From: "JARO CERNY"
Subject: N.Y. Fishing Report 19/11/07
Date: Monday, 19 November 2007 2:31 PM
Hi Yakers,
Well four (Jim Mal and Steve and myself) turned up at the appointed time. With a small swell and little wind to trouble us we all made it out safely (6.20am) and proceeded to troll to Jew Shoal uneventfully. After a hiatus in activity the fish started to bite and Jim casting and also trolling with the drift using a squidgie caught a whopper keeper (64cm) with the said squidgie. In the excitement of bagging this fish Jim snagged his watch off his wrist to see it quickly disappear in Davey Jones Locker. Jim ended up with 3 other normal sized keepers.
Meanwhile Steve had also caught his first and only good sized keeper... and he also became seasick but toughed it out. A great effort from the newcomer. Mal was having a good time catching 3 keepers... one being a good 52cm. Yours truly caught a monster but as usual lost it hook and some line (you always have to have a story about the one that got away)... but still ended up with a normal sized keeper and a sweetlip.
Jim and Steve left about an hour before Mal and I. According to Jim, Steve made a brilliantly successful return to the beach surfing a wave like a pro all the way to the shore on the spit side of middle groyne. Jim tried to emulate this feat... unsuccessfully!!
Mal tried to pick a break in the waves... unsuccessfully and ended having a nice cooling dip. On seeing this I was determined to bide my time and on seeing a break in the waves made a headlong dash for the beach... fear is a great motivator... imagine the sigh of relief with success.
Well this has been the most successful expedition so far... 10 good sized fish caught between 4 kayakers and it was done under the most pleasant conditions to date.
Jim will show some photos courtesy of Steve.
Hopefully this report will encourage those that haven't be out yet to come and join in the fun.
Jaro
Heavy yellow Prowler 13
Jim’s report
Subject: Fw: N.Y. Fishing Report 19/11/07
Date: Tuesday, 20 November 2007 10:56 AM
G'day Yakers,
What a great day !!!
Further to Jaro's report (well done Jaro), attached are the accompanying pics.
For those wishing to refine the "Jew Shoal Fishing Technique" (pioneered by Kev) I offer the following additions to Jaro's report:
Once at Jew Shoal, Steve and I paddled to the upwind (SE) perimeter of the imaginary 500m radius circle around the centre of JS. Similar to last Thursday's trip to JS, it wasn't until we had drifted to about 100-200 m onto the NW side of the centre of JS that we started to get some action. I initially thought the thick wind rows of brown/orange algae all over the reef area might be having a detrimental effect on the snapper's enthusiasm to take the baits offered, but this obviously proved not to be so.
As there appeared to be no action with the normal technique of casting the Berkley Gulp soft plastic "minnows" on a small jig head down wind with the light gear, I decided to also trail a larger soft plastic "jig type" lure (the pink coloured lure in the attached pic, but with tail now bitten off) on my heavier trolling line. This lure is similar to the Starlo & Bushy's "Squidgies" (also shown in the pic) but the lead weight is all internal to the body of the lure, and the pink one I was using was not scented like the Squidgies are. They are ~12cm long and weigh 35g (~ 1.25 oz) which enables them to get reasonably close to the bottom on a very slow drift when trailed behind the yak. The actual lure I used had a triple hook attached mid body but this is not really necessary.
I was lucky that I had just retrieved the light line, when the "whopper" hit the heavy trailing "squidgie". Being the heavy trolling gear (~30lb line on big Daiwa Sealine overhead reel), I had plenty of "power" in reserve and didn't have to spend too much time in subduing this big snapper (but it was still bloody great fun!!!). I would suggest, however, that it would normally not be a good idea to operate two lines simultaneously, as a hit on either line would very likely result in a tangle with the other line in the process of playing the fish.
I marked the spot with the GPS where I hooked the big snapper and it was generally around this area that I picked up the additional three, albeit smaller, snapper, one of these on the squidgie type lure on two successive drifts over this area.
My conclusions after today's experience at JS are:
(a) A GPS receiver is invaluable to be able to target a locality for that morning and to be able to do repeated drifts over it.
(b) The soft plastic protein/scented lures are definitely the go for snapper and sweetlip at JS, however, shape, size and colour doesn't seem to make much difference.
(c) The important factors appear to be locating a "hot spot" for the morning, and getting your lure down there, ie, trailing a squidgie type lure is only likely to be effective on a very slow drift.
An interesting experiment now would be to combine Kev's "casting down wind technique" but using a heavier squidgie type lure. Because of the greater casting distance and sink rate achieved, retrieving slowly with a slight jig action as you drift forward might be effective. Next time...
I might also add that just before leaving JS, I got hit on the light gear with what I believe would have been a snapper equally as big as the 64cm specimen. My light Shimano Sedona reel (see pic) was just "screaming" for about the first 10-15 seconds as this fish took about 50m of line from me before he managed to spit the lure... bugger!!!! Not to worry, that means there is still at least one big whopper out there for next time, and it was a delightful casual paddle back to main beach with a yak full of fish, the sun shining, a small swell and light SSE breeze pushing Steve and me along. The fact that I had lost my watch overboard seemed inconsequential.
Cheers
Jimbo
Yellow and green Espri, now with lots more snapper scales on it
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