Stu and huge shark, 24Mar11

Subject: Fishing today - 24Mar11
From: Maverick
Date: 24/03/2011 4:39 PM

I launched about 8 am after a late decision. Conditions were absolutely perfect, no swell or wind to speak of.

I met up with a Kiwi bloke by the name of Mike who ended up fishing with me through the morning.

After an easy paddle out we turned left and headed to the river mouth where there were a heap of birds and bait activity.

Upon arriving just North of the mouth there were spotties, tuna everywhere, very reminiscent of last season. The only problem was that they were not taking slugs. I tried all sizes, 15 to 30 grams without much luck. I eventually hooked up to a spottie which was taken by a hungry shark just as it came into sight. I then caught a very big fish on a trolling slimey which gave two long hard runs before the line was bitten through above the wire trace.

About an hour passed without any further luck so I paddled over towards a couple of guys in a tinnie who made a trip down from Brisbane after reports of large amounts of baitfish in the Bay. One of the chaps flicked a slug into a bait mass and pulled up a very nice Cobia. The other chap had something very big on his line when it was taken by a shark. I joked that it must have been a big tiger shark. They joked and said rather them on a boat than a kayak.

As I paddled away towards another baitball (aprox 1k offshore) a tiger shark bigger than my yak surfaced right next to me, his head was the size of a small car and body length longer than my 4.1 meter yak, I f*****g SHAT myself and paddled straight back to the boat stating in a few profound words that I may have to board. After about 5 mins and no sign of the shark I paddled back towards the river mouth with Mike and decided to call it a day as I had some undies to clean!

Going on today, tomorrow morning might prove to be very good fishing, if I did not have to work I would be there shark or not.

Maverick