Subject: fishing today -- 25Apr10
Date: Sunday, 25 April 2010 3:03 PM
It was midnight and I was still in bed and still awake and the rain continued, pattering on the roof. But the wake-up alarm was set for 0500 for the forecast was good, with light winds for the first time in a couple of weeks.
Next thing I know I'm dragging myself out of bed as a learned response to the blare of the alarm. The rain had stopped and a quick glance outside revealed twinkling stars and no sign of a breeze. A quick check of Seabreeze showed light winds at Double Island Point so the fishing trip was a go.
Twenty minutes later I'm rolling into the carpark at Main Beach. Other than a couple of overnighters, the only other cars around were two other 4WD right up near the beach end. Each of them had a yak next to it. Obviously whalebait, a regular fishing companion, and Keith were already here. Keith had sent me a message several weeks ago via AKFF and asked if he could come along on one of our trips. So here he was, setting up his Profish.
The swell was small and the breeze almost non existent. In the half darkness I checked out the launch spot. No problems there today.
0546hrs. Whalebait and madkeenfisher (Keith) have launched just ahead of me in the dawn gloom.
By 0610 we were all set up and ready for the fray. We'd decided to head in the general direction of Jew Shoal to see what we could find as we expected the spotty macs may still be around from yesterday, when whalebait depleted their population by one. All three of us trolled one hard body lure each, with whalebait and madkeen opting to troll dead baits on a second outfit as well.
I had my favourite Halco Laser on and it throbbed satisfyingly as I paddled along at about 5kph. Here and there terns could be seen searching for signs of surface activity. This is always a good indicator that predators will be around so our optimism lifted. It didn't take long...
Six minutes after setting out, when I would have been less than one kilometre from launch point and the sun had just cleared the cloudy horizon, the ratchet on my Penn overhead buzzed. I'd set the drag quite lightly and as I stowed the paddle and picked up the trolling outfit the reel buzzed again in response to a fast run. A brief tussle ensued resulting in a nice 80cm spotty mac being dropped into the foot well. These fish look magnificent in the early morning light, silvery and powerful and the terror of the tiny baitfish of which there are many presently in Laguna Bay.
0625hrs. Spotty mac number 1 is secured. My mission accomplished for the day.
Knowing that Keith was closer to shore than I, I looked for him while I was fighting the fish and saw him hove-to about 200m away. The light wasn't good enough for me to discern exactly what he was up to but I knew it was possible he'd also hooked a fish. As this was his first time out with us, I waited for him to catch up to show him that we do, indeed, catch fish here in Noosa. He paddled over after several minutes and held up two fingers. "You got two?" I asked. This was confirmed with a great big smile.
0632hrs. Madkeenfishman (aka Keith) shows off his two spotties, simultaneously hooked, the first he'd caught from his yak although he had caught this species off the beach before. Cloud-capped Noosa Hill in the background.
Whalebait was fishless though he reported "dropping" one fish. I was happy, Keith was happy and we decided to troll on, still in the direction of Jew Shoal, now 2.5km away. Shortly after we'd restarted, a yell of triumph forced me to turn and check. Sure enough, Keith was hooked up again.
0642hrs. Can't wipe the grin off Keith's face as he displays his third spotty mac within 30 minutes.
Keith is holidaying in Noosa and announced he was now satisfied and intended to have a paddle around in the superb conditions and then head back to his caravan and surprise his two young daughters and their Mum (and probably the near neighbours in the Noosa River Caravan Park also). I left him and paddled toward Whalebait who was loitering in the distance not far from Jew Shoal, still fishless but not strike-less.
We met up near the shoal and he proposed a paddle over to Little Halls Reef, about 3km to the SW from our present position. So off we went. I was still trolling my Halco Laser only, while whalebait deployed a hardbody lure plus a whole (dead) slimy mackerel. Soon he was hooked up big time, the slimy mackerel having been eaten. This was clearly no spotty mac. We were both hoping for a big Spaniard.
0723hrs, about 10 minutes into the fight. Whalebait puts pressure on. Note the turbulence behind the yak as it is towed and swung.
Some time later he spotted his foe -- a shark estimated at about 2-2.5m long. I was shooting video while this was going on and several times I thought he might be rolled as the shark powered downward. Neither of us was too disappointed when the leader gave out.
We agreed to carry on toward Little Hall's so I set course first while Whalebait re-rigged. Just before 0800, and when about 1.5km short of Little Halls, my trolled Halco went off again.
