Plenty of sharks to catch off Urangan Pier

A HERVEY Bay fisherman has been reeling in on average one shark a week off the Urangan Pier for the past year.

You name it, Colin Mathieson has probably caught it.

From small school sharks to a 2.5m shovelnose ray which had to be released and even a bronze whaler shark.

The latest catch was a 1.37m hammerhead shark caught off the pier on Tuesday.

So far, for the month of January, Colin said he'd caught four sharks.

"We roughly catch one shark a week when you average it out over the year," the owner of Urangan Rod Hire said.

"Urangan Pier is an accessible spot for a lot of people and I catch more in the deep water than the shallow so the pier gets you out into the deeper waters.

"Not that you don't see them around the edge (shallower waters) but in terms of catching them you'll get more in the deep water."

Colin, who has lived and fished in the Bay since moving here in 2005, has been gathering statistics on the best tides to catch the most sharks since 2014 (see breakout below.)

He said the best tide was the low tide late, when the tide is half way up to full tide and at its greatest depth.

According to his stats, Colin caught 162 sharks on tides like this since April 2014.

When it came to eating, Colin said once a fortnight was ideal to avoid mercury poisoning which he experienced himself a couple of years ago.

"I had double the accepted level of mercury and went off sharks completely for a while," he said.

"I'm back to eating them, just less.

"The best eating is the white spot shovelnose ray and the second best is the black tip reef shark."

Colin donates shark meat to Bayside Transformations in Hervey Bay where he's taught members at the rehabilitation centre how to prepare the shark meat for eating.

TIDE STATISTICS (Since April 2014)

Low tide early (from shallowest water up until half way to high tide) - 64 sharks

Low tide late (half way up to full at its greatest depth - 162 sharks

High tide early - 86 sharks

High tide late - 24 sharks