Somewhere near Halls, 22Apr11

Subject:Fishing today -- 22Apr11
From:Sunshiner
Date:22/04/2011 1:15 PM


Weather
Cloud cover: cloudless, mainly
Wind direction & speed: southerly, 5knots
Sea state: small swell
Current: at LH Reef strong current (2.5kph, running toward north)

Participants: Jimbo, Jaro, Doctor Dog, Imax, Kodaz, Gemini, Richmond and Sunshiner and Eyetag, later. Apologies to anyone who attended but didn't get a mention.

This will be a quickie as I've got a pile of other stuff to do today.

The unusual combination of a public holiday and calm weather was savoured by all, especially those who have to go to work in normal working hours. Jaro had returned from his lengthy overseas trip, and Doctor Dog is back in Noosa for a few days.


0601hrs. Launch time -- glorious conditions. Jaro paddles out.

There seemed to be heaps of yaks out there today, the majority members of our little band. I and several others opted to head for the Little Halls Reef area, based on information derived from recent Trip Reports. At first there was little action but then the birds started to accumulate and then, as we neared LH Reef, more and more splashes could be seen. 500m east of LH Reef I was paddling along with longtails of a metre long free jumping, their bodies glistening with silver in the early sunlight.

I opted to try for a snapper at LH Reef, despite the somewhat murky water, and had one good run which was probably a decent snapper but the hook dislodged after about 30 seconds of action. Then the radio calls started to come in. Richmond was hooked up, then Gemini, who hooked up and then the fish spat the lure out. Shortly afterward Doc Dog also announced that he had a solid tuna on.

While drift fishing across the reef I noticed, from my GPS, that there was a strong northerly current running. This current became significant later.

Doc Dog and Richmond had both boated their fish and opted to head for home (MG). As I was on their track to MG they both offered a chance to get an on-water pic of both fish.


So here it is, between LH Reef and Halls Reef. One for the Blog, Harvey?

We'd stopped for only a few minutes to take the pic then I (still fishless) also decided to head for MG, with Doc Dog and Richmond. As I usually do, I selected MG as my next waypoint on the GPS, expecting it to be around 3.7km away. The current now showed its effect. The distance was in fact 4.85km! So now we were facing at least a one hour paddle as the current was clearly running at least 2kph against us. Also in my mind was the possibility that the wind might spring up from the south earlier than forecast, making the journery back even worse. It was quite a slog back but fortunately the wind stayed at less than 5 knots. We three paddled hard for an hour pretty much non-stop (for to stop meant travelling back along the track at 2.5kph) and eventually bumped into eye-tag just as he was leaving MG for Halls Reef area.

Imax was on the crowded beach when I landed (I'd caught a nice little wave on the way in) and he told me he'd caught and released a longtail and a mac tuna. Jaro paddled in shortly afterward and announced that he'd lost a longtail (and lure).


The two tuna on measure mats. They were almost identical in length -- each just short of 100cm.

I don't know how Jimbo went as he wasn't back in by the time we left the car park. Jimbo please let us know how things were at JS.

Thanks for coming along guys.

Kev
Red & white Stealth Supalite, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.com/


Dan's update

Well said Kev. I have a couple of photos that I thought might be worth sharing.

The first one is just after launching where I managed to capture 5 of us heading out.


This second one is of the Mack tuna that I landed. It was a good size being just over 80cms and very very thick but it was covered with parasites. They are a bit hard to see but all the little black dots were parasites.


Regards
Dan


Jimbo's report

G'day Yakkers,
 
Further to Sunshiner's report,
 
I also initially opted for Lt Halls, taking a circuitous route via the river mouth and the lower north shore in the hope there would be pelagics hanging around.  On arrival at LHR, there were longtail tuna feeding randomly all over the place but there were few if any cumulated boils you could cast a slug into.  I tried bottom fishing for a bit but the water was quite discoloured and it quickly became apparent there was a very strong "two layer" current operating  making it practically impossible to get a bait down to the bottom for longer than about a minute with each cast.  I therefore decided to head for Jew Sh in the hope the water would be clearer and the current not so strong. 
 
