We're starting a bit later these days -- 0500 instead of 0415. I arrived at the MG carpark about 0445 to find Andy, setting up his Prowler Elite, and a lot of cars/vans in which people are still camping. My usual spot was again taken up by that same van but I noticed that Ian's Subaru was in its usual #1 place. Jaro arrived while I was down checking the surf, which I assessed was not likely to bother us.
Before long we were trundling our yaks down to the launch point. I hung back to take the usual launch pic, this time of Andy.
0501hrs. Andy in the foreground, Jaro, difficult to spot behind Andy, in the background.
Launch was easy and uneventful. Our plan today was to target mackerel so we were set up to troll HB lures and cast slugs. The breeze was light from the east with a tiny easterly swell so conditions were perfect.
Jaro being ready to paddle first, he announced that he would head toward the river mouth. It was my intention to follow him but as soon as I was ready to go a decent mackerel, either spotty or schoolie, launched itself clear of the water nearby, beautifully silhouetted against the early morning sky. This made me decide to hang about in the MG area for a while. Once Jaro heard this, by radio, he agreed and turned through 180∞ to join Andy and me. Although we thoroughly prospected the area we didn't raise any mackerel so after 20 minutes or so we decided to head for the river mouth/LH reef precinct, the scene of much previous mackerel activity.
Travelling along this track we came across numerous scenes of hectic feeding by what turned out (as we expected) to be small bonito.
0530hrs. A typical bonito feeding frenzy (note: no large splashes). Still from video.
The bonito were keen on our HB lures which were not much smaller than the bonito themselves. I caught two while trolling my Halco Laser between the bust ups such as is portrayed in the above image.
0544hrs. Bonito typical of those in plague proportions in Laguna Bay today and recently. No size or bag limit. All of us caught several.
Having seen no more sign of mackerel (but they HAD to be around) we jointly decided to head for LH Reef to see what we could find there. No mackerel there, either, and a huge flock of terns further inshore helping a pack of bonito demolish another hapless school of baitfish. So we eventually turned back toward the river mouth where we found, predictably, another large patch of bonito accompanied by terns. But here we met up with turtleboy (Steve) whom we knew was likely to be there as he'd informed us by radio that he'd launched. It was also here that my three yakking companions all witnessed a spectacular and graceful leap through the air by a Spanish mackerel, probably as the result of a fast pursuit of a bonito. Jaro at the time estimated the fish had cleared the water by a good 20 feet (~6.5m) vertically. Having seen this sort of behaviour elsewhere by Spanish mackerel I have no reason to doubt Jaro's height estimate. The things you see when kayak fishing!
We spent quite a while plugging away in the area near the river mouth but still could catch only bonito. Andy, however, reported a strong hookup the impact of which found a weak spot in an old wire trace he was using.
Eventually our patience dwindled and so we meandered individually back toward the inner bay and MG area. It was here that Steve radioed to me to come and take a look at the shark net as there was something ensnared. Here I found that at least four juvenile manta rays (real manta rays, plankton eaters, harmless to humans, with a long "horn" either side of its wide scooping mouth) had been killed by the net. Each of the rays was about one metre wide and they must have been travelling in close company for they were all tightly clustered in a short length of the net. [manta ray]
Near the net I encountered another two kayak fishers whom I'd not met before. The one I spoke to was named Connor and the other guy was his brother. Connor told me that a mackerel attack had just taken place nearby and as we chatted I could see some whirling and fluttering terns behind him with occasional individual splashes not typical of attacks by bonito. I let Jaro and turtleboy know by radio and we all paddled over to partake in the action.
0850hrs. A few hundred metres NE of Middle Groyne, which can be seen on the left of the image.
In this relatively small area schools of baitfish were being herded into baitballs by mackerel which then, when the time was right, launched individual charges into the baitball showering baitfish about and causing great interest among the kayakers (now seven of us as we'd been joined by Ian on his return from Sunshine Reef). The fish were extremely difficult to tempt, however and among the seven of us only about three mackerel were boated. The one I caught was a school mackerel, around 55cm long which I returned to the water to hopefully grow up a little.
At one stage I found myself floating atop a mound of baitfish densely packed around the kayak. Mackerel up to about a metre long could be plainly seen patrolling the perimeter, gradually tightening the noose. This was no place for me to be when the action started as all of the other yakkers would start tossing lures into the melee so I departed quickly.
Nor were mackerel the only predators present. I cast my slug into one feeding frenzy only to catch this little guy:
0936hrs. A very slender and hyperactive oceanic longtom, about 40cm long.
The upshot of this last hour or so was that we all had a bit of action and saw some spectacular assaults by mackerel, but no Noosa Yakker brought any fish home other than bonito, collected to be used as trolled dead baits. The action took place mainly within 300m of the beach and east of Middle Groyne.
We hit the beach around 10am, having no trouble whatsoever with the tiny swell encountered.
An interesting morning... Hopefully we'll get out again tomorrow and crack the mackerel code. As Jaro said, there's so much natural food around that it's difficult to tempt the predators to take anything else.
Thanks for coming along guys and thanks for organising, Jaro. See some of you tomorrow...
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://noosayakers.blogspot.com
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