After
Did the Bay from 5am to 5 pm Saturday with me good mate Ross Bressow from Pimpama. Now if you want a feed of crab, tailor, bream, or Lizard, you can rely on Ross as he knows the Pin like the back of his hand, but he's never chased a "biggie" before.
I took him out to the Rous early morning to try and get him onto a shark or one of the big shovellies there. Put out a full 1 kilo spottie 12 foot under a 3 litre milk bottle and before I had time to tackle up the 2nd rod the reel screamed and the bottle was hurtling towards the transom. I took up the slack as fast as I could and about 5 metres from the back the bottle did a sharp right turn, ran for about 50 metres, did an about face and did the same. This went on for about twenty minutes before (whatever it was) decided to show me how easy it could snap 50lb line!
Ross got a line into the water baited with a large squid fished hard on the bottom. and within 5 minutes was into something big. This came straight for the side of the boat and under. Ross negotiated the bimini and anchor warp, all the time holding his rod tip under the water to prevent chaffing on the keel and immediately had to repeat the process as whatever it was decided to go back from whence it came and shoot off into the distance. 30 lb line held it for about 30 minutes until once again, a mysterious visitor decided it didn't like our company.
Similar scenarios were repeated over and over throughout the next 6 hours with hardly a break until the action ceased around slack water. Throughout this time we'd seen only grinners on the small rods and on one occasion a large Cobia and on another occasion a Samson fish following the grinners to the surface. We'd seen none of our hookups other than two turtles which we managed to release relatively unscathed and the 50lb line had been trashed in the space of 5 minutes on more than a couple of occasions. Could've taken things a bit slower, but when you're near to being spooled then the pressure has to go on,and unfortunately, we weren't as lucky as we would have liked.
By this time we were buggered. Ross kept repeating "top day" with the most inane grin on his face, to chorus my continual whining about, "my bloody back's knackered!"
For hook bait we'd done in 4 large spotties, 4 kilo of squid, 2 kilo of Pillies, 2 kilo of cuttle and 4 mullet and add to this, we'd done 12 lots of terminal tackle. Tight-arse here was bemoaning the lack of a fish in the boat and how much it had cost me whilst all the time Ross was beaming like a kid at Xmas saying things like, "my reels on fire", "Keriiiiiiiiist, my arms ache" and the now all too familiar "top day mate"
Only a kilo of squid left when they came back on so we decided to stretch the bait out by making a few grinner sandwiches. This consisted of the fillets from large grinners sandwiching a strip of squid.
The next 2 hours were more hectic and as non-productive as earlier, if anything, this bait outmatched what we had used earlier. When I finally boated a shovelly, we agreed that we were so knackered that we would call it a day. Just as the anchor came up we spotted some gulls working and scooted over, slowing as we arrived. It appeared to be a school of Spaniards working some bait fish so we edged upcurrent of 'em, cut the engine, and commenced throwing slugs in the hope that the drift would keep up with them. They were moving too fast though, so I fired her up and Ross changed to a smaller slug as we'd cast the first well over 'em, reeled through 'em, and hadn't had a take in about 8 chucks. We chased 'em to Mud and back again over a period nearing 2 hours, and never had a take!
We were really knackered by then and it had blown up so we decided to have a last hour at Mud. We fished prawn and herring, got plenty of undersize squire and a few parrot and of course, the grinners, which we kept to freeze as we now appreciated their worth as bait.
A hard day, not too much to show for it other than a bit of flake, but experience gained, (The anchor is going on a ball float to throw off if we need to chase, as I obviously need game tackle but can't afford it, and chasing is the only way that I will be able to work 50lb line). Back ache, arm ache, head ache, losing good fish (ball ache!)...all in all..........what Ross would call a "top day" :-)
Before and after pictures
kev.......still recovering :-)
After
Nice work!!! How do they taste?? There what they feed you out of a fish and chip shop hey?
Clean 'em straight away, and they're good. The fresher the better as they tend to develop a "strong" taste after a couple of days, but still ok.Originally Posted by northsboy
As for the chippies. I know they use flake (shark) but for meself, I can't taste the difference between shark and shovelly, so I reckon they must use 'em both.
kev
Kev,
Me and my little brother had the same thing off peel... dunno what they were but they'd hit the squid and run like buggery. I was using that Platypus Pretest stuff... only 10lb i think it was.. anyway they'd run for bloody miles and just when they'd slow off we'd try and drag em back toward the boat... i'll be buggered if i didn't lose about $40 worth of bloody tackle.
Still looks as though you had a good day out there.
Yeah, an expensive day, but worth it just for the crack. I never fail to hit on this spot, but unfortunately, I go out with ideas of going somewhere else and either the kids or somebody else have me going back, time and again, just because they at least know they're gonna catch.
