Mission accomplished. 21Jun14

TR by sunshiner

Wind: light SW-W throughout
Swell: about 1m ENE
Water temp: 22°C
Current: at Jew Shoal, none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: jaro, aussie-stu, doctor dog, stormin, couta1 (visitor), sunshiner
Keen Angler Program: One frame donated

Dry bum launch at 0600, with lots of stinkies crossing the bar to our west and a yacht, Champagne Charlie, anchored in the bay. Dolphins were hunting around us as we set up and every now and again skittish baitfish made their presence obvious while terns were visible headed NE. Clear water, looked good. Jaro reported catching a small tailor just off the groyne, possibly on a slug, and I can report that the grinners have moved back in to the shallow waters of the bay, as they used to be several years ago, when we had to stop trolling that area because they were so prolific. I in fact caught two today on my trolled Halco LP, one on the way out and one on the way back, and jaro had a monster grinner, estimated at 80cm, take a trolled pillie bait. So keep an eye on your rod tip when trolling as you could end up with a dud lure/bait spinning around behind you, twisting your line.

I launched first and opted to head for Jew Shoal, while the rest headed for Little Halls Reef and Halls Reef, except for aussie-stu who joined me a little later.

Conditions were superb and it felt good to be out there again after a couple of weeks of no paddling. I'd mentioned at launch time that I was after a snapper or sweetlip so set up a soft plastics drift toward the ENE as soon as I arrived near The Pinnacles. Having set up my trailing outfit (more about this later) I sent out my first cast and had it taken by something small within 30 seconds or so.

Black-tipped cod, one of the commonest small reefies we catch on SPs at Jew Shoal. I have never seen one much bigger than this specimen, even though I've caught dozens. Min legal size: 38cm.

This was a good sign, I thought, as recently I've had trouble catching any reefies at all at Jew Shoal. I let this drift continue until I was about 350m east of The Pinnacles, then turned back upwind and paddled the 500m or so back to a point west of my previous start point. I then slow drifted the approximate same path for no result except right at the end when I lost my jighead and SP due to a bite-off as I was retrieving it quickly. Bummer, likely a smallish mackerel!

All this time my trailing outfit had been hanging out the back, about 10m down I estimated (this depth helps keep it snag free), without attracting any interest. The lure itself was a 100mm white Berkely Power Bait, which are cheap, reasonably robust, and attractive to passing tuna. I use a low cost seven foot rod and a good quality Shimano Stradic 4000 reel spooled with 10kg braid. This outfit sits in the centre mounted rear-most rod holder on my Supalite, an extra one I had put in specifically for this purpose and which allows the rod to point out to the starboard side rear at about 45° to the axis of the yak. On many occasions this trailing outfit has produced keepers when other methods haven't, and today was to be another. Handily, it also doubles as a casting outfit and gets plenty of action when pelagic feeding activity is encountered.

Anyway, now you know about my trailing outfit. I paddled back up the drift line to start another drift over the same approximate area and chose a start point in 14m of water about 250m west of The Pinnacles. As usual, I deployed the trailing outfit first, plopping it out about 15m or so down wind, where it would hang back as I drifted and not interfere with the operation of the casting outfit, which usually produces most of my fish. Placing the butt of the trailing outfit into the rod holder (just within comfortable arm's length) after confirming that its drag was set very lightly, I turned my attention to the casting outfit which needed a small adjustment following re-rigging after the bite-off. I was engrossed in making this adjustment when my inner ear balance system alerted me to the fact that my yak was suddenly leaning wickedly to starboard. This lean I've felt before and I immediately swivelled around to check the trailing outfit. Sure enough, the rod tip was pointing toward the water instead of the sky and the reel was just starting to sing the song we all love to hear.

Of course, the casting outfit was in my hands so that had first to be secured. This done, I wrestled the trailing outfit from its rod holder, being very glad that the drag was not set tightly (a drag set too tightly in this situation may cause the yak to be rolled or at the very least may make it very difficult to drag the butt out of the rod holder). Whoah, this fish was on a rampage, but I ramped up the drag and got stuck into it, with the yak being pulled around in circles. Although I was hoping for a snapper, it was not until near the end of the fight that I was pretty sure I had a snapper on. In these same waters I've also caught sweetlip, a jewie, trevally and of course many tuna. I was very sure that it wasn't a bloody grinner, anyway. Those beautiful pinky-red flanks were a sight for sore eyes when the fish first came into view. Soon afterward the gaff did its job and my best snapper for the year so far was in the hatch. Yeehah!

Note the depth, 16m, clearly visible on the sonar display.

With no more action, soon afterward I headed for the beach at about the same time as did the yakkers over to the west.

Beach pics

Jocelyn, a local lady from Sunshine Beach, did the honours.

Doc Dog took this with my camera.

No other fish were brought back to the beach, but I've heard nothing from couta1, whose car was still at Middle Groyne when I left.

Hope some of you get out in the next few days. Perhaps this is the start of our snapper season.


Kev Long
Sunshiner
Author Kayak Fishing Manual for iPad and Mac (click linked text to view)
Stealth Supalite X, yellow/orange