A group of fishermen have captured footage of sharks chasing their catch after a recent fishing trip in Bundaberg waters.
Shaun Rissman was out soaking up the good weather on Wednesday with three mates and happened to have a GoPro on hand to shoot all of the underwater action.
The footage shows a large hammerhead shark and bull sharks swimming near the boat and taking off with the group's fish as they reel in.
“We were about 18 to 20 nautical miles east northeast of Burnett Heads in a water depth of around 90 feet,” Shaun said.
“We were targeting coral trout, sweetlip, hussar, red emperor and tuskfish.
“There was an inquisitive hammerhead that was checking out the electric motor early in the day but most of the shark interaction was from around lunchtime to the afternoon.”
Shaun said on this trip in particular the hammerhead and bull sharks were most active but previously, tiger sharks and lemon sharks had also been a common sight.
“When the shark numbers are really bad they usually attack the fish within the first 10 to 15 seconds of hook-up and they just take the whole thing in one bite,” he said.
“We have seen sharks chase our fish all the way to the boat on several occasions though.”
Shaun said competing with the sharks was, unfortunately, all part of the fishing game.
“There’s not really a lot that can be done. It all comes down to speed. You just need to get that fish up off the bottom as fast as you possibly can to increase your chances of landing it,” he said.
“Generally we’ve found that if you can get the fish past halfway back to the boat then your chances of landing it improve dramatically.”
Shaun said shark action was most prevalent during certain times of the year.
“It’s mostly to do with the water temperature,” he said.
“The sharks are much more plentiful and active during the warmer months, eg late spring all through summer and until early autumn but then they’re supposed to slow right down during winter.”
Shaun said while the shark footage was impressive, as a keen fisherman their presence was more of a hindrance when trying to target big fish.
“It’s definitely an annoyance because we’re out there trying to get a feed and they can make it really hard to do that at times,” he laughed.
“Also when you lose a good fish to a shark you generally lose all your tackle in the process, this means a lot of time is spent re rigging your gear and that also adds another cost to the fishing trip.
“Having said that though, I personally love sharks and I do get a kick out of seeing them up close; I just wish they’d leave our fish alone!”
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