Subject: fishing today -- 19Feb09
Date: Thursday, 19 February 2009 4:00 PM
Six starters, five kayaks, the dynamic duo of Steven and Charles being in their Nemo double. Jaro, Jim, Brian, and I were the others.
I got to the carpark first, at around 0515 and immediately walked down to the beach to confirm that the launch would be easy. None of the others had turned up by the time I got back to the Sierra but then first Jaro and then Jim arrived. I was ready to go within 5 minutes and so was first down to the beach with my loaded yak in tow.
0530hrs. Superb launch conditions. The channel next to the rocks can be seen clearly.
So I was away first. I emerged from the channel into the grandeur of a still and smooth Laguna Bay, with ground mist hanging around the taller bits of topography which rim its western and eastern sides. Jaro, then Jim joined me and then shortly after them, the dynamic duo and Brian, who was very happy to have found a much simpler launch than his previous, last week.
I opted to head for the eastern side of Jew Shoal via the NP shark nets where I'd seen the schools of bait fish yesterday. Paddling was easy with a smooth sea and very gentle swell. Most of the SE corner of Laguna Bay was still in the shadow of Noosa Hill and the high ground of the NP. As usual, just after crossing the inner shark net I deployed my trolling outfit. Having passed the shark net off NP carpark (noting that the schools of bait fish were still present from yesterday) I altered course slightly to the north to head for my Jew Shoal mark. No action so far -- only a few terns hanging about and, of course, several dolphins. At about 0600, with the sun now clear of the horizon and no longer masked by the headlands I was headed NE when some dark specks in the sky off to the east caught my attention. On closer inspection I could see that they were feeding terns, dozens of them, wheeling around off Granite Bay and Hell's Gates about 1 km away. Charles and Steven, in their Nemo double were ahead nearby and paddling strongly toward Jew Shoal so I yelled as loudly as I could to them (they have no radio); and when Charles turned to look at me I vigorously pointed to the feeding terns. They immediately changed course, as did I, intent on investigating what was happening out there.
In ten minutes or so I'd covered the distance and could see that over an area of several hundred square metres, numerous "bust-ups" of bait and predators, closely accompanied by hungry terns, were occurring for a couple of minutes at a time. My casting outfit was already set up with a chrome slug, and wire trace, as it always is at this time of year, so I was ready as soon as a "bust-up" occurred within casting distance. The first such event happened a few minutes after I'd paddled into Granite Bay itself, following the progress of several schools of bait which were being hammered by predators. I fired off a cast and immediately hooked up to what was very clearly a fairly small fish. I quickly played him out and was surprised to find that I'd foul-hooked a decent sized dart.
0624hrs. Dart (aka swallowtail -- for obvious reasons). A beautiful, skinny, hard fighting fish -- more frequently caught in the surf than offshore.
It takes an exceptionally large dart to make a meal and the flesh is not high on the taste scale in my humble opinion so I returned it to the water, bearing a small injury from the hook. Realising that most of the "bust-ups" in this sheltered location were probably caused by the feeding activities of dart, I moved off into the deeper more exposed water off the headland, bumped into Bill Watson in his yak out there and stopped for a chat while all around us fish and terns were going about their hectic pursuit of hapless baitfish. As we were chatting, a school of small tuna arrived, leaping out of the water, within casting distance so I fired off a cast and, while retrieving the lure as quickly as I could through their feeding area found myself immediately hooked up. Bill had already caught a couple of mackerel tuna around 2-3kg so I knew that it was likely that I was hooked up to one of these ocean-going speedsters. They are hard fighters for their size but easily beaten as it's usually just a matter of playing them out. So it was with this guy, but not before he'd stripped quite a bit of 12 pound line off the spool of my Shimano threadline reel. I decided to keep this fish as they are quite good as sashimi. The hook was solidly embedded in the corner of the mouth so it took all of my surgical skill, and a very good pair of pliers, to get it out. Into the fish box he went.
By now, Jim, Jaro and Brian had also arrived to try their skills in this free-for-all. There were some very large fish around as we could occasionally see when they cleared the water, but most were average sized mac tuna. While talking to Jim about techniques for catching fish in this situation another school popped up right next to us. My instinctive cast into the school and rapid retrieve immediately produced another hookup.
0652hrs. The second mackerel tuna. Note that the hook is firmly embedded well inside the mouth. Note also, at the bottom of the pic, a recently eaten baitfish, one of several identical specimens which this tuna regurgitated when placed in the yak footwell.