At JS the water was considerably clearer but there was still a reasonably strong S>N current flowing, now assisted by an increasing southerly breeze.  However, everything seemed to go quiet around 0900 with very little surface activity, although I did have a couple of good bites on the casting line (with SP) and picked up a nice keeper snapper on a trailed pilchard.
 
At about 1030 I decided to call it quits and started heading back to MG trolling a HB Rapala lure.  I had only gone about 500m when the trolled line started screaming.  This turned out to be a longtail which surrended fairly quickly after about a 10 minute tussle.  This tuna was about 1m long, virtually identical to the two caught by Dr Dog and Richmond, see Kev's pic below.
 
After clearing the decks and stowing the tuna, it was about 1100 when I set out again for MG.  I initially decided not troll any more as I already had more fish than Josie and I could eat in a fortnight, but not having caught anything sizeable for many months, I thought after paddling about 500m  .... "What the hell.  If I hook another one I'll just release it after I've had a bit more fun"..... So I sent the trolled HB Rapala out again and had only gone another 100m when the lure got slammed again. 
 
Whilst I was certain this was another longtail, after 10 minutes it was pretty well straight below me but unsighted due to the discoloured water, and I was beginning to think I must have foul-hooked it because it just would not come up.  Long story short, after about 40 minutes of arm wrestling I decided one of us had to win so I put the extra pressure on this fish being prepared to loose it if necessary so I could get home at least by early afternoon.  This strategy worked and 10 minutes later I had a second longtail in the yak.  I must say, I was surprised to find it was hooked in the mouth and was virtually the same size as the first tuna.  Having fought this fish for so long I decided I would keep it and I was starting to think of, (a) the length of time it was going to take this afternoon to clean all this fish, and (b), all the people I could offer it to.
 
Needless to say there was no other yakkers around when I finally landed back on the beach at MG at around 1230.   When I finally got home about 1330, I got Josie to take the following pic for me.
 
 
The two tuna weighed in at 9.4kg and 9.7kg.  A very satisfying, if somewhat tiring day.
 
Cheers
Jimbo
 

Quiet day, 16Apr11

Contributions from, in sequence: gemini, richmond

Subject: Fishing today - Saturday 16th April
From: Matt Reid
Date: 16/04/2011 11:33 AM

Hi all,

Not much to report from this morning. Jeff and I launched at about 6:30AM into acceptable conditions. The swell was up a bit, but the wind wasn't as bad as expected. We headed to LH and found a lot of bait, birds and bustups about, but the tuna didn't seem too interested in us.

I landed a juvenile mackerel on a laser pro as I passed the river mouth on the way out to LH (I think it was a spaniard, but I'm not 100%). He was only 40cm or so and managed to commit hari kari on the hooks before I tossed him back for the sharks brekky. Jeff scored a little Remora on a lure while casting at tuna.

After trolling around for a good while we called it quits and were back at MG around 9AM.

I think Jeff has some photos he might post later.

Cheers!

Matt
Call sign: Gemini

Email from Jeff:
::::::::
Subject: Fishing today - Saturday 16th April
From: "Jeff"
Date: 16/04/2011 3:55 PM


Hi NYers,
Very quiet day for me too today. There was heaps of activity just outside the break inside Little Halls, but the fish were very finnicky. Longtails were there actively free jumping, although no big fish were seen.

I threw 20 and 30 gram slugs at 'em for zero. I then changed to a 10gram exciter and scored a remora of all things.

There must have been a big ray, cobia, shark or something big around for the remora to be there. It spewed out heaps of 30mm bait when I landed it and it was hooked firmly in the mouth as well!

I also trolled a bonito around for an hour, went out to Little Halls and surrounds and trolled it back to MG for zip.Things shut down pretty early so we called it quits about 9am.

I had a bit of a "moment" on a wave coming in, but still managed to stay on! lol. Back at the carpark I was talking to a woman who was loading her racing ski onto her roof, she said a 2 metre shark circled her ski twice before it disappeared.

I've attached a couple of pics of Matt coming in and my hungry little remora.







Jeff.

