WP bronzies?

[ducky]

I discovered you are better off buying your wire and crimps and making your own traces. Much cheaper this way. Just gotta find a source of cheap nylon coated wire. 150lb would see it out. Wire is still pretty supple at that poundage. Tackle stores charge like wounded bulls for the wire though. I picked up some jarvis walker wire from kmart for like $1 a spool a few years back. But I'm out of the heavier stuff, only got 20-40lb left somewhere. It did the job, never broke it.

[Snapper Snatcher]

Yeah I make my own traces ducky, so far I'm using a single 10/0 on 2m of 200lb 49 strand with a whole slimey under a balloon or a smaller hook and trace if fishing on the bottom with a smaller bait. I heat shrink all connections also.

[Redhunter]

Making your own traces is definitely a cheaper way to go. The other bonus is that you can make them to your specific needs. eg. Hook size, 1 or 2 hook rig, added rubber sleeves for extra insulation from metal, length, breaking strain, etc.
You tend to get bigger numbers of bronzies in the bays during Autumn, when they come into the warm shallows to breed, however there are certainly bronzies in the bays as we speak. As for areas to fish, if I were you and keen as mustard, I would fish off the channels in 4-6m, fishing of an evening with plenty of burley. Bare in mind that there are many other toothies that you can find in WP also. Such as threshers, makos, schoolies, gillers, hammers, and also Great Whites (but we won't go there). You would be silly to only want to target a bronzie with so many other opportunities there, therefore I would also suggest not to go too large with baits and hooks. Threshers, hammers, and schoolies may rip big baits to bits but have no hope of engulfing them due to their small mouths.
Best of luck!
P.S. I love the fact that there's another crazy bastard out there goin hard in a lil tinny. I had a good 6-7 foot Bronzie boatside next to my 3.8m tinny last year and I was wondering how many rods it was gonna break if I tried bringing it onboard. It then took off and said good bye, which was still a win for me

[Snapper Snatcher]

Sounds good Redhunter, cheers for all the info. As you said I would be happy with any other toothie but was thinking bronzies would be a lot more common than threshers, hammerheads etc in the bays. The main areas I'll be fishing are mud island and the shallows in westernport.
Was the bronzie you hooked in wp or ppb if you don't mind me asking? Will keep everyone posted on how it goes, love getting big fish from a small boat.

[ducky]

The bloke I bought my boat off had the jaws of a huge bronzie he caught solo one night off port Albert. Claims it was 3.5 metres long the boat is only 4.45 lol. He apparently had to beach the boat to bring the shark in. Mad bastard.

[Snapper Snatcher]

The bloke I bought my boat off had the jaws of a huge bronzie he caught solo one night off port Albert. Claims it was 3.5 metres long the boat is only 4.45 lol. He apparently had to beach the boat to bring the shark in. Mad bastard.

Those are the stories that inspire me to do stuff like this.

[Lost Pom]

This is a great thread and I'm looking forward to having a crack myself sometime soon. Got access to a boat now and will be testing out the balloons around drop offs, I'll be launching from Cowes 99% of the time.

Love the effort of having to beach the boat to land a bronzie, what commitment! Haha!

Here's looking forward to a good summer!

[cobby]

Take a bloody tail rope setup and a flying gaff. Tow them in instead of trying to get them on board. You won't kill them unless you get a good gaff shot that bleeds them to death, but they're a bucket load easier to handle at a beach or boat ramp instead of in a little tinny.

[Redhunter]

Sounds good Redhunter, cheers for all the info. As you said I would be happy with any other toothie but was thinking bronzies would be a lot more common than threshers, hammerheads etc in the bays. The main areas I'll be fishing are mud island and the shallows in westernport.
Was the bronzie you hooked in wp or ppb if you don't mind me asking? Will keep everyone posted on how it goes, love getting big fish from a small boat.

The bronzie I hooked was in PPB, and when I got back to the ramp, a fella in another tinny claimed he was fishing in 10-12ft for whiting when a big thresher swam under his boat.
Years ago I was fishing off Maltona, and I was bringing up a flatty and another flatty was chasing it. I no sooner got my frog aboard, when a 7-8ft mako jumped clean out of the water, within a metre of the tinny, with the following flatty in its mouth. Admittedly that did freak me out a bit...
Tail roping them and dragging them to a nearby beach is probably the safest way to land a toothy, but it depends on the situation you're in. Eg. How far offshore; whether it's a keeper or photo-worthy only; etc. ("Big sharks, small boats" is an interesting dvd if you haven't seen it before.)
The fellas at Mario's Bait & Tackle had plenty of jaws on the wall last time I was there. Apparently the shallows around Clifton Springs produce during the Autumn months...
Tinny fishin is a buzz and a half, but only for those who know what they're doing. Nothing more satisfying than pulling up to a ramp in your 3-4k rig, next to an 80k + rig, and doing so much better than they did, while chuckling to yourself at only using $3 of fuel. Good times...

[Redhunter]

This is a great thread and I'm looking forward to having a crack myself sometime soon. Got access to a boat now and will be testing out the balloons around drop offs, I'll be launching from Cowes 99% of the time.

Love the effort of having to beach the boat to land a bronzie, what commitment! Haha!

Here's looking forward to a good summer!

Plenty of good sharks around that neck-of-the-woods, if you're at the right place at the right time! The best chance you've got is if you drop a line. You've gotta be in it to win it, and there are many more shark lurking in our bays than people give credit. A mate of mine has 2x 9ft bronzies to his name purely by simply using a game outfit each time he heads out, and hooking on a live flatty, and keeping it a metre or two off the bottom. He sets his line at the start of the sesh (out of the way), and winds up at the end of the sesh. On occasions we have had snapper run with the baits, but the baits are far too big for them to get them down.

Surely there are plenty of others on this forum who have had experiences with sharks in our bays????