Originally Posted by Matt Checksfield
Every couple of months I'll give a 5 day course of Ayurvedic treatments (google ayurveda if you want to know what it is :) ) and this week is one of those weeks. I'd scheduled to be doing treatments most evenings from 5 to 8pm which put a spanner in the works for a night time fish. Tuesday was looking good and I managed to get the treatment brought forward to 3:30pm. At 6:30pm I was out the door and called Brett, who was already at the launch spot. He was happy to wait so I toed it over to him and very quickly setup my woefully arranged (read not really unpacked from the last trip) gear.
A 16kt wind was forecast though the swan was almost glassing off - we headed out and did a recky of the area looking for ground and fish before choosing our spots. I chucked out a halco trembler as the sunset but had no response. Also chucked out a mulie on a paternoster rig on the 15kg boat outfit while I was prospecting with the lure, then when the light faded, took the lure off and stuck another mulie out on the 10kg spinning outfit.
time went by, and big schools of something (small fish?) were passing by underneath, though could not be coaxed by blue or whitebaits on a gang of hooks, or little morsels on a sabiki. Brett wasn't getting any action either. Nearby dolphins were splashing around. time went by... (as it does when fishing for mulloway!) As I cast and retrieved the bluebait I saw my new crystal blue rod's tip give one quick short, but firm nod. I put the light outfit down and as I went to pick the crystal up, it lunged and began to let out line. I let it run with moderate drag – it ran for ages, taking ~150m of line.
By now Brett had made his way over to see what all the commotion was about and was alongside offering moral support. Was it a shark? he asked what I called it for and I said, 'might be a mulloway', but I thought these things gave one or two good dashes then were spent. "maybe its a bull shark' I said as it seemed to have pretty good stamina. By now 20 mins had passed and the lactic acid was building in the arm, I had to straighten it every now and then to free the cramping. I was gaining line 20cm at a time and then loosing 50cm then gaining 50cm it was a long slow drawn out battle - but finally I got to the leader.
Brett offered to net it, though I wanted to try myself until I finally got my first sight :shock: , yep this thing was golden and croaking and was no bull shark :D and nope, don't think I can net it myself. and nope, neither can Brett and nope don't think the lip grips are the go either. time for the glove - Brett donned a glove and took a firm hold of the gills and expertly hoiked it aboard - it croaked in protest though was on board at last. There was no transferring of this fish from yak to yak, so Brett headed for the launch site and I quickly followed in a bit of a daze from it all. Brett had the thing occupying his whole cockpit and could only do short peddles so suffered some leg burn in the process. Back at the beach I got my first feel of the monster, seated in the yak while Brett took the pics. It was bloody heavy - I was lost for words and found it all a bit surreal.
The fish measure wasnt long enough so I got a tape measure and confirmed the 120cm accurate guess that Brett had made. My scales only go to 7KG so were no use. Took a good hour or so to clean and fillet it - It came up 16Kgs on the bathroom scales and gave 6.5Kg of fillets - the head alone weighed a couple of kgs :shock: Fish was a male, heavily loaded with roe so much so that it jizzed all over Brett's beloved Shufoy in the landing process - sorry mate :roll: Didn't have anything in its stomach.
So a big big thankyou to my fishing buddy Brett - as always a fantastic buddy and expert fishing buddy at that. Guess what I'll be eating for the next few days! ( and Brett too:D )
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