Dan's Longtail, 15Apr11

Subject:Fishing today -- 15Apr11
From:"Dan"
Date:15/04/2011 1:02 PM

Good afternoon, Noosa Yakkers,

It was a beautiful morning today with glassed out conditions. I launched again this morning at 6am meaning I managed 4 out of 5 days this week (slept in Tuesday morning). This weeks fishing should keep me going for my week at work starting tomorrow. Yesterday I didn't manage anything good, just sharks. All up I caught 7 of the little buggers on hard bodies and hooked most of these as I stopped ready to cast a slug into the bait boils.

To try and minimise the number of sharks that I caught this morning I only left the hard body out until the first shark. Not long after the first shark a big school of bait and tuna appeared close by. The difference today to the previous days this week was the tuna were active from about 6am instead of later in the morning. First cast I hooked a big Mack tuna. This took about 15 min to land and after letting it go another school popped up close by again. I hooked another Mack tuna out of this school and after another release the process was repeated another 2 times. All up I landed 4 Mack tuna and all were hooked on the first or second cast into the schools.

This brought the time to somewhere around 7.30 - 8am and the tuna were breaking up into very isolated, short lived bust ups. I decided to try and bash the bottom so headed for little halls. I spent 20min or so trying my luck with a soft plastic before calling it quits to head for home. I chucked out my Laser Pro for the trip home hoping something other then a shark would be interested. About half way home I heard a splash directly behind me. I turned around to have a look and noticed my rod twitch once and then bend right over with the drag screaming. This fish was running so I had to turn the kayak and give chase otherwise I was going to be spooled. After a good fight I landed a 95cm longtail which is now filleted ready for dinner.



I didn't see any other kayaks out there today and there weren't many boats either which surprised me as the conditions were great. Hopefully the weather stays good for everyone to fish the weekend and I'm looking forward to getting out again when I get back from work.

Regards
Dan

Ian's Spaniard, 15Apr11

Subject: Fishing today -- 15Apr11
From:Ian
Date:15/04/2011 6:06 PM

Good afternoon Noosa Yakkers, I'll be brief.

I finished work at 12.00 noon today and after reading the reports through the week I had the kayak loaded ready for an afternoon session. So I launched MG and had a Jaro special in the water at 12.28pm paddling North across the RM when it got smashed and by 1.00pm I had a 10kg Spaniard on board. I paddled for another hour and landed 5 sharks all around 900mm.There were a few big predators around the RM with some Spaniards jumping but unfortunately only one took my Jaro special.


Ian
call sign;eye tag

Another Glorious Day, 13Apr11

Subject:fishing today -- 13Apr11
From: Sunshiner
Date:13/04/2011 2:13 PM

Weather
Cloud cover: overcast early, then clear skies
Wind direction & speed: light southerly increasing slowly to a ~10knot SE
Sea state: low swell

Participants: Dan (Imax), Jeff, Kev (sunshiner), Harry (Hollywood) and Des

Hi there, Noosa Yakkers

Another glorious day today. Launch time was 0600. At 0550, when I rolled into the carpark, Jeff's and Dan's yaks were already unloaded and by the time I got down to the beach Jeff had already launched but Dan made himself available for the customary launch photo.


0603hrs. Dan going out without mast again. Jeff's already launched.

As soon as we launched Dan and I could see flocks of terns aggregated at several places on the NE horizon. While Jeff had paddled off to do battle at some of the more far-flung scenes of activity Dan and I found that from the get-go we were embedded directly into shoals of small bonito and yellowtail, all feeding voraciously on tiny fish. Dan had hooked and released three of them before I could even get the camera ready and he was clearly enjoying himself (who wouldn't?).


0621hrs. Dan surrounded by shoals of baitfish and bonito and half of Noosa's population of terns.

It soon dawned on us that there were no big splashes visible as yet, so all we were seeing was the preliminary phase of the carnage. Rather than hang about in the corner of the Bay we opted to head toward the river mouth which was beginning to be lit up as the sun's rays cleared Noosa Head. There seemed so many fishing options that choosing one was difficult so I, feeling like a paddle, selected LH Reef on my Etrex and paddled gently toward it, trolling my Halco Laser Pro. I had no further contact with Dan today as our paths diverged from the start.

