Mulloway?

Hey guys just a few questions about mulloway.  When they are interested in your bait do they stay there for awhile looking and playing with it?  And would a mulloway be able to bite a herring roughly in half?  I had a livie out the other day and all i saw was the rod bouncing from the livie puckering up then slack (I was using a 2 hook rig with a hook behind the head and one around the tail area why I missed a hook up I have no idea) and the night before that I was chucking out livies at the body was getting bittenfrom the body up to just behind the head pretty cleanly would that have been a shark or mully?  And every time unlike what I've seen from rays there isnt a semi circle type of chunk its just clean through bar the herring that got bit in half that one was a little messy.  And I hope that boltcutters cant/wouldnt do that haha, also I've put a picture of the herring that got bitten in half as an attatchment (atleast I hope it's worked)

Cheers, Shaun.

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Mulloway wont bite your bait

Sat, 2014-04-05 21:28

Mulloway wont bite your bait at all, they swallow the bait whole. This is the biggest consideration in hooking and landing mulloway.

BoozeFishSnooze's picture

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Ah ok, so that ticks that off

Sat, 2014-04-05 21:30

Ah ok, so that ticks that off the list and only leaves either a wiley ray, shark, nor wester or some other unknown.  Another question what size hooks would you use for live baiting for mulloway and should I change to just 1 hook instead of 2?

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looks like a ray sucking chew

Sat, 2014-04-05 21:33

looks like a ray sucking chew by the looks of that

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I thought a ray but it missed

Sat, 2014-04-05 21:35

I thought a ray but it missed the hook that was lodged firmly in the rear end but I have seen a few big rays cruising around the jetty so it could just be a ray but thats not as much of a mystery haha

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 Funny thing happened the

Sat, 2014-04-05 21:48

 Funny thing happened the other day when we beached our boat after a day's fishing. Right next to us a Herring jumped out of the water minus it's tail. It was still alive. If I had a rod I woulda thrown it back in with a 9/0 in it's back.

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(No subject)

Sat, 2014-04-05 21:50

BoozeFishSnooze's picture

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Spewin woulda been good to

Sat, 2014-04-05 21:56

Spewin woulda been good to see what came out of it hey. I'll tell you what though I had a dissapointment the other week having a nwer playing with my bait like I've heard mulloway do so I was freespooling etc for a good 10 minutes before i got the run and then finally got him to the surface and all i heard was the grinding and saw the ugly bastard haha.

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Belly88's picture

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Years

Sat, 2014-04-05 22:42

 In all my years of fishing I've never seen a bait return like that.. It looks to me liike you have cut the tail off on an angle then a whiting has nibbled on it.. Mulloway never bite threw the bait they just leave pin marks.. Tailor would be my guess if I had to say something but normally it would be in more of a curve but could have been a couple of bites.. Definately not a shark again not curved enough.. It's really weird it's just to clean to be a stingray and the angle is to straight and clean to be pickers. 

Belly

 

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Similar thing happens to me

Sat, 2014-04-05 22:53

Similar thing happens to me often, my take on it is a stingray munching on it. Would crabs be a possibility?

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For crabs from what I've read

Sat, 2014-04-05 23:22

For crabs from what I've read up they wont go for livies, and I always see the rod tip going off its dial from the fish getting a fright then slack, but I'm not sure maybe crabs would go for em it would explain not even getting a run. I was thinking maybe a shark of some sort considering I got the black tip in my pic at the same location but I haven't been bitten off or even had a single hook up.  Maybe it could be I just need to get bigger hooks again seeing as I ran out of my 6/0+ hooks and now I'm only using 5/0s but either way if somethings getting a fish atleast halfway in its gob I would think it'd atleast get jagged by the hook.

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Call me the wrasse whisperer.