Launch Point: Middle Groyne.
Conditions: Clear & sunny
Wind: SW, ~5 knots initially, then dropping out to nil
Swell: Less than 0.5 m
Current: ~1.0 kph SW to NE
Participants: Swabio, Pauley, Jimbo
Having determined from home the previous night that the launch conditions at MG would be ideal, I thought I would have a go at launching in the dark at Middle Groyne, something I normally wouldn't do with any breaking waves happening. So I arrived at the MG car park at 0435 and had nearly completed unloading when Swabio arrived with his Hobie Pro Angler 14 (read, aircraft carrier) mounted on purpose built carrier bars on a trailer, after a 2+ hour drive from the Gold Coast. Although having been a NY for over two years, Swabio now lives in Canberra and was holidaying on the GC and keen to have his first try in Laguna Bay. Not long after, Pauley arrived and I left these two to get their kayaks prepared as my yak was now at the water's edge and ready to go.
The moon was still high making it easy to see that the launch conditions, as predicted, were an absolute doddle, even though it was only about 2 hours before low tide. After a quick set up I was on my way to Jew Sh by 0500 towing a Halco Lazer Pro (HLP) hard-bodied lure.
With no strikes on the trolled HLP, I went straight into bottom fishing with prawns in the same location where Jaro had landed quite a few sweetlip in recent days. There was a steady SW-NE current flowing aided by a slight breeze in the same direction. Shortly afterwards, Swabio arrived and proceeded to troll all around the Pinnacles while getting a “feel” for the bottom structure via his sounder, shadowed by Pauley on, I think, only first or second trip out to JS (my apologies, Pauley if I've got that wrong).
This situation prevailed for about an hour with nothing happening on the bottom, but Swabio reporting the odd bait ball on his sounder. At around 0700 we received a radio call from Scater who reported a few brief bust ups not long after exiting the river mouth in a stinky. There seemed to be a simultaneous change in conditions at JS.
Swabio had been trolling two lines, one with a HLP, and the other with a slimy mackerel on a ?? rig. Swabio reported having a big strike close to the Pinnacles, but quickly announced his disappointment having his line break at the leader joining knot. He then began to re-rig his broken line, with a slimy now just hanging out behind his yak on his other trolling rod. And yes, you guessed it, the slimy then got hit with another fast runner. A short fight ensued with Swabio announcing he had landed his first ever spaniard, making his long trip from the GC all worthwhile.
Here's Swabio with his spaniard aboard his Hobie "battleship" (pic by Pauley).
Very shortly after this, I boated a keeper snapper about 38cm, but then set off on a lap around the Pinnacles trolling a HLP in the hope that there was yet another spaniard out there for the taking, but such was not the case. At some time amongst all this, Scater arrived with his mate in their stinky, presumably encouraged by Swabio's success. However, everything seemed to go quiet after their arrival, so they stayed only a short while before heading back towards the river mouth and the north shore.
I resumed bottom fishing using the current to zig zag across just about every mark I had on my GPS to the east and north-east of the Pinnacles, but this resulted in only one undersized squire and a couple of reefies. Some time after 0800 Pauley announced he had to head for home, while Swabio set off in pursuit of a bust up about 300m to the south, also being contested by about four stinkies. In the meantime we were now getting reports from Scater that there were continuing, albeit brief, tuna bust ups occurring all along the north shore. As I had used the last of my prawns, and Swabio had quickly realised chasing bustups with stinkies charging into the midst of the bust up was a fairly futile exercise, we both decided to head towards the north shore.
Ultimately, I went only to the lower north shore, then across the river mouth and back to MG, but Swabio continued further to the north eventually meeting up with Scater in his stinky who had finally managed to land a mac tuna by casting a slug through one of the many bust ups occurring. Scater also measured Swabio's spaniard for him which went to 99cm. Swabio then followed me back back to MG some half hour later, but not before hooking and releasing a sizeable shark that he estimated at about 1.4m.
In summary, a great day out on in Laguna Bay, particularly for Swabio having made the effort to tow his "battleship" all the way from the Goldie for the experience.
Jimbo
And now here's Swabio’s (a little more animated) version of events:
Wow .... What an epic day for me! A few firsts for me! First time fishing in Noosa, first Laguna Bay experience, first time hooking a squid on a laser pro! And my first ever spanish mackerel!
The day started with me arriving at about 0445 to find a almost ready to roll Jimbo! I had a bit of farting around to do, so ended up launching with Paul. He showed me the way out to Jew Shoal.
I started by trolling (two lines) a pilly and a qantas laser pro. Managed to nab a little squid on the laser! Very bizarre indeed!
An uneventful trip out to JS ensued. The lack of activity on the sounder and skies had me questioning the decision to head so far north after reports of a couple of quiet days. For the whole drive up I was tossing up just stopping at Moffats instead, but my desire to finally hit Laguna Bay won out!
I decided to troll around for a bit ... read that as the whole time! I was beginning to become a little disheartened, but then ... zzzzzzzzzzz ... pause ... zzzzzzzzz, on my qantas laser pro. I picked it up and thought ... "Yeah baby! Here we go!” ... Then nothing. All gone,leader gone too. Hmmmm, either a dodgy leader knot or the knot was hit also. A quick look at the sounder showed bait everywhere!
So I start re rigging, and as I was about to start the knot ... zzzzzzzzz goes the tyrnos overhead. I’m thinking shark, as I was now dragging a large slimy mac. (Anyhow) the spaniard came to yak side, and I was now a tad nervous as I had never caught a spaniard before, nor gaffed anything from the yak. The moment of truth and dreams had arrived! Loosened the drag right off, grab the leader ... Swipe one .... MISS!! Nooooo, I’m thinking, don't dislodge those hooks! Take a breath ... Swipe two .... Goallll! Just behind the gills, and the spaniard is in the yak! Win! So I spike it, and into my catch bag!
I re-rigged in the hope for more, but that was it after a couple of hours for zilch around the shoal. Then some bust up happened a few hundred metres away and off I went. Got a couple of casts in, but apparently if you are boat-based you're more likely to hook up by trolling straight through the bust up.
So a bit more chasing then off with Jimbo towards Scater over near North Shore. I bid farewell to Jimbo who was not keen to chase the tuna busting up. After a while ... zzzzzzzz goes the tyrnos again. A while later a shark pops up ... Hmmmm too big for landing in the yak ... so cut it off was the call. Scater came over with Jake for a bo peep and took some pictures ...
I then started the long pedal back to MG, now much harder than before ... was there a tide change? ... Who knows. I landed on the beach and was lucky enough to have someone offer to help skull drag the monster Pro Angler up the sand (with one tyre looking like it was about to come off the rim).
Caught Jimbo again and loaded my yak again with some assistance from Jimbo. All up I covered 22.3 km apparently!
Then the drive home via a servo for ice. Wow the Bruce Hwy sucked but! It was very busy and I was very tired, but eventually I made it home! So I was absolutely chuffed, and it made the uber long commute from the Gold Coast worth it!
Thanks to Jimbo and Paul for showing me around and Paul for his camera work! I only have my ipad so it is a pain in the bum to type a report!
I was very appreciative of all the assistance and guidance and was impressed to see the teamwork (with the use of radios) to try and get everyone onto the fish!
Until next time Noosa Yakkers! I can barely wait!
Cheers,
Richard (Swabio)
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