Big sharks of the beach...looks like a good season!

After last seasons go at shark fishing of the beach for big sharks the success got me excited for this season.
Last Dec i got a PB that i doubt i beat (on that line strain anyway) when i landed a Bronzie just over 10 feet on 30lb line after a 2.5 hour fight!

Lost another big one when im sure i foul hooked or got tail wrapped around the line and broke off .
My Mate landed a 9 foot 6 on 24kg and one just over 7 feet as well plus we had a number of runs without hook ups over the few weeks we managed to get out at the local beach,
plus one double hookup.
Two nights ago the same mate went down and had a fish and caught the first bronzie of the season on 24kg that was around 6.5 feet after a 15min fight.

We went together last night at midnight and threw our baits out and waited for a strike.
I was using a Penn senator 114 reel, 24kgb braid on a stand up game rod using a whole large trevelly . Mate threw out a 30cm snapper on his finnor on 24kg .

At 220am my mates rod bend over and line started pouring of the reel... 1 minute later we are hooked up to something big.!
Big first run, took alot of line before my mate stopped it then it started slowly to come in. Stayed deep and straight out, not like last season when i had one jump and all run right to the open ocean.

We were thinking was it a shark or a big ray but as it got close it woke up and another big run lost all the line he just won back.

This we on for 45 mins, big runs like there was no drag and hanging on for grime death. When it stopped he pumped the line back in and just when we think we getting somewhere
it was off again.
Never came to the surface, never saw anything, just a big fish that certainly wasnt a ray.
As it made another run suddenly the line just snapped and that was that....gutted.
Thought we had it but maybe the tail hit the line as something went but the drag was pretty tight. Oh well was exciting stuff but 3 weeks earlier than last season an 2 fish hooked
in 2 nights, cant wait to try again.
Mate had some tags to tag the next one we get.
Meant to be going deer shooting tomorrow morning but .....tides good at 1230am tonight so i see lol

Had another go for the sharks, stayed until 340am but nothing happened tonight.
Be a couple of weeks and i give it another go

It sure is fun

Photos would be good on this thread! It's on my bucket list. I've done it in Aussie, but not here. How do you get your baits out?

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Originally Posted by MB

Photos would be good on this thread! It's on my bucket list. I've done it in Aussie, but not here. How do you get your baits out?

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I vote swim them out, kayak close second

an offshore wind with a small inflated bag would work like a little kontiki
I have a feeling getting it out far isnt really an issue. more burley then a little bit more would be the trick

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Originally Posted by MB

Photos would be good on this thread! It's on my bucket list. I've done it in Aussie, but not here. How do you get your baits out?

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you are in shark central mate, I try my hardest not to get them and still get them all the damn time
I got an 80wide goldie with 80lb on it and a stand up harness if you want to supply the beers and ill sit back and watch
it all sounds like too much hard yakka just to let the thing go for me to wind it in if its going to just be let go again

Yeah, plenty around here. I try to avoid them too, but could be fun once or twice.

There are so many in the Tauranga harbour
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Back in the late '60's we used to tow sheep carcasses in Foveaux Strait behind an ancient clinker-built 4-cylinder day fishing boat with me sitting on top of the wheelhouse with a rifle (sometimes a Garand but usually an M1 carbine). Ordinary grey sharks were about 6 feet long, but the big white pointers were 15-18 feet and scared the crap out of us. The boat was only about 15 feet long and 4 feet wide and the big ones would swim right up under the boat and have a good look at us. We knew when they were coming as all the smaller sharks would disappear. I don't think that type of 'fishing' would be very acceptable these days. Back then all the fishermen had a .303 in the wheelhouse for sharks.

Geez sounds like you guys in Nelson have it too good. Using snapper for bait :O_O:
Biggest shark I caught was a Bronzie about 5 foot long off the rocks on the north east of Great Barrier, stunk of ammonia as soon as I pulled it up on the rocks so let it go again as I didn't like the idea of eating it

I’m keen to help out …box bbq and a few snags , not a fan of bitey things ….but what a creature to battle! Can do photos etc got a new comfy seat ..if you have a free spot after Xmas …

My PB is only a 50kg school shark off the Canterbury coast when balloon fishing in a norwest. Would love to get a bronze next when I'm in New Plymouth

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Originally Posted by Billbob

My PB is only a 50kg school shark off the Canterbury coast when balloon fishing in a norwest.

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Congratulations, you're a world record holder by quite some margin!

I haven't actually caught a big shark, but when I was Kayak fishing in Auckland harbour, I had one follow up, the trail of blood and guts I was making, whilst gutting and scaling my Snapper and Kahawai.

The Kayak is 14 ft long and the Bronze Whaler, when it pulled along side, it's tail was at my stern and the head nearly to the bow. I estimated was 10~12 feet. Fat and round as a bulldozer, must have been up there to pup.

It swum around me for a minute and then lost interest, as I'd stopped putting guts into the water, from an abundance of caution you see...

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Originally Posted by MarkN

I haven't actually caught a big shark, but when I was Kayak fishing in Auckland harbour, I had one follow up, the trail of blood and guts I was making, whilst gutting and scaling my Snapper and Kahawai.

