Subject: Fishing today, 08Oct08
Date: Wednesday, 8 October 2008 3:50 PM
The Seabreeze forecast being favourable, four of us opted to head out this morning despite two of us having been out to dinner the night before.
Jaro set up the event, as usual, placing a latest departure time of 0600. The result was that Jaro arrived before 0530, I at 0530 and Harry at 0535, to be met by a crowded carpark (Wednesday is swimming practice day for seeming hordes of Noosans). Yakking conditions were perfect with a clear sky, insignificant swell and tiny southerly zephyrs.
The three of us hit the water pretty much together and set course for JS, initially focussing on the whale frolicking in our path about 2km ahead. We all trolled all the way out but didn't get a touch, and so, arriving in the vicinity of JS about 0630, chose our locations and started fishing.
Harry set out for the northern side of JS (how he does it without a GPS I don't know, especially as much of the land was shrouded in smoke this morning), Jaro for the far SW corner, and I for one of my marks, closer in on the western side.
I put out my first cast, then set the rod in the rod holder while I re-rigged the trolling outfit with a soft plastic to trail behind as I drifted. Barely had I deployed the trailing outfit when the light outfit went off. I knew straight away that it wasn't a big fish, but was happy to get a hit so soon. A sweetlip of just keeper size appeared but I decided that it should be released so did so after using the pliers to remove the hook.
Immediately recasting the light outfit, I was holding it in one hand while radio-ing Jaro about my first cast success when the light outfit went off again, this time long before the jig got anywhere near the bottom.
It had to be a snapper, and a nice one because I was rewarded with a scorching run which had the reel drag screaming. I leaned back to settle in to the fight and then the line went slack! The air was a bit blue with comments at this stage, and even bluer when, on inspection of the reason for the disconnect, I discovered that the hook had partially straightened, probably because I'd damaged it with the pliers and hadn't checked that it was OK before re-using it. You'd reckon that, with 50 years of fishing behind me, I'd remember the basics, but there you go -- a good fish lost because of inattention to detail.
Jaro soon reported a keeper sweetlip, then a larger one. Mal joined us by around 0645 and decided to hang around near me, but by 0730 we were both fishless but conditions looked promising so I for one didn't feel pessimistic. At 0740, while relocating further up the quite strong westerly current, I paused to watch the progress of some whales coming right across the top of JS, and only 100m or so away. I'd left my trailing rig out while relocating and as I paused, it sank, then got snaffled by a snapper, which very soon became my first keeper for the day.
At about 0815 I hooked a small but keeper snapper and then, on the next cast, same place, I got a solid strike and line poured off the reel against the drag. I guessed another snapper, which was correct, for a few minutes later after a decent fight during which I had to yield line in several runs, a beautiful 64cm snapper (measured at home later) lay beside the yak. This was more like it!
Don't snapper look magnificent in the morning light, fresh from the water!
So now I had three keepers, Jaro hadn't advanced his score of two sweetlip. and Harry and Mal both reported no fish. While being swept along on the westerly current, I was surprised to have the sounder reveal shallow banks around 12-15 metres deep with lots of structure fully 450 metres ESE of JS centre and lots of small fish showing on the display. Clearly this area warrants further exploration in future, and yes I've logged the location in my GPS.
For the next thirty minutes or so things went quiet for me and so I decided to relocate to a spot 150m upcurrent of a bommie I'd detected and marked a few weeks back. By now the wind had almost died out altogether so the effect was that I was being swept along by the current, over the reef, and, as there was no wind, it was possible to just let the light jig hang under the yak, with a slight lift and drop from time to time to bring it to the attention of cruising fish. This technique soon yielded another keeper snapper and a keeper sweetlip, on successive casts only a few minutes apart. By now, around 0945-ish, my fish box was full and so I decided that there was no point in fishing any longer and packed up to go home. Mal had left a little earlier having reported a slight case of mal-de-mer, and Jaro and Harry both opted to stay.
My trip back was easy and uneventful, except for a close encounter with a whale which chose to surface for a breath very close to my track. They are really spectacular close up, I can tell you. On the beach there were the usual questions from beach goers and people hanging around the wash point, including some from one persistent questioner, who unable to take his eyes off the catch, revealed that he "had to go back to Melbourne tomorrow" -- poor bugger.
Before I started writing this email, Jaro sent a contribution with a pic so here it is:
"Hi Kevin,
Just to let you know that I caught a nice size snapper on our last drift and Harry caught a sweetlip. He also had a large snapper that he got up to his kayak (I was there to witness) and then lost it much to his extreme annoyance. We left JS at 11.35 and had a trouble free run home. I don't know about Mal but Harry said he left earlier because he was seasick. Attached is a photo of my fish but they look smaller than they actually were.
I am looking forward to seeing a photo of your monster."
Anyway, there it is, guys. Hope you enjoyed reading it. It was a beautiful day out there today with lots of whales around and several turtles, including one which took a particular liking to Jaro's yak. Perhaps it had mating on its mind?
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
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