Since mid 2007, members of Noosa Yakkers have been writing and illustrating kayak fishing Trip Reports and publishing them by whatever means available. This blog collects all of our early reports (sent out by email) plus the later TR published here on Blogger, and more recently, Monthly Summaries of the reports published on our Facebook Group.
I jumped out of bed at 4AM to the sound of rain falling steadily on the roof. Normally this would ensure my quick surrender and I would end up back in bed within seconds, but today was a different story. Whiblah (Andrew) was making a 2.5 hour drive from Minden to tackle the waters of Lake Mac with me, and seeing as he would be on my doorstep within minutes, I figured the hide under my pillow plan was a bit weak.
After meeting with Whiblah and loading my yak (it couldn't be loaded the night before due to the rain and fresh sealant around a new rod holder from some event yesterday that I now deny having any recollection of), we made our way to the Strawberry Patch launch site.
Whiblah setting up in the dreary wet conditions.
We paddled off into the rain looking for the edges of the weed beds to start our attack. They weren't there. The rain was causing too much disturbance on the surface to make the weeds visible at a distance. Not a huge problem, but annoying. I pointed out a few of the known channels to Whiblah, and we struck off to try our luck.
Whiblah scored first with a healthy 34cm bass not far from the launch. His first in Lake Mac!
Whiblah prepares to release his bass.
We cast our way around the next bend with no action until we hit toga bay. The bass were active here, and I landed 5 between 6:12 and 6:45 (according to my video records).
Casting around toga bay (Photo by Whiblah)
38cm bass
A little further up from toga bay I was casting into the lillys in the middle of the channel when I took a hefty strike. A large swirl in the water as he took off gave me reason to believe this was no small fish, and I was right. He took off at speed and with power, giving my rod a severe case of the bends. I managed to get him up reasonably quickly and into the net, but to my surprise I found this fish to be HEAVY. What was it you ask? A big fat Saratoga!
He barely fit in the net!
He was desperately trying to get out of my net and being a right pain, so I opted to find a bank to deal with him so I didn't lose him over the side. Whiblah followed me over and we set to work measuring and de-hooking.
I've never seen so much slime on a fish. It was like being in Ghostbusters!
He swallowed the lure whole. I'd be uncooperative too if I had a pair of trebles in my throat.
Yeah, i'm not sticking my fingers in there (Photo by Whiblah)
On the mat. Whiblah and I verified it as 72cm, but none of our photos are overly good. We're hoping Richmond doesn't disqualify the record ;)
The fish! (Photo by Whiblah)
After releasing the toga we got back to hunting. We continued around towards the 3 ways but with little success. Whiblah had managed a small bass on the troll, but nothing else. By now the sun was peeking through the clouds, and the rain had all but disappeared. We started to make our way back when the temperature crept up.
Heading back past the palm farm I snagged another small bass, and then Whiblah did the same not long after. Coming back through toga bay I also picked up 2 more.
Buy this stage we were damp and hot, and I could feel my skin protesting under the suns rays, so we called it a day. For me a total of 8 bass and one saratoga were landed, and 3 bass landed for Whiblah. Not bad for a dreary wet day.
Wind: Calm at first, picking up to northerly, 5-10 knots for an hour or so from 5:00am then back to 5 knot northerly
Swell: 1.5 metre northerly
Current: at Doggie Beach reef, none detected
Launch point: Doggie Beach
Participants: gemini, sunshiner
The wind dropped off to almost nothing at midnight, just as I'd hoped. I found this out at 3:30am this morning when my heavy and dopey sleep was interrupted by my wakeup alarm. I wouldn't say I sprang out of bed but within a few minutes I was up and about, noting that there was a heavy overcast on this near-moonless night.
Our plan was a Doggie Beach launch and for Gemini this was to be a first. The small surf cascading onto the beach was audible but subdued from the carpark and visible because it was white once I'd strolled down to the water's edge. I judged the launch doable but probably, in light of subsequent events, should have gone for the northern corner, 200m or so further north, where the headland provides protection from any northerly swell. Gemini met me on the path as I walked back up in the darkness and he accepted my assurance that it was OK.
By the time we'd got back to the beach, ready to launch, there was sufficient light to show that the small waves were dropping onto the edge of the sandbank on which we stood. The Doggie Beach sandmonster was hanging around.