You're right though.....we did have a good day, but doesn't it piss you off when you don't see what's hit the bait? I don't mind losing 'em but it's be nice to see 'em just to know what they were.
kev
G'Day Kev,
We've been in the same situation in Rous too. Fortunatly we were able to see the buggers BEFORE everything went Twang! Nice big Noahs, managed a couple of big tigers (10ft+) beside the boat, bloody scary stuff especially when fishing buddie asks, do ya reckon we bring it onboard after we've chased it half way around the Rous. Good way to test out a new rod.
Cheers,
Tony 8)
Light travels faster than sound, that's why some people seem Bright ...... untill they speak
The difference between a Shovenose and a Shark is that they are different species/
Shovelnose Ray is exactly that, a member of the stingray / ray family. And a shark is a shark is a shark. !
Yes, I do believe they taste pretty good.
Phill
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G'day Tony.
Yes, I believe that the potential for Moreton to be explored as a *major* shark fishing ground is superb. I know that it used to be renowned when the old whaling station on Moreton was up and running, but from what I have read, folk seem to think that the demise of the whaling station also meant the demise of the potential for world records. I don't believe this.
I've had shark to 10 feet and one shovelly that must've gone 15 foot. The shovelly was brought to the side after a battle of nearly 2 hours on 30lb line. I'm a bit green at Australian boat fishing (18 months) and if I can catch these buggers on 15kg and 24kg tackle, I'm sure I will improve on that now that I've learned about "chasing". This practice seems to have acceptance here, but is frowned on in the UK so it's a matter of teaching an old dog new tricks in my case.
What I'm supposed to do with 'em once I've caught 'em, remains to be seen :-) As you say, how do you bring something *that* big into the boat? I tailed an 8 footer once and towed it back to Manly only to have the rope break about 300 metres out of harbour........the one day I'd forgotten *both* the video *and* still camera.
I learned from that too. I had too much rope out and the thing was "skipping" the wash. I forgot that it was there for a while and must've been going too fast. The crack from the rope when it went had me thinking I'd hit a turtle or something. I'll keep a short rope in future.
I'd love to have a photo of a biggie with the kids alongside. I could send it back to the UK to frighten off all those whingeing pomm rellies that are trying to get here ;-)
seeya
kev
Ekkie Thump Lad,
Send the photo quick, we don't want any of ur whingeing rellies on our doorstep
But I don't know that dragging a noah into Manly harbour would win any friends. Better off with a Digi photo of a great catch. Mind u, a feed of Flake would go down well too. The biggest shark we've landed in Hainesy went 5ft, that was big enough for me
Although sharks are great fun on light gear, I like them in the water and me in the boat.
Cheers,
Tony 8)
Light travels faster than sound, that's why some people seem Bright ...... untill they speak
Yeah Tony. There's always a sense of guilt (thinking what others feel about it) when bringing a noah home. Many folk don't appreciate that they *are* edible and don't get brought home just for a photo and to dump in a skip somewhere.Ekkie Thump Lad,
Send the photo quick, we don't want any of ur whingeing rellies on our doorstep #
But I don't know that dragging a noah into Manly harbour would win any friends. Better off with a Digi photo of a great catch. Mind u, a feed of Flake would go down well too. The biggest shark we've landed in Hainesy went 5ft, that was big enough for me #
Although sharks are great fun on light gear, I like them in the water and me in the boat.
Cheers,
Tony # #8)
I only fetch one home when the freezer is empty of flake and nothing but the skull is wasted. The spine is used for pot bait and I've even used the skin as sandpaper on occasion.
They also provide an occasional laugh. I tied one to me bullbar once when I had been fishing on Sandgate Pier. The park there has many folk barbequeing and swimming. You should've seen their faces as they were coming outta the water and realising that this 5 footer had been caught where they were swimming ;-) The biggest I've seen there was a 10foot tiger caught by an 17 yr old......all power to his elbow says I!
cheers
kev
G'Day Kev,
Yeah, there's lots of 'em in the bay (noahs).
One time I was fishing at Myora light in the Rainbow with a mate. My boat at the time was a cruise craft rouge 14 fter. We'd been fishing for a while when I decided it was time to move. So I walk around the side gunnels onto the small deck and proceed to haul up the anchor.
Mate at the back of the boat yells out to sit down, and as I turn around to see what he is yelling about all I can see is a rooster tail of water from behind the boat. So he's me, standing on this pissy little deck hanging onto the anchor rope (which was about half way up) looking at this Tiger shark, like 2 feet from the boat, giving me the evil eye. This blokes tail was behind the boat and his head beside me, remembering I'm standing on the deck.
I tell ya, I let go of that anchor rope and sat down REAL FAST.
There's an anchorage nearby and all the while there were people swiming and diving off the back of boats, and when we went over and told them, all we got was a 'oh really'. They kept on swiming. Really.
Cheers,
Tony 8)
Light travels faster than sound, that's why some people seem Bright ...... untill they speak
They were probably kind souls providing you with the best berley possible for shark ;-)
seeya
kev
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