From: sunshiner
Date: 6/07/2010 4:11 PM
Weather
Cloud cover: varied throughout the morning
Wind direction & speed: from S ~5knots, gradually dropping off to calm
Sea state: low swell gradually increasing
Participants: Jaro, Kev, Ian, Peter, Jim, LeRoux, Stu
Raining at bedtime last night, fine this morning. On arrival in the carpark at about 0550 I noticed that Ian and Peter's cars were already parked -- clearly they were out there already. I checked out the break -- no problem there, and turned to see Jim and Jaro arriving. It wasn't so cold this morning, probably as a result of the cloud cover for much of the night.
We were soon ready to go.
0612hrs. Jaro and I ready to launch.
Jim chose to launch on the eastern side of the groyne while Jaro and I went for the usual western side. Either way, launch wasn't a problem.
Jew Shoal was once more our planned fishing destination and soon we were on our way, aided by a gentle SW breeze. We were aware that Peter, who doesn't have a radio, was probably at Jew Shoal. Ian had said he intended to go to Sunshine Reef and this was confirmed by a quick radio call to Ian who passed on the valuable info that the wind out there wasn't very strong.
By the time we got to Jew Shoal the southerly wind was generating a few white caps but nothing uncomfortable. Off to the east I could just see Peter's blue Hobie. We three chose our own starting points and fishing commenced. I think Jim was the first to announce the capture of a decent fish -- he'd bagged a nice snapper on a soft plastic. By 0730 I had caught only a small reefy or two and was drift fishing just north of The Pinnacles. Nearby I noticed several small tailor or similar leaping out of the water trying to escape a predator which was leaving large swirls behind them. This continued for half a minute or so but the species of the predator wasn't obvious. I continued, focussing on trying to catch snapper or sweetlip using my 6kg SP/casting outfit armed with a 4 inch SP on a 1/4oz jighead. Suddenly, just as I was jigging my offering at the bottom of its swing under the yak, the artificial bait was slammed. Almost immediately the hooked fish headed south, straight toward Noosa headland. Line was pouring off the reel as the run continued. I soon knew that this was a pretty good fish as only the biggest of the snapper I'd caught could sustain such a run. Checking my watch about two minutes into the fight, I noticed that the time was 0742. The drag was still releasing line and I ruefully watched the spool diameter gradually diminish, wondering if I was about to be spooled. After about ten minutes of being towed and line being taken at a slow but steady rate, I started to get a little line back onto the spool. I'd also managed to make a radio call so Jaro had paddled over to see if he could help. He pulled his camera out and took a pic.
Heading south being towed by what? Pic by Jaro.
I had no idea what I'd hooked but was pretty sure it wasn't a snapper. I thought perhaps a longtail tuna or a cobia but whatever it was, it was big and powerful. I was glad that I'd attached my jighead with about 10-15cm of wire for I've been bitten off on several occasions lately and suspected one of the mackerel gang. Anyway, the fight dragged on. Jaro moved away to resume fishing as he could see the process of fighting this fish would be lengthy.
Eventually I started to get line back onto the reel. It was a pump & wind process for several minutes with episodes of line loss as the fish hit back from time to time. Then, quite suddenly the fish seemed to weaken and soon after I noticed that I had almost all of my line back on the spool, this after some 20 minutes of to-ing and fro-ing. But I still hadn't seen the fish, which was puzzling. Even with less than 20m of line out and my quarry at about a 45° angle from me, I still couldn't see what I'd hooked. Then, less than 10m from the yak, a familiar tail broke through the surface. It was then that I could see that I'd hooked a pretty big Spaniard, over a metre long by my estimation. I also noticed that the line was wrapped around its tail which explains why I couldn't see the fish -- it was facing away from me in the latter part of the fight. Being very gentle now, I drew the fish toward the yak using the rod while reaching back with my right hand for the gaff which I placed in the footwell in the ready position. A Spaniard in July, on 6kg line and a soft plastic. Wow! Then it all unravelled. The line somehow disentangled itself from the tail and the jighead (which presumably had become dislodged in the last moments of the fight) with its mangled SP whipped out of the water and over my shoulder. The now tired fish slid silently and without fuss beneath the waves. My last view of it was a silvery flash of its flank as it swam weakly downward. Ah well, at least I didn't get busted!
