spanish mack or shark

[austral]

hello all, i would like to know how some of you guys and gals can tell the difference between a spanish mack or a shark after having a few big bust offs today.

ill set the scene for you all, we had the berley bucket working and aided by bigger baits and whole pillies floating down, water temp was 23.7 deg.

cast the whole pillie out unweighted and let sink, wait a few minutes and the struggle to get the rod out of the holder as the fish takes a run of about 50-80m.

after tightening up the drag and still getting busted i decided to loosen it up on the last fish and let it run under normal drag pressure and it finally stopped near the surface after about 100m and i was starting to win some line back then it cut me off..

so twice it was my knots going under heavy drag and twice it was frayed and sliced at the end while useing 30lb braid and 30lb leader..

please help me fishraiders...cheers stevo..

[irongustavius]

I'd say land one

Seriously though? I fish for much smaller fish so it's not a problem I have to deal with very much.

Useless, I know.

[andrew399]

if it was a shark when it came up to the surface im thinking you would have seen a fin? I know the couple of sharks that i have caught have come to the surface towards the end of the fight... Not sure about macks fighting habits. For either of those species though you should be using a short wire leader.

[Noodles]

3 summers back we had a similar experience while fishing in front of Crackneck. There was a very warm current pushing inshore and we had several bite-offs using live slimies, dead slimies, dead pillies and whole squid. About 6 in all from memory and they occured over a fairly short time on the surface, in mid-water while dropping down and from the bottom. Each one would have a big fast run then nothing, all gone with no real drag or weight put on them so there was obviously teeth involved. I have no idea of size as we never really got to feel the weight of them. We didn't have any wire on the boat at all. I feel that it was probably some type of mackeral but without landing one, who knows?

Edited January 21, 2012 by Noodles

[matt84]

not that i have caught alot of macks but from my experience, fast take - blistering run- come back pretty easy after that with a few head shakes. sharks slower take - fast run, may slow down then speed up again - alot of zig zags - win some line loose some - heavy weigh.

The speed is normally a give away, You will never really know until u land one though.

[dabble]

i would geuss shark. Usually if there are some macks around you would get at least one bite off which you would not even see or hear. Beacause their jaws cut exactly like razor sharp scissors there doesn't have to be any pressure on the line for them to cut the line, not unlike the way leather jacket seem to be able to do the same. Even 100lb mono trace can be snipped without to much fuss from a small spanish or spotty. Never know though.

[rjc123]

Depends on where you were fishing but a blistering run like you described is typical of a mackerel. Sharks can run hard too but they generally feel a little like a big jewfish. A few less head shakes but it is very possible that it was a school of spanish mackerel or spotties!