# Mornington Round 2, I crapped myself



## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

I had round two at Mornington yesterday gents, after deciding to give Ricketts a wide berth because of those pesky cyclists. Bloody human powered vessels!! Anyways, a stiff southerly met me first up, and the washing machine didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t yield much of note apart from a nice red mullet. Plenty of small coutta and pinkies also filled the scene. The southerly went to sleep about 4pm and gave me some prime time mooching, although it was still mostly littlies on offer. About half an hour before dark I was trolling back to my launch when some big weighty reel pulses snapped me awake. The rod tip bent with each pulse, but whatever was hooked hadnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t woken at that point. My mindset had me thinking big old red (what Mango isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t thinking this at the moment), and I grabbed the rod as some more pulses took line. Then I had a WTF moment as I gawked back down the troll trail to see surface splashing. Snapper go deep so maybe this wasÃ¢â‚¬Â¦.a seal? Then, to use age old gold, the reel screamed. And screamed. And screamed. AndÃ¢â‚¬Â¦(I guess ya get the picture). There was also a wap-wap noise kind of like water on a stinkboatieÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s hull or something flapping in the wind. This thing was a bullet in the water. Then he had his first leapÃ¢â‚¬Â¦a thresher cleared the water about 35m behind me. And I mean cleared the water, he wouldÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve easily goosed a jumping dolphin. HeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d released his run, and I released my bowels. Then there were sounds of wap-wap and a little Shimano working overtime. His second aerial was about 20-25m off to my sideÃ¢â‚¬Â¦heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d stolen a tonne of line to cut a diagonal path. This was a near on meter jump that I got a real good look at. I go 1.75 m tall by 1.75 m wide, and on the height factor I wouldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t get much change in a toe to toe. Conservatively I put him at 1.5m long, although his long tail could have easily put him up to 2m. And powerfully quick. As I said I go 1.75 m wide so can hold my own in a belly whackÃ¢â‚¬Â¦.but he would have goosed me on the splash after finishing with the dolphin. Then the line went slack, and so did my bowels for a second time. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m not sure if at that point heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d bitten through braidÃ¢â‚¬Â¦but to my mind I had him coming towards me. By then IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d managed to get my knife out of my PFD pocket and cut the slack line loose, and made a long, long paddle over a short distance back to shore. Back on the dry I rang HobieVic whoÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s more experienced with shark stuff. He put my mind straight it was a thresher (IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d called him for a mako with his aerials despite his tail shape). Scott also told me how they come into PPB to chase snapper and snook. We also yakked through a coupla other questions I had in my mind. First why would he take a pissy 9cm lure. We put this down to me having hooked a snook or couta without realising it as this had happened several times throughout the day. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d also wondered how my light leader (4kg mono) would hold. We answered this one by thinking heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d got himself wrapped up in a braid main (probably at the surface splashing stage). On the drive home I also wondered about the wap-wap, and could only come up with braid cutting through the water. IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m a shutter bug and like my picÃ¢â‚¬â„¢sÃ¢â‚¬Â¦despite crapping myself IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d really love to have that one of his second jump (no way ya could time a shot like that). Kind of doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t matter though, as itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s etched in me noggin for awhile at least. I started with zero interest in shark stuff, and now I have zero interest in bold type (aswell as some washing to do). You guys who deal with these leaping power and speed merchants are nuts!! 
:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :wink:


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Holy crap Poddy, that's bloody amazing :shock: :shock: Glad you got back in in one piece, what a story to tell the grandkiddies


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

I was one very shaken Mullet Suidder...it was very quick once he decided to go and to I think I was in a bit of shock for a bit. I don't know what I sounded like to Scott on the phone...but I know there was adrenaline-a-pumping. Good old safe Port Phillip :wink:


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

aye carumba! :shock: :shock:

sounds like a great (but fairly messy) afternoon out Poddy. hope you can get the stains out.... :roll: :wink:


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Quite seriously mate, you're part of an elite group now, an extremely small number of people can claim to have actually hooked a thresher INSIDE Port Philip Bay. Wish I could have seen the jumps. I'm already thinking about how and when I'm going to catch that fish......


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## Mushi (Aug 31, 2005)

Mate I have nothing else to say :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: ! thats bloody ridiculous, i love it  Gotta love those WTF moments, but never have I had one as big as yours. Maybe a live red and steel trace is the go next time :wink: ... seriously :shock: :wink:

PS: just quietly, if when you saw it leaping behind you, you just dropped you rod, slid down into the footwell to a fetal position and started crying, that's ok


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## Rod L (Aug 29, 2005)

Poddy,
I'm glad I don't go yakking down there very often, that's nuts!
Don't let SWMBO hear about this or I'll be banned.
Glad your ok to mooch another day mate


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## Y-Knot (Sep 26, 2006)

YEAH PODDY, there would have been no shame in that feotal position postion u may have found yourself in. i have no doubt i would have been walking on water ... lol ... 
great effort though, were you using 1 of those many rods u picked up friday nite. good score bud.