I'll let gemini tell you about his experience if he wants to but I got through pretty easily, while he didn't, and this led to today's trip being a solo effort. I did speak by radio to gemini after I'd launched and confirmed he was OK. Sorry you couldn't make it mate.
Launch time.
Feeling a bit downcast that gemini wasn't with me, I nevertheless pressed on in windless conditions, out to Doggie Beach reef, which was a mere 1500m further out.
Having seen the anchovy shoals off Doggie Beach yesterday, I was not surprised to see that a few terns were already prospecting the area. Being hopeful that there may be some predatory pelagics around I trolled my trusty HLP, which hadn't had a decent strike since I pulled it out of the packet a couple of months ago. It still hasn't.
But on the way out the fishfinder was showing me that there was more bait hanging around near the bottom than the last time I came here a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I was in with a chance.
By the time I was ready to start my drift the breeze was just starting to puff from the north, and the light levels were increasing rapidly, even though the rising sun was masked by heavy cloud. Doggie Beach reef was reached without any action and after retrieving the HLP I immediately deployed the Bunnings shopping bag and sent my trailing rig (half ounce jig, with 5inch white snapback) on its journey to mid water.
My first cast with the casting outfit (quarter ounce jig with a 4 inch SP, rigged on a wire trace) must have been just after 5:00am, as shown by the following pic, because the first cast was nailed when it got near the bottom, 27m vertically below.
Snapper #1. Only about 40cm, but nice eating and a keeper for me.
When you're on a good thing, stick to it, the old saying goes. So I paddled back up my drift track, with the wind increasing steadily, and white caps starting to appear. Today I pretty much used one of my marks near our Doggie Beach reef mark as a focal point, trying to get my drifts to swing through the mark, and not go very far south as the wind was showing a tendency to make upwind travel more and more unpleasant. One of the reasons I hung around this mark was that there were plenty of signs of fishy activity below, as shown by the fishfinder.
One of several similar favourable indications on my drift line.
I'd spent 30 minutes or so manoeuvering into a better upwind position, trolling as I travelled, before I was happy to restart a drift. Almost immediately the cast outfit went off again. Another snapper, this time a bigger one.
Snapper #2. Same bait.
With the wind picking up in strength and my drift speed increasing accordingly, my trailing outfit was not deep enough, I thought, so I whipped off the half ounce and substituted a heavy, maybe two ounce, octopus thingy from R2S, also rigged on wire in case of mac attack. That seemed to do the trick, as the line angle was much more vertical than before. But still it hadn't attracted attention. As if to emphasise its superior fish catching qualities, a short while later off went the cast SP again.
Snapper #3. Same bait.
With mixed feelings, I was now facing the prospect of bagging out. On the one hand it's great to catch snapper, but on the other hand another fish would put an end to the trip, as catching another species today seemed unlikely. Then again, four snapper is enough, surely.
A few minutes after these thoughts went through my mind, the yak leaned unexpectedly to starboard and the drag clicker on the trailing outfit sounded the alarm. The octopus thingy had gone off. This had happened immediately after a small school of bonito or similar made a flurry on the surface nearby so at first I thought maybe a different species was involved. But no, it was my bag-out snapper.
Bag-out snapper (#4). Taken on heavy octopus jig thingy.
Hey, it wasn't even seven o'clock. Immediately deciding to end the trip, I rationalised that I'd surely earn some much needed brownie points by getting home so early. Turning the bow toward the beach, a mere two clicks away, I deployed the trolled HLP, just in case, and paddled back in. On the way in I passed several indicators that the anchovy shoals were still being hammered by small predators, but no large predators seemed to be present.
Noosa Yakker turtleboy was on the beach exercising his dogs when I beached. So were many of the village's dog lovers and, as usual, a barrage of questions was directed at me. No sweat; I love telling others of the joys, satisfaction and challenges of kayak fishing, especially from an ocean beach. And I never exaggerate.
A few beach pics
Local beach lady, and fishing fan.
Turtleboy's dogs show an interest in kayak and fish. Pic by turtleboy, my camera.
Snapper and Stealth. Pic by turtleboy, my camera.
So, the fish are there, Noosa Yakkers. What are you waiting for?
Kev
Supplementary Report by Gemini
A brief summary of my report in a nutshell: I stuffed up.
