wow, that is a weird looking shark! looks like a basking shark, but with gummy colourations

Good stuff dan , the comp usually doesnt turn the fish on,
its like they know that all them bits of squid and blue bait
hanging off hooks arent good to eat.

Some of the netters get that close to shore you could hit em with a good cast

regards mick

Little school shark Dan.

I avoid that area like the plague during comp time!

Mick:
Spewin the action wasnt great. But still a good weekend away

Damo:
Thanks for the ID. I was a little confused with the clear part under its snout. I guess its still undeveloped as its a juvinile. Looks cool though. Nice to have a look at up close.

the larger ones still have the clearish snout , I have surf fished for nearly 10 years and only landed 2 (both over 10kgs), one from Clifton Beach on mono and one from a rock spot east of Port Campbell on wire. Schoolies are just as elusive as a mulloway and much harder to land because of the teeth. By the take, I reckon ive maybe hooked another 10 and see at least that many while fishing with other people. They are my favourite Victorian species.

On a side note, the school shark population was on the edge of collaspe (and still are to an extent) in the late 80's with an estimated 6% of the original (pre commericial) population, fisheries management (namely the use of smaller net gape sizes) now estimates the population to be around ~13% of original population. There currently is no 'school shark' fishery however between 2000-2500 tonnes are taken each year as bi-catch rom the flake fishery which targets gummies and saw shark.

School sharks are very long lived (~50-60yo) compare to gummies (~16-17yo), do not mature until at last 20 years old at 10-15kgs plus and they have a relatively small number of pups (2-7) compared to gummies (up to 30). Spawning frequency and gestation period is also not fully known and as with most other sharks there is a lack of exact data on many other things. The good news for fisherman, is that gummies have taken the niche due to the lack of school sharks, estimates put the population of school shark higher than gummies pre commericial fishing, but now due to gummies life history and lack of schoolies, they have been able to populate areas/ habitat faster than schoolies.

So from this, its a hell of a lot better to keep gummy than a schoolie even though the vast majority of gummies and schoolies caught are not mature anyway.

Happy to answer any other questions you may have

Cheers

Aaron

Great reply Aaron,

There does appear to be a lot of little school shark about at the moment. Hopefully the change in restrictions that has seen the gummie numbers recover has had the same effect for the school shark which, as you have already pointed out, has just taken longer due to thier slower growth rate and smaller broods.

I am going to Flinders Island next Friday for 10 days, I hear that they can be found in good numbers of the beach there.

Cheers

D

Thanks Damo

it may have been a good spawning year for them?, from what i now is that gummies spawn once every 2 years in Victoria but im not entirely sure about schoolies. I think all Vic fishos would love to see the population increase, hopefully with the population increase further techniques on how and where to target them will come through. I havent seen any dedicated articles to catching schoolies i think most are just where you find them but when you get onto them it is as good as it gets land based in Vic.

yep flinders idland is supposed to have great surf fishing.

best of luck

looks like a baby schooly

Went over to ninety mile last night ,no sharks a few rays ,the beach was easy to fish no weed ,no wash ...But the rain came down like a tropical thunder storm we got soaked and ended up with 9 flatty all around 45-55 cm mark

regards mick

Thanks for the update and report Mick! Always glad to hear whats been happening over there.

im heading to golden beach this coming weekend with a mate. went last year in november did well with flatis salmon, a pinki, travelly and a ray. good various fish species but we were both disapointed not to get a gummy after trying 3 nights in a row (but there was alot of weed and lice at the time) hopefully we get better result this time will keep you posted.

went down this weekend, was absolute SH!T conditions to fish in!! stayed in seaspray, from friday to monday. friday saturday was FULL of weed, unfishable.sunday weed started clearing up, got a few decent flaties between 30-40cm. my mate managed to pull a bronze whaler about 70cm long out to somehow on a popper rig (but took the hook on the bottom not hte popper). apart from that that was it. no salmon no travelly no pinkies gummies nothing jst a few flatty.

