long hike down straights

with the riverheads ramp still under way i headed of from urangan to try for some prawns down the straights.magnificent morning ,didnt realise it was 17 k down to heads from marina very decieving from top of bay how far it is ,tried a few snags on way for nothing,ended up spot locking onto a rockbar near ungowa as the tide dropped ,second cast my pearl jazz gets taken by a nice midsized thready it jumped at least a mtr out of the water first run then me realising a 5 ft bronzy was up its ass,all over as fish threaded me thru the rock trying to escape .landed a couple of small gt s ,lost two more to sharks.about to move on with one more cast and another real nice thready hooked up ,one great run of at least 50 mtrsa them wham sharks moved in and demolished it .p....ed off to say the least .waited for low tidish cat the drain around fraser for a few kilos of mid sized prawns ,then slogged home in a real heavy rain squawl.was nice though as it washed the crap of the boat .Attachment 36578Attachment 36577

Pity about the threadys Al

Sometimes you have to pay the taxes when the men in grey suits turn up. Sounded like a good day out though Al.

"was nice though as it washed the crap of the boat ."

Love those silver linings.

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Originally Posted by tackle_buster

Sometimes you have to pay the taxes when the men in grey suits turn up. Sounded like a good day out though Al.

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The big prob up here st moment is they are all over in huge numbers and big . The poor guides are getting smashed by them with their punters on board , I had one couple weeks back followed me for at least two k when trolling every time I stopped it would cruise around the boat . Would have been at least 8 ft

I think we need some intervention

shit al that's no good mate hate dropping a good fish but when they get eaten by sharks even worse least you got some prawns

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Originally Posted by ActiveAngler

I think we need some intervention

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has to be some sort of shark catching pro here surely

Vic Hislop

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Originally Posted by al49

The big prob up here st moment is they are all over in huge numbers and big . The poor guides are getting smashed by them with their punters on board , I had one couple weeks back followed me for at least two k when trolling every time I stopped it would cruise around the boat . Would have been at least 8 ft

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Any reason in particular for the increase in shark numbers.

one of the theories up here are that the sharks are having there food decimated out wide so are finding new areas to feed in closer and once here are learning that boats and engines means an easy food source ,hence the one that followed me last monday for a few k.one of the guides was saying he can nearly tell the time it takes for sharks to start cruising around his boat once they know hes there .having young in this area will only add to the prob as they will learn this way of eating as well

They associate the sound of motors with an easy feed, have had them follow the mother ship at Swains for miles waiting for us to pull up for a drift

Me too rakey. Miles they follow the big boat. It’s hard just to land a tuna up the island. (Fraser). It’s not worth the steam chasing them most of the time, They never take your catfish or slatey bream, But jump on trout red or pearl perch, We have had quite a few salmon and Barra taken in the burrum by 8/9 foot bull sharks, Usually on days bites are hard to come by, Sucks balls

Al, we lost about twenty really good fish to sharks over the breaksea spit a few weeks back. They were circling the boat waiting. I have caught a 4m GW at Reds and lost plenty of LTs to tigers, etc off Arch. My last trip to the fairways resulted in three sharks in first three drops, so moved on. Years ago, I ripped it up a known HB identity for thinking it was funny to feed the sharks circling his boat by baiting them with fish heads on a rope. He put up the video and I ripped it up him that he was part of the problem of 'training' the sharks to associate hanging around boats for a feed. They are a serious issue in HB/Fraser.

Don't know what can be done though Steve it is bad at moment

I've seen it up at the Kimberleys, to me it seems learned behaviour. Well to meet seemed anyway.
A couple of spots spring mind.
One is Halls Point,a great point sticking out with a big current pushing past. Every thing that lived there was in the large size. 12 plus years ago we used to get "Big" Mackys, Big Queenies and Big Brassy Trevally plus sundries. In the last few years we used to just drive past the place as you couldn't pull a fish out of there without seeing them Vaporised by Big Sharks.
Another place was Prior Point, great spot to get good Queenies, Brassys, Goldens and a couple varieties of Mackies.
In the end it was hard to get a fish out of there, though sometimes, but rarely you had no Sharks. The Sharks also loved Bucktail Jigs. The clients got a thrill when a shark picked up one of those and screamed off, though the outcome was nearly always the same, the trace would wear thru. If it didn't and only hooked in the corner of the mouth, the Older, unfit Men who were used to a softer life were stuffed in the end.
Now these places were not fished other than Petes clients and that was from about May to October. Halls Point was only fished about a dozen times a year at the most.