| | Big
Game..... By Steve Stojanovski As Victorians
we are blessed with the best sporting venues and teams, we have the best league,
AFL and soccer teams in the country, our cricketer's aren't bad either and the
MCG is the Holy Grail! The only thing that we and our northern cousins thought
was lacking was Big Game Swoffing.......well we thought we would try and do something
about that!
In our back yard we have a stretch of water called
Bass Strait and a little thing we call ‘The Rip'. The Rip is a body of water that
is about 4km wide that runs between Point Nepean on the Mornington Peninsula and
Point Lonsdale on the Bellerine Peninsula and can be one of the most treacherous
bodies of water in Australia but can also be one of the prettiest. Exit the Rip
and you enter Bass Strait, I'm sure that you have all read and heard the stories
of Bass Strait and it is to be treated with respect.
It's late December
and the start of the Mako Season. Andrew Connell (Wet) and Andrew McDonald (Amac)
have been trying to get out on a Mako Trip for a while, with many a cancelled
trip due to bad weather last season. So when Chris Beech called to book a Mako
trip and mentioned Wet was coming, I thought here we go again.....clearly amac
was the problem last year!
The Day started at 6am at Queenscliff Boat
ramp, where the crew and I met Wet and his array of gear, he doesn't pack light!
Then a short trip across the bay to pick up Beechy...did I mention how much gear
these guys pack??? With a light northerly blowing it didn't take long before we
begun our drift in 35 meters of water, using fish frames and tuna oil for burly
and the last of a Southern Blue Fin Tuna frame that was taken on a fly rod earlier
in the year, 50km off Portland Victoria (a story for another day!). The plan was
to start the drift shallow and let the northerly and the current push us out to
50 metres of water, oh, and hopefully come across a Mako or two along the way.
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After
10 min or so it was clear that the plan was a good one, we hadn't even made it
through the first pack of shapes when a Mako Shark came up for a look at us. He
circled the boat a couple of times, almost treating us with contempt, as in to
say. “What are you doing here?” “I'm the top of the food chain” - and then went
on to try to take a chunk out of the back of the boat! He also took a close look
at our burly bags which were removed in a hurry; you don't want to get in a wrestling
match with one of these guys! We cast our fly with expectation but it ended in
despair as the Mako went on to refuse Wets white ‘cousin it' fly that he'd spent
hours tying and then turned and swam off back down the trail. Mako sharks will
often do this type of thing, sometimes hanging in the trail for hours before deciding
to eat. We were left to lick our wounds, re-group, eat some shapes, tell
some stories and ponder what could have been. I wondered, did we do something
wrong? Were we retrieving our fly wrong? Was the sink rate of the fly line wrong?
Did he see the 80lb single strand wire? Hope we have enough shapes on board...
were a few of the things going through my mind when, Chris, (my faithful companion)
simply said. “He wasn't hungry, he'll be back!” And back he was! Fifteen
minutes later the Mako appeared in the trail again this time with more purpose,
he was on the hunt and looking for something or someone to eat. Being around 20-30kg
mark and around 1.5m long he wasn't a big fish (when you consider a full-grown
length of 2.75–4 m and have been reported to weigh up to 800 kg) but
he was still making his presence felt, it was obvious to us that we were in with
a real shot this time round. I proceeded to throw some pilchard pieces into the
trail, allowing them to sink out of sight or be eaten before throwing another.
Be careful not to over feed the fish, at this stage use just enough to give him
a taste, you want him to work himself into a bit of a feeding frenzy. Wet was
ready for the fight and had Cousin It out there but once again it was refused
and the call/shout went out to beechy ‘the fly guru'....”get that bloody orange
thing out there!” Beechy, always the gentlemen, had promised Andrew first shot
at the fish but didn't need his arm twisted too much to get the fly out there.
I'd hardly finished yelling and Cousin Its cousin ‘3D Squid' in hot orange was
60' out in the trail. The fish disappeared again and the boys continued
to strip the flies in slowly. Strip, strip pause... strip, strip pause, think
of the way a squid would glide through the water. Beechy was more quiet than normal,
this was because and I quote, ‘I felt a suck suck” but what Beechy was feeling
was a take. The strike must be very firm so as to drive the 6/0 hook well and
truly into the mouth of the shark. In this case it was exactly that, a firm strip
strike resulted in a rooster tailing fly line and a heap of screams from the crew.
The Mako shark is quick through the water, real quick, with sp eeds recorded at
over 75kph in short bursts. “Oh yeah, we're on baby!!!” Beechy said something
along the lines of “HOLY SHIT!!!.” The fly line was cleared in a hurry and the
fish was on the reel - this is when keeping the deck clear pays off. Mako's are
known for their aerial abilities and they can jump up to 6 m (20 ft)
in the air and t his guy wasn't letting us down. With some spectacular jumps nice
and close to the boat, this is when you need to keep tight to the fish and watch
the angles you are putting on the fish and make sure the fish doesn't roll on
to the leader. The raspy skin works through leaders pretty quick and let's not
forget the razor sharp teeth these guys posses. With this in mind we weren't taking
any chances on leaders, I recommended using 4' butt section of 50lb mono, 3' tippet
section of 35lb mono and 2' of 80lb single strand wire as the shock tippet. Beechy
was putting plenty of hurt on the Mako and after 10-15 minutes and a few laps
of the boat the fish was in range for a gaff shot. The fish was quickly boated
and we all preceded to high five one another with great gusto! I use a 13 weight
fly rod for my heavy offshore work, but on most occasions you will get away with
using an 11 weight as long as the rod has plenty of lifting power. I prefer rods
with a third grip, just to give me a bit more leaning power when these guys head
deep. Fly Reels need to have a large arbor and a smooth drag that wont let you
down and a minimum of 300m of 50lb braid baking and enough room for a full sink
line. I also prefer full sink lines with a sink rate of around 6 inches a second
over sink tips as they allow the fly to sink evenly with the fly line and give
you a more even retrieve. Next time you hear about Sharks being the top
of the food chain, think about me tucking into some freshly cooked Mako on the
BBQ, and let our northern cousins know that we aren't that far behind when it
comes Fly caught game fish. Updated:
13/01/2008 | |
