Subject: Fishing today 04Jul11 -- nice to be back into the fish
From: sunshiner
Date: 4/07/2011 4:55 PM
Weather
Cloud cover: cloudless except at horizon
Wind direction & speed: light westerly
Sea state: low swell
If applicable (often at NSR): no significant current
Participants: eyetag, pedro, whalebait, bigkev, richmond, sunshiner, rooter
At last a light winds day! One of the privilleges of being an old fart is that you can launch later than the young guys and not be mocked as a softie. (I think/hope. Anyway I don't care -- another privilege.) And so it was for me today. As acting coordinator I'd nominated a 0630 launch, just before sunrise. Knowing how keen some of these youngsters are, I wasn't surprised to be a lone yakker in the carpark at 0615. All their cars were there, sporting their Noosa Yakkers stickers and roofracks, and as I dragged my Stealth down the beach I found myself blundering over the tracks left earlier by the young farts.
As you can see, no probs with the launch. Note how close my yak is to the end of the groyne, how the sand has built up and also the lack of a channel. There should be some interesting launches and returns in the coming months when, as is inevitable, we encounter larger swells. Perhaps a need to practice surf skills?
Anyway, once out the back I called NYs on the radio and got an immediate response from richmond who reported that he was at Jew Shoal. He also indicated that the others were headed for A-Bay Reef (see the blog if you don't know where this is). As the weather was perfect I opted to head for that reef also and paddled off alone and quite happy, toward Dolphin Point (again, see the blog...).
Right on 35 minutes I was abeam Hells Gates, going well and loving it. Here eyetag called and managed to reinforce my optimism by reporting the capture of several sweeties among the four NYs at A-Bay Reef. The last 1500m was covered in 20 minutes or so and soon I was the fifth out there, eager to get amongst the unsuspecting sweeties and snapper. I set up my trailing rod with a new experimental lure.
This went to the bottom (27m) like a rocket, as I'd planned, I lifted it off a metre or so and set the rod in the holder behind me. The drift was very slow, toward the east and so I opted to stay with the 1/4oz jig head with a SP on it for my casting outfit.
Conditions were perfect out there and before long, drifting along in close company with pedro and eyetag, my cast SP was taken gently but firmly and the rod tip got seriously wet as the fish went for the bottom. Simultaneously, eyetag (double hookup) and pedro yelled that they were on.
After my dismal showing last time we fished here, two weeks ago, I was delighted when a sizable sweetie eventually gave up the fight and went into the hatch. Yahoo, I was back.
Meanwhile, whalebait, just a little further away, was also being hammered as it became obvious that we'd drifted across a productive patch of reef (and yes, we've marked it).
Around about now richmond arrived, having given up on Jew Shoal after being bitten off by an unstoppable (shark -- on a jig?) and also reporting stronger westerly winds there than we were encountering in our spot which is sheltered better by the land. So now there were six of us out there -- not bad for a Monday.
Action became sporadic after that with occasional fish being reported among the group, including keeper flathead, but, significantly, no snapper.
Some time later I was drifting along working my SP on my casting outfit when I felt a strange vibration. In a kayak on the ocean you become super-sensitive and I could feel this vibration in my backside. At last the mists of my mind cleared and I turned to glance at my trailing outfit, behind my right shoulder. Sure enough, it was behaving oddly and was undoubtedly the source of the strange vibration as the rod tip was quivering and bouncing. Perhaps my experimental lure earlier depicted was getting results?
Line buzzing off against the drag confirmed it and before long I was battling another, larger, sweetie which had obviously taken a liking to my experimental jig.
This was no accidental hookup. The sweetlip was well hooked, deep inside the mouth. Adding him to the bag was confirmation that this jig, largely unattended, just drifting along above the reef floor, could take fish.
And now for a mystery fish, which took a liking to my SP shortly afterward.
I've caught at least one of these out there before. Anyone else caught one (eyetag?). [Editor: yellow emperor]
About now I spotted a lone kayaker approaching from Hells Gates. It soon turned out to be rooter (LeRoux) out for a morning paddle, and hopefully a fish or two.
At 1030 richmond paddled over, a little downhearted that he had no fish in the boat (this unusual for him, I might add). By now I'd had no action for at least 30 minutes so I agreed to call it a day and we paddled back to MG together, taking an hour to cover the distance that took me 50 minutes or so on the way out.
When we left the beach the others were not yet back but I understand, from radio traffic, that pedro scored a possible NY record fish. In addition, most had caught one or more sweetlip. So we're all interested in the catches guys, and what worked for you today.
A great day for me today. Thanks for coming along yakkers, and hopefully we'll be out there again soon.
Kev
Red & white Stealth Supalite, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.com/
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Subject: Re: Fishing today 04Jul11 -- nice to be back into the fish
From: Pete
Date: 4/07/2011 6:53 PM
Hi all,
Being a young fart @ 49 I was beaten only by a the younger fart of eyetag. We launched at about 5ish into the unknown, although the swell was small there was the odd larger swell coming through which embraced me with an early morning waterfall/shower. We headed out to Sunshine...
After the "sweetie session" Eyetag and I headed in a southerly direction. My 2 gang pillie rig was cast out and left to slowly sink to the bottom while feathering the line with the bail arm open. As the bait hit the bottom I felt a very generous bite, got towed about a bit until I pulled up my 82cm, 8kg COD, of some variety?
pic by Ian. Ian’s caption: A nice ad for Hobie. An awesome fish from a Yak.
Also in my bag is another 2 fish, 30cm venus tusk fish and another sweetie at 47cm.
A good day out
Cheers
Pete
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Subject: Re: Fishing today 04Jul11 -- nice to be back into the fish
From: "Ian"
Date: 4/07/2011 8:53 PM
Hi all,
Not much to add - just a couple of photos and facts. 4 Grassies 45-50cm, 52 cm Flathead and a very unlucky 46 cm Maori Cod.
My catch
Kevin, I've never caught one of those before.
Ian
call sign;eye tag
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Subject: RE: Fishing today 04Jul11 -- nice to be back into the fish
From: "Kevin Crawford"
Date: 5/07/2011 6:50 AM
I also ended the morning with a couple of Grassies – 47cm & 51cm. Both were taken on a 3 inch gulp shrimp in banana prawn colour as I could not get a touch on minnow style soft plastics or vibration lures (blades) this morning. I made the change in lure type after Ian reported his grassies regurgitating octopus as this was the only type of lure I had on board that vaguely resembled something different to a bait fish. This change gave almost instant results.
Son, Etho with sweeties
Kev
(the bigger one….)
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