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[Music]
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Welcome to Hastings, Australia. It's a little different to the Sussex seaside town we know
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but it is on the coast and there are fish here... We've been promised the chance to
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hook a gummy shark by a rising hunting star in Australia, Dave Fent. His Aussie Hunting
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Adventure series is about to hit the networks, so before he's priced out of the market and
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becomes all lovey on us, his dad Cliff has offered up his boat for us to go shark fishing
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with Dave.
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Well basically today we have come out of the front of the western entrance and we have
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got ... over here and the mainland back over here on the other side of us and we have come
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out chasing gummy sharks and there are few ... getting around as well at the moment.
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Can you be savaged by gummy sharks?
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Well they could certainly tear your finger apart.
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Oh they will, so they are not that gummy.
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Not that gummy. We will see if we can get one for you.
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The best chance of hooking a gummy, which Dave assures us are good eating, is during
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slack water between tides. There is plenty of prep to be done to get us ready.
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Just start loading on a few cubes and making a bit of a trial and the gummies and other
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fish will pick up on this and start to come in.
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In the meantime it's worth dangling the rod.
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Our first nibble is a barracuda - one of the fastest fish in the water and I have always
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wanted to catch one, armed with some serious teeth.
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They are not great eating fish. Most people use them for bate or pop them back in the
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water. They are very, very boney. By the time you have picked out a squillion bones it is
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not worth eating.
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What size do they go up to?
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These things get up to a metre or so 1,200, quite a bit longer, quite a bit bigger, will
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give you a good fight when they get to that sort of size.
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Then I get a bite and it's my first ever barracuda.
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First barracuda. I am not going to pick it up because I will get myself spined and scragged
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... mackerel off Sussex, barracuda off Melbourne. Brilliant.
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With he assures me a bit of time left before the gummy fest I ask Dave about his new TV
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series.
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We are going to cater for the every day hunter. We are going to cover deer, foxes, rabbits
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and goats. All the easy stuff and it is easily accessible to the Australian public.
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That is the Aussie hunter's favourite sort of fayre is it?
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Yes.
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Now alright. May be your show is on your shirt there Aussie Hunting Adventures TV series.
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Yes that is right.
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Stick that into Google.
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Put it into Google have a bit of a look. Have a look at our website and our Facebook page.
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We have got quite a few followers so far. It has been great.
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Then something serious grabs one of the lines and Dave starts working it
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Well basically we had a larger bait out for a gummy. A gummy has come up and he has grabbed
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onto it and now he has taken off and he has taken some line. So what we will do now is
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we will pick up the rod, we will tighten up the drag and then we will let him go a bit
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and then we will strike him. What they tend to do sometimes they will turn around and
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they will start swimming against the current sometimes they will swim around the front
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of the boat. Click her off. See if we can get a bit of line back and find him and there
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he is. We are in. He is a good fish I would say.
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Then another bites. We seems to be bringing in anything but a gumster. This one is a Port
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Jackson shark which looks a lot bigger in the water than it does on deck.
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Now I hit a leopard shark which sounds a bit more like it.
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Leopard shark - very, very fierce. This fish is almost as long as my hand.
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But it makes a getaway once it spots me.
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That was the best release ever.
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Still no Gummy but Dave is still working what we hope is now not the ever present but the
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elusive gummy.
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Next up is a cuttlefish - then another leopard shark. This one looks a bit more impressive
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on deck but we're all hoping Dave's biggun isn't going to disappoint. After an hour a
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large shovel nose ray appears - it too gets a rush of blood when it gets close to the
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boat and it's off.
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There he goes.
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So we have caught sharks, we've seen plenty of fish but not that der-dum moment. Nevertheless
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it is a lovely way to relax before heading to the airport - and home to Britain and doesn't
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a sunset over Hasting look pretty.
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If you want to see a preview of Dave's programme follow the link on the screen.