Fast run-out and unexpected applause 20Sep14

TR by Redwood

Trip date: 20 Sept 2014

Participants: Redwood

Launch Site:  Weyba Creek

Destination:  River Mouth

Conditions: Rainy with strong run-out, tide almost full low

Keen Angler Program: none

Having missed an opportunity to go offshore earlier in the day the need to get on the water was strong, so I decide to hit the river even though the moon phase wasn’t ideal but fishing the run-out to the bottom can often be good. I checked the weather and the rainy patches looked they'd move off and their appeared to be nothing major behind them.

At 8.45pm I dropped the yak into the South Side of Weyba Creek and paddled toward Munna Point Bridge. Just before the bridge I thought I’d hooked something and spent 5 minutes fighting someones lost fishing line. No idea where it came from or where it was going, but I managed to cut it and get my rig back without too much drama. I paddled on headed for Ricky’s and just before turning East on the river proper my River to Sea lure was taken and a short fight later I boated a 39cm Big Eye Trevally. I decided to troll the area to see if I could pick hop another and 2min later lost one as I failed to set the hooks properly. I trolled around the Munna Point area for another 10min but no further action except that it had started to rain quite heavily. 

38cm Trevally will make a nice Sunday lunch

I decided to do a few drifts near Ricky’s as part of my ongoing efforts to try and land a fish on a soft plastic. I dropped the gladiator prawn in and the drift seemed to be going well as I could feel the lure softly banging on the sand ridges on the bottom and every now and again I’d give it a jerk. I’d drifted all the way to the sand banks without a touch. I redeployed the R2S and headed for the mouth and was immediately onto something substantial which put up a big fight. Unfortunately it turned out to be the dreaded Hair Tail. I boated this as rightly or wrongly I’ve decided to take a few of these out of the system as it’s seemed pretty thick with them over the last coupe of years. 

I carried on toward the mouth with the tide sweeping me down very quickly. I’m not sure if the run-out is always this fast, but it seemed particularly quick. I crossed the mouth channel in my usual pattern heading diagonally across to the fishing platform on the South Side. Half way across the yak hit a sand bar and I struggled a bit to get over it. Once over I was in the even faster flowing main channel which s only 6-8m across and I was thinking to myself that it would not be good to hook up here as I’d be dragged out to the bar very quickly. Just as the thought was exiting my brain to wherever thoughts go, I heard a big thump on the line. I grabbed the reel and started winding hard. Luckily I had some heavy gear on and could wind pretty much as hard as I liked. It was difficult to tell how fast I was going out toward the bar as I was going backwards with the rock wall on my left and the fish on my right, but out of the corner of my eye I could now see cars and bright lights. It’s hard to tell time either, but I guess I’d managed to get the fish boat side in under 2 minutes and could see a large silver shape that resembled a Jew Fish. I didn’t have time to muck around with lip grips and I couldn’t gaff it as I couldn’t tell if it was legal size or not, so I'd just have to heave it and hoped the hooks didn’t pull. They didn’t and I got the fish into the hatch at which point I got a very unexpected round of applause and 'whoops' from my new fans on the rock wall and car park.

By this time I was almost at the Life Guard tower and I now paddled like mad to get into the calmer waters near the fishing platform. As soon as I was out of the main channel I checked the chart to see if it was a river Jew or a Black Jew and it seemed like a Black Jew to me [correction - the fish is neither River nor Black Jewfish but a Mulloway or Silver Jew Fish - thanks Aussie Stew]. A quick measurement had the fish around 70cm, maybe 72cm, but not 75cm, so it had to go back. I took a quick snap and let it go.

70cm Silver Jew fish caught in the river mouth rock wall channel on a HBL

I did a few more laps after that but nothing more so I decided to head back to Ricky’s. Going back against the tide was hard going. At Ricky’s I gave the softies another crack but again no luck. I spotted some lighting off to the North so decided to pack it in and had the yak back o the roof around 12.30am. And thus ended another fun night on the Noosa River.

