Hide the Peanuts, its Elephants Season

by Jarrod Day on 23 Jun 2011 ,b.If there was one fish that takes the name of the 'mother in law fish', then this one takes the cake. Highly prized by Victorian fisho’s, the elephant is one extremely grotesque looking creature.

For those not in the know, elephants are quite often recognised by their long plough type nose and skin of a pelagic fish. To some, they are called elephant sharks while others happily call them elephant fish. It is a misconception that they are either a fish or a shark; rather they are member of the chimera family. Of only three chimeras in the world, the elephant is the only one which is found in Australian waters, no wonder anglers from all over the country flock to Victoria to catch them.

A face onlay a mother can love
Elephants are a very unusual creature; they don’t actually swim like other fishes but instead use their pectoral fins like wings and glide through the water. Their tails act like a rudder to steer them in direction and their skin is more of that of a pelagic fish than any other.

Their faces contain thousands of sensory pores which aid in detecting the scent of food, therefore they use their plough type nose to sift through the muddy sea floor in search of molluscs and other crustaceans.

A very unique fish to say the least, elephants are highly prized in New Zealand for their flake type flesh, that’s right, they have no bones!

Where and When
Elephants are quite a unique fish in that most of their lives is spend on deep offshore reefs in the Tasman Sea. Once a year, elephants migrate from the deep into shallow estuary’s and bays in order to spawn. In Victoria, these migratory waterways include Lakes Entrance and along the 90 mile beach, Western Port, Port Phillip Bay and around the coast and into South Australia.

It is known that the fish that inhabit the estuaries and bay in S.A are in actually fact of different brood stock to those around the Victorian coast.

Still, the fish are the same and are focused on one subject, spawning!

Of all the locations in which they journey, Western Port has been made famous for its huge influx of migrating elephants over the years and is now the number one location to seek one out in season. More and more fish swim into Western Port each year because of the favoured sea floor in which they lay their eggs.

Happily named the Elephant Triangle, this section of Western Port is where the majority of these fish are targeted due to the muddy sea floor in which they lay their eggs.

The 'elephant triangle' runs from Rhyll to Tortoise Head, then across to Corinella and back to Rhyll.
Although this area is several kilometres of water, as long as you’re fishing in it you more than half a chance at catching an elephant.

Their migration into Western Port appears to begin during early February and runs through until the end of May. This annual migration coincides with the Eastern School Holidays. This is ideal for holidaymakers flocking to Phillip Island for the Easter Holidays. When elephants are in vast numbers they are easy to catch making then an easy target for holidaymakers.

Tackle and Tactics
Elephants are a very worthy opponent considering you don’t need any high tech gear, reels with advanced drags or fandangle fishing rods to battle them out, basically any outfit known to man can do the job.

When stalking elephants, I have a set rack of elephant fighting weapons. When hooked, elephants tend to put in quite a large first run. By the end of the battle, they fight near the surface swimming back and forth rolling in up the leader.

Standard elephant fighting gear tends to be either snapper or gummy tackle rated to 10 kilos, but as elephants are generally caught up to 5 kilos being the average, lighter tackle can be used.

I usually have great fun battling it out on extra light tackle such as a Wilson Live fibre whiting rod with Shimano Symetre 2500. Although I use 4lb braid, the lightest leader has been 15lb black magic fluorocarbon. I have attempted to use lighter leader but when the fish rolls, they erect their sharp dorsal spin severing the leader, and the 15 lb can stand up to the test.

Specific rigs are also important when elephant fishing, because they use their trunk to sift through the mud for food, your baits need to be placed on the bottom with reach.

To get the best from a rig, I suggest you use a running sinker rig; this will enable the bait to sit on the mud. Again, you can make the rig from 15lb leader with a hook size of 3/0.

Most of the time, elephants will swallow the entire hook and if you want to release them it can be hard trying to remove the hook. Circle hooks are taking over the tackle box and for catch and release purposes they are a godsend. Even when fishing such light tackle they are beneficial by enabling the fish to hook themselves without you attempting to set the hook with such light tackle.

The Rules of Attraction
There is no doubt that berley is the key to a successful elephant hunter.

Elephants are known to be a scavenger; any smell of food is worth checking after swimming thousands of kilometres.

I like to use a large berley bucket with fine holes. This enables the berley trail to be fine rather than expelling large chunks which would feed the fish. The ideal behind the small holes in the bucket is to tempt them with smell until they find the baits that are cast into the trail.

My blend of berley is made of mixed ingredients, mashed pilchards, tuna oil and pellets are dissolved together with water.

When this is placed into the water the pressure of the current disperses the berley along the sea floor.

As long as your baits are cast into the trail it would be only a matter a time before the berley works and the baits are eaten.

Elephant Regulations
Some years ago, the elephant population was almost decimated as there was not much research done into their migratory patterns and information about them.

Since then, a heavily reduced bag limit of one fish per person per day applies throughout the year.