Soon after I started to see a few larger splashes the Laser Pro went off, at a time when I was virtually stationary. This felt like a shark and proved to be so but it still gave a good account of itself, and I was surprised how small it was when I eventually got it to the yak.


I successfully retrieved my LP and watched the shark swim away, to join the many of his relations (it was a male shark) currently frequenting our waters.

Now the waters started to erupt and as I paddled toward LH Reef large individual splashes could be seen in every direction. Frequently free jumping longtail tuna could be spotted, sometimes within a few metres of the yak. I had a plan to fish LH Reef for snapper or sweetlip but of course always hoped for a Spaniard or spotty (not really another longtail) on the troll. There were heaps of baitfish shoals revealed by the sonar so clearly there was a huge surplus of food for the relatively few large predators visible on the surface.


A huge shoal of bait showing on the sonar between 5 and 10m depth.

As I approached my main mark at LH Reef I spotted Jeff approaching from the opposite direction and soon we were within voice range. He'd had a ball catching and releasing several mac tuna but now was on the hunt for mackerel, having promised his wife he'd bring one home today. How's that for confidence? At this time, having spotted a nice fish-inhabited isolated bommie on the sonar, I opted to start a drift to catch a snapper and so retrieved my trolled Laser Pro only to find it AWOL. The line was neatly severed and I'd rigged the lure with a wire trace so possibly a mackerel had slashed at the line without my noticing anything. Looks like I'll be making one of my infrequent visits to the tackle shop for a replacement.

I rigged my soft plastic and within five minutes' drift had my first run which unfortunately didn't properly hook up. At least this was encouraging. I started the drift again and this time I could see from the sonar that I was drifting above a thick patch of bait like in the pic above. My 1/4oz jig was hanging down near the bottom (12-14m deep) at about a 45 degree angle behind the yak and every now and again I'd give it a lively twitch to impart movement. Soon I got a firm strike and an ensuing fight unlike any snapper or sweetlip I'd ever caught. I played it gently, hoping it wasn't a shark and after about five minutes of to and fro, mainly fro, up popped a nice sized school mackerel. I might add that I normally rig my SPs with wire and had done so in this case.


0758hrs. Fresh Queensland school mackerel (note spot pattern). Photo taken by holding camera at right arm's length and shooting blind vertically downward. Best of three shots.

In the hatch he went -- they are very good tucker. Having secured a feed I opted to paddle around a bit more in search of more interesting bottom structure. But soon I came across Jeff again who, with a nice smirk, told me that he had caught his mackerel -- a nice spotty, taken on a cast slug. He was happy to pose for a pic with the first spotty mac he'd caught from his yak. (He's only been yak fishing a couple of weeks -- imagine what sort of yak fish list he'll have by this time next year!)


0813hrs. Jeff with a spotty mac at LH Reef on a glorious Noosa Day.

About now, Harry and Des showed up. As this was the first opportunity for us to get a pic of Des on the water I had him paddle past me to line up the shot.


Des and his Espri, LH Reef, heading north. Harry in the background.

The breeze was starting to get up by about 0915 so I decided to head for home, the beach still a 3.5km paddle away, into the steadily increasing sou' easter. The paddle was made more interesting by the number of longtails still blasting out of the water and the fact that there was a noticeable reduction in the amount of surface activity after I crossed into the plume of water emanating from the river mouth. Where I'd been fishing the water was clean, but here it had a tinge of murkiness about it. Jeff was paddling ahead of me, on the same path, obviously, and about 1km short of MG he hove to and retrieved his trolled bait rig, set up with a Watson's LB. He was a bit taken aback when a pretty big shark followed the bait right up to the yak.

We arrived at MG together and I for one had a nice little surf in after dodging a few boogie boarders hanging around at the end of the groyne. On the beach Jeff revealed that he'd caught another spotty mac, this time on his trolled Watson's LB.


Jeff's two spotties


One of Jeff's spotties (top) lined up for comparison with my schoolie. It's important to be able to differentiate between these species as their size and possession limits differ.

Another great morning on the waters of Laguna Bay. Maybe I'll get out again Friday, or perhaps Saturday. It's possible that more spotty macs may turn up in the next few days so a session like last May's memorable spotty fest is distinctly possible as there's heaps of baitfish around at present.