Seems the one thing in common for both excellent nights I’ve had on the river is rain. Just coincidence or is there something in that?

Busted Diesel 19Sep14

Fishing Report Friday 19/09/2014 by Jaro

Conditions: beautiful sunny day with no swell to speak of.
Wind 5 knots increasing to 7knots and then dying out altogether.
Negligible current.
Participants: Diesel, Mahatma, Stormin, Red Greg, Carlo and Jaro.

Everyone arrived at MG around 5.00am (+or- 20 minutes). The seas were very calm so exit (and entry) was dead easy.

We all headed for JS at various intervals with Diesel leading the way. Diesel hooked up off Dolphin Pt/Granite Bay and proceeded to have a long fight. Unfortunately, Diesel's reel broke and he then used his hands to pull the fish in which turned out to be a long tail tuna. He did get it to the kayak but missed his attempt to gaff it, whereupon the tuna had a flurry of action and broke the line.

Well that was it as far as any further action was concerned. We all headed back in around 8.30am landing around 9.30am.

A nice paddle on a beautiful Spring day, especially for me as I had not been out for 2 months.

Jaro

Lots of wildlife but min fish at Jew Shoal

TR by Redwood

Trip date: 12 Sept 2014

Participants: Tunny, Mahatma, Redwood

Launch Site:  Middle Groyne

Destination:  Jew Shoal

Conditions: light breeze, sub 1m swell, light current

Keen Angler Program: none

Sub 1m swell? No wind? I hardly recognised the graphs on Seabreeze and also chose not to recognise my alarm going off at 3.45am which, is why I arrived last with Tunny and Mahatma already prepping in the car park. We were scheduled for a 5am launch and if I hurried we'd make it.

Mahatma and Tunny at 4.50am

The launch was dead easy and we were out the back of the small surf just after 5am. We pointed our yaks at the crack of light on the horizon and headed off. I'd only paddled for 10min when I could feel the sweat starting to bead on my forehead. It was warmer than expected. After the usial 45-50min we arrived at Jew Shoal with the sun not up yet, but light enough to see clearly. everything looked perfect,  now would the fish come to the party?

Mahatma doing is best silhouette impression of a kayaker

Mahatma was sans GPS (and sans radio) so he was relying on us to put him on some marks. I had gone to a mark 400m north of the Pinnacles as I'd had some luck there before. Tunny was trolling around the Pinnacles with his new deep diving lure and Mahatma was somewhere in the middle.

I've still not caught a single thing on a soft plastic, but I'm going to keep trying until that changes. I was hammering away with one of those big white numbers on one rod (Sunshiner specials I think they're called) and a 1/2 pilchard on a trailing outfit. Mahatma I could see had a paternoster rig with what I presumed were pilchards for bait. This rig proved to be a winner as he held up a keeper Squire as I passed him on my way back to my drift starting point.

Mahatma and a keeper Squire caught on dead bait and paternoster rig.

I fished the same area as Mahatma with a similar offering but was getting no action. All was quite on Tunny's end with Tunny fishing only with plastics.

Somewhere around this point we could hear and see a baby whale going nuts further west toward the beach. The thing was definatly full of the joys of life, larking around and trying out his new body. Jumping, rolling, slapping it's tail which you could see he hadn't really got the hang of yet. Typical kid. It's the youngsters that worry me, they're just kids and they can make mistakes. The adults seem to know you're there, but they kids might just go up for a big old breach and go; "Ah, not good, I'm going to land on that floaty thing". Mother and calf came within a few hundred yard of us, then went down and resurfaced quite a long way south.

I decided to try a new location just west of the pinnacles and see if that changed anything. Two drifts later and the status quo was the same. The pillie rig I was using had a fairly large hook (5.0) and fairly large 1/2 pilcard. I decided to cut off the placcie on the other end and add a smaller circle hook with a smaller pilllie bait. which, paid dividends as I was starlight on to something that felt like a Squire, and indeed it was, but unfortunately only 30cm. I did a couple more drifts with the smaller outfit but after each drift I'd check it and find the whole thing had twisted into a birds nest. I only had one light sinker on, so I added another to see if it would eliminate the twist, which it did.

