Read this on another forum today...
Reeling in great white sharks from our surf beaches
By Paul Scott and Chad Watson
October 23, 2005
The Sun-Herald
Two thrill-seeking anglers have caught more than a dozen great white sharks by using surfboards to drop giant baited hooks just beyond the breakers.
The great whites have taken the bait - usually half a salmon - only 50 metres from the water's edge along Stockton Bight, north of Newcastle.
Kris "Mackerel" Macklin and Glen "Mullet" Connell, of Boat Harbour at Port Stephens, paddle out on their surfboards with the salmon and line tucked beneath their chests.
They throw the bloodied fish overboard then paddle quickly back to shore and wait for a strike in the middle of the aptly named Bight, a 30-kilometre stretch with popular surfing and bathing spots at either end (Stockton Beach to the south and Birubi in the north).
The pair have purpose-built a swivelling chair - complete with seatbelt and stubby holder - that fits onto the bullbar of a Toyota LandCruiser.
Sometimes they strap themselves into the seat and are driven back and forth along the shoreline in a bid to land the sharks; other times they just stand on the beach with their heavy-duty rods awaiting action.
"Most of the white pointers we have caught have weighed 80 to 120 kilograms, with the biggest around 200 kilograms," Mr Macklin said.
"The ones we have landed range from six foot [1.8 metres] to one that was a solid nine foot [2.7 metres]."
When The Sun-Herald accompanied the daring duo last week, their two baits were snapped up only minutes apart by white pointers.
It took a frantic 20 minutes for the thrashing sharks, each more than 2.5 metres long, to be hauled in, tagged and released into the shallows.
Reeling in great white sharks from our surf beaches
By Paul Scott and Chad Watson
October 23, 2005
The Sun-Herald
Two thrill-seeking anglers have caught more than a dozen great white sharks by using surfboards to drop giant baited hooks just beyond the breakers.
The great whites have taken the bait - usually half a salmon - only 50 metres from the water's edge along Stockton Bight, north of Newcastle.
Kris "Mackerel" Macklin and Glen "Mullet" Connell, of Boat Harbour at Port Stephens, paddle out on their surfboards with the salmon and line tucked beneath their chests.
They throw the bloodied fish overboard then paddle quickly back to shore and wait for a strike in the middle of the aptly named Bight, a 30-kilometre stretch with popular surfing and bathing spots at either end (Stockton Beach to the south and Birubi in the north).
The pair have purpose-built a swivelling chair - complete with seatbelt and stubby holder - that fits onto the bullbar of a Toyota LandCruiser.
Sometimes they strap themselves into the seat and are driven back and forth along the shoreline in a bid to land the sharks; other times they just stand on the beach with their heavy-duty rods awaiting action.
"Most of the white pointers we have caught have weighed 80 to 120 kilograms, with the biggest around 200 kilograms," Mr Macklin said.
"The ones we have landed range from six foot [1.8 metres] to one that was a solid nine foot [2.7 metres]."
When The Sun-Herald accompanied the daring duo last week, their two baits were snapped up only minutes apart by white pointers.
It took a frantic 20 minutes for the thrashing sharks, each more than 2.5 metres long, to be hauled in, tagged and released into the shallows.