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## ScottLovig (Aug 7, 2006)

Picked up new wire traces this morning. Lets see if we can get that frenzy lure back for you Poddy. Thats a rude fish that would take it from you like that.

Jason, it happens each year. There are more than most people realise. You comming?

Cheers

Scott


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## evarn (Jul 10, 2006)

It just occured to me that my grand-dad (on my mum's side) was a fisherman back in Mauritius... You know those guys you see on documentaries in the little wooden boats and the square sails... He got taken by a shark at sea and they never found his body...

Anyway, I've just put a deposit on a yak and will fish mostly out of Mornington... Could it be that part two of this family story might just be starting?!?!

Seriously though... Are threshers as scary as Makos?? I think I just found a reason NOT to fish side saddle... Ala a certain HobieVic

Ivan


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Hi Scott, I'm keen to chase a thresher from the yak. Had no idea they were semi-common inside PPB though. The yanks can do the thresher from a yak thing, and we're better than them surely :wink:


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## rawprawn (Aug 31, 2005)

Good report Poddy. Moments like that let you know your alive dont they. Scary but great.


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

Sharks? Knives strapped to legs? Huh?

Next we will be carrying baseball bats ( Oops, some people do! ) and i dont blame you at all, i gave up surfing to avoid them altogether :?

That is unreal mate, how much braid did you lose?

Top stuff 8)


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

Ivan

Mako are definitely much more dangerous than threshers. Threshers have small mouths and generally feed on small fish. Mako are very similar to Great Whites, but have a mean streak. They are fast, jump and are known to attack the boats that catch them. They can be dangerous when brought alongside a boat. They could be VERY dangerous if brought alongside a kayak. Mako are just dangerous, unpredictable, scary fish. Thresher are sharks and are therefore dangerous. They just aren't in the same league as mako. We have both types of shark in the waters of Southern California. Local yak fishermen have caught thresher as large as 95kg. I'm not positive, but I think that translates to about 3m from nose to the tip of the tail (~2m body length). I haven't heard of anybody ever taking a mako bigger than 1m from a yak. Even a 1m mako would be a dangerous handful next to your yak. You might find these links interesting:

http://rhynobar.com/images/photos/image_image_thresher_1.jpg
This is kayak fishing guide Jeff Kreiger with a 9'9" 95.2kg thresher.

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1393&highlight=thresher
This thread has some great shots of local yak fisho Brad Messmer catching a thresher.

http://forum.kayak4fish.com/viewtopic.php?t=7561
Stupid talk of gaffing sharks

http://www.limboland.net/Merchant2/...SHYAK-DVD&Category_Code=Shark&Product_Count=1
This is a great DVD featuring kayak thresher fishing with guide Jeff Kreiger


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## ScottLovig (Aug 7, 2006)

My thoughts exactly Jase. PM me if you want to join in. I lost your mobile number after my phone went swimming (kids bath time).

A mate of mine was a local charter skipper and used to tangle with em all the time. They fight like buggery. For the first time the trick would be to move the fish to the beach before getting too personal. It may be a little ambitious to land one on the yak like the yanks just yet. I've geared up with gloves, rope, gaff etc and will start running out livies to see what happens.

Cheers

Scott


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## PhilipL (Apr 15, 2006)

Holy crap Rob. There I was Sunday afternoon thinking geez I wish I'd gone out mid arvo for a leisurely fish on the yak - and there you are having a bit of biff with a thresher. Don't care what you've done in your pants, you're still da man.

Hope to catch you on the water again soon - I'm just about local now.

PS. did you get it on one of your new rods??


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

Wow, now that is a different fish story. I know when paddling in the ocean, every now and then a wave will break behind me and the 'splash' makes me nearly jump out of my yak. Catching a thresher and seeing it jump would certainly get my adrenaline pumping! Wow.


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## hoit (Aug 29, 2005)

:lol: Oh Poddy, I do laugh when I read your posts. But this one takes the prize. Glad to see you made it back to shore safely.



Hobie Vic said:


> Picked up new wire traces this morning. Lets see if we can get that frenzy lure back for you Poddy. Thats a rude fish that would take it from you like that.


Hmmm, I'm not sure that my 6-10kg Silstar Power Tip/ Shimano Charter Special spooled with 25lb mono is quite up to the task. But what the heck. I'm in. 

BTW Do you just need to bring it alongside your yak for a photo to claim the catch.

Regards
Grant


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## Milt (Sep 2, 2005)

Holy :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: ing crap Poddy I need to shake your hand unbelievable effort and a truelly spectacular experience. Giddy up to shark fishing!!!

