Not A Good Trip For Team St Mikes

Catch Report 12/8/2006

It was supposed to be a fully exciting and anticipated boat trip for the boys after the previous one. This time, Maurice decided to join us for his 1st time fishing experience. Chen is now getting more experienced in getting all the stuffs prepared like berley and bait. I met David at Rose Bay whom we encountered in Fishraider forum. He brought his friends out for their 1st time boating. The weather was good and the water conditions were excellent. It was thought to be a great day, but the day before, Jialiang had went out and told me it was very bad in terms of catch rate, where he only got 2 LJs and couple of Port Jackson sharks. It was indeed true to our extent as well. We only managed 1 trevally and a single Chinaman. After telling Chen about Jialiang's expedition, he tried to get the PJ sharks too, preparing a rig he learnt from his fishing encyclopedia! True enough, he hooked onto a PJ using a dead yellowtail! The bend on his kmart rod was looking scary! He engaged the fish slowly, but at times, the shark was very heavy, gaining line was not easy. However, the fighting capability of this shark was totally zero. It was like pulling in a dead weight, but in a very difficult way. Anyway, we saw the huge shark on the surface but towards the final moment, his 10lb fireline couldn't hold and it snapped instantly. After that, I've finished rigging and proceeded to drop my filleted yellowtail. Within less than few minutes, my rod bent and the drag sang slowly. I had hooked on a PJ shark as well. My Surecatch rod was also bending ugly and I knew it was a very heavy shark. My 1st time engaging such a heavy creature that I was totally blown out from its weight. Many times I could feel my arm sore since I'm only using a light 6 foot rod. Still, I was able to bring it up and Phillip helped me net it but the net frame seems like it couldn't hold! My next reaction was to grabbed its tail to support its weight and both of us coordinated to bring it up at the same time. Yeah! My 1st Port Jackson Shark!!!

Chen was so closed to taking a photo of his personal catch so it was decided that everyone in the boat should have a picture with this creature, and seems that they wanted to have a logo of PJ?? What the??

So, it was not a total disastrous day, at least we got to take photo with a shark! But this shark is so friendly and basically no teeth! Still, it was damn heavy, estimated about 20kg perhaps? Sadly, the hook was swallowed deep and I had to cut the line with the hook still inside its throat. Hopefully the hook will rust away and she was released into the sea back to her home. Cheers.

Ronald