Jaws IV

My bait and sinker hit the sea bed; I wound the tackle eleven turns off the bottom and set the drag on the reel to its lowest setting.

Nibble, nibble, then bang - a large Yellowtail Kingfish took the bait.

The rod tip bent double and the fish nose-dived for the bottom. I snapped the drag on the line to its highest setting and held firm, using all my strength to prevent the fish from getting any closer to the bottom. As the fish eased-off a little, I dropped the tip of the rod and reeled in a few feet of line, before heaving hard on the rod again.

Darren, the boat skipper, stared yelling for me to reel the fish in harder and faster. Easier said than done.

After a few minutes of hauling, suddenly the rod stopped jerking to be replaced with huge dead-weight, and the rod started to release line and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“Shark’s got your fish” yelled Darren. “You didn’t get him in fast enough”

The shark stopped swimming away from the boat and, with every ounce of strength I could muster, I managed to reel in a few feet of line. Then he was off again.

The process was repeated many times and gradually, I sensed that I was getting the upper hand. Then the shark decided to do a circuit of the boat, which meant that I had to weave my rod over and under the other rods on the boat.

Next the big fish did a pirouette around the anchor rope and my line became securely snagged.

After winching in the anchor, were were able to pass the rod around the rope and free the line.

At this point, I had been heaving on the line for nearly 20 minutes and I was feeling the effects in my arms and shoulders, however, I was slowly winning and now steadily taking more line in than the shark could strip from my reel.

A flash of white in the water gave us first sight of the fish. It was big but difficult to gauge quite how big.

I asked the skipper what we were going to do with it?
“We’ll get it to the boat and unhook it. It’s too dangerous to have a shark in the boat and it will cause a lot of damage”

The skipper put on a chain mail glove and I kept hauling on the rod.

We got the fish alongside the boat and Darren identified it as an Bull Shark nine feet in length.

With the line shortened, the skipper gave the line a shake, and the shark shook its head with sufficient force to straighten the hook and get free.

It’s parting shot was to send a tidal wave of water into the boat soaking everyone.

The Bull Shark was my most spectacular fish, but not my only one.

Of the twelve large King Fish our fishing party hooked. We managed to get two onto the boat. Sharks 10, humans 2. One on these was mine.

We also caught a large number of Snapper. The biggest, a real monster, was also one of mine!

By far the best day’s fishing I have ever had!

Which left the problem with what to do with the catch. Our motel room has only rudimentary cooking facilities and an embargo on cooking fish.

Fortunately, on the pier, is a small restaurant, run by a very obliging chef who, when asked, agreed to cook my catch for our dinner tonight. Kingfish and Snapper, both make very good eating!

We’re gonna need a bigger frying pan

P.S. If you are wondering why there is no photo of the Shark; unfortunately, while battling as fish as big as I am, I didn’t have a free hand to fiddle with my iPhone.

I did however keep the hook as a momento…

Update
I have since learned that my shark was not a Bull a Shark, but a Bronze Whaler, also known as a Copper Shark. On the day, the Skipper identified the fish as a “Bronze Whaler - like a Bull Shark”. Never having previously heard of the Bronze Whaler, I incorrectly assumed that these were two names for the same species. In fact, Bull Sharks are not found in New Zealand waters at all and Bronze Whalers, occupy a similar ecological niche.

When we had the fish alongside the boat, we were able to make a reasonable estimate of its length, which we put at 3 metres. This would make its weight around 250 kg.

I have found this photo of a Bronze Whaler on-line that is similar to my beast…