christophagus

i only ever make the cuts in the mouth if the shark seems really tired and i want it back in the water fast, or as a last resort. i do prefer to just remove the hook but sometimes it isnt that easy. Just make a judgement call on each capture. Just be super careful when you are up close with the knife, those little bullies are deadly quick!

Watch this video mate. Skip to 11:30 to watch how to get on top of the shark like I explained above

couple of things mate 1. dont be afraid to make a small cut in the side of the mouth where the hook is to get the hook out. in my eyes, getting the hook out and shark back in the water fast is the most important thing. So a small cut to release the hook fast is a good option 2. depending on the shark size, use your body weight to control the shark. so you can basically have the shark between your legs with a knee on each fin. you will have complete control over the shark and it wont be able to bend around to bite you. (ill try to find a picture of this) 3. otherwise, just pin it on top of its head and push with all your force to pin it on the ground. (ill post a pics up of this too) once youve got control of it, then juse pliers, dehookers etc to remove the hook. ive found that pliers are fine, just takes a bit of shaking to get it loose sometimes. the smaller sharks are more dangerous in my opinion, they can bend back on themselves alot faster and easier than bigger sharks.

great report mate. those bull sharks can be very acrobatic sometimes.

never thought of the ropes, great tip, thanks mate ive got a Quintrex 500 coast runner.

to actually wet a line Having a baby kind of destroys any concept of free time....loved every bit of it though feel sorry for my boat collecting cobwebs. Need to learn to go on solo trips, thats all i want for next year, confidence in solo launch and retrieve trips

im not sure what it is currently like with the lack of rain etc lately. i have not fished at pine rivers park for a while so the water might be quite low. yeah, youre right. its the local family owned business that sell more specialised bait. the goldcoast sells tuna, sting rays, all sorts of good stuff. the body of water im talking about is circled in blue below.

i can tell you now, that Anaconda and BCF wont sell eel. Good on you for catching most of your own bait...i recon its just as fun sometimes. especially when you hook into a big eel. The eel i catch at pine rivers park is lankdlocked, so no tides there. But i always found that just as the sun set, the eels would come out to feed. so i like to get there while the sun is still up so i can setup all my gear, gets baits in the water. then settle down in my camp chair and wait for the action after dark. but these days, im lazy, so i just buy eel haha There is a place called "bait tackle store" at underwood that were advertising eel recently also, the bait shop at the gold coast has a massive range of shark fishing bait and gear. it is well worth a visit if you are into shark fishing. They will give you heaps of advice etc as well as huge variety of bait fomr small to large sharks. Charltons tackle at redbank usually sell eel as well. im almost certian there are a few places around manly or logan that sell freshwater eel. Just give a few local tackle shops a call to see if they have any in stock. on the rare occasion, my local fish shop has had chunks of eel for sale too ive never bothered with berley, its just a bunch of extra stuff to take fishing that i couldnt be bothered with to be honest.

hey Hamish Are you North or south side? i used to get all my eels from the freshwater lake at pine rivers park (always at night as thats when they would come out to feed). otherwise, alot of bait shops actually sell freshwater eel now. If you are only chasing little bullies, then a medium sized eel will produce 20 or so baits ive found pike eels to be a bit hit and miss. but they will take any larger bait like whole poddy mullet or whole herring.

FYI the measured mile are the blue circles below. but you can hit every beacon from the from of the brisbane river all the way to moreton. if you can sound out bait around the beacons, youre in with a good chance of finding macks

Focus on the beacons mate. you can spend all day chasing them but i find just anchoring near a beacon and throwing slugs and floating pillies all day does the trick. There are a few good tutorials on youtube for Moreotn Bay mackerel. below is a good simple tutorial

bowmouth guitar fish or shovel nose? bowmouth Gutair fish are a odd looking creature but very very cool none the less (below) and grow fairly large @thatsafishystory

thanks @fishingnut will do mate

Hey team has anyone ever seen or used a transom mount trolling motor as a bow mount? (Pic below) im thinking of setting it up on my boat like this. Mainly because of the rails and placement of the anchor. I’d imagine it wouldn’t be as easy to use as a foot pedal controlled model....but that doesn’t bother me all that much. pics below are of my boat currently, and some pics I found on google of the setup I’m talking about

having never crossed a bar yet (on my to do list) i dont think any are safe as such, more comes down to the weather and conditions. for example, i saw the bar between caloundra and bribie the other day was flat as a fresh water lake. Yet other days ive seen the VMR boats struggle to make it out. My suggestion would be to read as much info as you can, then attempt it with another boat on standby just in case things go bad.