After leading a pampered life of smooth launches from MG, in my infinite wisdom I thought I could apply my luck successfully to Doggie Beach. Big mistake. Doggie Beach is deceptively different to MG. The short break builds up and comes at you fast, and the little breakers still have significant power behind them.
Following Kev's lead, I waited for what looked to be an opportunity to launch into the wash and head out. The results didn't exactly end well. See for yourself...
For those of you who run with rods up on launch (like me), Doggie Beach is NOT the place to do so. It's far too unpredictable, and I certainly won't be making the same mistake twice. An extra 30 minutes rigging up on the water is preferable to the damage I sustained today.
Another point I will make is to be prepared for when you roll. In the video above you will see I was under water for around 8 seconds. What you can't see is that I was under the yak the entire time. I had to force the yak up and off me using my legs and back, and the suction was incredible in the shallow water. I had nobody on shore to assist, and it could have gone badly very quickly. In the famous words of Douglas Adams: DON'T PANIC! 8 seconds under a yak in the surf seems like an eternity, and your brain does funny things in that time when you don't have access to the open air. Take your time, assess the situation, and keep calm. There would be nothing worse than flailing around getting tangled in ropes, or paddle leashes (ahem...as Dave mentioned the other day), and taking a big breath of seawater in a panic.
The good news is repairs have been done, the yak is ready to go again, and the reels will be stripped over the course of the week. An expensive learning experience for sure, but a needed one I think. No cutting corners for the sake of more fishing time from now on!
Wind: Initially, 10-15knots NNW, then abating to no wind
Launch point: Munna Point
Participants:Richmond
I hit the water at 10pm last night, there was a stiff 15knot wind from the NNW. Not ideal. I didn't expect the wind to be that strong. Fortune favours the brave, and off I go, paddling 3/4's into the wind I was taking spray and splashes over the bow.
With no hits on my trolled minnow whilst paddling to the area I intended to fish and the wind making it extremely hard to fish the way I wanted, I decided to head off to the sound for a bit of wind protection.
I ended up at Weyba Creek. The mullet were everywhere, thick as. There were a few bustups from trevally now and then, but generally it was pretty quiet.
I couldn't buy a hit on the soft plastic so decided to troll a Cultiva deep diving minnow around Weyba Hole. After a few laps I had a bump and hooked up to a nice little Jewfish. After a short fight, measure and photo he was released to grow bigger.He was well undersize at 52cm.
With no more hits here and a lessening wind, I trolled my way back to my original spot. This was better, little to no wind and fish busting up.It was now about 1.30am, the tide was in it's prime and I was itching to catch a fish.
The trevally were into the prawns big time, popping up here and there. They weren't going berserk, but they were actively feeding. I cast my Gladiator Prawn into a boil and hooked up solid. I'd had a heap of touches and dropped fish already but this time the hookup was solid. After a short battle I boat a Bigeye Trevally that went just over 40cm.
I kept at it but I could not get another Trevally to inhale my plastic. I kept getting short takes, they'd grab the lure then let it go. Very frustrating as trevally can be at times.I continued casting the prawn plastic at surface boils. I let the plastic sink to the bottom, gave it a couple of twitches, bang! I was on. This time it felt like a much better fish.
He played up a bit, strong short runs, changes of direction, I didn't know what this fish was. To say I was happy when I landed it would be an understatement. A beautiful Mangrove Jack that measured just on 50cm. I'm glad I brought my bigger net. I paddled to a nearby sandbank, measured him and let him go.He was one lucky fish and I was one happy angler.
The tide was now slowing right down which in turn had an effect on the fish as well. The bustups were declining, the bait was no longer flicking on the surface. I gave it another half hour or so, then decided to troll for home. Halfway home I had a touch on the minnow and boated a small flattie in the low forties.
The night turned out pretty good in the end considering I was thinking of throwing in the towel early on when the wind was up. Persistance pays at times, that's for sure.
Wind: Westerly, to 2 knots, picking up to northerly, 5-10 knots
Swell: 1.5 metre easterly
Current: at Little Halls Reef, none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: jaro, richmond, pedro, jimbo, daveyG, doctor dog, kayakone, sunshiner
Glassy conditions in close to Main Beach today at launch time were a change from the last few days which had been characterized by howling winds and big swells.
