Just from today, heaps of razor sharp teeth (small granted but razor sharp all the same, sliced a bit of my finger today, hence the pics with the rag in its mouth.

I took a few pics of inside the mouth after slicing my fingers to bits too, but the rocking boat got them a bit out of whack so the teeth aren't nearly as visible as in yours. Noticeably the lower jaw has far more teeth than the top jaw. A strong fish will shake its head violently and go on big runs, thus angling the leader towards the bottom jaw, whereas smaller fish will be easily led up and only do a couple of runs thus keeping the leader angled more towards the top jaw where there are far less teeth. So hypothetically that could explain some of the bust offs. In the words of mythbusters thats clearly "plausible" thanks to Adam's experiment and the evidence still healing on my fingers.

It would be interesting to hear what the scientists at fisheries say when I drop off the frames.

Hehehe...had to say it, sorry. I have no idea other than maybe a shark.

i would agree with andy,most probably a shark,had the same thing happen to me a couple of times but have seen the shark,when the shark has seen the boat it has gone for one last big run and then the bust off,with no abraision to the leader.but if i dont see the shark i alway s think it could have been a big dhuie
cheers ray

Spoke to Nick from fisheries this morning. He is a technician there and has probably dissected more Dhuies than this forum will ever catch in its lifetime. I asked him about the teeth and he confirmed that it is plausible that a dhuie could chew through stong leader material. "They crush crustaceans after all" he said. He did however offer an even more plausable reason for leader breakage and that is the gill plates. These are definately razor sharp and he tells me he has had some serious blood loss himself from handling the fish all day. We summised that a fish hooked with the line trailing back towards the tail that wraps itself up under the gills could easily be snapped off on the razor sharp gill plates.

End of the day no-one will ever know, but......

Fact #1 Dhuies do have teeth
Fact #2 Dhuies have very strong jaws to crack crayfish etc
Fact #3 Dhuies teeth are small but sharp
Fact #4 Dhuies gill plates are extremely sharp

So combine that with Adam's little experiment and I stick to my assessment of "Plausible"

So.......... myth busted then??

:D :D :D

Belive me i had a northwest blowie that measured 120cm and wieghed in at nearly 14kg that opened up a mustard biggun 6/0 hook up at canarvon. The fish did not go back alive, unfortunatly. Later in the day one put a dent in me mates pliers. Shark or blowie who knows but it takes a bit of doing.

Without reading all info, Dhufish have very abrasive/raspy teeth that can wear through leader and loose you a fish if your fishing a light trace ie 100lb and under, certain trace lines will vary the outcome ie stiffer Shneider trace line etc so if you go light trace then go a stiff trace where as I prefer Jinkai a more supple trace but I use 120lb (up the poundage).

I have seen a dhu break a leader through a long drawn out fight on 80lb supple trace, not a common problem but still to be kept in mind. If the fish has taken the hook deep they tend to come up easy so less wear but if you get a bigish Dhu with a hook just inside his mouth he/she can head shake & hacksaw you leader....not always getting through but weakening the breaking strain!

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