Wind: SE to 10knots
Swell: less than 1m E
Water temp: 26°C
Current: at Jew Shoal, none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: sunshiner only
Keen Angler Program: sunshiner contributed
Watch out: carpark change, potential fine. See later in the TR.
Great kayak fishing weather Noosa's been having. I've been in Sydney watching with envy as it unfolded up here but yesterday afternoon I got back. First thing I did was set up and transfer the Supalite onto the Zook, ready for the next opportunity, which I reckoned correctly would be today.
Couldn't get away early however, and opted for the late shift, which put me in the packed Middle Groyne carpark around 11:00am. No spots available in either of car parks #1 and #2, on the other side of the road. So I had to double park until I eventually grabbed a spot in #2. Still, I was in no hurry and as the pic below shows, I was ready to launch at 11:20.
Within a couple of minutes of starting to paddle towards Jew Shoal I could see tuna busting out spasmodically and very briefly. Towed a HLP all the way (backwards as it turned out, as I'd failed to perform my usual check that it was swimming OK, dopey!), and a couple of times had fish busting out quite close, half expecting the HLP to go off.
The surface action quit at the 2km mark from the beach and I saw no more until I headed home.
Conditions looked good, and I was after a snapper or sweetlip, or both. Last night Jaro and I were talking about yak fishing over dinner at the Sunshine Beach Surf Club and he was explaining how he had his favourite Jew Shoal snapper and sweetlip spots marked and they were both in 22m deep, apparently featureless, water. On the other hand I like to fish the shallower areas for these species, 14m to 20m. He fishes with bait, I with SPs. Today was a good chance to try out my system. There was a pretty strong breeze from the SE, causing some whitecaps, but not so bad that it was too crappy to fish. The water was beautifully clear and I had the place all to myself.
On arrival at around 12:05 I chose to start my first drift in about 17m depth about 300m east of The Pinnacles, knowing that the wind would push me toward the west. Actually, it pushed me NNW but that was OK as that path put me on track to cover the NE section of the shallower section of the reef. First I deployed my trailing outfit, its SP left hanging about 5-8m down. Then out came my casting outfit and I started my usual procedure of getting the cast SP (half ounce) to jiggle around near the bottom.
Here's my first fish, taken on the cast SP in 17m, directly below the yak, within 15 minutes of starting. A nice pan sized fish at 38cm.
That was the only fish in the first drift, although I did have the SP tail nipped off in a quick bump-bump but no hookup. The paddle back to restart the drift was pretty sloppy but was only 300m or so.
And here's the second, also caught on the cast SP, but this time at 18m. A fat 38cm grassy, very welcome, and kept for the table.
The third drift I let take me into deeper water, Jaro's territory, but got no action and shortly after that I decided to head for shore, being very happy with two fish for the plate.
Again, once within two kilometres of the shore, the tuna could be seen busting out, but there were no serious concentrations, just bust outs well separated from each other. One lot of fish I saw breaking clear of the water looked as if they could have been yellowfin, but I couldn't be certain of that. Probably most were mackerel tuna. The tuna action continued to within 600m of the beach, but I couldn't get close enough for a decent cast at them and got no hits on my HLP, being trolled the correct way this time!
The rain, which had threatened all afternoon, was bucketing down by the time I hit the beach.
On the way back through the carpark I took the opportunity to take a pic of the new sign (how long has that been there?) next to car park number 1, usually eyetag's favourite.
Don't get caught.
Anyway, an enjoyable result for me today and I'll be hitting the water again ASAP.
Kev Long
Sunshiner
Author Kayak Fishing Manual for iPad and Mac (click linked text to view)
Stealth Supalite X, yellow/orange
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