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
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