Poor result, 21Oct08

From: "kevin long"
Subject: Fishing today -- 21Oct08
Date: Tuesday, 21 October 2008 2:08 PM

Great yakking weather today and a solid rollup, including Andy who hadn't fished with us before. So here they are just prior to launch. There were no tourists around to take the photo so I'm not in it.

What the well-dressed yakker wears in Noosa. From left: Andy and his Prowler Elite, Charles, Steven, Harry, Mike and Doug (a visitor from Bargara).

All mastered the shore break with aplomb and headed north in the gentlest of southerly breezes. I was the last out and stuffed around a bit so was the last to arrive at the reef to find perfect conditions.

The first thing I did on arrival was to retrieve my trolled hard bodied lure which had not attracted any attention during the trip out. Halfway through this retrieve the lure was belted and at first I thought I'd picked up a small snapper but after a brief fight a bonito appeared next to the yak. I yakked him, photographed him and let him go.

Australian bonito, a hard fighter, not a table fish, but allegedly good for bait.

Having sorted out my gear after this, I put out my customary light jig and then rigged up a trailing outfit with a single large jig and deployed it. I'd only had one or two casts with the light outfit when my eye was attracted to colour and movement on the port side and below water. I looked down to have my stare returned by a very large turtle which was gliding along, following the yak, only about 2 metres down, apparently with mating intentions. No sooner had I spotted the turtle than my trailing outfit started to show signs of distress and I realised that the turtle had become entangled in the trailing line. Bugger!

What followed was a hard fight to try to get the jig back and, in the event of failure, to minimise the amount of line the turtle would have to trail behind it. After about five minutes of solid tussle, at last the turtle was visible, about 3 metres under the yak. I was just starting to create a plan for the next phase, dealing with an angry 100kg turtle in the yak when thankfully, the line broke right at the knot and the turtle swam off carrying my jig as a campaign medal. I hope and am pretty sure that the jig hook will rust away in a few days and cause minimal hassle for this beautiful animal.

After an hour or so of fishing, no one was reporting the capture of significant fish, a worrying situation. I certainly had been busy, but hadn't been able to raise a single snapper or sweetlip, or even any reef fish. The breeze was fairly consistent and light from the SW and I tried drifts over all of my favourite spots to no avail. This was in marked contrast to the last two trips to JS in the last two weeks in which we caught reasonable fish consistently. The following is all I can report from a fishing point of view: Harry eventually caught a reasonable sweetlip on bait; Doug hooked and released a grinner on SP; Andy reported a strong run, but no hookup, on a soft plastic which he was trolling and which he'd allowed to fall when he slowed down; I caught another bonito on a soft plastic (pic below).

Another bonito for me, this time on a soft plastic

Mike and Andy left for home earlier than Harry, Doug and I. And I can't report what happened to Steven and Charles, last seen headed south from the eastern edge of the reef, perhaps in hope of a repeat of last week's stellar performance. We'd like to hear from you, guys. Anything else to report?

9.37am. Harry and Doug on the way home.

Despite the decent swell at the beach, Harry, Doug and I managed to land with dignity intact just west of the groyne. This was a pretty good effort on Doug's part, I thought, as he was in a borrowed yak (my spare) and has little surf experience.

Some days are better than others, but all time spent yak fishing with a few mates is time well spent I reckon. Thanks for coming guys. See you next time. So it's over to Jaro for coordination of the next trip, which could be sometime on the weekend according to today's Seabreeze forecast -- although the forecast swell might make it more interesting than today.

Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner

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