Bull shark hauled in from backyard pontoon in Gold Coast lake

A GOLD Coast father and son have snagged a 2m bull shark — right from the pontoon in their back yard.

A 2M BULL shark has been caught by a Gold Coast businessman and his muay thai fighter son ... in their back yard.

Robbie Still, 53, of Varsity Lakes, said that in the 12 years his family had lived on Lake Orr, they had never tried to catch one of the many bull sharks they regularly heard jumping around in the lake, preferring to catch fish such as bream and flathead.

A few months ago he decided to try for a bull shark, but never expected a 2m one to be their first.

“We’d seen them jump so we knew they were in here,” he said.

“You hear these massive big splashes at night and sounds like someone is jumping in.”

Mr Still, who owns Don’s Moving and Storage Gold Coast in Burleigh Heads, said he had baited two rods and left them on the pontoon at the back of their house before going to work Monday morning.

He replaced the eel bait when he returned home and was finishing up dinner about 9pm when he heard something big take the bait.

“We were sitting in the kitchen finishing up dinner and our bi-fold doors were open,” he said.

“Suddenly we heard the rod screaming. Cory was in his room so I yelled out to him I knew what was on the line.

“It took about 30 minutes to reel it in, but I thought we might get something about 1m long.

“Corey was support crew. It was a father-and-son circus.”

The men pulled the shark up on to the pontoon’s ramp.

Mr Still used pliers to remove the hook while his son poured a few buckets of water over the big fish, before they released it back into the lake.

“It wasn’t very happy. We got him up onto the ramp edge and I said to Cory that it wasn’t moving, so Cory put some buckets of water over him,” he said.

“After the hook was out, Cory went to tap it on the snout to make sure it got back off the ramp and it went crazy, thrashing its tail around.

“It actually worked itself back into the water.”

Mr Still and his son, who won the Pro World Boxing Council Queensland muay thai title in October, said they had always planned to release the shark, and caught it for some fun.