Milt,


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## Kevin (Aug 29, 2005)

Someone's going to land something down this way pretty spectacular soon with Scott dropping 80cm snapper and Rob stirring up the local sharks.

Rob I can just imagine your scenario. Everyhing would have happened so quickly and totally unexpectedly. As you recounted in your story it seemed like only upon reflection that you began to piece together what actually had happened.

Stirring stuff.


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Poddy what a hell of an adventure and great to read mate :roll:


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## Daveyak (Oct 6, 2005)

Wow! :shock: :shock: Poddy, I too would like to shake your hand (while you've still got it!!!) for that great effort and that really moving (well something moved) report.


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

Classic report!
Pissy 9cm lure aside, are _you_ going to tell it that it made a mistake?

They'll use that tail to whack the fish first, and then come in and eat the stunned baits. This results in frequent tail-hookings, and fouled lines. My experience is the tail-hooked don't jump as often as a mouth-hook. But with the light line you were using it might not have been much drag for him to leap w/ a hook in the tail. Congrats. You won't forget.

Z


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

Cheers for the comments guys...when I posted I half expected to see a bun fight about whether I was speaking shit or not and I'm glad that hasn't happened. Good on ya akff.

DaveyG, mate the rich yak stains are burnt in...but they'll never match the horrible mess Squidder's got his ink brushed boat in :wink:

Mushi/Smurf, I didn't quite go foetal..just dressed up in the Mrs gear and baked scones when I got home. Our house is now the proud owner of 2634 scones...I'm not sure PhillipL if this qualifies me as da man. Re the new rods, nope they still have their tags on em. :shock:

HobieVic, If a small Thunderstick does turn up down that way I'd love it back. That was my second one I lost on Sunday and they're hard to get. Storm now do an 11cm Thunder/Mid Thunder/ and Deep Thunder for anyone after an equivilant. Thanks for ya ear and info mate, champion stuff. 

RodL, in all honesty Mrs Poddy has not been told either. She wouldn't stop me fishing, but she would worry her sweet little self every time I went out. Even if I was looking for trout. Shh..loose lips sink yaks. :wink:

Milt, I'm not so sure about the effort as none of it was by design and at no stage (apart from picking up my rod misbelieving a snapper) did I look like trying to have any control over him or even contemplate tightening the drag. Even as a hookup dragging about a fish ya didn't know ya had on as a bait...on an undersized set up...for something else...is pretty half arsed (even for a Mango). 

Kevin, she was all over bloody quick allright. And I was tired after trolling about in the chop. And on top of that the only other PPB shark experience I've had was when ya sounded that fella off Seaford...and that's after countless Km's. So hooking up on one was not even considered in my mind. I reckon ya right about something big coming from down that way, there's a heap of small stuff there at the moment which only provides a food source for the big fella's. There's also far less boat traffic/noise to spook anything than PPB north from what I've seen. Having said that Hoit's snap's shows great northern PPB catches are also on the cards 8)

Doug, thanks for the links mate...I'll go off and have a butchers. At the time I had him pinned for a mako and know those fellas can come at ya boat (even the littlies). I know very little about threshers, but am on a steep learning curve and devouring any info I can come accross. Any ideas on the weight of a 1.5m to 2m thresher? From what I've read they can go 6m so he was only a bubs. :?:

Zed, I've had 35cm Tailor (bluefish?) take mini chunks off me hand...and I've never really been accused of courage...so Mr Shark can take my entire lure collection without any peep from me. :wink:


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

Onya Rob, a funny read as always. Get back out there mate, slow troll some livies and you should get a win. I have seen both makos and threshers come in on rapalas so hooking one on a lure isn't out of the question.

Catch ya Scott


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

I won't argue with the stats that you provide Red. Those numbers are probably in the ballpark. I've seen a fairly large spread in weight for thresher of a given length. I think this is due to the length of the tail. The tail is 35-40% of the body length, yet probably less than 10-15% of the weight. Other species have their weight distributed more evenly along the body, which makes the relationship between length and weight much more linear. The thresher's long tail hanging out there is just an invitation to the unscrupulous fisherman. I bet that there might be a couple of fishermen out there that have given a mighty tug on the thresher's tail when taking the measurement. It's just too easy to turn that 4' 7" pup into a 5'+ man-eater. :wink:


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## Naki Man (Aug 30, 2006)

Biggest thresher (well I think it was a thresher as it had a very long tail fin) that I've hooked was about 2 metre long. I was using 50lb main line with 80lb trace. I fought it for about 20 minutes when up it came tail first. It had taken the bottom hook off my ledger rig and I can only presume that when it bit, I struck, hooking it in the middle of the tail fin :shock: . I was fumbling for the camera when the first flick of the tail sent my sinker flying and the second flick chopped through my main line. It didn't seem that hard to get in, so I would recommend that if anyone is going after sharks, hook 'em by the blunt end. :lol:


