After much needed advice and help from friends and forum members, I was able to realise my dream of catching a shark.
Today, I caught a shark 2.6m long, weighing 120kg!
I have always had a fear of sharks, the graphic images of JAWS the movie have always been embedded in my memory ever since watching it when I was a kid… the fear of ever coming close to one has been erased after accomplishing my biggest catch, I have overcome my biggest fear! (Although not a Great white shark but close to one lol)
Around 4am the 5 of us (Patrick Chen, Patrick Zheng, Alex, Alex’s GF and Me) headed out to Phillip island. We took the charter to Bass Strait in search for mako sharks and others…
After passing San Remo pier, the waves started becoming choppy and the boat was moving up and down in time to the waves….
All of us took our travel sickness pills 30 mins before the boat ride but it didnt help much. The Boatman suggested that we should stop near the pier to fish for flathead and squid so so that it could be used as bait for the shark..
The sea was dam rough… 20 mins later nearly all of us suffered seasick, Alex threw up twice… followed by his girlfriend who also threw up twice! Patrick Zhen wasnt feeling much better.. And I was on the verge of chucking.
After another 10 mins, Alex and his girlfriend each threw up more then 6 times… The situation was getting nasty, so I told the boatman that we should go back to the pier to drop Alex and Patrick Z off. (Patrick Z was going to catch a business Trip to China the next day)
We told the boatman that 2 of our friends needed to be dropped off and that we should fish inlet because the waters on the way to bass strait was not looking too good. The sea was so choppy that it scared the hell out of us, it was either our 1st or 2nd trip to go boat fishing.
The boatman was kind enough to bring back 2 of our friends to shore… he suggested that if he can find a spot inlet for us to fish for snapper it wont be as choppy, but he needed to get more bait because we did not catch enough.
So we returned to the pier to let both my friends off, while the boatman went off to get bait, my friends had time to recover and were soon feeling better to join us on the boatride. I told my friends, since we paid for the service in advance, they might as well try again. This time we were going to fish inlet therefore the water will not be as rough… they agreed and came with us…
Then the boat man brought us near the Hobbies (Where penguin and seal island is) to catch some snapper.. We caught around 4 to 5 snappers, then a seal came along… he stole our snapper when we got hook… in total within 30 mins he took around 8 of our snappers.
We were feeling so frustrated and angry, the waters was also starting to roughen up and we could feel a change in the tide …. I was like… damm… this seal definatly is here to stay!!.. even the boatman was pissed off too when he got 2 huge snappers weighing 2 kgs but was yet again taken away by the seal, the seal would swim for 20 to 25 meters, throw the snapper out of his mouth and grab it again….
Towards the end of the day, our bait was starting to run low.. I took a huge mullet bone, used the whole boneless fillet mullet and put on my 2 shark hook.. in order to secure the boneless mullet, I put on 2 cable ties and lowered it down to roughly 32 meters…….
The seal came close to my bait becasue I could see him diving close to our boat…. I was thinking to myself ‘no.. no.. I am not going to hook you up, get away from my bait……..’
Suddenly………… I felt a huge buckle… I was almost thrown over the boat… I was shouting.. “****!!! HE IS ON!!! THE SEAL IS ON!!!.. (I was thinking to myself… OH NO!!!) Then the
boatman says.. “No??? the seal is still here………….”
I was like.. “HUH??? WHAT??? Then what is f**king below that is pulling so hard???”
My line went off……………………… TLD20 SCREAMSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS………… I tried to put 1/3 of the tension on… STILL SCREAMSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS………………. No stopping……………….
Deep down I was screaming with excitment I was feeling.. 'Wow.. I have never ever felt such a rush of adrenalin in my life… this must be a dam huge thing…. I even shouted.. “its big… its big.. I think its around 20 to 30 kgs…”
It went for a dive around 100meters below… (in the video).. an easy run for 80 to 90 meters… I was trying so hard to bring him back to the boat but man.. this thing really had some strength in him… no kidding.. he was pulling so much even I set my drag to almost 3/3!!! YES!! Almost full drag and he was still going….
So I had to reel him back quicker then he could swim away… in the end after an hour or more of tension between me and my catch.. I was able to pull him near the boat with my min tld20 ….I told the boat man I can see the start of my wind up leader, he should be very close and near…
Boatman went to fetch the huge net for it… by the time the catch surfaced.. the boatman shouted “damm … it’s a huge shark!!” he went back to change the net to the gaff, rope and the metal 800lb wire to tie his tail…. It took us another hour to get the shark tied beside the boat (More photos and videos coming )
Within one hour we caught 12 snappers, although 6 was snatched away by the seal… a Barracouta and a few flat heads……
Sorry for the long post…. But this has been one of the most memorable and exciting chartered fishing experience I have encountered in my life of fishing.
Thank you friends and family for helping me, showing support and giving me valuable advice on this fishing trip.. I really appreciate it and will never forget it for the rest of my life.
It has truly been a wonderful experience for someone who knew nothing about fishing to catching a shark. It is a once in a lifetime experience and no words can explain the satisfaction I have achieved.
Also many thanks to Peter (boatman) from T Cat Charters (http://www.tcatcharters.com.au ) for Giving us such a wonderful Experience and for being very patient as this was our first boat trip and there was many things to learn..