Kev
Red & white Stealth Supalite, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.


Jeff's report

I concur, it was a great day.

I started paddling out to JS, I was too impatient to wait for Kev and Dan, sorry guys. There were birds everywhere going off. Just north of the shark nets I came across a shoal busting up. First cast in and I hook a yakka of all things! Beautiful size troll bait.

I kept paddling for JS but it looked like all the birds were leaving there and heading to Little Halls. Off I go to LH trolling a Rapala hb. Bust ups were occuring all over the place! I hurled a slug into a boil and hooked up and landed a Mack Tuna around the 5kg mark.

Another cast, another MT, although I thought this one was a Longtail at first as it fought like a demon. I had foul hooked it in the belly, 30 minutes later I subdued the fish. Estimate, 6-7kg.

I landed another 2 MT before I eventually got to LH. Longtails could be seen jumping out, some big fish amongst them too. I reckon one I saw would have gone 15kg at least.

I kept flicking slugs into the bust ups and eventually landed a spottie. Nice! By this time it was slowing down a bit, less bird activity, less fish boiling. I had been trolling a Watson's Leaping Bonito around LH whilst waiting for fish to rise. I was hoping for a Spaniard, trolling it deep and slowly. The ratchet started going off with line peeling off the reel. It didn't fight for long, it gave up and I landed another nice spot.

By then I'd decided to troll home, I put another Bonito on the Spaniard special and started paddling. I crossed into the dirty water outside the bar, it was a tough paddle with the wind and the outgoing current against me.

I stopped to pull in my troll bait and stow my gear for the trip home and beach landing.

Just when the bonito was near the back of my yak, I looked around and saw a shark about 5' long trailing my bait in. It followed the bait until I pulled it out of the water.

Glad I didn't hook that bugger!


All in all, it was a top day, weather wise and fish wise.

If I was going out again this week (which I'm not), I'd be heading straight for LH, close to the beach.







Cheers Yakkers.

Jeff

Is it real she cried?, 11Apr11

Contributions from, in sequence: sunshiner, imax, rooter

Subject: Fishing today -- 11Apr11
From: Sunshiner
Date: 11/04/2011 2:40 PM

Weather:
Cloud cover: clear sky (Yay!!)
Wind direction & speed: light NW
Sea state: low swell
current direction & speed: west to east current across the Bay

Participants: Jeff, Dan (Imax), Le Roux (Rooter), Sunshiner

It was gentleman's hours this morning. I set a launch time of 0700 and was down at the carpark by about 0640 to find Jeff only -- but he was rarin' to go. Wandered down to the beach to be greeted by tiny waves and glassy sea and no rain in sight. I hadn't launched since 18March-- having been confined mainly by foul weather so it was WONDERFUL to see that Noosa was returning to normality.


0659. Launch time and place. Two Supalites are a bit of an overkill for this break. Jeff tinkering with his gear.

A couple of minutes later we're out there, setting up electronics, fishing gear, etc. I turned on my GPS and selected Jew Shoal and was immediately told it's 3.7km away to the north. I was hoping for a snapper today, having returned a nice plump one to the reef during the closure. So that's why JS was my target.

Jeff and I paddled off northward, having still seen no sign of Imax and Rooter. I should add at this stage that I was the only yakker carrying a VHF radio.

Very soon we were passing the Main Beach shark net and, as usual, having cleared the net's lure-snatching mesh and anchor lines, I deployed my Halco Laser Pro, rigged with wire on my trolling outfit. 3.2km to go on the GPS. Then both Jeff and I could see occasional splashes, but only a very few terns, so I deviated slightly from track toward the nearest splash, even though it was only an isolated instance and was certainly not a bust-up. The water was far from crystal clear but it was reasonably clean, considering the amount of rain we've had in the last several months.

So nice to be back on the water -- pity there's not more action visible, I thought. Jeff was slightly ahead of me and had swivelled his torso in my direction to yell out that there were birds working "Over there!" (pointing). He saw the strike at the same time as I did, but he had a better view. All I could see was my rod tip jiggling strangely and then the rod arched and line started to peel off against the drag. I looked behind to see and hear a decent splash as whatever had eaten my Halco decided to get the hell out of there. I glanced at the GPS -- still 2.99km to go to JS and therefore I'm only ~700m from the beach. The sonar showed 8m depth.

