schoolie, snapper, SR, 06Oct09

From: "kevin long"
Subject: fishing today -- 06oct09 -- mackerel
Date: Tuesday, 6 October 2009 3:41 PM

'Twas a full moon, and a clear sky all night. Full moon the night before, but overcast. Do fish bite during the day on the full moon? This has been one of the ongoing debates among some of us. Yesterday, of course, is now recorded as one of Noosa Yakkers' best fishing days EVER. What about today?

0539hrs. Note the setting moon at the end of a ~12 hour crossing of the sky. A near-flat sea.

OK, I was a little late, but I'd warned Doug (more about Doug later) that I probably would be late as I was a little weary from my activities yesterday. Nevertheless, I was a little taken aback at 0515 to find I was the first at the MG carpark, not counting the enormous semi trailer which was there delivering sand slurry pipes. I'd expected that Mark (Doctor Dog) and Jimbo may be there but there was no sign of them on this -- another magnificent morning, much prettier than yesterday. The semi was just starting to reverse down the narrow access path to the top of the beach when I strolled up towing my trolley-borne kayak to use the same path. The driver, somewhat younger than I but no spring chicken, spotted me approaching and immediately halted his backward progress to kindly allow me and my yak to access the beach first. Such courtesies are common in Noosa on the beach at dawn but still appreciated. If you're the driver: Thanks mate.

Doug had emailed me last night and indicated he'd meet me at MG at 0500. We'd never met, but had exchanged a few introductory emails as he was keen to get out fishing in his Swing yak. Possibly he was out there somewhere but I could see no sign of a car which might have been used to deliver the yak, so possibly he wasn't. But I had noticed, when taking a quick glance at the sea on first arrival, a fishing kayak being paddled into Laguna Bay so perhaps this was Doug.

So I launched and had almost completed my setup "out the back" when the radio blared. Jimbo was telling me that he and Doctor Dog were about to launch. Good, so now there were at least three of us. Soon I was paddling toward the points, the rising sun just starting to make a strong impression as it peeped over the hills. Somewhere behind me my two companions were about to follow.

Crossing Granite Bay I spotted a lone kayaker and could just discern in the growing light a fishing rod -- probably this was Doug, especially as he was trolling near Fairy Pools. So it proved to be. The kayaker was paddling a grey coloured Swing, so it had to be Doug. Sure enough, a minute or so later we met and introduced ourselves. I quickly explained the situation to him (heading for Sunshine Reef, distances, etc) and he agreed to go along, if only for the ride. This short delay was sufficient to allow the other two to catch up and so the four of us left the shelter of the Noosa Headland together, line abreast, emerging into a near windless ocean.

I headed for my latest favourite mark, noting the presence of a slight SE breeze which might propel us toward the north as we drifted. My first cast of the SP was at around 0655hrs. The yak gradually drfited toward the north, as expected, and just as the jig was directly below me, about 25m down probably, I lifted the rod tip a couple of times to impart some "life" into my offering. Pow! I was on! First cast! Both Doug and Doctor Dog (DD) were nearby and I let them know of the hookup in the traditional manner. The fish fought hard but it took only a couple of minutes of steady pressure before it was beaten and lifted into the yak. I was very pleased that Doug was nearby, as at least he could see, on his first brief foray with us, that it is possible to catch snapper from a kayak in deep open-ocean waters.

0659hrs. Fresh snapper from the deep. Note jighead and soft plastic (SP) in the corner of its jaw.

Then the whales turned up near us. It's remarkable that, even though Whalebait wasn't with us, the whales still came to check. A mother and calf gently passed about 150m away, heading NW, lifting their tales in apparent greeting as they disappeared.

Because I was now drifting into deeper water whose productivity was unknown to me, I decided to paddle back and do the drift again. In the middle of my preparations to go back I noticed that Doug had hooked a small fish. He showed his Queensland heritage (he's a Bundaberg lad) by immediately announcing by loud voice that he'd caught a grinner, a despised species not commonly caught in southern waters, from where many Noosa Yakkers have sought permanent refuge. Shortly after this, the breeze started to strengthen from the SE and our drift speeds started to increase. Jim announced the capture of a snapper, so he was on the board and then DD told us that he'd caught a grinner too. From my viewpoint, the fish were active as I'd had several tentative hits in which the fish mouthed the tail of the bait without hooking up. The proof of this situation lies in the bite marks on the SP, or the partial withdrawal of the SP from its position on the hook shank.

