cheep. 

I saw this method on the you tubes. 

pretty easy to do and was very strong. Child labor wins again! 

[The Mad Hughesy]

@Drop Bear that's how I make mine too. never had a bust off this way.

as for the unstoppable, haha it makes me laugh. what a cracking fishing story. could be a monster shovel, big tiger, whaler, bull, grouper...that's one of the fun mysteries of fishing...

then you get folk who snicker at you when you head out into the bay with 50w and 80w...because you never know what's lurking beneath

[Drop Bear]

2 minutes ago, christophagus said:

then you get folk who snicker at you when you head out into the bay with 50w and 80w...because you never know what's lurking beneath

Yep very under gunned... I have one outfit that is heavier so will use that exclusively next time. to wet for me to take the young fella out today. Hopefully Thursday and Sunday. 

Any spots you would try in the river for some smaller sharks?

[The Mad Hughesy]

the entire Brisbane river holds small bulls. The drop off around luggage point is a good spot, Breakfast creek mouth, literally any where. even Nudgee beach (Schultz canal) holds big numbers of small bull sharks

from what I can gather, a lot of the sharks follow the Brisbane river channel from the bay into the river. So I like to try and drop baits along the egde of the channel. be careful not to anchor in the channel though as port security and water police will be quick to move you along, plus its dangerous

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, christophagus said:

be careful not to anchor in the channel though

Pro tip thanks. I will try near luggage point then. I know a drop off there that shouldn't bother anyone. Smaller baits this time

Man my arms are sore today...

[The Mad Hughesy]

2 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

Pro tip thanks. I will try near luggage point then. I know a drop off there that shouldn't bother anyone. Smaller baits this time

Man my arms are sore today...

I can imagine. I told my brother about the story and he laughed too. its the ultimate "the one that got away" story

the shovelnose I caught off Bribie a few months back was only 4.5ft but man it was a dirty fight. like you, the hardest part was raising it off the bottom. I can only imagine how tough a 6+ft shovel would fight

[kmcrosby78]

I caught a big one (guess around 6ft and 30kg plus) on a handline from a sand island at Turkey Beach when I was about 21 - felt like a bus pulling against me. At one stage I had the spool around my arm and it went for a hard run, the spool started spinning due to the speed of its run, the line came off the spool and onto my arm and cut straight through my fishing shirt. Had a cool scar on my arm for quite a few years - was a little sad when eventually it couldn't be seen anymore  Good fun!!

[Drop Bear]

7 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

was a little sad when eventually it couldn't be seen anymore

wow I thought I was a fishing tragic 

The real question is... did you eat it and how did it taste?