S is for scater and Spaniard. 02Mar14

TR by scater

Wind: 10-15kn south-easterly
Swell: 1-2m

The launch was pretty easy this morning with good protection from the groyne and only the odd dumping wave beyond the end of the wall. I put a radio call out around 5am before launching but got no reply so I headed out alone. Once beyond the break I could feel a breeze that seemed to be coming more from the south than south east so I decided to skirt the national park on my way out and then turn for Jew Shoal once beyond Granite Bay. I had made up some of the safa pilchard trolling rigs and deployed one after I got clear of the shark nets.

As I made my way around the nets I could see the odd bigger swell line rolling through but once in the lee of the coast it was a beautiful morning for a paddle. A few birds overtook me on the way out and I kept an eye on them as they flew ahead. Eventually as they passed Tea Tree Bay I could see them start to circle and dive and I picked up the pace. I put another call out to any Noosa Yakkers who might have launched by now but still no reply. I lost the birds for a while and the wind swung around to be almost into me as I approached Granite. Here I found the birds once again. They were still diving but I couldn't see any surface splashes from fish so instead of casting blindly with a slug I decided to continue trolling the pillie.

The ratchet went off not long after and when I grabbed the rod there was a heavy but sluggish weight with the odd head-shake. I immediately thought "bugger, shark" but the fish took that as a cue to light the afterburners and streak off in that classic Spaniard run. He punctuated the sprint by leaping about a metre clear of the water with the pink skirt clearly visible on the side of his head which confirmed the ID. As he slowed down I began winding but there was no weight. Assuming he was running towards me I wound flat-out but didn't manage to regain contact and at this point I might have let slip a few expletives. I then noticed that despite the fact I'd stopped winding the line was still moving throught the water and was passing the yak. Beauty, he's still on! The rest of the fight was standard Spanish behaviour - a few runs yak-side and then a tantrum when he felt the gaff.

With a big fish in the hatch I decided to call it early and had a very pleasant paddle back to MG where I found the odd large wave pounding into the rocks and a tourist fishing right next to the wall where I wanted to land. I headed wider and picked my run pretty well but left it a little late and got caught and rolled near the beach in waist deep water. Lovely water temp though! Drew the obligatory crowd on the beach but no bathing beauties for a pic so you'll have to put up with me!

He went 1.16m, I didn't get a weight. Not a bad way to break my yak Spaniard duck and blood the new yak!

Sam (scater)