The Kayak is 14 ft long and the Bronze Whaler, when it pulled along side, it's tail was at my stern and the head nearly to the bow. I estimated was 10~12 feet. Fat and round as a bulldozer, must have been up there to pup.



It swum around me for a minute and then lost interest, as I'd stopped putting guts into the water, from an abundance of caution you see...

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@MarkN what did you use as a bailer?:o:sick:

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Originally Posted by MarkN

I haven't actually caught a big shark, but when I was Kayak fishing in Auckland harbour, I had one follow up, the trail of blood and guts I was making, whilst gutting and scaling my Snapper and Kahawai.

The Kayak is 14 ft long and the Bronze Whaler, when it pulled along side, it's tail was at my stern and the head nearly to the bow. I estimated was 10~12 feet. Fat and round as a bulldozer, must have been up there to pup.

It swum around me for a minute and then lost interest, as I'd stopped putting guts into the water, from an abundance of caution you see...

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Been there... took 30 Minutes to get this fella to the surface while he quietly towed me around the Harbour.
5 metre kayak, 3 metre shark.
Hook was in his dorsal fin, I don't think he even knew he was hooked

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Nope, it was a pregnant one. 1.55m long it swallowed the hook and had basically bled out by the time we had got it on the beach. We opened her up and released her 25 baby's into the surf so her legion lived on. The weight was from the guy who helped me land her who insisted on lifting her up and down telling me it was well over 50.

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Originally Posted by stingray

I’m keen to help out …box bbq and a few snags , not a fan of bitey things ….but what a creature to battle! Can do photos etc got a new comfy seat ..if you have a free spot after Xmas …

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I get hold of you @stingray next time i go out, heaps of fun if we hook up.

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Originally Posted by MB

Photos would be good on this thread! It's on my bucket list. I've done it in Aussie, but not here. How do you get your baits out?

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@MB the sharks come in so close . At low tide theres a drop off and 20m out all you need.
For the smaller baits my mate casts his out but not far. Ive just handed lined the snapper frames etc out and seems to work well.
My Partner is willing to swim the baits out next time so we will prob do that(im not getting wet lol) otherwise might be able to talk @stingray to swim them out lol.

Not that you have to drop them far but i like them out a good stones throw but last season we had bronzies eating the frames in the crab pots in the shallows and
one night down with Pengy threw some venison in the shallows and a bronzie came in twice within a few feet of the shore

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Small seven giller i got on top photo and my mates smaller fish from last season.
Didnt get a photo , just a video of my 10foot plus bronzie. Thats why i want catch another for better photos

I did a bit of slidebaiting back home in Oz, haven't done any for sharks over here yet but I'm keen to give it a crack this summerAttachment 212042

Good reading in this thread. I'm keen to give shark fishing a spin now. Anyone in BOP that gets into it? I'm thinking ohope, whakatane and maybe papamoa would be worth a crack?

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Originally Posted by makka

I did a bit of slidebaiting back home in Oz, haven't done any for sharks over here yet but I'm keen to give it a crack this summerAttachment 212042

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Is that a Tiger?

Bull shark I’d say. Not a tiger.


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Nah, just a big ugly 7 giller

No dorsal fin, missed that!


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Originally Posted by Dicko

No dorsal fin, missed that!


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Well spotted

Man, ive got nothing to say other than this entire thread is unreal lol. The chunks of bait you guys use are bigger than almost anything we catch from shore.....I dont know how you leave to go to work or home, id be living at the beach! Great pictures all!

Poor bloody sharks!

One of the best stories I was told was by a Kayak fisherman back in the early 90s. He was fishing in the Manukau harbour ( Auckland ) . He was snapper fishing with his burly bag tied to his anchor rope.
The fishing had been good but suddenly went quiet, he was in a big kayak and parked a 100 mtrs or so from shore.
Suddenly his Yak took off and down with him hanging on for dear life. He reckoned he let go of the kayak at about 10ft underwater . He hit the top like a missile , grabbed a lung fill of air and set a new 100 mtr freestyle record to the shore.
He never got the kayak back and from then on never tied his burley bag to the anchor rope.
Plenty of Bronzies in the Manukau..... even bigger Great Whites.

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Originally Posted by viper

One of the best stories I was told was by a Kayak fisherman back in the early 90s. He was fishing in the Manukau harbour ( Auckland ) . He was snapper fishing with his burly bag tied to his anchor rope.
The fishing had been good but suddenly went quiet, he was in a big kayak and parked a 100 mtrs or so from shore.
Suddenly his Yak took off and down with him hanging on for dear life. He reckoned he let go of the kayak at about 10ft underwater . He hit the top like a missile , grabbed a lung fill of air and set a new 100 mtr freestyle record to the shore.
He never got the kayak back and from then on never tied his burley bag to the anchor rope.
Plenty of Bronzies in the Manukau..... even bigger Great Whites.

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Great story and believable. I've always thought people quite brave/stupid to hang a burley bag off a kayak! There are other ways of doing it.

Use to do the Counties shark hunt every year from the Glenbrook boat ramp 20 years ago. There are some REALLY big bitty things in the Manukau. I don't swim much in salt water.