Redwood's undersized Squire

Mahatma wasn't too far off me and I could see he landed a couple of small reefies and he also landed a small flattie earlier. The cupboard was still bare for Tunny and the plastics. At 8.30 I pulled the pin leaving Tunny and Mahatma in glorious fishing conditions. BTW I also spotted a number of very large turtles at JS and a few dolphins about 800m to the west.

On my way back about 400m ahead of me I could see large patches of darker water and as there was no wind I thought perhaps it was bait fish and as I got closer I could see it was. I stopped and decide to take some video of it which you can see below. I'm not sure what kind of fish they are (looked like pilchards) but Davos most recent NN article mentioned that Mac and Long Tail Tuna have been feeding on Frog Mouth Pilchards just past the headlands. So maybe they are Frog Mouth Pilchards? I hope there were no Tuna chasing them as I was shooting movies and not firing slugs. Should I have cast a few slugs in? Should you always cast a few slugs into a bait school JIC?

Someone's gotta live here

Tunny informed me later that he picked up 1x Grinner on his new deep diving lure. And that was it as far as the fishing went. A really nice day and great to be back out there.

A Very quiet day in paradise 1st Sep 14

TR by eyetag

Wind: 0-5 knot variable
Swell: 1-2 foot
Current: Nil
Launch Point: Middle Groyne
Participants: Pedro and Eyetag

The launch was easy with Pedro first and I joined him a few minutes later at 4.04am. We paddled to "A bay" reef where we drifted with plastics and bait for a couple of hours,things were quiet with a couple of nice fish dropped and nothing in the bag. We moved N/E and had a few more drifts. Things were very slow. Peter ended up with 2 Squire, 40cm 57cm and a 50cm Grassy, I had one of each.

Peter's smaller Squire not pictured.

Sunday morning with Macca. 31Aug14

TR by sunshiner


Wind: gentle SW early, dropping to calm by 0900
Swell: 1m SE
Water temp: 20°C
Current: at Jew Shoal, slight SW-NE
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: macca, sunshiner
Keen Angler Program: N/A

Today was to be the day. Macca was determined to do his first launch into the open ocean on his yak. Several emails had passed between him and me recently, each from him containing a carefully considered question about beach launches and fishing at Jew Shoal and each of my replies contained a carefully considered response. Macca, like many of us, can only fish on weekends and, if you've been following the weather, you'll have noticed that very few weekends lately have coincided with weather suitable for offshore kayak fishing. But several days ago we bookmarked Sunday 31Aug as a strong possibility and the forecast proved accurate.

So that is how I came to be on the beach at Middle Groyne at 04:50 this morning. I'd arrived slightly early for our agreed rendezvous and was checking that conditions were suitable -- they were. It was now that I encountered a long tailed marsupial scampering on the beach, its gleaming eyes reflecting the beam of my head torch. I've seen ringtail possums with their distinctive and long white-tipped tails clinging to the branches of trees in the carpark on several occasions but this was the first I'd seen cavorting on the beach. It sought refuge in the casuarina clump adjacent to the lifesaver station and possibly is still there even now, awaiting darkness before venturing back to the treeline fringing the beach.

Paul, for that is macca's real name, turned up on time. We went through the formalities in semi-darkness, meeting face to face for the first time and then turned to the main task, unloading and prepping our yaks. This didn't take long but I think macca will be quicker next time, and probably will have a little less equipment.

Soon our yaks were both on the beach with just enough light to make it easy for me to describe the launch scenario, gutter, back paddling etc.

As I said, maybe macca will have a little less gear gear next time.

Today's launch was as easy as it gets and I sent macca off first and watched him dry-bum it after back paddling a little in the hole to allow a small breaker to pass through.

