Busted off in Dover Heights

[noelm]

Jesus with that gear you would just pull up a skeleton of a Snapper, my guess is a big old Ray, pretty common to come up to the top, run along the bottom and generally just pull hard.

[James Clain]

Definitely not a bull shark. Probably not a shark in general because you would get bitten off very quickly. I highly doubt it was a king and the water was probably too cold for a big amberjack or samsonfish. If you had a fish like that, that you managed to bring up and then have it run away then it was possibly a tuna but you did not mention it doing parallel runs? Did it run sideways when you were bringing it up?

You did not mention what you had on as some bait? Was it floating or on the bottom or half way? It could have been a white pointer although I would assume that you were hooked up to an eagle ray or just a black ray that was confused. Actually maybe it was a big GT

Naa, almost certainly something ray like. 

 

[Blackfish]

I'm with the Ray theory to (Smooth Stingray/ Short tail Stingray), fairly common along the coast. They get BIG and pull like a freight Train.

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by Blackfish

[JAKSShark]

Cant rule out a 1.5metre blackfish or a giant squid or maybe even a 40 kg tailor😂

[Guest Guest123456789]

That definitely sounds like an Elsa Doll from one of the containers. When you hooked it she must have short circuited in the water and swam down to the depths (she does like the cold).

[Yon]

On 5/30/2020 at 12:01 PM, James Clain said:

Definitely not a bull shark. Probably not a shark in general because you would get bitten off very quickly. I highly doubt it was a king and the water was probably too cold for a big amberjack or samsonfish. If you had a fish like that, that you managed to bring up and then have it run away then it was possibly a tuna but you did not mention it doing parallel runs? Did it run sideways when you were bringing it up?

You did not mention what you had on as some bait? Was it floating or on the bottom or half way? It could have been a white pointer although I would assume that you were hooked up to an eagle ray or just a black ray that was confused. Actually maybe it was a big GT

Naa, almost certainly something ray like. 

 

Yeah I’m pretty sure you’re right. Didn’t do parallel runs, just wouldn’t let me keep it on the surface. 
 

bait was a squid head - guts and all, on a 6/0 circle hook. I had the bait sitting about 3m off the bottom. 

[Yon]

On 5/30/2020 at 5:55 PM, motiondave said:

could be wobbygong, we lifted a 5 foot job off the bottom at Dobroyd head a while back, using 80lb hand line, was a lazy slow moving lump of cement, once it came to surface though,it sheered the leader and slowly swam away. I also must have hooked onto at least one more, but ended up having to snap my 30lb braid, I could not get the bugger off the bottom. No I wasnt snagged either, unless rocks move.... 

 

I’ve lifted them before but this felt a bit different. Harder to lift and more powerful when pulling down. 

[James Clain]

18 hours ago, Yon said:

Yeah I’m pretty sure you’re right. Didn’t do parallel runs, just wouldn’t let me keep it on the surface. 
 

bait was a squid head - guts and all, on a 6/0 circle hook. I had the bait sitting about 3m off the bottom. 

Yea I had a similar story a couple weeks ago, hooked a big ray on pe7 in the harbour. Squid head just off the bottom. The ray took off like a king then ran up and then down and then out. I managed to smoke it up pretty quickly although it was not that big. My leader was super chafed, like really chafed. Not from bottom but because the rays barb can slide along the line. It is safe to assume you definitely had a ray on that broke off when it tail whacked the line or even possibly got sharked while you were hooked up. 

Dead squid is a large food source for rays as well so it makes sense especially in the location you said you hooked up. 

[Yon]

I think that this mystery has been solved. That is *exactly* what my line (Well what was left of it anyway) looked like.