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GetSharked · 2016-05-04T16:37:12Z

Well this trip had been a long time coming for me. It hadn’t just been between seasons but literally one whole year between shark trips! As you can expect I was pretty excited, especially due to the quality of sharks that the other members on this trip have been catching lately. So to kick off the trip I headed off from Brisbane to Hervey Bay on Friday afternoon. A few hours later I arrive, we pack the 4WD and we’re all ready for the early start the next morning. 4WD all packed and ready to go The 4am alarm sounds and we are up and off. We pick up a mate Corey on the way through and arrive for the 6am barge with plenty of time. A 45 minute trip over on the barge and we are on the beautiful Fraser Island. Barge trip over to Fraser Island Brett (Rogue Hooker) the driver is a local to Hervey Bay and does go over to the island pretty frequently but hadn’t been over in a 4WD for a couple of years. Without going into it too far we did get to see some amazing scenery while we got a little lost. Stretching our legs after a few wrong turns We eventually got to the area we wanted to fish. It was blowing up to 30 knots this weekend, so we had a limited area that we could keep sheltered. After a few runs up and down the beach we found a great spot to set up camp while some baits defrosted. We had a large range of baits from eel, catfish, rays, tuna and spanish mackerel. Disappointingly no fresh tuna baits, which had been going so well with Brett and Corey’s recent trips. After camp and rods were set up, baits were deployed about mid arvo. We were lucky enough to be fishing in a sheltered area with literally no current. All our baits held their position without any weight and the lightest pre-set drags. This was a first for me. It wasn’t until just before dark that the first rod went off. This was Brett’s rod with a whole mac tuna. This was one of the slowest runs I had ever witnessed and we were calling for a big tiger. Sadly it wasn’t to be, it was only a very lazy small lemon. We didn’t bother measuring him but we guessed around that 7’ mark. Brett hooked up Brett and I holding his lemon Brett releasing his lemon It wasn’t too much longer and my rod goes off on a nice steady run with a large half ray bait. I feel full weight when I attempt to set the hook but it then loosens off. I can feel that the bait is still there but the shark was gone. Annoyingly enough this same shark run and hook attempt occurred about half a dozen times until around midnight when the hooks finally set home and I was hooked up. The weight was solid but the drag barely clicked over a few times in the whole fight. Not long and I had a 9’ pigeye whaler on the sand. Me and my pigeye whaler Me releasing my pigeye whaler After this we all went back to bed to wait for the last rod loaded with a tail section of spanish mackerel to go off. We didn’t have to wait too long but sadly the hookup was missed and the bait was lost. The next morning I redeployed my half ray. It had some decent teeth marks in it but was still a pretty solid bait. Brett deployed the front half of the spanish and Corey put out a couple of catfish strapped together. An hour or so went by and my rod goes off on a slow but short run. The shark dropped the bait and didn’t come back. None of the other baits had gone off for a while and due to the fact we were very low on baits this trip we pulled in the rods and went for a short drive to a nearby creek to see if we could collect a few rays. After a few hours of not spotting a single ray we were almost at the point of giving in when we spotted a few in the beach shallows outside the mouth of the creek. After a lot of failed attempts Brett whipped out some fluky skills and managed to hand spear one as well as jagging another with a rod. With a couple of fresh baits collected we headed back to camp to deploy them for the evening. Brett and Corey put out a fresh ray each, while I put out an eel bait on one of mine and a whole mac tuna on the other. I have to apologies for the lack of bait pics, I don’t think we took any this trip. A couple of hours later my eel bait goes off but the shark doesn’t fully commit to the bait. I bring it in to inspect the damage, give the cable ties a bit of a tighten up and re-deploy it on my first ever night drop. It was pretty easy in the perfect conditions. About 9pm Corey’s fresh ray goes off. The hook set was tried but as soon as the rod loaded up the line went slack. Closer inspection showed that the line had been sliced up and a good 100 yards of line was lost. A new trace was quickly rigged up and the untouched front end of the spanish mackerel from earlier today was dropped out. It was this rod that went off again next. A steady run and a solid hook set was made. No drag was pulled but there was a decent weight. After a short fight Corey had a PB 9’4” lemon on the beach. Corey hooked up to his lemon Getting a measure on Corey’s lemon Corey’s lemon The rest of the night was pretty quiet with one tak...

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The Trip A Long Time Coming - AUSTRALIA (May 2016)