Subject: fishing today -- Friday 06Mar09 -- pretty bloody good
Date: Friday, 6 March 2009 3:50 PM
Not only were we honoured today with the return of Dirty Harry from down south, but we also scored a perfect day on the water -- and some great fish.
The planned line up was Jaro, Jim, Harry, the dynamic duo (Steven and Charles), and me. I was the first to arrive in the car park, with the Sierra's headlights still on as I parked, at around 0515. A quick squizz at the beach conditions confirmed that it was perfect -- very light southerly breeze, slightly cloudy sky, very small swell. Yahoo!
One by one the others arrived -- and Paul, from Palmwoods, also turned up with his Prowler on top of his battered 4WD. Soon we had the full complement and we hit the water as quickly as we could. It looked like being a fabulous day!
While rigging up "out the back" in the steadily improving visibility, I briefly caught sight of a flock of birds wheeling around about a km off to the NW. This info was relayed to all by radio or voice and before long six kayaks with their seven occupants were heading in that direction. The going was wonderfully easy with nary a splash of salt water coming aboard as we travelled purposefully, most of us trolling a hard bodied lure, toward the scene of bird activity. The setting was glorious and, finding myself paddling alongside Paul, I took this pic of him which will help describe the conditions.
0618hrs. Paul in silhouette, Noosa Head in the distant background. If you look carefully at the brightly lit part of the sky you'll see dots which are terns flying around. These were the reason we were in that part of Laguna Bay.
Individual yakkers peeled off from the group to do their own thing as we entered the realm of the feeding birds and their helpers, feeding underwater predators, which made their presence obvious by violent splashes and upsurges in the water around the helpless schools of baitfish.
Before long I found myself paddling alongside Jim who was complaining that it had been quite a while since he'd caught a decent fish and he hoped today would see that change. Barely were the words out of his mouth than the ratchet of his trolling outfit, an ancient but reliable Daiwa overhead reel on a basic boat rod, growled briefly and loudly enough for even me, partly deaf, to hear it. Jim stopped paddling, picked up the rod and away the ratchet went again, but this time the growling noise didn't stop. Jim leant back to put some weight against the fast swimming fish and quite quickly his yak did an about-face and became a floating trailer behind the fish which had engulfed his lure.
This was an ideal situation for me to capture a movie record of some decent catch action so I immediately decided to stop fishing and follow Jim with the camera. In the short time it took me to retrieve my own trolled lure, Jim had been towed 40 or 50m away and I found myself chasing after his yak which was travelling at 2-3kph without any effort on his part. As soon as I'd closed the gap, I whipped out the camera, powered it up, changed to video mode, zoomed in and pressed the shutter button.
0633hrs, about 3 minutes after Jim hooked up, he's being towed toward the east. Note birds and tuna feeding in disturbed water in background. (Still from movie)
So off Jim went, while I tried to keep pace while shooting video, then putting down the camera, paddling close to him then shooting again. This situation would have benefited from a pedal kayak, obviously, or someone with three arms. But after about 5 minutes the fish opted to start circling and made things a little easier on me, and Jim, who was clearly gaining the upper hand. At this stage I called it for a longtail tuna, or possibly a cobia, as it was way too powerful for the more common mackerel tuna, which were presumably in profusion around us. Eight minutes passed before the fish came alongside and could be clearly identified as a longtail tuna -- a beautiful specimen, to boot. Jim expertly and tidily gaffed the fish, dragged it over the gunwhale into the footwell and let out a whoop of triumph. In response to my prompting he then held it up for the camera.
Around 0640hrs. Jim's beautiful longtail tuna. (Still from video)
I intend to make a movie of the clips and post it on youtube later once editing is complete. Done. Link to the video is at the end of this post.
My duties as cameraman over, I returned to the fishing. There were fish bustups scattered all over the place and hundreds of terns wheeling around looking for the next best food outlet. Usually the surest way of getting a fish in such circumstances is to approach a bust up and while still 20-30m away, cast an appropriate lure, usually a metal "slug" into the melee and then retrieve quickly. I was trolling while travelling and manoeuvring into position to do just this but the opportunities for casting were being presented far too briefly. The further we travelled to the NW the more prolific it seemed the action was and before long I found myself pretty close to Little Hall's Reef, about 3.5km from our launch point. Jim, having already had considerable success, had opted to try for a reef fish at Little Hall's and I could see him there, about 500m away, and decided to join him, as did Harry, who had joined me at this stage, instead of trying to score a pelagic fish from the scarce opportunities coming our way from time to time.