Charles and Steven came over to see me shortly after this event. As they'd caught nothing at this time I offered them this fish, an offer they took up with alacrity. Hope you enjoyed it as sashimi, guys.
After this capture I had no more enthusiasm today for taking more mac tuna. They are hard fighters but most of their flesh is very red and bloody which makes them very ordinary table fare -- as far as I'm aware there is no market for these fish in Queensland despite their abundance in our ocean areas. So I turned away from the feeding frenzy and headed for Jew Shoal in the hope of a sweetlip or snapper. It turned out that my colleagues had similar ideas for shortly I noticed Jim, Jaro and Brian all headed in the same general direction.
Jew Shoal, for me, was dead. I had a beautiful WSW breeze, but a drift, using a soft plastic for bait, over about a kilometre of reef produced not a single hit. Nor did the others report any action, except Jaro who mentioned that his trolled bait had been hit and stripped off the hooks without a solid hookup. That's fishing!
I offered Brian a guided tour of the Granite Bay area. He wasn't getting any action so he agreed and we shortly paddled off to the south where I showed him a couple of places in the Bay which I thought were worth trying in future, conditions permitting of course. We turned toward home and immediately saw flocks of terns wheeling around to the west, in the direction we intended to go anyway. Having informed Jaro and Jim of this by radio we headed for them ourselves and shortly found ourselves amongst feeding fish again. This time, however, the predators were smaller and the feeding not so frenzied and widespread. I opted to just take a bit of video while we drifted awaiting the action to start near us so that we could participate.
Still from video. Terns feeding off Tea Tree Bay
We were joined by Jaro and Jim. All of us tried several times to entice a hookup (I using a soft plastic) but the feeding periods were so brief that we were lucky to get a single cast away before the feeding frenzy stopped. At about this time it became noticeable to me that the swell had increased since we left the beach early this morning. The board riders at Tea Tree were having a great time, quite spectacular from our viewpoint, less than 100m away, and looking along the breaking waves. I began to wonder what our beach return would be like. Shortly we'd find out as we all turned for home.
Having headed straight for Middle Groyne while the others followed the NP coastline, I was first back to our launch place, where our cars were parked. Clearly, the return run through the surf was not going to be as straightforward as we'd hoped as there was now a very fierce little dumping wave at the entrance to our preferred channel. I examined this closely for a couple of minutes and saw that virtually every wave was breaking at the channel entrance, the water being now at least half a metre shallower (because of tide) than earlier, and the swell having apparently increased slightly also. My decision was to not run this course but to run the gauntlet east of the groyne, where at least, if you get rolled, you're not in danger of being hurled onto rocks. My fellow yakkers all adopted the same opinion as to the better landing place.
Brian and I were both ready to run at the same time and we both approached the breaking waves cautiously, from behind, ready to quickly turn back into the wave should a very large breaker unexpectedly appear. A gap appeared and I paddled furiously to try to cover the distance required in the time gap available. I'd managed to pick the gap well and was soon leaping out of the yak onto dry sand, camera in hand to record the performance by Jim and Jaro. Brian, I noted with satisfaction, had also got in cleanly, parallel with me and at the same time, about 20m further west. I was a bit slow off the mark with the camera as Jim was already committed and part way in. Before I could turn the camera on and aim it, he was rolled, frightening two little old ladies in the process who at first hadn't believed his screamed warning "Look out, I can't steer!", and had to take avoiding action to prevent becoming passengers on Jim's (upside-down) yak. I turned the camera on, just in case, and happily Jim opted to do it all again for the edification of Noosa Yakkers. He jumped back on in the small waves breaking in about waist deep water and promptly got rolled again.
Still from video. Jim's extraordinary "jimnastics" in trying to avoid rollover. At this stage he's still seated in the yak which is rolling heavily to starboard.
Jaro's turn. Jaro has done a remarkable job of beach returns in the last few trips. Last week he was the sole "survivor" on this same beach. His run of skilled performances (luck?) ended today with a spectacular dumping. At one stage I was wondering if he was ever going to pop up as the upside-down yak went over the top of him. Here's a still from the video.
Having gone sideways for a second or so, he starts to roll, topside toward beach.
On the beach we attracted the usual curious crowd but our catch was not as spectacular as some trips, my remaining mac tuna being the only fish brought in and thus the sole specimen available for inspection by fascinated beachgoers. Another fun trip and one where we all learned lessons. Next trip, hopefully Saturday, and possibly launching from Sunshine Beach, destination Sunshine Reef.
And I hope to get time to post a video on youtube in the next couple of days...
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
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