Well what an amazing night.
Caught up with Shaun from Think Big Charters in Melbourne as I usually do this time of the year to target gummy sharks. These sharks are highly prized in south-east Australia for their fight and eating qualities.
We were due to fish on Tuesday night and Shaun was scrambling to find good bait. Australian salmon and slimy mackerel are the choice and he struggled to find any that morning at his usual spots.
In the afternoon he drove across to the other side of the peninsula and launched in Port Philip where he found the bait and made sure we had enough. How is that for a charter operator going the extra mile.
Tuesday night came round and the wind was up. We made the call to postpone to Wednesday night and fish another location instead which Shaun thought will be better with the near full moon and strong tides.
With high tide at 4.15am we were off at 10pm with another mate Winga on board to do some filming.
Shaun's boat is a 6.6m Cuta Craft Big Ram with a 300HP Zuke. Beast of a boat!
My PB gummy stood at around 4kg and I was hoping for one over 10kg. We were using T-Curve rods with Twinpower 10000 reels loaded with 30Ib Powerpro and 80Ib mono leader with 8/0 circles.
A beautiful night on Port Philip bay with no-one else around other than the occasional big ship sailing past in the shipping canal behind us.
First up was a MEGA ray which gave me a good workout until it snapped off under the boat. With sore arms I had barely sat down when another rod loaded up again. This time it felt like what we were looking for with characteristic lunges and headshakes. After about 5minutes the line went slack. The circle had pulled! Very unusual.
I was gutted and convinced that was it for my dream gummy.
Around 1/2 hour later a rod loads up after a timid bite and I was thinking rubbish fish. The gummies usually don't muck about and scream off. This one was a slow bite, taking it's time in the strong current before slowly loading up.
After an epic tussle which had the guys calling bronzie due to the long powerful runs and massive headshakes she appeared and had us all shouting and scrambling to get her on board.
The net could barely fit her in! Twice she rushed off again and nearly got caught on the motor to get to the other side. Again unusual behavior for a gummy as they are usually spent at the boat. On the third try she was close to the boat and I was praying out loud she would'nt come off. Fish of this size are a catch of a lifetime! Shaun struggled to get her in the net with in the powerful current but finally he had her head in and grabbed her tail.
We hauled her on board and she went crazy slapping our feet. As the guys weighed her and got ready for photos I just stood there shaking my head in disbelief.
After 7 years of trying for a good one I finally have a decent gummy shark under my belt - 31.7kg. The beauty was revived and released safely. I can't stop smiling.