By the time I got to the carpark at 04:50, somewhat later than I intended, pedro, richmond, jaro and jimbo had already launched. Kayakone was in the last stage of readying his Adventure and in fact got it down to the beach just before I did.
Yaks belonging to Kayakone and me, ready for launch. Spot the difference?
A couple of minutes later I was out the back and a couple more minutes after that I was off, paddling toward Halls Reef, via Little Halls Reef, where the earlier launchers had gone.
The reasons for choosing that area were two: firstly that we had information from recent TR that schools of baitfish were present; and secondly that the wind was forecast to blow quite stiffly from the north. The five km journey from Halls Reef with the wind up our tails is quite a more pleasant experience than having it in our faces which does happen sometimes.
Soon after I set off pedro came up on the radio and let us all know that he was hooked up. Whatever was on the end of his trolled line had taken a whole bonito bait and was putting up a hard fight. It turned out to be a shark, estimated by pedro at over 1.5m long. Somehow pedro managed to retrieve his gear from the shark’s mouth and set it free, without losing his fingers.
By now we had the western part of Laguna Bay covered, with several boats scattered over the distance between Little Halls Reef and Halls Reef. Also about to enter this space were the remaining three of our group who had just embarked at Middle Groyne.
The partial eclipse of the sun early today occupied our attention for a while out there, with the light and heat from the sun decreasing noticeably as the moon partially masked its rays. A quick glance at the sun while wearing sunglasses revealed a moon shaped bite out of its left face. It would have been really interesting to experience at sea in north Queensland where a total eclipse occurred at the same time.
Jaro was the first to announce success with a small snapper and later he got another, both on bait. Then pedro, with another, a bit larger, taken on a half pilchard. We were all keeping each other informed by radio, but the info was mainly that there were no obvious pelagics around even though there were many schools of baitfish.
Kayakone paddles past, on his first fishing trip with us.
Pedro and I shadowed several of these schools, visible on the surface and on the fishfinder, dragging lures deep and shallow through the fish without result, a strong indication that no pelagics or other predators were present. One or two terns hung around these patches of bait, but generally they were ignored by the few terns we saw today. It seemed that a couple of pics might be worthwhile so I pulled out the camera.
The rippled surface indicating the moving baitfish.
Underwater shot of the fish, 40-50mm long, as they moved past my yak.
Clearly there's quite a bit of Laguna Bay fresh food awaiting the predators, so it's probably worth visiting the area whenever you get a chance as sooner or later the razor gang will show up and put on an unforgettable display of brutal carnage. That's when you need to have the slugs ready, and a suitable casting outfit.
I'd planned to get back to Middle Groyne by 09:30 so started the slow haul back in company with Doctor Dog about 08:15. We both trolled HBs all the way back in lovely tail wind conditions and even encountered a few more patches of bait but got no action.
Richmond and daveyG were back at Middle Groyne when we got there, the latter going in and out several times just for the fun of riding the nicely shaped waves rolling in to Main Beach. I decided to have a go too and was going well surfing the wave until at the end I ran out of water while bracing and was promptly spilled out onto the sand as the starboard side of the yak hit the sand while the port side was still in knee deep water. This was a case where I should have gone nose first into the beach instead of bracing and showing off to richmond and turtleboy who stood on the beach with wide grins as I tumbled out.
Braced on the wave. Should have kept going straight and skidded to a halt (frame from video).
Video (47 secs) of return to beach added 1945hrs. Voice over explaining what's happening.
At the time of writing I'm unsure of final results but richmond, daveyG, doc dog, jimbo and I all scored donuts. Hopefully the others will let us know how they went.
Wind: SE (so offshore) 15 knots
Swell: 2m easterly
Venue: Main Beach, western end, just east of river mouth
Participants: daveyG, jimbo, richmond, gemini, stormin, mangrove-mac, carlo, imax, turtleboy, doctor dog, sunshiner, DennisT, whalerider, kayak-one, kahuna, weeksie
Spectators: eyetag, wal ahti, hollywood, salty, jaro
Special thanks to: Dennis and Nadia of Australian Kayak Specialists (AKS) who travelled all the way from the Gold Coast just to help us out today.
~~~~~~~~~
Bloody hell! The surf seemed enormous. We were sitting on a tarp on the beach under AKS’s canopy, sheltering from the rain. Right in our view was the raging sea. Our Chief Instructor DaveyG hammered home the fine and rough points of handling a fishing kayak in the surf. Were we really going to go out in that?
