Bronze Whaler Sharks (Bronzies) - Part 1

Me with my first bronzie, 69kg

The Bronze Whaler/Copper shark is a species of shark that is targeted along the Falsebay coast by many anglers, but mainly buy competitive league anglers. These sharks put up a massive fight, lasting anywhere from 15min to 2 hours +, and are very difficult to land.

These sharks are caught from the shore purely for sport, and aren't kept, but returned to the ocean to live to fight another day.

In competition points are awarded per kilo, thus bronzies (bronze whalers), are the main focus of most competition anglers on the day, as catches of 100kgs + are a regular occurrence.

These sharks can grow to over 300kgs, the current record for a bronze whaler caught from the shore is held by Greg Kellermann of Two Oceans AC, with a bronzie of 2.50m which is 227kgs.

Greg Kellermann with his record breaker 227kg Bronzie

This record was close to being beaten recently by angler of Tygerberg Rock and Surf AC, Dion Van Zyl with his 2.49m bronzie of 224kgs caught on the 3 October 2009.

These make no mistake, these fish put man and his tackle under tremendous pressure, and is very testing, with the shark winning the battle more times than none.

Dion Van Zyl with his 224kg bronzie (www.probait.co.za)

At a later stage i'll go into more detail on how to target these beautiful machines of nature.