Macca in the channel

Soon we were together out the back. I was delighted to hear that Paul had a brand new Icom M-23 VHF radio. Callsign? Nope! Nickname? Nope! Pointing out that we already have four or five yakkers whose first name is Paul, I suggested that we call him macca in recognition of his Scottish ancestry as indicated by his surname. It was settled, for the time being at least; macca it was.

Macca setting up as the horizon gets ready to showcase the sun.

As you can see, beautiful conditions. We pretty much had the whole bay to ourselves, too. Jew Shoal is a good starting point for newbies, being far enough but not too far and so we set out for The Pinnacles, which we reached at about 7:00am. Sad to say, by 9:00am neither of us had received any attention from fish. There were a few big and noisy predator splashes early on, and a few tuna put in an appearance about 8:00 am. A large accumulation of the usual baitfish was visible onscreen in the shallows of the shoal, apparently not bothered by any predators. Oh and a sea snake popped its head up to take a look at me at one stage. Turtles, yes, plenty, but no whales or dolphins. Accordingly I opted to head for home. Macca decided to fish on. I hope he eventually bagged a snapper or two.

Macca fishes on. Good luck, macca.

So, I donutted August (but, in my defence, I only had one opportunity to fish).

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

Pedro solo at Jew Shoal. 27Aug14

TR by Pedro
Wind: 10 knots SW early turning SSE 12 knots
Swell: 1-1.5m SE
Current: gentle N to S
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: Pedro

There was a big difference in wind predictions with Wind guru, willy, seabreeze all saying doable while BOM put out a strong wind warning.

Woke at 4am and checked radar. DIP was gusting at 17 knots but I was keen to go as it had been 16 days.

Launched about 6.30am, late for me as I wasn't packed the night before. There was a decent swell with some sand dredging taking place on the bigger ones. I took my time and made it easy, getting a bit wet punching through the last wave.

Jew Shoal certainly wasn't firing, although I did manage to bag two snapper each between 40/50cm and a grassie about 38. All were caught on lightly weighted pilchard while drift fishing. Other baits, including a live bait, went untouched.

Landing was no problem -- timed it well between sets, which was lucky as I had Sunshiner with the camera on the rocks.

Pedals stowed, bending the paddle shaft. Pic and caption by sunshiner

Just checking… Pic and caption by sunshiner

Pic by sunshiner

Pedro

Sweeties at Jew Shoal 11Aug2014

TR by Tunny

Trip date: 11 Aug 2014

Participants: Pedro, Diesel, Mahatma, Stormin, Tunny

Launch Site:  MG

Destination:  Jew Shoal

Conditions: 5-8 knots, 1 metre swell, slight NE current

Keen Angler Program: none

Having fished the Noosa River the previous night I opted for a launch at the leisurely hour of 6am.  As I arrived at 5.30 to unload, Diesel was heading down to the beach.  He informed me that Pedro had already headed out.  Mahatma then arrived, followed by Stormin with his brand new Stealth Profisha 475 which he had tested in the river but yet to take in the sea.  The launch was not difficult, and we headed for Jew Shoal.  I trolled a large pilchard while Mahatma and Stormin opted for hard bodied lures.  There was no surface action and no interest in any of the baits or lures.  The only marine life visible was a huge number of jellyfish which at times we could feel hitting the bottom of the kayaks.  I stopped briefly to take an underwater photo of the Jellyfish before continuing to Jew Shoal.

Only signs of life for most participants - Jellyfish at Jew Shoal

As we approached Jew Shoal Pedro radioed to say that he had caught a sweetlip while Diesel had a bream.  I did a few circuits with the pilchard in tow, then switched to jigging soft plastics without success.  Mahatma caught some undersize reef fish which he released while Pedro’s persistence was rewarded with a second Sweetlip estimated at 40cm.

Overall a fun day out – now we just need the wind to die down for the next trip!