From: sunshiner
Date: 1/08/2010 3:27 PM
Weather
Cloud cover: 9/10, brief periods of sunlight
Wind direction & speed: from S-SW, 5-10 knots
Sea state: Low swell, chop from south in northern bay
Participants: Ian, Jaro, Jaro's brother Rob, Kev
It's been nearly three weeks since we could reasonably go fishing offshore so it's no wonder that we were watching this morning's single window of opportunity creeping closer on Seabreeze's wind and swell forecast. Even so, as late as last night it was touch and go but at 5am there was little or no wind at Sunshine Beach and the automatic weather station at DI Point was telling the world that the wind there was only 10 knots.
Jaro had his kid brother Rob visiting and was dying to take him out yak fishing. Even though he had two yaks on the roof and twice as much gear as normal he was only a couple of minutes later than the stated RV time 0545. I'd arrived well before time at about 0535 and, as I expected, found Ian's car in its usual place and his trolley track marks leading to the water's edge. He was out there somewhere in the gloom.
It was Rob's first kayak fishing trip so he was full of questions and possibly a little apprehensive but he certainly seemed calm and collected about the whole thing. Being a keen fisho, as he is, certainly helped. Before long we were ready to get our bums wet, should that be necessary.
0608hrs. The horizon is just starting to glow. Rob and Jaro, brothers in arms.
Before launching I called up Ian (eyetag) on the radio. He'd just anchored at Sunshine Reef and was reporting a 5knot SSW breeze. As we spoke he was interrupted by his first fish so I left him to it.
The launch was easy but as soon as we cleared the groyne the southerly breeze could be felt, pushing us gently toward our planned destination, Jew Shoal. As Jaro had somewhat more setting up to do than normal Rob and I were ready to go first so Rob tagged along with me as we headed NE straight toward the Pinnacles. We were chatting as we travelled gently along but soon I spotted a familiar Noosa Cat boat headed toward us and into the Bay -- it was Cata-pult, operated by the shark nets and lines contractor. The vessel was travelling slower than normal, but heading straight for us. To make sure that he'd seen us I held my paddle straight up and waved it. As if to acknowledge my effort, the skipper altered course to his starboard, giving Rob and me a great view of two large sharks being dragged tail first from ropes on his port side.
Then we both spotted some terns wheeling and diving about 700m away to our right front, pretty much straight out from Dolphin Point. I was impressed that Rob immediately recognized the significance of this and we altered course to intercept the possible action. By now Jaro was catching up to us and also headed for the birds. About 300m short of the centre of activity, when I could just discern splashes coming from the predators, Jaro hooked up with that familiar hunting cry "YYYEEESSS'. As I suspected it would be, he'd hooked a mac tuna which I understand he released. Fish #1! Jaro was keen to try to put Rob onto some fish so he and Rob deviated from the main plan at this stage and went chasing tuna in Tea Tree Bay. Meanwhile, my attention was drawn to the activities on Cata-pult, now hove-to near the baited shark lines north of Dolphin Point.
I've chatted to these friendly guys before about sharks in the Noosa area so decided to paddle over and bid them good morning. Soon I could see that they were trying to manoeuvre onto the deck of the cat the second of the two sharks earlier seen. The other shark had already been successfully brought aboard and I was about to see them try to get this one aboard also. Clearly it was going to be interesting as the second shark was longer than my Espri and much fatter. It was a tiger shark (just for you, Grainger). I asked permission to take some pics, received the go-ahead and then paddled right up close.
The idea was to drag the shark (by now almost dead) through that door in the starboard side.
So far, so good.
Starting to get a bit heavy... let's put her on the winch
Hmm, maybe we need a bigger winch, and a bigger door
Oh shit, it's stuck. Note the distinctive stripes which lead to this species' common name.
Clearly they weren't going to get it aboard with their existing gear. The crew started calling people on the phone (7am, Sunday) to try to get help. I left them to it, knowing there was nothing I could do. I bade them farewell, "Well, I'm off to catch a snapper, guys." For the information of Noosans, both of these tiger sharks exceeded 3m and were caught on the baited hooks set between Jew Shoal and the headland and carrying large yellow buoys as floats.
