Small Mako Sydney

[CaptainTrav]

Hooked into a small Mako off Sydney on Saturday,

We were bottom bashing off North Head with the westerly blowing, we turned off the engine about 30meters away from the rocks (super protected area, pretty much glass conditions) using pilchards and squid drifting due east.

Originally we were going to head out but we saw some colour on the sounder so stuck around for a few drifts.

Picked up a few snapper just over legal, and bits and pieces of other reefies. Got a nice size yellow tail and a nice size slimmy.

We decided to head further out, so we went out to that wreck that is 2 miles due east of bluefish point,

Got the game rod, main line to swivel, then to a half pound sinker then to a 25kg leader then to a double live bait hook setup.

Hooked the yellow tail through the shoulders and the tail and dropped it to the bottom.

About 20 minutes and a steady drift east the reel started loosing line, jerked the rod to set the hooks, which set good until about a minute of fighting when it bit through the leader.

1 minutes later our small 850 Penn reel started loosing line. Running a simple padagoster rig, and a cube of pilchard.

Good little fight produced a 1.2m Mako Shark.

Got the head in the net when the line got cut by the teeth, and he was off. We were only running 15kg leader on the rigs.

Turned out to be a good day, I was a little surprised the Mako took the baits from the sea floor. Has anyone else had this happen before?

Cheers

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JonD]

I've hooked plenty of small makos on my light snapper rigs, often as they drop down. The teeth aren't like the razors of whaler sharks so we often get them back to the boat with just light mono on spin gear, though I haven't kept one for a few years now.

Down here in Narooma we currently have lots of makos and can almost guarantee an interaction with them while chassing snapper. Bermagui bait and tackle just posted some pics of two small makos about 40 kg that had been attacked leaving saucer sized holes in the sharks from other makos.

Jon