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:
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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:
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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
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