Fishing Victoria Forum

Hi All,

I went for another whiting bash this morning, and on the way back thought we would try our luck for a shark or two for an hour or so. We catch a lot of snapper/pinkies/whiting/flatties these days, but sharks have been a bit of a mystery to me. Only in the last few weeks have I been hooking gummies regularly.

not much was happening for an hour or so and we were about to pull the pin when my rod loaded up. I gave it a good yank and felt something with some serious weight on the other end. Had about a 20 second fight before it went slack - bitten off. I was running 50lb braid and 80lb leader on a 10,000 shimano reel, and I was seriously thinking about how I was going to put the breaks on this thing before it bit me off.

The fight had very distinct head shakes, and wasnt running as quickly as an eagle ray does (I have caught half a dozen of them in the last week or two) and fought a lot harder than a banjo, etc.

So I have a few questions.

Firstly, What sort of setup and rigs should I use for these kind of fish? I was using 80lb leader, with twin hooks in a full freshly caught yakka fillet approx 200mm long.

Secondly, what sort of fish do you think it was? Im telling myself schoolie, bronzie, but the reality is you will never know and probably a giller or something

Thirdly, if I was to hook a decent bronzie, what the heck do I do with it when I get it to the boat? I have a bat I use for clubbing gummies, and have half an idea to club it for a while then tail rope and and drag it around backwards. But I really have no idea.

Thanks in advance crew!

This link helped me a lot...viewtopic.php?f=202&t=19315

Scraglor wrote:Hi All,

I went for another whiting bash this morning, and on the way back thought we would try our luck for a shark or two for an hour or so. We catch a lot of snapper/pinkies/whiting/flatties these days, but sharks have been a bit of a mystery to me. Only in the last few weeks have I been hooking gummies regularly.

not much was happening for an hour or so and we were about to pull the pin when my rod loaded up. I gave it a good yank and felt something with some serious weight on the other end. Had about a 20 second fight before it went slack - bitten off. I was running 50lb braid and 80lb leader on a 10,000 shimano reel, and I was seriously thinking about how I was going to put the breaks on this thing before it bit me off.

The fight had very distinct head shakes, and wasnt running as quickly as an eagle ray does (I have caught half a dozen of them in the last week or two) and fought a lot harder than a banjo, etc.

So I have a few questions.

Firstly, What sort of setup and rigs should I use for these kind of fish? I was using 80lb leader, with twin hooks in a full freshly caught yakka fillet approx 200mm long.

Secondly, what sort of fish do you think it was? Im telling myself schoolie, bronzie, but the reality is you will never know and probably a giller or something

Thirdly, if I was to hook a decent bronzie, what the heck do I do with it when I get it to the boat? I have a bat I use for clubbing gummies, and have half an idea to club it for a while then tail rope and and drag it around backwards. But I really have no idea.

Thanks in advance crew!

Your setup sounds pretty adequate. You mentioned twin hook rig? Circle hooks or no? Only thing I could suggest if your not already doing is circle hooks and try your best to get it in the corner of the mouth so it’s not getting sucked down the guts and bite through straight up. Better
Luck next time mate! There was a bronze nailed in Boucher’s last week so who knows

If you are seriously after a large toothy critter such as a Bronzie you will need a wire trace as they can go through 80lb nylon like a hot knife through butter. We had a large Mako wear through 400lb stainless steel wire trace after a long fight which gives you some idea of what they can do to nylon.

Best of luck with the next one.

Paulanderson wrote:If you are seriously after a large toothy critter such as a Bronzie you will need a wire trace as they can go through 80lb nylon like a hot knife through butter. We had a large Mako wear through 400lb stainless steel wire trace after a long fight which gives you some idea of what they can do to nylon.

Best of luck with the next one.

Doesn’t wire spook schoolies, threshers and other sharks though

Jinkai Trace is what we used up bermi fishing for yellowfin, caught many sharks as a by catch using circle hooks with it, because of the hardened outer coating the trace some how slipped out of the fishes mouth with the circle always embeded in the corner of the mouth.

STriplett1997 wrote:

Paulanderson wrote:If you are seriously after a large toothy critter such as a Bronzie you will need a wire trace as they can go through 80lb nylon like a hot knife through butter. We had a large Mako wear through 400lb stainless steel wire trace after a long fight which gives you some idea of what they can do to nylon.

Best of luck with the next one.

Doesn’t wire spook schoolies, threshers and other sharks though

I've chatted to a guy who uses wire rigs when targeting schoolies, seemed to do alright too.

From what you've described, sounds like a big ass giller.
80lb leader is fine, if you get a jaw hook up. If it gets the hook down, you're cooked.
We use 200-300lb mono, with the soft rubber sleeve over it, with a circle hook.
We'vr landed some pretty hefty gillers, alongside gummies.

Hope you threw the the ugly **** on the right back too

Fish for your target species if your after toothies use rigs to suit gumbos same.