Small Sharks Sydney Harbour

[curleyweirdo]

This is my first time i have ever been interested in sharks, and i am excited

The area i wanna try is the upper reaches of Middle harbour, Which is the water way that is connected to the Main Sydney harbour.
For ages i have been told by my dad and other ppl that the uppper reaches of the harbour are the breeding ground for a number of sharks.
Including whalers, Bull, and hammer heads.

Am i on the right track??

SO considering this i am intending to try my luck at a place called Bantry Bay which is nearlly the furthest up the back waters taht you can go.

AS the tale goes the sharks swim up to the back waters and lay there pups and the small sharks then just chilll and swim around there untill they get bigger and then they start to move off.

I intend to fish for the smaller sized sharks
up to about 6 foot very very max~ ..Probably more 3-5 ft
I am intending targeting either lil whalers, gummmies,bulls or hammerheads that aer said to live up there.

As you may hae noticed this is abit of hear say, so i will give some evidence, a while ago a 3.5 m female bull or whaler was caught just at the entrance near middle head...so they are around

As i said i intend targeting the smaller sharks and will be fishing of my dadss yacht orpossibly th e wharf using a 2.5m medium action pen powerstick with a Abu Ambassader overhead spooled with 9kg line.

Just today i bought some 124 pound single strand game whire[ stainless steel] and two mustard big gun 12/0 hooks.
I intend to be fishing a fillet of fresh mullet a couple of metres down under a ballon float for most of the night.

My questions are...
Is my setup able to catch the intended sized sharks?

Is the mullet fillet a good bait ?

Have i forgotten anything?

Is a berly trail worth while?
I am considering using a large bag of pilchards and some bread and some tuna oil for the berly.
Is this a good combo?
If not what do you ppl use ??

Umm thats about all...any other infomation you can give me would be great!

If any one lives in Sydney Australia and is interested by the i would love to hear from you!

Also i have used the Haywire twist to connect the wire to hook and swivel.. though not sure if it is done right.
If i get a good response i will post a picture of that on my website that i am mnaking and is currently up and running

@ www.geocities.com/sydneyfishing

If i catch something i will also post my technique.

So yeah thanx in advance!

[curleyweirdo]

Another

[Jeremy]

Coupla comments about your gear. A 2.5 m rod is a bit long. The extra lenght will work against you in a fight. Something around 1.8 m would be better. Sharks use electrical stimulation to sense things and they can detect wire trace in the water. You are better off using plastic coated 7 or 49 strand wire.Use about 1 m of wire trace and another 2-3 m of 150 lb momo trace about that. Also I think 12/0 hooks are a bit large for 3 -5 foot sharks. Otherwise your gear should be OK.

Using the balloon is fine. Attach the balloon by slipping a loop of your line through the knot in the bo\alloon before you pull it tight. When a shark takes the bait this loop will pull out of the knot in the balloon releasing the balloon. Your burley sounds OK. Make sure you use fresh bait.

What are you going to do with a shark when you catch one? I hope you don't just kill it and throw it back in the water. If you aren't going to eat it, enjoy the fight and cut it off to let it go. If you use tinned hooks rather than stainless, they will rust out within a week or two.

Good luck,

Jeremy

[curleyweirdo]

i have no intentions to keep themI
I guess depending on where the hook up is i would thake photo and cute trace as close as possible

[curleyweirdo]

Well i guess i have to give an update .......not a great one thou..
Went out last night and put a large flathead tail on wire trace and 10kg outfit.
didnt get a touch, not even by the bsc [Blue Swimmer crabs]
Was left out all NIGHT! I slept next to rod, was tiring!..
So yeah dont know if it was bait , wire trace not with plastic or just the baot traffic.
One thing is for sure if i had caught one i would have had fun telling my story to the6 waterskieers in the morning!
other fish caught was a keeper flunder, 2 tailor - returned, 1 beauty bream which spat hook at boat, 1 blueswimmer that we let go.

[Luke]

Hey Curly,
I use live mullet or gar and if we can't get them I soak whole mullet in tuna oil. Live is best.
Cheers Luke

[curleyweirdo]

Hehe,,,yeah mullet was the bait i was looking for, but my goddam fish shop had run out of them.
Ended up using a flathead tail, but it was a bit old.
As for live bait, its just too much effort.
The times i have been out fishing with livies 3/4 have died quick due to the bloody squid.
Apart from that we were running late, a 23 ft yacht which hasnt been barnickle scraped for a year and 5 hp motor dont mix and dosent move fast for sure.
Was jsut too hard......@!@!
Ohwell.might try another time you neva know

[Elvis]

Curly-
I'd try up a bit further. There are a lot of smaller sharks up around Roseville Bridge, and if your off land- Right under the bridge you can fish straight into a drop-off that has some good depth. Or a bit closer to middle head (and on the other side) you can fish off a little beach in Roseville Park (I'm not sure exactly what it's called) There are stacks of Shark Warning Signs everywhere.

Depending on the tide, I'd definitley use berley. You can use anything really, old fish bits, chicken, the sausages from dinner a few days ago. I've even seen a mate berley up with a can of dog food. If you don't have a berley bucket, get one of mum's old stockings and stuff everything in there, cut some small holes in it and you are away.