Shades Fishing News

A TERRITORY angler thought he had hooked the catch of a lifetime when he started reeling in a monster cod. (ed: for picture see Source link)

But he had to share his catch with another predator.

Dylan Jenkins was fishing with a group of mates at Flat Top Banks, about 160km west of Darwin, when a big shark stole his prize catch.

Darwin Reef ‘n’ Wrecks skipper Trevis Bancroft said the flowery cod weighed about 12kg and was 1.2m long.

“Dylan started pulling up the fish and then there was this huge weight,” he said.

“All of sudden it just stopped and there was just dead weight and the head came up.”

He said the group couldn’t see the type of shark.

“It would have been a fairly big shark,” he said.

“Maybe a tiger or bull shark - we lose a lot of good fish out there.”

Mr Jenkins and his workmates from DNS Constructions celebrated their Christmas party on the two-day fishing charter.

Despite the loss they enjoyed the weekend out.

“They had a great trip,” Mr Bancroft said.

“Everyone just wanted to take photos of it.”

Source and Picture : Northern Territory News

From the NT ABC site:

When we launched our Tinny Tales of tragedy competition, we were expecting to hear lots of stories like our own.

Tim getting stuck up to his nipples in mud for six hours over a Shady Camp low tide, Morgan loosing all his gear, filling the boat with sand and puncturing the hull and Rob, well, just not catching all that many fish.

But this one has scared the living beejezus out of us!! It would be funny if you saw it on a 1980’s B-grade horror flick.

Problem is, it’s reality. And every fisho is at risk.

Here’s the yarn of how it all unfolded from the horses mouth

HERE’S a fishing tale to rival any — this 122cm barra is said to have jumped into a boat loaded with tourists to escape the jaws of a hungry croc.
And fishing guide Shane Franey said the fish jumped clean into his lap near Cahill’s Crossing in Kakadu.

“I was doing my tour on the East Alligator at 9 o’clock in the morning,” he said.

“This barra just lined me up and came at me like a hole in one.

“It sat on my lap and hit me — it took the wind out of me; I had to throw it in the air.

“It was a shock at the time — I thought it was a crocodile diving out of the water.”

A tour guide for two years, Mr Franey has caught a few barra in his time but this one was so big and the circumstances so strange he thought it must have been a dream.

“I reckon it might have been trying to get away from a crocodile — or I thought it might have been (hit by) the propeller.

“It had a few nicks on it and there was blood on the floor.”

Thousands might not believe this tale but Mr Franey, 23, of Jabiru, is adamant it’s true.

But few of the nine tourists in his boat last Tuesday saw the leaping fish.

“It happened so quick none of them really seen it happening,” he said.

“Everyone could see I was so excited — it was that big I didn’t know what it was,” he said.

Source: NT News