As soon as I put pressure on, the fish decided to get going -- and so it did, off toward the west at great speed, away from the shark net, thankfully. Probably a shark, I thought and yelled out to Jeff "See you later, mate!" and focussed on the task ahead. Within five minutes I could see that I'd hooked a pretty big tuna -- probably a longtail. The brilliant flash from its silvery flank as it turned, reflecting the sunlight, convinced me immediately that a shark it wasn't. I settled in for the long haul, knowing from previous experience that tussles with longtails from a kayak are nearly always long drawn-out affairs. To my surprise, this fish tired very quickly and within another five minutes I had it alongside where the gaff did its job well.


0726, longtail aboard. Tuna bleed a lot, especially if any gill injury occurs.

So here I was, only half an hour after launch and still less than a click from launch point, with a 10kg longtail aboard, and soon afterward, inside the Stealth's capacious fishbox. What's next?

I was tempted to head for home right away but decided to at least try for a snapper so headed out to the Shoal. Jeff was a distant paddling speck to the NE and there was a current sweeping us toward the east but by 8am I was on my western mark, (selected because of the NW breeze) and had laid out my first cast with a soft plastic in the hope of enticing a snapper. The water at the shoal was pretty clean, not perfect, and the NW breeze was steadily increasing, but not dangerously so, and I had the place to myself. There was no visible surface action and no terns hanging around (but I did spot the first gannet of winter, swooping low over me to check me out). It was immediately evident from the sonar that the usual clouds of baitfish (especially in the really shallow areas) were not hanging out at the shoal today. Nevertheless I persisted for 15 minutes or so before getting a strange "bump" on the SP, followed by a hookup. As usual, I was fishing my SP with a home-made fine plastic-coated wire trace about 100mm long. This fish came toward me very easily, and I was sure at first that I'd hooked one of the small reefies that usually abound out there. Certainly it didn't behave like a sweetlip or snapper. Once the fish got closer to the surface, however, it suddenly decided to object and all I felt was a sudden flurry, a brief run against the drag then ... nothing. I reeled in to find that my wire trace had been bitten through -- almost certainly the work of a small shark.

By now Dan had pedalled his way out to JS (one outrigger, no mast or sail) and he came over to say hello so I asked him to take an on-water pic of me and my tuna with my camera.


Same tuna as before. Pic by Imax -- thanks Dan.

Dan headed off toward Little Halls Reef, searching for working fish and birds and Jeff had by this time joined me near the Pinnacles so I gave him a brief tour of Jew Shoal before we both settled in to a drift in the rapidly diminishing hope of nailing a snapper. The breeze was picking up and I had a nice fish in the box so I decided, at the end of a completely action-free drift of about 500m in perfect conditions during which I could see no fish at all on the sonar, to head for home.

Jeff decided to accompany me and we paddled back together, for the most part into a current which extended the journey time. During the trip back we saw no surface action at all and very few terns. Our arrival off the beach coincided with Dan's arrival also and we three hit the beach uneventfully where I measured the longtail (100cm) and found a young visitor from London who was delighted to have her pic taken with the biggest fish she'd ever seen (Is it real? she cried.)



So Jeff struck out, and I don't know how Dan and Rooter went.

Thanks for coming along guys. Let's do it again later in the week.

Kev
Red & white Stealth Supalite, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.com/

email from imax:
::::::::::
Subject: Fishing today - 11th April 2011 - What a morning
From:"Dan"
Date: 13/04/2011 1:10 PM

Hi Noosa Yakkers,

Well what a day it was. Jeff, Kev and myself all launched sometime around 6 in great conditions. There was barely any waves so I launched fully rigged and meet Kev out the back setting up (Jeff was already out and heading for JS). We headed straight out from the beach in awe of all the birds working already and in so close. Only 100m or so past the shark nets I caught up to my first school. In this school there were no bigger fish jumping but plenty of little ones. I fired out a cast and straight away hooked up to a Bonito. I released this one and within another couple of casts had another Bonito and then managed a yakka on the slug also.