By now Jim had caught another snapper, Le Roux and Stu had arrived and Jaro was rapidly running out of bait as he distributed brekky to the hungry, but small, hordes below us. I checked my knots, straightened the kinks in the wire, put on a new SP and went back into action. It seemed only a few minutes later when I hooked the bottom. Cursing my luck today, I grabbed the line to dislodge the jighead or snap the line when suddenly the snag started to move. Again line poured off the spool against the drag but this time whatever I was connected with was trying to stay deep, directly below the yak. My imagination conjured up the mother of all sweetlip. Ten minutes later I knew this was no sweetlip, at least not like any I'd ever caught before. The beast just wouldn't give in. I thought that maybe it was a wobbegong shark and hoped it wasn't. After 15 minutes LeRoux paddled over and asked me "Are you having fun yet?". And then I saw it -- a green turtle, foul hooked. These guys are very hard to bring to the yak on light gear, which I was using. Nevertheless, I was keen to try to remove the hook, if possible, so stuck with the task. Eventually I had the turtle next to the yak but certainly not in a calm and complacent mood. I could see that the jighook was stuck under its right front flipper but before I could grab a flipper and drag the turtle into the kayak the line broke, right on the knot, so at least the turtle wasn't dragging around fishing line which might tangle in something. The hook will soon rust away so it's likely that minimal harm was done to the turtle.
Feeling a bit demoralised by now, I nevertheless returned to the fishing. Meanwhile, Jim had caught another snapper and had also managed to gaff a free swimming unicorn fish into the yak, as Stu did recently. There were lots of black-tip cod around today. I must have boated 8 or 10, all undersize, as usual. Peter came pedalling over to reveal that he had two nice snapper, both taken at daybreak on floating pilchard baits. Around 1030 Jim decided he'd head in as he had a good bag of fish so I took the opportunity to take a couple of pics before he set off for Middle Groyne.
Above, unicorn leatherjacket, free gaffed from the yak. A school of them had followed the remnants of Jim's pilchard bait as he'd brought it back to the yak.
Jim's best snapper today.
Sometime in this period LeRoux had caught a decent snapper also. Ian had announced by radio that he'd caught a couple of "grassies". So that left Jaro and me (and Stu, who got seasick and had to leave early) without any fish to show off to the tourists on the beach. Peter, Stu asked me to include an apology from him to you in this report. Apparently he was too sick to even speak when your paths crossed out there today.
Shortly after Jimbo left, LeRoux, Jaro and I also decided to call it a day, just as Ian arrived for a visit from Sunshine Reef on his way home. By now the sea had glassed out but it was noticeable that the swell had increased a little -- hinting that the surf zone transit might be more challenging than earlier...
By the time we arrived back at Middle Groyne there were quite a few board riders floating at the entrance to our beach access channel. This is a sure sign that extra care needs to be taken. Just as Jaro and I arrived off the beach we noticed that LeRoux had got through safely then Jim radioed us to say he'd just had the best surf ride on his yak ever. He'd ridden a wave the whole length of the rock wall, a feat witnessed by Stu. For Jaro and me, this didn't ease our feelings of trepidation at all.
Jim's ride in, as caught by Stu on his phone cam.
LeRoux picks a nice gap. Pic by Stu.
Jaro, being ready first, went next, watched by a bunch of tourists and, more importantly, Stu, LeRoux and Jim. I didn't see how he went at the time for I'd drifted east and out of sight. My turn. I politely asked the kids on surf boards choking my channel to give me a bit of space. When my request was met with blank looks I decided that I'd make a gap anyway. And so I did. As it turned out, I'd managed to pick a lull in the waves but even so, a medium-sized wave ran me down as I paddled toward the beach. I looked around before it caught me and decided that I would broach on it, by digging a paddle in on one side, rather than try to ride it in.
Me, broaching from the top of the wave and allowing the wave to pass under me. Pic by Stu.
This worked fine, to my relief, as all of the above plus Jaro were waiting and watching, on the groyne and on the beach. I did notice, as I hauled up on the beach, that Jaro was wringing wet. I wonder why?
I don't know the final results from Ian and Peter so we'd all appreciate an update and info on anything else of interest today.
[See email contributions at end of post]
Thanks for coming along yakkers and thanks for organizing, Jaro.
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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Hi hookers and lookers,
My morning was reasonably quiet at SR boating 2 Grassies, a Snapper and a nice Tuskfish. Then I headed to JS arriving as Sunshiner and Jaro were leaving. I decided to stay and did a couple of drifts with Peter Doff and I increased my bag with another 2 Snapper and doubled the Grassy count. Peter ended up with 3 Snapper one I'd estimate at 55cm.
Sorry about the size differences in the photos,the computer wouldn't play the game.
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From Pete
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Hi
Sunrise was awesome. Added to the beauty was 2 snapper 56cm and 50cm a good start to the day.
Things turned slow south of the pinnacle so I peddalled over to Jaro, Kev, LeRoux passing a green Stu, apologies accepted. I know the feeling, have you tried ginger?
Fished with them for a bit but got inundated with squid so peddalled back to the pinnacle and bagged another 2 snapper 44cm and 42cm.
Ian turned up as you guys were heading in and I watched as Ian caught some sweeties and a snapper or 2. Ian went off for a troll and I went for a final drift then we headed in about 1.30ish. Ian just ahead of me got through the break dry. I wasn't so skillful and took a dunking.
Pete
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