Woolgoolga, Rounds 2 & 3. Yes! 26Mar13

TR by sunshiner

Wind: NE less than 5 knots
Swell: 1m easterly
Current: toward north, gentle
Launch point: Woolgoolga Main Beach
Participants: me, alone

Woolgoolga, Rounds 2 and 3 (see Round 1 posted yesterday)

The weather continued to hold and by afternoon 25Mar I was keen to have another crack to see if I could get the monkey off my back. This time I at least had a known starting point, where I'd dropped the suspected snapper in the morning. This time it was a low tide launch and the kelp swirling around meant I embarked with several lengths of the stuff wrapped around my feet and legs.

3:30pm yesterday. I'd promised to be back about 5:30pm.

It was only a 10 minute paddle out to the spot I'd located in the morning. The breeze was now from the SE, which allowed me to set up a nice drift over the target area. Of course, my GPS was critical in helping relocate this spot and I'd recharged its batteries while I'd been ashore.

The result was no fish, although I did get busted by one almost certain snapper, and had an SP picked up as it dropped toward the ocean floor but I struck too soon and pulled the SP out of its mouth. I was pretty pissed off at still not catching a fish but at least Mary met me on the beach, carrying the trolley. And tomorrow is another day.

---
Tomorrow dawned and my luck with the weather held. Instead of charging down to the beach and launching at first light I decided to firstly partake of a leisurely brekky. This meant a 09:30 launch by the time I got going.

Fifteen minutes later I'm on my mark and now the drift was toward the south, propelled by a gentle NE breeze. I'd not changed my rigs from the afternoon before and deployed them Noosa style, with the trailing rig out the back carrying a 1/2 ounce jighead and four inch white snapback. The casting outfit was loaded with a 1/8 ounce jighead and 4 inch squidgee SP.

After 15 minutes of no action the headland about 1km south started to attract my attention. This caused me to abandon plan A (temporarily) in the hope of finding a better location among the wash areas close in to the headland. I thought better of this after discovering several bommies which reached up suddenly to 4m depth. Even in this low swell, occasional waves were breaking on them, so I turned back to Plan A and arrived back at my mark, adjusted for the planned drift, at about 10:25. As I had now only 90 minutes before I had to head back to the beach I resolved to stick with my plan. After all, I had found this spot, and I'd had some action, and disappointment, here yesterday, so it had to be my best choice.

On arrival I deployed the trailing outfit and then turned my attention to changing the casting rig by upgrading to 1/4 ounce to keep it near the bottom for longer while drifting. In the middle of this process that sound, that glorious sound, of a squealing drag interrupted me. Clearly there was a reasonable fish on the trailing outfit, deployed less than a minute ago.

Remember, up to this time, I hadn't boated a fish this year. This whole year! So, understandably, I was calling out to the fishing gods to please let this be a snapper and let it not escape. There it was, after a short tussle, floating next to the yak, a snapper indeed. Not a big one but ideal for my purposes. At the moment I put it into the hatch I heard a splash and swear I saw a monkey swimming away toward the beach. Bewdy!!

My first snapper and first fish for 2013 (not for want of trying).

My shouts of victory were probably heard on the beach, only ten minutes away by yak. Now I knew where the snapper were and how to catch them.

It's amazing how a small victory such as this can change your attitude. Now I was keen to fish on and try for better. I had about an hour to go before I had to head back to the beach again.

It took all of that hour, but at 11:58 my casting outfit got slammed in typical snapper style. This confirmed that my location and techniques were sound. This was a better fish and was certain to put me in the good books with my daughter in law in Sydney who was hoping that we could dine on fresh snapper on Wednesday (ie tomorrow) night.

Snapper #2. By now the monkey was probably up a tree somewhere in the far distance.

Beach time, and I left immediately, without even a final cast. Again Mary met me on the beach, carrying my trolley. This time I had better news.

On the beach, Woolgoolga.

Interestingly, there were several fishing boats, mainly tinnies, arriving back at the beach at the same time as I did. I chatted to the occupants and learned that none of them had caught anything for days and that they have been going through a similar season as Noosa has just experienced, with dirty water and paucity of fish. Their water is now clean, to which I can attest and perhaps they will start to get fish, including Spaniards, soon.

Anyway, I'm going back for the arvo session to see if I have my knack back.

See you in a couple of weeks.

Kev

1 comment:

  1. Good result Kev...beats monkeys and donuts.

    Especially satisfying in a brand new environment.

    ReplyDelete