As the warmer weather draws closer upon us so does a special time of mine that I annually have marked on my calendar.
A few good friends of mine, including Damien and the lads from Bianco Building supplies and I head away for a couple of
days of offshore fishing. A few things are for sure when we have these trips away – there’s definitely no shortage of
food and there’s no shortage of action. We always get our monies worth out of both!
On this particular trip we were heading down the coast again visiting one of my favourite spots at the tip of the Yorke
Peninsula, that of Pondalowie Bay. In a previous edition of WildCoast magazine I detailed a trip to these waters, making
a point that no two trips are the same. This was to prove the case yet again.
The waters wide of the bay are renowned for superb cray fishing because of all the structure and ledges under water, and
it’s also known for its very unpredictable fishing. We learned this early on in the peace and after fishing these waters
for a few years you take few
sessions for granted. No matter what you’re chasing here there will always be every possibility you may hook onto some
big fish and get serious action.
As per usual we were shacked up with Mark Wynbergen of Reef Encounters Fishing Charters for the two days. We knew we were
up for a decent trip as he knows these waters like the back of his hand. Mark also knows how to get us hyped up and after
fishing with him dozens of times, he’s seen the heartache experienced as I’ve lost some dream fish. He knows exactly where
to take us and what to target to get us seriously stretched.
On the first morning out Damien and I were bringing all our heavy duty jigging gear out with us to see if we could get stuck
into a rampant samson or kingfish or something else capable of giving us back spasms. The grounds we were doing our first
drops on were probably suited to other species. However the spot we were visiting had a good history of producing some big
shark and serious groper. Prior to focusing on the bigger fish I decided to
get stuck into some of the more common species such as nannygai and snapper so I dropped down the lighter gear for a quick session.
We hit our first spot and all the lines go down, within seconds of touching the bottom my soft plastic gets smashed HARD with a
giant thud on the end of it. This wasn’t a nanny I yelled to the lads. After fishing these waters for a while now you tend to
know what sort of fish you have on the line just by the fight even with it being 80m down. There are subtle tell tale fish signs
that you can pick up on, but still early calls can leave you red faced should you get them wrong. I get a yell from the captain
behind me “mowie” I just looked back at him nodded and grinned and he knew only too well by the movement of the rod what I had on the line.
This fish was putting up an absolute belter of a fight and as it came to the top of the water it was more evident that it was a
beautiful mowie and a 20 pound plus fish at that. Great start to the day one would think!. These larger fish are often
characterised by a hump around the
head area, while not the same as that of snapper it’s a sign of a better class of fish.
So seeing that we had dinner organised now I pulled out the heavy artillery and started to rig up to target some big species of
shark and snapper. But I needed to catch my bait first. I decided to put down the light gear again just 20m under the boat with
a small amount of squid on it to try and catch half a dozen slimy mackerel, which in these waters are not uncommon to the point of
being pests. At the same time though, they’re very tasty to the larger predators that lurk below.
After pulling a few slimies up it was time to bait up for the bigger fish and head up the front of the boat. Soon I get a whistle
from the skipper he has spotted a shark prowling behind the boat, so I immediately sliced a mackerel in half and put on the 10/0 hook
and wire trace rig I prepared earlier. I then let it drift into the berley trail behind the boat. I set my drag on the Saltiga 6000
spinning outfit and prepared myself for what was about to happen.
After letting out around 30-40 of line I flipped the bail over and held on for the next few moments.
Before I even had a chance to
strap myself into the gimble belt the line started peeling so thick and hard it almost caught me off guard. I finally got strapped
in and started my work on this vicious shark. It was throwing me left and right at the back of the boat – quite a common scene with
these powerhouse fish. It seemed to have a lot of speed which pointed the finger directly to a mako or a blue shark which are commonly
known for speed and agility and are encountered in these waters.
As we got the shark closer and closer it was quite clear to us by the colour and distinct jaw line of these fish that what we were
dealing with was in fact a beautiful mako. What a sensational creature these shark truly are. They have beautiful blue skin and a
vicious grin to boot. It’s such a spectacular sight for any angler chasing these sharks to go with an insane aerial display they often put on.
After fighting with him for 20 minutes or so it was time to get him on the boat and the shark was secured, photographed and taken for
food.
Makos are noted for their sublime eating qualities especially in smaller sizes. Once the dust had settled we made a move for
our next drop. The action continued almost all day with us catching our fair share of reef fish, but alas the truly big stuff eluded
us. It was a unanimous decision to head in early as we had a bigger day planned the following day and didn’t want fatigue to play a
part in what he had in store for us.
On day two we were hopeful of a big trip out to South Neptune to try and chase some tuna and samson fish so we got up early and rigged
up for the big trip. Once we reached the shoreline it was evident that there was no way we could venture out to the island as the winds
were blowing up to 30-35 knots. Thankfully with the knowledge Mark has of the area he came up with an alternative plan to hit some
closer grounds north of the bay.
A little disappointed and let down we headed out to the spot. With no real desire to chase whiting I decided to take it upon myself to
send down some huge baits
and see what would take it down below.
Again I got out one of the slimies from the day before and sent down half of a fillet all nicely trimmed and cleaned,
except I put a weight on it this time because the current was running wild and would have tangled my line with some of the other anglers.
This time I actually strapped myself in and prepared myself prior to dropping the bait just in case of some quick action.
After five minutes of no such luck one of the guys at the back of the boat yelled with excitement as he hit something fairly huge on
the head with a whiting rig – a very decent five foot gummy was pulled up moments later. We were only fishing in 20 metres of water so
winching the fish out of the ocean was going to be a little easier than the deepwater struggles of the previous day. All of a sudden I
could feel something playing with my bait below, I knew it had to be a decent fish as the
bait was huge attached to my line. Tug, tug, I felt the power of whatever was on the end of this pulling at my line. Feeling even more
weight I leant back and struck the fish and set the hook firmly in its mouth. What power this fish had, it must have taken 50m of line
before I even had a chance to wind one inch back onto the spool. The sheer weight of this unseen fish was enormous. I was forced to
walk from the front of the boat to the back and all around the vessel for 20 minutes until we finally got a glimpse of colour. It was
in fact a 3m seven gill shark, an absolute ripsnorter of a fish. This species is not only hot on the line but also recognised as a
superb table fish so you can imagine all the excitement on our faces.
Still fighting with the beast we got it close to the marlin board and as we leant over to get a closer inspection of the shark it lunged
at the board and had a big
bite of it. Realising the taste was not the sort it was after the shark lazily rolled on its side and conceded defeat.
This shark wasn’t a loner either. As the day wore on we got more and more sharks plus a whole lot of large whiting and flathead.
It really is a mixed bag fishing at its best out here. You can see why fishing the reefs is hugely popular when you can get fish at
both ends of the size spectrum from the same mark. It was without a doubt a great day at the office, but unfortunately all good things
must come to an end.
We headed back to shore to clean our catch and the shack so that the next mob could move in for another expedition out of Ponde.
As we pulled into the bay we were greeted by a large school of salmon which are anglers’ delight even on the best of day’s fishing.
This is absolutely typical of the superb waters that surround this ecological paradise.