Got home from the 90 mile about an hour ago. I had evenings at it on Sunday and Monday. Fished incoming tide from 6pm till about 10:30-11:00pm both nights. Conditions were absolutely perfect comfort wise. Good clear weather. Small swell. Zero weed and sidewash. I was using 1oz to 4oz sinkers without any dramas. The beach produced a mixed bag for the missus and myself. We were kept well fed and also entertained by all the interesting catches. Fish wise we managed to get onto Trevally, Salmon to 47cm, flathead to the same size, tailor to 42cm, rays and some huge pufferfish showed up.

The first night produced stacks of fish and constant action. One little leopard shark took a liking to my squid and made himself known. On the second night another 5 sharks caught. 2 gummies, another leopard, 7 gill and one hammer head. All were juviniles and were released after a bit of admiring. The hammer head was particularly cool and it had trouble getting back in the water. It was re-released multiple times as it lost its bearings and kept swimming back onshore.

Best baits were freshly caught squid (mornington) and fresh salmon and flathead fillets. Blue bait and squid were used on a 10ft rod to catch most of the fish. While the larger rods were the beneficiaries of the fresh fillets. Non stop action as the bigger baits were constantly being picked at and the smaller rod hooking up almost as soon as the bait hit the water.

Will put some photos up tommorrow night if anyone is interested. Great weekend and one of the better sessions with lots of action and lots of interesting fish to catch (and eat!). Had a ball.

-Dan

sounds good dan,pics will be great,im thinken of organizing a trip up that way soon if i can get time...cheers

Yes we are interested - look forward to seeing them . Well done

Finally home from work. Here's are few pics of some of the baby sharks and other stuff. Had lots of fun having a look at them and being provided with a bit of fun.

Nice work dan ,I've heard reports that the beach has heaps of little sharks all along the 90 mile atm ,couple of mates went over and got sick of catching undersize ones ,but have also heard some reports of some decent bronzies being caught in the last week

Keep the reports coming ,just gets a bit hard to keep up with the surf fishing adventures of fellow fishvicers as it(surf fishing) doesnt have a home of its own

regards mick

Heya Mick.... yep lots of baby sharks. I wasnt bothered as they are interesting to look at and fun to wrangle and release. Also the fish were on so we got a feed both nights. hmmm would be nice to have a surf section for those that are keen.

Great pics Dan! Those hammerheads are awesome looking !!

Dan inspired me to pull my finger out and get over to Ninety mile so a mate and i went yesterday arvo, before we got too the beach we went and rustled up some bait ,trevally and some mullet ,we ended up with 15 good bait size trevally (all legal ) and half a dozen mullet

We got over to the beach around high tide was a beautiful deep gutter just meters in front so we didnt waste any time ,it was a race for positions ,My mate got of the mark first with a nice little banjo ,followed by a small ray ,at this point I'm starting to ask me mate what bait , what rig he was using etc ,the usuall questions you ask when your mates catching and your not

As the tide started too run out the flatties started to fire ,I ended up with 3 keepers and my mate 2 ,things began to slow right down even the crabs had taken a rest ,so we did the same and had some coffee and tucker
At around the bottom of low tide after a bit of a rest and some tucker we started into fishing again wasn't long and both our rods started to do a little dance at the same time ,we were on both of us had snagged some good fish at almost exactly the same time the cry went out across the beach from both of us "I'M ON AND ITS A GUMMY"
the next part of the conversation had to be edited but when along the lines of "MINES BIG ", " NAH MINES BIGGER" we landed both fish and I'm glad too say mines was bigger

After a bit of back slapping we baited up and waited an hour went by with almost the exact same thing happening with in minutes of each other 2 more hook ups this time My mate got a slightly smaller shark and I got a baby (which was released),half hour after this and much bragging from my mate BANG my rod went into the gummie dance and it was on ,know the score was equal but we had both hit our limit ,and so now faced a dilemma keep fishing risk catching a bigger gummies as they were obviously out there in force or pack up and go home ...we stayed ,down graded our leaders and hooks and spent the rest of the night trying not too catch gummies


Was great fun ,the beach is in great condition and the weather was still mild enuff for shorts and T-shirt


heres some pics of my catch




Hope this all makes sense as I just woke up and only have had 4 hours sleep
regards mick