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Mystery needs solving


Ledge

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G’day Raiders.

I had something strange happen to me last time I was out fishing a central coast ledge and wanted to harness your collective knowledge to figure out what happened and how to get the better of the fish next time!

The situation:

- Fishing whole pilchards on a two-hook rig.

- 30lb braid and 50lb leader on a Catalina 4000.

- Sandy bottom off the ledge. Had caught a few kings but was waiting for the big one.

- Cast out and bait hit the sand. After a few seconds I feel something mouthing the bait and then it slowly starts to pull so I strike and BAM! Big run on fairly tight drag. Much harder run than the undersized kings I’d been hooking so far, I call it for a big fish and tell my mate to have the gaff handy. Then after a few seconds of taking line I’m no longer connected.

- I reel in the line and bait is still there, intact but slightly crushed?!

Im wondering if it was a big Jewfish as I’ve never caught a jewie before but have heard they take the bait differently to kings.

1) What the heck happened???
2) What do I do differently next time?

Thanks for reading!

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Just to kind of add something similar, years ago I used to fish with a mate for Snapper off the rocks on the south side of Bass Point, it was a similar situation, you fished from the rocks, into sand. We regularly caught decent Snapper there, but, now and then we used to hook "things" that we never landed, we convinced ourselves that they "must" be giant Jewfish or something great, remember when fishing, everything you lose is twice as big and always a big Jew, by the time you get home, it's three times as big as you dream about it.......one day, my mate hooked the big "Jew" but this time, managed to get some line back on it, after some rock "hopping" the worlds biggest Shovelnose showed up....damn, how deflating, he was sure the mystery Jew was coming in!

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I might have told the story before, but I've had a similar experience happen when I was fishing at Port Stephens off the Anchorage breakwall. I had a whole pillie out from the wall and something would pick up the bait and run. Difference was, my bait was gone after that.

Halfway through our session, a couple of dolphins surfaced along the wall. Were they my bait thieves? Maybe. I suspect being intelligent creatures, they might have been more adept at removing baits while avoiding hooks. But the other alternatives are just as likely and the dolphin appearances might just have been a coincidence.

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100% a ray, that munching vibration is exactly what a ray does and the fact that the bait was squished, means it couldn't be much els. 

Rays have a crushing plate which squeezes their food on the top plate in theyre mouth hence it flattens the bait. plus, sandy bottoms are their prefered habatit 

 

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6 hours ago, noelm said:

Just to kind of add something similar, years ago I used to fish with a mate for Snapper off the rocks on the south side of Bass Point, it was a similar situation, you fished from the rocks, into sand. We regularly caught decent Snapper there, but, now and then we used to hook "things" that we never landed, we convinced ourselves that they "must" be giant Jewfish or something great, remember when fishing, everything you lose is twice as big and always a big Jew, by the time you get home, it's three times as big as you dream about it.......one day, my mate hooked the big "Jew" but this time, managed to get some line back on it, after some rock "hopping" the worlds biggest Shovelnose showed up....damn, how deflating, he was sure the mystery Jew was coming in!

I don't know how many times I thought I was onto a good jew and it turned out to be a big shovelnose. They even fight like a jew as their tail belts against the line when they run.

My uncle was a great beach, jew fisherman and always told me if you're catching shovelnose sharks, you're fishing prime jew water. 

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Thanks team! Good to have an answer even if it’s not quite the species I was hoping for 😆 

What threw me off the scent of a ray was the fact that it took off with a bit of speed.. but I have caught plenty of small shovelnose there before so that makes sense.

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