We'd just arrived at Hall's Reef when the radio blared. Jaro, somewhere down near the river mouth, a couple of km to the south, had hooked up. Then shortly afterward the news that the fish had escaped. Harry, Jim and I relaxed and drifted gently over the 15m-deep reef, trying to attract a sweetlip to our soft plastic baits. All we could get, however, were small flathead of the bar-tailed variety. Meanwhile, dolphins surfaced frequently nearby -- clearly there was some serious feeding going on under water. And then the radio blared again - Jaro announcing another hookup and that it was a "biggy". After about ten minutes of no action at our location I radioed Jaro to check on his progress with his fish. The news that he was still fighting it conveyed the information that he had indeed hooked a decent fish and we began to wonder whether we should return to Jaro's location. Then Jaro announced that he had the fish secured in the yak and that it was a beautiful bluefin tuna (aka longtail tuna) and that he was surrounded by hundreds of birds and that the tuna were continuing their frantic feeding activity all around him. The excitement in his voice was understandable and persuaded Harry, Jim and me, all of whom could hear Jaro's radio reports, to decide to join him. Harry and I were fishless at this stage. So we changed rigs and turned toward the south. Jaro took a pic of his conquered fish.
Jaro's first longtail tuna for 2009, securely roped to the yak.
As we travelled south I could see that there were clumps of birds wheeling about close in to the north shore beach so peeled off to the right intending to get a closer look, and hopefully get a cast in to possibly nail a longtail myself. Harry and Jim continued on their original course. The action near the beach, I observed was continuous and vigorous. But again getting a cast away was difficult because the feeding schools were moving so quickly and erratically. I did get a couple of casts in, however, which I thought were certain to get hookups but didn't. Why, I have no idea. Shortly Harry and then Jaro joined me, having worked their way back north because the flocks of feeding terns appeared larger and more dense up this way. Harry and I converged on a bust up from different sides, only 100m or so apart, I fired off a quick cast, retrieved it flat out and was rewarded with the thump of a surface strike. I was fishing with my casting outfit, equipped with a 4000-sized Shimano threadline reel and 12 pound breaking strain monofilament and expected that the fish I'd just hooked would put up a good fight but it would be all over pretty quickly, as I'd seen several of the fish in the school and estimated them at 3-4kg at most. In other words, I didn't expect a long tussle. The first run from this fish started my doubts going. It just went on and on, with the yak being towed, just like Jim's was, at a good speed with the line pouring off the spool against the loud buzzing of the drag clicker. I made a feeble attempt to take some more video here and the recorded file shows that it was saved at 0850, probably a couple of minutes after I'd hooked up. I knew I was in for a long fight after about five minutes when line was still being taken from the spool and I was being towed further and further from home. Many times during that tussle I was tempted to increase the drag, but past experience had taught me that the whole system was probably running at 80% of its capacity and so tightening of the drag would probably cause the lure to pull free or a vital knot to break. I had time, the fish was unlikely to reef me (tuna don't do that) and conditions for paddling home again were perfect. So I sat back and played the fish carefully, fighting him with the rod, not the reel, getting line back onto the spool when I could and generally biding my time and savouring the challenge.
At around 0910, around 22 minutes after hookup, I got my first look at the fish, circling deep under the yak. I confirmed the species, longtail tuna, turned the camera on and took a couple of one-handed underwater pics looking straight down from the yak. One of these shots captured an image of the fish as it circled below.
0911hrs. My fish, deep under the yak, sweeps past.
I've caught a few longtails and believe this circling behaviour indicates the beginning of the end of the fight as the fish tires. Still, it's no time to throw caution to the wind. I retained my drag setting and commenced a slow steady pump and wind routine to apply pressure to the fish, knowing that this is the time when many good fish are lost. It's better to take it easy and work steadily than to crank up the pressure, because such fish as these can call on a reserve of energy which can easily break tackle, especially after a long fight. A few minutes later and my fish was on the surface, pretty much the end of the end. It circled the yak once or twice and presented itself for a neat head shot with the gaff on the left side. I'm getting better with left hand gaff shots and this one went neatly into the head and the prize was mine after a 30 minute fight. After tail roping the fish I took a pic...
0920hrs, pic taken by holding the camera behind and above my left shoulder, the only way I could get the whole fish in.
So now Jim, Jaro and I all had very similar longtail tuna. I certainly had no desire to try to catch another and was happy to just coast along in the pleasant company of Harry and Jaro (Jim had opted to go home to deal with his fish). Harry was philosophical about having missed out today but that's fishing.
We paddled the 3km or so back to the beach, half-heartedly exploring fishing opportunities as they presented themselves along our path. Yep, the bust ups were still happening, but apparently only in the western part of the Bay, where we had fished.
The usual lie detector pics on the beach...
Above, Jaro's fish, 82cm
Above, my fish. 87cm of fighting longtail tuna.
Above, my fish on the back deck of my Espri.
Video of Jim's capture:
Another brilliant day in Laguna Bay. What's next, marlin? I didn't hear how Steven and Charles went so would appreciate an update from you, guys.
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
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