0804hrs. My spotty mac #2 is secured. Note the relative size of that powerful mackerel tail.
I waited while whalebait caught up to me, lifting my second spotty high as he approached to show him how big it was. The troll toward Little Halls continued.
At 0815hrs whalebait's trolled bait went off again. This was another shark, of keeper size this time. So whalebait opted to take it as he still had no fish in the yak today.
Whalebait gaffs the shark, which wasn't happy at this turn of events. (Still from movie.)
After some stuffing around, during which Whalebait's knife blade snapped off, inside the shark, the shark was despatched and secured in whalebait's forward hold with a little help from me (rafted up, employing the "leg-over" technique). We then decided to turn directly toward our launch point, some 2.5km away and along which path we could discern some birds working. Earlier, whalebait had cut off his only hard body lure rather than risk entangling the line with the fish he was fighting (which turned out to be the big shark). Noting my success with my Halco, he asked if I had a spare. I passed over my little Rapala deep runner, the only other hard body lure I had with me.
Soon we arrived in prime spotty mac territory, signalled by the splashes all round and by whalebait's hard body trolling outfit (equipped with my Rapala) going off. He boated that spotty and while he was thus engaged I meandered closely over to some surface splashing and had one cast with my casting outfit, set up with a little white slug, defended by a strand of wire. Five cranks of the handle and the slug was monstered accompanied by a big splash and the beautiful scream of my Sienna 4000's Slade spool (yes, they're interchangeable). This fish was another spotty Mac.
0858hrs. My spotty mac #3, this time taken on the slug pictured. Note wire trace.
This was enough fish for me; whalebait agreed that the shark plus a spotty mac were enough for him so we headed directly for the beach, deviating a little, perhaps, to closely observe spotty macs terrorising baitfish.
By now it was dead low tide. A consequence of this was that the sandbank at the seaward end of the groyne was now very shallow and the waves were breaking right across to the west. The situation was little different elsewhere nearby. Worse, the exit channel is presently scarcely one kayak wide at its choke point so a well timed approach is essential to avoid acute embarrassment. I opted to re-enter about 20m west of the groyne, as further west was not an option due to the presence of a surf school undergoing initiation just there. While waiting to do my run I nearly got clobbered by a big wave which stood up VERY tall. I'd spotted this menace when it was still 30 seconds or so away and turned bow on to meet it, paddling strongly to just crest the wave as it started to break, much to watching whalebait's disappointment. Time to go in. I picked a small set and went like hell for the beach only to be overtaken by a breaking wave which increased my speed alarmingly and threatened to rub my yak's nose in the sand with nasty consequences. Fortunately my standard defence of digging the paddle in on the starboard side stopped me rolling but took away all semblance of directional control. Luckily, the kid I almost ran down wasn't deaf and he managed to throw himself and his learner surf board out of my path before I ruined both of our days.
Whalebait was now disappointed on two counts. A work of fiction would now reveal that whalebait got smashed on the way in, but this is a work of fact, so whalebait did a nice job of it, despite being overtaken by a wave and tossed sideways like me. But his wave was nowhere near as big as mine.
Lots of beachgoers, curious to examine these boats and question their strangely dressed occupants, appeared. We were forced to show our fish (slack jaws at the sight of the shark) and forced to answer the same old questions about our weird but intensely interesting hobby. A couple of ladies agreed to co-star in pictures with fish.
Ladies from two of three generations pose with two of my spotty macs.
A visitor from France with whalebait's shark and spotty mac
My three spotty macs
Whalebait's shark and spotty mac.
Just then, Ian appeared, still in his work clothes. On seeing the spotties and hearing our first hand report he dashed off to return a few minutes later, ready to go.
And off he went, through that nasty little break, promising to let us know how he went.
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Ian's report, emailed later:
I paddled out to the spot pointed out to me by Sunshiner and Whalebait and caught 2 Spotties 85 and 70 cm before they seemed to disappear so I headed towards LH where I had a ball catching and releasing Mack Tuna around the 4-6 kg mark. In all I released 7 and must have dropped 17 they were so thick. Exhausted I decided to paddle home which was a slow boring paddle apart from a Devil or Duckbill Ray that was jumping some 30 metres ahead of me for about 5 minutes.
I forgot to mention the Seadoo I got busted up on he must have been 150-200 kg, glad he got away don't know what I would've done if I got him alongside.
Ian
callsign:eye tag
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Another great Noosa Yakkers day. Thanks for the company WB, and for giving me my now scratched Rapala back.
Wednesday's looking good.
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.com/
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