By now Jaro and Rob had tired of fruitlessly chasing mac tuna and were headed for the shoal, snapper now in their sights. I fished alone for a while, without success, in an area which looked promising (plenty of baitfish and structure) and then decided to join them in the hope of a photo opportunity. Just as I approached them I noticed that the Prowler, which Rob was allocated this morning, was sans paddler. I was just too late to capture this action -- Rob had fallen out of the kayak without tipping it and was bobbing along next to it, supported by his PFD, thinking about those tiger sharks and trying to follow Jaro's shouted reboarding instructions. Just as I got within camera range he scrambled aboard -- bugger!
Rob, now wringing wet on a cool, grey, mid-winter morning, 4km from the beach said, "Hey, the water's quite warm," and promptly went back to the fishing. They breed these Cernys tough, eh? Soon after, as I recall, Rob caught a small snapper, just undersize and released it. Jaro got a MASSIVE (his word) strike at one stage but dropped the fish. Meanwhile I'd caught only a couple of reef ooglies but I was feeling confident so stuck with it.
I'd been persisting with the use of wire on my rigged soft plastics because of the problems I'd been having lately with bite-offs. But my use of wire coincided with an apparent reduction in the number of strikes, although this could have been simply because there were no fish around. Today, because the drift was SW-NE, with the breeze, I adopted a sawtooth drift pattern, starting from the western side of the shoal, gradually working my way east, watching the depth and fishing accordingly. Eventually, it happened.
At last, my wire-traced soft plastic went off in typical snapper style. This is what I'd been hoping for -- a strong indicator that snapper don't care about wire. The tussle went on for a couple of minutes before the fish yielded and soon I could clearly see it, about 5 metres down. A nice snapper glowing irridescent pink in the dull ambient light. The gaff shot went well and soon I was exultantly radioing Jaro and Rob about my capture.
0934hrs. Proof that snapper are not necessarily put off by a wire trace. The steel ring on the lower right is a securing clip which I use to make sure keepers don't escape after being boated.
Close up of the rig. The wire trace can be seen clearly as can, if you look closely, the snapper tooth marks in the jighead.
We fished on for a short while after this, during which Jaro boated a quite large wire netting cod just as I was passing him.
0943hrs. This fish was released, although they are very good eating.
Just before we left to go back to the beach Jaro caught, in quick succession, two undersize snapper, then a small keeper snapper and a keeper sweetlip. These two last were kept to provide a fresh fish meal for Rob. Possibly the fish were starting to bite, but we had to go, and besides it was getting cold.
The trip back was a bit harder and wetter than normal due to the southerly wind but we all made it in good time. There was almost no surf break at the beach so we then had the easiest of surf zone transits.
My snapper, 53cm.
Jaro's two keepers.
On the beach we noticed that Ian had not yet returned. I'd try to call him on the radio earlier but had received no response. I tried again from the beach but still got no response. Ian, please let us know how you went. [see his report at end of this post]
Thanks for organizing, Jaro. Rob's a probable convert to kayak fishing for he was genuinely surprised that he'd managed to cover 13km, as measured by GPS, on his first trip and was still able to stand up when he hit the beach. See you next visit, Rob.
Thursday's now looking good. Over to you to organize, Jaro.
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.com/
From Ian
::::::::
Hi all,
I fished some close in marks on SR and after a quiet start, not just from the radio with a flat battery, things sped up around the 9.o'clock mark.
I was using soft plastics and prawns with the prawns out fishing the plastics.
I ended up with 5 Tusk fish from 35 to 44cm and 2 Grassies 35 and 41.
I also released a Black Banded Amberjack estimated at 55cm which fought like a fish twice its size.
All the fish were caught on 12lb tackle and 30lb leader.
The missing fish were donated to work mates on my way home.
:::::::::::
No comments:
Post a Comment