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Great links you posted earlier in the thread Douglas  I especially enjoyed your mock post about free gaffing a mako :lol: It's a pretty serious business it seems, chasing sharks from a yak :shock:

Scott, I've also begun to assemble a few nooses and gaffs, but I can't quite figure what I would do when/if I get a toothy shark next to the yak. Cut the line would probably be the smart answer, but I might just be mad enough to try and land it. Noose over the head and tow it back to land? I agree with you, it is a good idea to finish the fight from the safety of dry land, but without pedal power, after hook up I would struggle to paddle, and hold the rod/control the fish at the same time. Maybe I should stick to fishing for squid :wink:


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## Russ (Feb 24, 2006)

Poddy your a mental case.

How are the Threshers on the fang ? any good.

Lightly fried Shark  yum

 fishing Russ


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## gheppsie (Sep 16, 2005)

dgax
That shark gaffing talk is the biggest longest [email protected]#$ talk session I've ever read......well done!! 
So its common to the sport not just to this forum...hmmm...i had my suspicions


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

> From a quick bit of research, a 7 foot one is just under 260 pounds. Lets call it 115 kilos.
> The weight wouldn't be quite linear for the smaller ones, so lets call a 3.5footer 35 kilos. Yours was somewhere inbetween, so maybe 75 kilos? Sound close?


If that's 7 foot fork length [omit tail] I believe it.
But the local variety at 7-9 feet total length has been 90-200#max. FWIW. The longer they get the more of a barrel they become.

The pic I posted in the shark experience thread was 8'4" (11'4" yak), 120#, and male with an empty belly.

Z

BTW Doug, I liked your story. I had already zipped my lip in that thread.


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

Red, My gut feel is that's a bit on the high side as well...but thanks for having a crack. I reckon ya logic would have won ya many a jar of jelly beans. I was thinking maybe 50 kilo but I don't really have a grasp on that one.  :

Russ, At the time I was not too worried about how a thresher went on the fang...I was entertained by the thought of how a Poddy might go on the fang. My minds resting a fair bit easier now with a bit more info and post match analysis...I wasn't in as much strife as I thought I was. :wink:

Squidder and Hobie, If ya do go chasing em the buddy system would be the go. But careful to fish wide of each other so ya don't get knocked off ya perch by accident or get a line come across ya. I've also ordered that DVD Doug was talking about so ya more than welcome to have a look. Ya nuts.


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## woody (Aug 15, 2006)

Hey guys this is amazing stuff.

I've been in the north of Victoria for my sister's wedding for a few days - and you're in my back yard fooling around with threshers off Mornington? Well at least I'm forewarned now.

I think I'll 'play it safe' and keep the breaking strain down on the line that I use, that way I have a 'safety fuse' if anything too big gets on before I get a bit more experience on the yak????


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## evarn (Jul 10, 2006)

hehehe... I hear ya Woody.

Don't spose you're the bloke I've been spying thru my telescope, working the navigation markes around fishy's beach??

We'll have to hook up for a n00by (read newbie) paddle when Hobie Vic delivers my yak.

Cheers

Ivan


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## woody (Aug 15, 2006)

Sounds good to me!!!!

I have only been out once from Fishy's beach as a trial, however it was magic to be amongst the diving terns, penguins and dolphins going for the bait fish schools. Caught 1 small Flathead to christen the yak.

Then to watch the sun set on the water and reluctantly go home.

Magic day.

Are you the guy I met on the beach that day???

If so, we probably only live five minutes walk from each other.


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## Guest (Oct 20, 2006)

I only got around to reading this thread today, but perhaps I should have read it earlier. I went out to the same spot with Hobie Vic this morning, and decided to take an ass-load of berley with me (minced salmon remains and a few chook pellets thrown in for good measure). I spent half of it tied near the anchor while I anchored up for 30 minutes or so, but the rest of the time I had it dangling from the side, just a foot below the surface. Every now and then I'd grab it and shake it to stir some berley out.

HV did tell me about your Thresher experience Poddy, and it did cross my mind as I dangled that berley out there, but upon reading this, now it's criss-crossing my mind wholesale. Not sure I'm too keen on having a thresher munching away at a berley bag hanging off my yak 

T'was a relatively uneventful morning by the way - we all caught a few, but nothing special (HV taking fish of the day). Oh, and I had one of those oh-so typical 'the one that got away' experiences... but you get that. There was four of us out there, practically showing off almost the entire hobie kayak catalogue. 1 Sport, 1 Outback, 1 Outrigger and 1 Adventure. Must have looked like a Hobie fan club, or R&D team.


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