Big Tiger spotted at Urangan Jetty

[Ed.]

Yesterday I had to wait for my car to be fixed at Urangan Hervey bay, and had some time to kill so went for a walk to the jetty as I haven't been there for a while. Talking to the locals near the end, and apparently there has been a very large Tiger shark hanging around there for a couple of days. One of the locals saw it relatively close up and said it was about 4m long and about 1m wide across. It was going for a mackerel he had in the water and had to yank it up quickly.

My first thought was I should get my 50W out and have a go later that night but then reality set in, what would I do if I was even managed to hook it? The Urangan jetty isn't really set up to release big fish, there is a lot of height under the jetty and trying to maneuver such a large shark to the start of the jetty and onto the sand would be next to impossible as it is over 1km away.  So gave up on that idea as it would be too futile.

No doubt plenty of guys will try to target it but don't think anybody will succeed, they will need a very large reel and the biggest I saw there was a TLD25 so not even in the running, even a 50W is probably way too small especially from the a jetty, will keep my ears open if it hits the news .

[ellicat]

Yeah, no chance. @Terry H used to target the ones at Moreton on his 80W and epic battles ensued with a few landings on the beach. Wouldn't happen at the jetty, like you said, Ed.

I would have thought they would be more commonly seen there ??

[Ed.]

Haven't heard of any large Tigers here before, but no reason they shouldn't be here, quite a few bronzies here, I saw one when I was on the jetty that morning, much smaller version, I didn't get a good look at it but from what I saw it wasn't all that big, still it would have been doable on smaller gear.

 

[Junky]

Hahaha. 

My kids were out there at Easter and asking why noone was jetty jumping. 

They thought it was because there were no stairs to get back up onto the jetty. 

I explained that there is no stairs because the authorities do not want people swimming there due to the shark population. 

 

 

 

My PB sighting of a tiger was on the other side of Fraser, out on the Gardiner banks. 

He's a local out there I'm told, and he would be up around, possibly over the 5m mark.

I'll never forget the size of that huge blacked out eye as he glided effortlessly under the boat about 10m down. 

It was a 5.5m boat and this thing was just as long. 

 

They're like mobile reef systems with the amount of fish that hang off them. 

[Rebel]

When I was very young I use to go to Watsons Bay in Sydney to see the shark weigh in every Sunday. It was a part of life in those days.

Turned me off sharks forever. Never caught one & don't want to.

I remember I was on holidays at Kierra Beach ( QLD ) riding my surfboard.

30 minutes later a fisherman caught a hammer head off the beach.

Cheers.

[Old Scaley]

I was camping at Blakesleys a couple of weeks ago. We had crab pots out front of the camp in 4 or 5 metres of water. When we collected them in the morning a massive tiger followed them all up and even knocked a couple right beside the boat. It was at least 500mm across the head and we estimated at least 3 metres long. Very big animal. Needless to say we decided against the morning swim. 

[Ed.]

13 hours ago, Junky said:

Hahaha. 

My kids were out there at Easter and asking why noone was jetty jumping. 

They thought it was because there were no stairs to get back up onto the jetty. 

I explained that there is no stairs because the authorities do not want people swimming there due to the shark population.

Apart from that, It's also the fact that when the tide changes, the water rips through there, if you jumped or fell in on a outgoing tide you would end up miles from the shore and with the ingoing, you would end up in between Urangan and Fraser Island, with no chance of swimming back to shore, it is very strong. There actually is an emergency ladder about 3/4's of the way out to the end of the jetty on the right hand side which goes onto on the sand, just on where outer sand bar starts, but if you ended up in the water you would not be able to make it to even climb up.

You can see where the current rips through and has left the sand bars.