Then we were donning surf helmets and launching our yaks into that same raging sea, some of us borrowing one of the several Stealth kayaks supplied by Dennis.
Did we get wet? Did we have fun? Did we learn a lot? Yes, Yes, Yes. Despite the apparently appalling conditions we found that our yaks could handle the surf pretty well. Most of us spent some time at least bobbing around supported by our PFDs while our upturned yaks were drifting nearby. So yes we were soaked, and yes we really stretched ourselves in surf we would normally never contemplate entering. A great experience it certainly was, and we owe a considerable debt to DaveyG who organized the event, and to his able helpers imax, turtleboy and kayak-one all of whom helped keep us and our kayaks safe and undamaged.
Here's the story in pics provided by Salty. Thanks, mate.
The scene
DaveyG, instructor.
Yes, sir!
Shit, do we really have to?
Stowing dangerous gear.
Getting down to business
DaveyG (yakless), jimbo and gemini.
Weeksie heads out
Sunshiner on the way
Laughing spectators. Wal, eyetag, jaro.
From left, jimbo, weeksie, kayak-one, imax, stormin, DaveyG, sunshiner
Oops, sunshiner.
Doc dog on foot, others playing in the small stuff.
Eyetag, dry; DennisT, damp; mangrove-mac, dry but about to get soaked; sunshiner, sopping wet.
Stormin, taking a well-earned break
Stealth tag team. Imax, in his own BFS, hands over to weeksie, borrowed Supalite x.
Kahuna, daveyG, richmond, gemini
Clearly, enjoyed by all. Perhaps we should make it an annual event?
Wind: Westerly, maybe 1 knot
Swell: 1.5 metre easterly
Current: at Little Halls Reef, none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: jaro, doctor dog, sunshiner
Gentle rain pattering on the roof. 4:00am. No wind. Let’s go!
By 04:15 I'm in the carpark, grabbing my favourite spot. No one else in sight. Five minutes later I'm on the beach with the yak. Getting light quickly now. I wander back up to the carpark and find that Jaro has just arrived.
There were a few waves which could have threatened my dry bum situation but I was patient and soon got out with no hassles. Less than five minutes later I'm on the way to Little Halls Reef, with Jaro having just launched behind me.
Today was to be a quick trip for me as I had a two hour work commitment which needed to be knocked over by 11:00am. Paddling conditions were superb. No breeze, glassy sea, slight swell, overcast, silence.
The HLP was out the back, an irresistible temptation to any decent pelagic, and some indecent ones also. Unfortunately, none present today. I did encounter a 2-3m shark, however. It was cruising gently along within a short cast distance, the tips of its tail and dorsal fin just showing and indicating its identity and size. In many years kayak fishing that's the first I've seen just mooching along on the surface. I've seen many however, chopping in to baitfish, sharing the spoils with tuna, mackerel, etc in those spectacular bustups we get in the warmer months.
At Little Halls Reef I expected to encounter baitfish and sure enough, there they were, exposed by the fishfinder. There were many such displays all around Little Halls Reef central. No signs of surface activity however. One thing noticeable was that the number of terns had increased, with every now and again a packet of them heading north east or north, or just wheeling around near us.
Baitfish near the bottom.
Jaro had settled into his banana routine and I was playing around with SPs, one trailing. Then a muffled call on the radio. "Hooked up". From Jaro. I responded by suggesting he'd picked up a shark, as he usually does. Then he comes back a few minutes later with the news he has a huge sweety in his lap. I was only a couple of hundred metres away so paddled over to take a pic.
Nice fish indeed
Doctor Dog joined us shortly after this, having called us on the radio as soon as he'd launched.
My deadline was fast approaching so I headed for home, dodging the Middle Groyne sand monster by getting the yak up on the plane (wave assisted). Hit the beach at 8:00 am to be met by Corie, engaged in uncle duties with two young nephews.
Jaro's sweetie (official Record Claim pic). Hard luck, Jag-one.
I understand that Doc Dog had no more action than I had. Jaro dropped around later to get the measurement photo and he'd released a just size snapper, but had nothing else.
Now to line up for the surf session. At least the overcast should result in easier parking. See some of you there.
Supplementary Report by Gemini