The breeze grew stronger, whitecaps starting to appear. In my judgement it was blowing a few knots greater than yesterday and the result was reflected in the drift. I placed my heaviest jighead (about 2 ounces) on my trailing outfit and even it was streaming along at about 45° or less from the horizontal. This jig was soon taken, however, by a small mac tuna which came unwillingly to the yak after a vigorous fight and was then quickly released. It would have been a great drift bait for a large mackerel but I wasn't equipped for such fishing.

We were now travelling way too fast for effective drift fishing of the reef bottom with the gear we had aboard and were discussing early departure options (Doug had left soon after his grinner encounter as he had an appointment ashore) when DD announced the capture of an undersized snapper. The fish released, he followed this up with a stated intention to fish on for only another five minutes in the hope of catching a larger specimen. Jim and I were in agreement. A couple of minutes later the radio blared with a garbled and hurried message from an unknown caller (suspected: DD) which included the words "hooked up". I glanced across at DD, about 200m away and saw that he was apparently quite busy, as he was holding one (bent) rod in one hand and seemingly winding another line in with the other. Kayak fishing demands the mastering of all sorts of simultaneous multi-tasking skills and DD was clearly getting some practice which will stand him in good stead in the coming few months when the pelagics turn up for their annual festival.

Jim was closer to DD than I and shortly relayed to me that DD had boated a mackerel of some sort, possibly a spotty. This was an occasion which cried out for Captain Camera so very shortly he was on his way, through the increasing slop, to DD's yak.

0852hrs. Mark (Doctor Dog) displays his mackerel (spotty or schoolie? -- see later).

So all three of us now had a keeper fish and, as the wind was showing no tendency to abate, we turned for home, after Mark and I jointly had safely stowed his mackerel inside the forward hatch of his yak. Incidentally, the mackerel took a trailed pilchard rigged on an "easy troller" which could not have been down very deep in the water column, given the relatively small size of the weighted head and the speed of the drift. Possibly Mark will give us a rundown on the rig at the upcoming social meeting.

Off Granite Bay, inbound, the radio blared again. Hollywood, formerly Dirty Harry, was out there and paddling toward us with a friend, a visitor from south of two borders. We three and they soon rendezvoused, off Tea Tree Bay, and Harry introduced us to Princess and she in turn was introduced to our fish, of which she asked strange questions such as "Is any preparation of the fish required before eating them?" Be that as it may, we spent a few pleasant minutes chatting in the sun, bobbing about in the sheltered bay, as you do when you're in a kayak.

0923hrs. Princess (in a kayak for the very first time) and Hollywood (he really does look like a Hollywood person, don't you think?) surrounded by a bloodthirsty Noosa Yakkers hunting party returning from a successful expedition.

And again...

And so to the beach... Easy landing, tiny swell, high tide. How long can this dream run of small swells continue?

My snapper, 53cm

Jim's snapper 45cm

Mark's mackerel (species discussed below). 85cm long, it weighed 4kg.

Is it a schoolie or a spotty?

Mark holds up its first dorsal fin.

Which of the following two more closely matches Mark's fish?


The above drawings are from the Qld DPI & fisheries website. Note the first dorsal fins and also the lateral lines' positions.

Discussion to continue Thursday evening. Perhaps you'd like to consult the following:

http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/2491.html

http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/2494.html

Important note: If you check the current size and bag limits you'll see that they differ for these two species, so it's important to be able to identify which is which, or just assume that they're all spotty macs (more stringent rules). Except that you need to make sure that you can also identify Spanish Mackerel, which have more stringent size and bag limits again.

Thanks for coming along, Jimbo and Doctor Dog. Another excellent day. See some of you Thursday night.

Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://noosayakers.blogspot.com

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