From: sunshiner
Date: 3/06/2010 3:22 PM
Weather
Cloud cover:3/10 to 7/10
Wind direction & speed: westerly up to 10 knots
Sea state: low swell
Jew Shoal: No current
And so we fronted again this morning, Jaro and I, lured by the likelihood of light winds from the west amd low swell. And so it turned out to be. On my arrival at Middle Groyne just before 0600 the air temp was bracing but there was no discernible breeze (see glass-out pic later). Shortly we were ready to launch.
0617hrs. The other craft out there are surf skis.
Our destination was Jew Shoal (3.7km away), which we hadn't visited for bottom fishing for quite a while. But it's a destination we know very well and which has delivered superb fishing for us from time to time. The sunrise view over Laguna Bay, was, as often, breathtaking, even to the likes of us who see it frequently. Today it was near perfect, with a mirror-like sea in the foreground.
0634 hrs. Just after starting out on our journey to Jew Shoal.
As we approached Jew Shoal the breeze gradually became more evident, coming from behind my left shoulder. But the sea was pretty flat so Jaro and I had elected to head straight for the western side of the shoal in order to drift fish from west to east, breeze-assisted. In due course we arrived and started fishing immediately at around 0715hrs.
Jaro had opted to start fishing at a spot about two hundred metres further north than I. Just as we'd planned, the breeze pushed us gently along toward the east at a near perfect speed. It wasn't long before the radio blared. "Got a really nice sweetlip," exults Jaro. This gave me some hope that the fish might be biting. Jaro was fishing with pilchards as bait on his trailing outfit and a soft plastic on his casting outfit. I was fishing with soft plastics on both. The sweetlip (grassy) had fallen for the pilchard bait. Before long the radio blares again. This time a clipped, hurried, transmission. "Got a bloody biggie on here." This prompted me to prepare to retrieve my lines as I'm always interested in getting pics of special fish and usually Jaro doesn't exaggerate much ;-). A couple of minutes later he confirmed that he still had the fish on and was gradually getting it under control. That was enough for me -- soon I was paddling toward him.
When I was still 50 metres away I could see that Jaro had secured the fish and I even tentatively identified the species because its head was clearly visible against the bright yellow background of Jaro's kayak. It was certainly big.
0745hrs. Jaro dehooks the fish before bringing it aboard.
Then he displayed the fish for the camera.
Slatey bream (Diagramma pictum). This species “appears” to be categorised under Queensland law as a sweetlip (its other common name is 'painted sweetlips') and if that's the case is subject to a legal limit of min 25cm and a bag limit of 5.
So a very nice fish within the first 30 minutes or so after starting to fish.
As Jaro was getting a bit of action I opted to hang around where he was fishing. Here the depth (20-22m) was greater than where I'd started out and there were fish showing on the sonar. I'd caught a small red rock cod in my first spot and soon Jaro and I were getting a few customers turn up. The next one was a bit unusual. I was drifting my soft plastic right down near the bottom when I picked up a small fish. To my surprise it was a flounder. These are very interesting creatures and delicious also. Unfortunately they seldom grow very large in our waters.
Largetooth Flounder (Pseudorhombus arsius). Flounder do not appear in the list of species subject to minimum "keeper" size or bag limit.
Close-up of the head area.
There are several very interesting things about the many species of flounder, all of which orient their bodies so that the right side is down. (Some flatfish have the left side down.) When first hatched flounders look like normal fish and orient their bodies in the usual way. But they undergo reorientation as they develop and much of the body changes to adapt to the new situation. The most obvious adaptation is that the right eye migrates to the left (top) side but not so obvious to the casual viewer is that the right (bottom) side becomes completely pale while the left side becomes mottled and provides excellent camouflage for its normal ocean floor habitat. Note that the jaw remains in its original orientation. Proponents of the notion of 'Intelligent Design' would be hard pressed to explain this creature's form, which is a clear example of evolution in action.
Anyway, back to the fishing. Jaro soon bagged another sweetlip, also taken on the pilchard. Recently, after suffering several bite-offs while fishing soft plastics, I adopted the practice of using wire traces on some of my jig-heads. One of these wired jig-heads was deployed on my trailing outfit and about now in the story I'd had occasion to replace the Snapback soft plastic on this outfit as it had been chewed to almost nothing by little sharp jawed pickers.
On placing this out again, I'd just closed the bail arm after casting when the lure was slammed and the rod bent severely then sprung back straight. I knew straight away that I was down a jighead and another Snapback. Sure enough, whatever had taken the lure had managed to bite through the line above the wire trace. :-( . Presumably there's a decent mackerel swimming around out there right now with some bling in its jaw.
Having earlier contacted us from the beach by radio, Turtleboy eventually joined us at around 0930 when things had quietened down somewhat. And it was becoming colder as the breeze had picked up and the sun was now masked by cloud. By 1030 we'd had enough and headed for the beach.
Just as I was paddling toward the exit channel at Middle Groyne, on the way in I spotted that there was traffic therein.
This merry couple, both pedalling madly, were outbound on a fishing expedition. As I said to them, I'd have liked to see them negotiate the exit channel when there was a decent swell running.
Needless to say, we all had an easy return to the beach. Here we took the obligatory pics.
The slatey bream went 70cm and weighed 4.5kg (New NY record). The larger grass sweetlip went 50cm.
Jaro, champ for today. Nice catch, mate.
Thanks for coming along Jaro and Steve and thanks for organizing, Jaro.
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.com/
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