Over recent years there has been somewhat of a resurgence in numbers of big gummy sharks in southern waters. The numbers have increased significantly enough that previously unpopular spots for gummies, such as the bottom end of Port Phillip Bay, are now prime country. Like targeting big snapper, big gummies require the correct set up, the right timing and that the angler does his homework before hitting the water.

TIDES

One thing that stands among switched-on gummy fishermen down south is that they all seem to have a handle on fishing the right tides when chasing these sharks. When you speak to many of them you realise that the majority (if not all) of these guys work areas that are under a strong tidal influence. Now this isn’t to say that big gummies aren’t caught in less tidal affected areas such as the top end of Western Port or anywhere north of Mud Island in Port Phillip Bay. As we all know, fishing is about playing the percentages; you have to be where the fish are most ‘likely’ to be, not where they ‘may’ be. The general rule is this, when it comes to gummies, the big bangers prefer the faster moving water and the smaller ones, well they can turn up anywhere, but they seem to be in bigger numbers in areas where the tide isn’t quite as strong.

Now, when fishing tides for big gummies, as with most styles of fishing, the last one and one- half to two hours before the change of tide is going to be the most productive. There are of course exceptions to this rule, which make it worth while fishing the middle of a tide. On occasions you will get a gummy to take a bait mid tide, and from what I and many of my fishing contemporaries have experienced, if you do get a gummy hook up mid tide, when the water is really moving, it’s likely to be an absolute ripper of a fish. Another reason for fishing from at least mid tide onwards is to allow time for gummies to find your bait.

When it come olfactory senses, gummies have one of the best noses in the business. This is why it makes sense to have your baits in the water for as long as possible to give them a chance to pick up the scent, sometimes from kilometres away down current, and then move up towards the source. It’s this ability of the gummy to pick up the smell of a bait that creates the main point of difference when fishing for them when compared to other species like snapper. Reds are a schooling fish, and yes they respond to burley, but not anything like sharks do. When fishing for snapper the sounder is your greatest ally. Use it to sound up schools, drop the anchor, start fishing and if you have no luck in half an hour or so it’s time to move on.

With gummies it’s pretty much the complete opposite. Trying to sound up gummy sharks is pretty much a waste of time, as is moving around from spot to spot trying to find feeding fish. The most productive method is to use your sounder to find a suitable location, drop the anchor and then sit it out – do not move! If the tide allows you to get a burley bucket down to the bottom then get it down. It’s really like setting a trap. The cheese goes in, the mouse smells the cheese, takes the bait – then off comes his head.

Perhaps as a final note on tides, it’s selecting the best one to fish. During the day we all know there are two of each tide, two highs and two lows (unless of course you’re in an area where you have to contend with dodge tides). The best one to fish is generally going to be the one that has the smallest difference between the high and the low. This means overall you’re battling with a little less current which means you can get your baits down easier and therefore can fish more of the tide.

Which to fish, ebb or flood tide? Well, in the past I have always been a firm believer in fishing the last of the ebb or run out tide. Reason being, the water recedes over the banks, food washes into the channels and the gummies sit in wait for food to pass by. Nowadays I’m not so sure. Down the southern end of Port Phillip for example, lately we’ve found the last couple of hours of the flood tide makes the best time for fishing for big gummies, where as on some of the shallower banks down the southern end of Western Port either end of the flood or ebb seem to work just as well. This is where the angler needs to do a bit of homework and experimenting to work out what works best where. Just remember; whether it’s flood or ebb, try and fish the smaller of the two tides during the day.

GUMMIES BY NIGHT

One thing that is fairly well accepted in the fishing fraternity is that sharks are active feeders at night and particularly around the full moon. Gummies are no different, with the XL models of the species becoming very active on the feeding front after dusk. When fishing at night the same basic rules apply to the tides as during any other time, with big fish being a possibility at any part of the tide, but the best times to fish are still those last couple of hours before the change.

Perhaps the biggest problem angler’s encounter at night, even around the full moon, is those bait destroying maggots of the brine - sea lice. One thing to be certain of is before heading out for a night fish, make sure you have a heap of bait, because chances are you’ll need it. When the lice are about in full force be prepared to be changing baits every 10 minutes. At night you have to be vigil about the presence of lice because they can turn up out of nowhere at anytime and then disappear just as fast.

CHOOSING A LOCATION

Few would argue that electronic fishing aids over the last few years have really gone to the next level. Nowadays there is a myriad of sounders and GPS units on the market to choose from. Anglers today, rightly or wrongly, seem to have an obsession with GPS marks and the belief that the GPS mark is that ‘magic spot’. GPS marks certainly have their role in targeting big gummies, but it’s the C-Map on GPS chart plotters that really provide the greatest assistance in determining the best grounds to fish.

The C-Map on the chart plotter provides a detailed map of the area you’re fishing. It gives the angler an over-view of the contours of the sea floor showing established areas of reef, channel depths and more importantly for the gummy shark fisherman, where the edges of those channels and steep drop offs are. This saves time when out on the water and also brings up for consideration places to fish that may have otherwise been over looked.

