From: sunshiner
Date: 15/05/2010 2:15 PM
Weather
Cloud cover:, no cloud
Wind direction & speed: westerly, 1 knot
Sea state: flat in Laguna Bay
There's a fair chance that this pelagic season, the best many of us have experienced, is over. But we had to go out today to find out.
Eyetag, jaro and I were lined up to go today, Jaro and I for the second consecutive day. Start time was set for 0630-ish but, predictably, eyetag's car was parked in its usual place when I arrived. He'd presumably launched in the dark as he intended to hit Sunshine Reef first. In the carpark I pulled into my usual spot to find that my parking neighbour was George, of Noosa's Adventure Sports & Kitesurf Australia [www.kite-surf.com.au]. George was offloading and prepping his Moken yak. I hadn't met him before but apparently Jaro had been regaling him with stories about kayak fishing so here he was. Jaro soon arrived and within a few minutes we were ready to go.
0637hrs. George is first to launch on the flattest sea you're ever likely to encounter at Middle Groyne. The weather was perfect also.
Jaro and I could see several boats hanging around the river mouth so we paddled in that direction hoping for signs of larger pelagics. All we could find were small splashes indicating the presence of bonito rather than mackerel. We hung around for a short while and then opted to head for Little Hall's Reef to see if we could wake up a sweetlip. The sea was smooth there too, with only very occasional surface splashes from devil rays, dolphins and small mac tuna. We drifted and bottom fished with SPs for a while. Both of us got hits from small fish and Jaro even managed to extract an undersized sweetlip on bait but after an hour we decided to move on. During the time we were at Little Hall's Reef I'd been trying to call eyetag on the radio but got no response. Eventually he came up, loud and clear, initiating a call, but my response was clearly not making the distance to where he was, presumably Sunshine Reef, over 6km away. VHF radio operates on line of sight and it's likely that the combination of the earth's curvature and the low absolute height of our respective aerials made radio communication difficult. Note that communication with the Coastguard on Channel 22 is usually not difficult from a kayak near Noosa because of the existence of a repeater station for that channel on top of Noosa Hill.
We moved back to the river mouth where a large number of watercraft were hanging around waiting for the next bust-up. Today and yesterday I noticed several gannets among the birds wheeling around, their presence a sure sign that summer has gone. So take care when trolling over the next several months because gannets are suckers for shallow running hard bodied lures and can very easily put unwanted excitement into your day if you have to bring one on board to extract a lure.
At the river mouth huge schools of skittish baitfish were being harrassed occasionally by, you guessed it, bonito of the leaping variety, as per yesterday. At one such occasion I happened to be sitting on top of the bait when such a bust-up happened. Within seconds the roar of outboard motors filled the air as wild-eyed Saturday anglers charged over to me to cast their slugs in the hope of catching poor little bonito. I was wishing I had a steel helmet as there was more metal flying around than in the Tet offensive. Well, perhaps I exaggerate a little, but you get the picture. Serene it was not.
Jaro and I had agreed earlier, while drifting in solitude on LH Reef, that a more pleasant day could not be imagined, with a flat sea, clear sky, warm but not too hot sun and only the tiniest of breezes. But now it was time to suck it up and accept that the likelihood of catching decent fish today had receded far into the negative area. We turned for home.
The return to the beach was so easy that it wasn't even worth checking to see whether there were large waves coming. So that's it, guys. Jaro and I are now rigging for reef fishing for the next six months. I wonder if we'll see new snapper and sweetlip record lengths coming up (77cm and 62cm, respectively). Bring it on!!
Ian, how did you go? (see response further down, this post)
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.com/
From Ian
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I left MG at 4.am and paddled to SR where I fished the bottom until about 6.30 for no result. Then I trolled a large Pike for 1.5 hrs and didn't get a touch so I decided to fish the bottom again and got a nice mixed bag of reefies.
I brought home 2 Grassies 42 and 50cm, 2 Snapper 45 and 53 cm, 1 Tusk fish 38 and an Estuary Cod 65 cm. All caught on soft plastics except the Cod and the bigger Grassy which were caught on a 1oz blade.
snapper, 53cm
estuary cod, 65cm
My suspicions of being out of radio range were confirmed thanks to Sunshiner's report. What a glorious day it was, I could see Teewah from SR and that doesn't happen often.
eyetag
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