After this busy start to the morning I sat back and enjoyed the view for a little bit before spotting some bigger splashes down towards the river mouth. I started the pedal over and chased some of the bigger schools. A few casts later I was hooked up to something big but was bitten off after a few seconds. Bummer, this went on for the next 2 cast meaning I had lost 3 slugs and it wasn't even 7am yet. The next slug and first cast I cranked as hard as I could hoping to keep the sharp teeth of whatever it was down the hook end of the lure. This worked and I hooked up and landed a 70cm spotty. This fish was kept for dinner and then next cast I landed another spotty of similar size.

Now this is where my morning got really interesting and expensive. I could see some tuna smashing the bait now so aimed a cast for one of them. I hooked up straight away and after the first big run I set about bringing it in. At this stage the hard body that I had been trolling around went off also and whatever it was pulled some serious line before everything went slack. Great, this lure had a wire trace so I wasn't sure what had managed to break loose. I brought my attention back to landing the tuna which had now managed to tangle itself up in my trolling line. Unfortunately the tuna was also circling down deep and while trying to untangle the two lines the fish managed to get me between the main kayak and the outrigger. This is when the inevitable happened, crack, my rod was now in 3 pieces. Annoyed I cranked the drag right up as I wanted to at least get my slug back. I managed to land a huge 90cm Mack tuna with a rod that was now down to 2 guides and got my slug back.

After organising my broken rod I set about winding in my trolling rod. To my surprise there was weight on this line and I knew that it was a shark that had smashed the hard body earlier. After bringing in and letting the shark go I swapped the slug over to my good rod which is a 10-20kg outfit. First cast on this rod and something big smashed the slug. It's first run pulled over 150m of line before biting through the leader again. I don't know what this fish was but I think it could have been a Spanish Mackerel as it pulled harder then anything I had been catching. Now I was down to my last slug so tied it on and started heading for the middle groin. About half way back the was a bust up in front of me so I fired a cast and was bitted off again.

So all up it was an expensive morning but geez it was good fun. My tallies for the day ended up-
2 Bonito landed
1 Yakka landed
5 Spotties landed
1 huge Mack Tuna
Numerous hookups before being dropped
1 Shark landed
6 slugs lost
1 rod snapped into 3 pieces
70 + 68 cm spotties
Do people use wire on their slugs? I am going to try using some wire leaders on the slugs tomorrow and I have also upped my leader strength. I also want to try some poppers out tomorrow as the fish were chasing my slugs skimming across the surface today.

Is there anyone else aiming for a fish tomorrow also?

Regards
Dan

email from LeRoux:
:::::::::
G'day All,

Congrats on your Tuna Kevvy; might come and get some tomorrow if you've still got any left? Also gr8 choice of pole bearer...

I headed towards LH and saw isolated splashes every now and then, but nothing sustained and certainly nothing to cast a lure at so headed on to Halls - got 2 undersized sweeties there and got a plastic taken off by something bigger. Hooked 2 sharks on the way back to the river mouth and then a monster of a spaniard about 1 km from the mouth, but my prized Daiwa reel seized up completely with the crank handle breaking off and dropping overboard and me left trying to wrestle the beast in manually, but with my spool loaded with no-stretch braid the inevitable snap happened reasonably soon afterwards... Anyone know a decent repairer or where I can get some spare parts?

So heaps of fun, but again no keepers - and this time I'm blaming it on equipment failure! Thinking abt another paddle on Wed - anyone else interested?

Regards
Rooter

Just Paddling, 2Apr11

Subject: Fishing today - 2nd April 2011
From:"Ian"
Date:2/04/2011 9:54 AM

Hi Noosa Yakkers,I had a paddle today and that's exactly what I did.

Leaving MG at 5.30 I paddled to LH then back to the RM and across to Tea Tree Bay. I didn't see any surface activity just the odd bird looking lost, so I headed in arriving back at MG around 8 where I had a quick chat with Jimbo who was about to have a swim.

I did the same last Monday, without the chat, so I'm counting on the 3rd time being lucky.

The sand is certainly building up at the end of the Groyne, these photos were taken at the top of the tide.





Ian
call sign;eye tag