The chart plotter on its own serves as a guide to finding suitable ground to fish, but once in the general vicinity, the depth sounder takes over for final honing in on the best place to anchor for a fishing session. Now as I just mentioned, the places to look for are the edges of channels and other areas where the water depth drops away dramatically. The reason for this is pretty simple. As we discussed, big gummies in areas like Port Phillip and Western Port aren’t going to be found in large schools like snapper are. They tend to patrol on their own or in small numbers along the edges of channels waiting for food to come along. Personally, I prefer to anchor in slightly shallower water than is generally considered the norm. By shallow I mean anything from 6-12 meters. From my experience deeper water not only produces gummies, but also hoards of what anglers regard as picker or ‘rubbish’ fish. Fishing slightly shallower doesn’t seem to deter the big gummies from taking a bait, but it does significantly reduce the number of unwanted hook- ups. It’s nice to know that when you see that rod tip cranking over it’s probably a gummy on the other end.

TACKLE AND BAIT

A stack has been written on this subject over the years, so I won’t go into a heap of detail on general gear apart from saying you need a good quality thread line or over head reel capable of handling 15-25kg braid and a matching rod in the 7' range for tackling big gummies.

One thing worth mentioning is shock leader. As a general rule, I’ll use a shock leader that is about 20% less in breaking strain than my main line. Unfortunately gummies inhabit the same turf as stingrays and there is nothing worse than wasting 45 minutes battling a 200 pound stingray only to end up having him bust off 50 meters of your braid. By using a slightly lighter shock leader, when a ray does take a bait, if need be you can bust him off easily without losing any of your main line. To do this, point the rod in the direction of where the line is running so that there is no bend in the rod, hold the spool tight, then in one sharp action pull the rod and reel backwards. The shock leader tends to break at the swivel leaving a short leader attached to the ray. Not completely ideal and obviously if you can get the ray to the boat easily and remove the hook or cut him off right next to the hook then even better. However, at least this way if push comes to shove and you find yourself on the wrong end of a losing battle with a big ray, you can minimise the chances of a bust off resulting in him swimming off with 50 meters of line hanging out of his mouth. In a couple of days the hook will rust out and life for the ray can go on as normal.

When it comes to terminals, hook selection is an area that warrants discussion. The vast majority of gummies that take a bait get hooked in the side of the mouth irrespective of what style of hook is being used. Because of this, hook selection in my mind points towards one style in particular; the circle hook. The reasoning for this is pretty simple. For fish that are gut hooked a ‘J’ style hook works best. It easily buries into the tissue and because the hook itself doesn’t act as the direct point of axis between the fish and the rod, it doesn’t matter which direction a fish swims, the tendency is that the hook won’t pull out. Things are a little different, however, when a fish is hooked in the mouth.

A fish that is mouth hooked has the point of axis between the angler and the fish at the hook itself. This means that unlike a gut hooked fish, the hook under goes rotation and pivoting as the fish changes direction during the fight after hook up. When using a ‘J’ style hook there’s no issue until the fish starts to swim directly away from the angler. It’s at this stage the ‘J’ hook is turned around on itself, and as that fish swims in the opposite direction to the angler, the forces exerted on the hook are actually trying to work the hook free. This isn’t the case though when using a circle hook. Due to the unique shape of the circle hook, when a fish that is mouth hooked swims in the opposite direction to the angler there isn’t the likelihood that the hook will want to pull out.

There are a heap of good quality circle hooks on the market to choose from. I certainly don’t hide the fact that I’m an advocate for Black Magic products, but in all honesty I can’t say I’ve ever seen a hook that works better for gummies than their KL circle hook in 5/0 or 6/0 size. The hook up rate is phenomenal and I’ve never had one of these hooks pull on a big gummy post hook up, and I’ve been using them religiously for the last 5 years on these sharks.

BAITS

In the area of baits, rarely is there anything new or revolutionary that hasn’t been tried before. For years pro shark fishermen have known about freshwater eel as being a gun bait for gummies and other shark species, but perhaps because of availability or reluctance to move away from traditional baits, amateur anglers had been slow to catch on. This all changed about 2 years ago when cured freshwater eel became commercially available for recreational anglers. What anglers found was a bait that was durable even after hours in the water, didn’t attract as many unwanted species as many other baits did and most importantly gummies loved it. It really is one of those baits that has all the boxes ticked. As far as fish fillet baits go, either fresh trevally or really fresh salmon (as in caught that day) strips are super effective, but they are also known to be a favorite of stingrays, banjo sharks and other unwanted species. Beyond these 3 baits, I’m not sure there’s much else that will provide the angler with a better option for catching big gummies.

RELEASE OR KEEP?

Generally, there are two schools of thought when it comes to keeping or releasing gummies. The first one is to release all big gummies and keep smaller ones if you want some flake. The other is to release all of them and when you want some fillets keep just one bigger gummy. To me, in the end it becomes a numbers game. Part of the reason I fish for gummies is so I can eat flake, but at the same time it’s not in the best interest of the fishery to be taking them in numbers. In the past I’ve advocated releasing all big gummies and only keeping smaller ones, until it was pointed out to me that there is a bit of a contradiction in releasing all the big one’s only to take more smaller ones probably before they’ve even had a chance to breed. Nowadays, my preference is to take one bigger gummy, say in that 12-18kg range, once in a while rather than taking half a dozen smaller ones more regularly for the same result in terms of fillets. I think that any of the really big bangers, say anything over 20kg, should be released without hesitation. Ultimately it’s all about only taking what you need and limiting your catch rather than catching your limit.

At the end of the day, fishing for big gummies is not unlike any other angling pursuit. It takes time to get a handle on the vagaries, but if you follow the rules, be patient and don’t try to reinvent the wheel, rewards will come. Big gummy fishing isn’t about numbers of fish caught. It’s about getting maybe 1 or 2 hook ups a session or even often going home empty handed. But on the days the cards fall your way out on the water, it’ll be the stuff you tell your grand kids about.