From: sunshiner
Date: 8/08/2010 3:26 PM
Weather
Cloud cover: cloudless
Wind direction & speed: SW moving to SE 7knots
Sea state: low swell
Participants: Jaro, Kev, Alex, Andy-Cav, Jim, Alby (visitor)
Another early start and perfect conditions. Alex drove up from Brisbane and Alby from Caboolture area and both were in the carpark before Jaro and I arrived at 0530 (Sunrise: 0625). It was bloody cool this morning, down to about 7 degrees C. Jaro and I were ready to go first and hurried down to the beach where the air was slightly warmer due to the sea's influence. Fine mist was rising from the sea as we did our final preparations at the water's edge. I opted to hang around to see Alby drag his Adventure Island down to the water but Jaro decided to get going to warm up his body with physical activity.
0559hrs. Another magic morning on Laguna Bay. Jaro paddles out on a sea as flat as we ever get here.
Shortly, Alby came down the beach dragging what resembled a carnival float.
0600hrs. Here's Alby's Hobie Adventure Island, the outriggers folded in and the mast and furled sail waiting to be set up.
With that I left too as I was keen to get my chilling limbs moving also.
Jew Shoal was our planned destination for the morning but before we could get going Jimbo came up on the radio to say that he was joining us. Soon there was a string of kayaks, punctuated by Alby's kayak-cum-sailboat, heading for the shoal. Andy-cav had decided at 4am that he'd join us so he brought up the rear.
It being Sunday and calm there were oodles of power boats also heading out so it was important to keep a good lookout over the left shoulder to ensure that we didn't get run down.
I think all of us trolled on the way out as there were suspicions, later shown to be accurate, that pelagic predators were on the prowl. About half way to the shoal I noticed that I was travelling somewhat slower than I'd expect for the effort I was putting in until the penny dropped. D'oh -- sure enough, a grinner had impaled itself on my Halco Laser Pro.
By just after 7am most of us were either at JS or close to it. I laid out my first cast and hooked up pretty much straight away. Nothing startling but it looked worthy of a pic, if only for identity education purposes.
0704hrs. a lancer, a variety of small emperor. Common at Jew Shoal and never much bigger than this specimen.
Barely had I released this fish when I noticed that Jim, who had only just arrived and opted to start fishing not far from me, was seemingly fighting a fish. Soon I saw him wield the gaff then lift a pretty good fish into the yak. By radio I queried Jim and to my surprise he announced that he'd caught a small but legal Spaniard. I paddled over to take a pic.
0715hrs. ~80cm Spaniard. Jim had stopped at his chosen fishing mark then retrieved his trolled lure to have it snapped up by the Spaniard.
If only that had been an indication of how the rest of the morning went. There were clearly lots of fish around. I caught at least six species: lancer, Maori cod, spinefoot, flathead, snapper, whiptail, -- all too small to take home. The fish were ravenous and cutting my soft plastics to ribbons. Jaro went through a heap of bait after having magnanimously released a couple of small but legal snapper and sweetlip early on in the belief that he'd get bigger ones -- he didn't. Alex finally cracked the system and boated two legal snapper in the final hour just after the wind changed from SW to SE.
A couple of things of interest:
I found this creature attached to my SP after retrieving it from the depths.
A fish louse, I believe. These are parasitic crustaceans which are quite frequently found attached to fish. They apparently eat the slime and mucous of its host's skin. I was intrigued that it took an interest in the Gulp soft plastic.
View of underside showing hooks on end of limbs
Alby came over to say hello at one stage, before deciding to head for Sunshine Reef, trolling for pelagics.
Jaro reported a close encounter with a whale.
Just before leaving JS Andy encountered a Spaniard which followed a bait up to his yak. He threw it several strips of fish flesh which it ate, but couldn't entice it to take anything with a hook in it.
Just as we returned to the beach I came across fish feeding activity which strongly reminded me of the way spotty macs were feeding in May. I suspect that mackerel may have been involved but tailor are also a possibility. The event was within a couple of hundred metres of the beach.
Beach conditions were glorious with tiny waves available to help cover that last 50 metres quickly.
Alex's two snapper. Well done, Alex.
Thanks for organizing, Jaro and for coming along, guys. Obviously we're going to have to try harder. Perhaps Sunshine Reef next trip?
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.com/
Comment from Alby, jimbo, below
From Alby by email
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Hi Kev and others. Thanks for your hospitality this morning and in the lead up. Much appreciated.
That was my first time out off Noosa and obviously couldn't have picked a better day weather wise. Fish wise fairly disappointing, but then we all have days like that.
I've only had the carnival float for 3 weeks, so still getting things sorted. Very happy with the way things are going and loving it more each outing. The main thing being that it covers ground (water) so quickly. Today on the way out I saw birds working over in Tea Tree Bay, so with the speed of the float (I don't know what to call it... it's not a kayak in that set-up) I felt fine about diverting for a troll through. No result, but I only did one pass as I didn't have the marks for the Jew Shoal, so didn't want to lose the guys ahead.
Once out there I guess I was a little impatient. There were quite a few boats and kayaks and after tiddlers took the tails off my first two softies, I thought I would move on. I headed out to what I'm guessing was Sunshine Reef. A couple of klm east of Alexandria Bay, and about 36m deep? Again, quite a few boats out there. Didn't see anyone catch a fish, I got no lookers apart from a Bonito on the trolled lure just when I arrived. Within half an hour all the boats pulled up stumps and headed in. Not promising, I thought. The bottom had looked a bit interesting in parts on the way out so I thought I'd give it a try a bit closer in. Again no luck, but I only gave it about 20 min. Time was now starting to be an issue. I'd been up since 3:00am, overestimating the travel time to Noosa. From there I headed in... a bit of a slow trip with little breeze. All the time I was wishing the promised noreaster would kick in. I think I was off the water about 1:00pm -ish.
Thanks again guys.
Cheers
Alby
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From jimbo by email
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... For the record, I also boated a flathead this morning (~60 cm on SP) and I think Andy Cav also boated a couple of flathead. Mine was a dusky/sandy flathead caught fairly close to the Pinnacles at JS, which is a bit surprising as I thought these species inhabited a sandy bottom rather than reef/shoal structure which I believed was the case at JS. Maybe there is now sandy bottom patches out at JS, perhaps some of the tonnes sand lost from Main Beach over the last couple of years has migrated out there with the circulating current that I think occurs in Laguna Bay. As a casual observation:
* I am fairly certain none of the NYs has caught flathead out at JS prior to about 12 months ago;
* we are catching a greater variety of fish species at JS and North SR than in previous years;
* the size of snapper and sweetlip seems much smaller this winter compared to the last two years.
Just a thought.
Cheers,
Jimbo
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