Subject: fishing today -- 16jan09
Date: Friday, 16 January 2009 5:26 PM
Only Jaro and I this morning. Oh, and Paul, the guy from Palmwoods who launched with us last week was coincidentally there also. Launch was easy, although timing to miss the larger breakers was easy. Jaro and I both launched on the eastern side.
0505hrs. Main Beach, east of Middle Groyne.
We paddled out to the shoal without attracting any action but there were growing signs of activity with flocks of terns gradually accumulating as the light improved. I fired off my first cast, hoping for a snapper or sweetlip, just before 0600.
While I was getting no action on the soft plastics it was clear a change of plan was worth considering as the numbers of birds wheeling around the eastern edge of the shoal showed that there were plenty of baitfish around and probable predator activity. The baitfish schools were also very obvious on the fishfinder. At about 0630 I paddled over to Jaro and we agreed to switch to trolling with an option to cast slugs should the predators show. By this time he'd managed to boat a small sweetlip (a keeper).
Together we headed off to the SW trolling, with our casting rods ready just in case. There were hundreds of terns wheeling around, occassionally dipping down to the waves to pick up hapless baitfish which were also being harried from below, by what? we didn't yet know.
A few minutes later I looked back and saw that Jaro's trolling rod was in his hands and it had a substantial bend in it -- clearly he was fighting a fish. I was still trolling at this stage but paddled closer to him to witness the action and perhaps record it by photograph. Within a couple of minutes Jaro had a nice spotty mackerel next to the yak. He gaffed it very professionally and lifted it aboard. I was ready with the camera and just as I pressed the shutter release I thought I heard my trolling reel give a growl but as there was no further sign of action I turned back to take a second pic.
0645hrs. Jaro with the Noosa Yakkers' first spotty mackerel of the year.
I paddled away to continue with the plan and when checking my trolled lure, a 180mm long Berkely Killer minnow, discovered that it was missing in action. That growl I thought I'd heard must have been a strike from a sharp-toothed critter which had managed to sever the line. I hadn't used wire on the lure because, I reasoned, that it was too large to need it. Clearly I was wrong or possibly the fish that took it had struck the front of the lure and managed to luckily chop the line in the process. I immediately put on my spare trolling minnow.
Very soon after this, the intensity of the bird activity dropped off and gradually the sky cleared of the whirling white terns which had attracted us and led to Jaro's capture and my loss. So we went back to Plan A. For me the action in Plan A was very quiet, but Jaro reported some good strikes, around one particular part of the shoal. All I could catch was several specimens of black-tipped cod.
Black-tipped cod. Common at this and smaller sizes at Jew Shoal. The legal limit is 38cm -- I've never seen one that size.
By 10am we were feeling weary and decided to head home. We both rigged for Plan B as it was clear that there may be a chance of a fish encounter on the 4km journey back. Half way back we saw terns feeding in Teatree Bay and at Dolphin Point so altered course to port to intersect with them. As often happens in situations such as this, the fish which were attracting the terns kept moving away from our position. We tried to chase them down for a while but soon agreed that we were wasting our energy reserves, which were dwindling naturally by this time anyway, and we still had more than 2km to go back to the beach, so turned once more for home. A few minutes after turning I was roused from my reverie by the screaming of the ratchet on my trolling rod. I radioed Jaro who started to paddle toward me. I'd been hoping it was a mackerel but after a short fight one of our common pelagic predators, a mackerel tuna, showed up. Jaro took a pic or two.
Me and my little mac tuna, off Teatree Bay.
Our return to the beach was a bit problematic, as there were now lots of kids enjoying themselves in the water at our planned landing point, not to mention the size of the waves, which were breaking half way along the rock wall on the western side of the groyne. After a look at the options we decided to chance an entry at the less-crowded eastern side, and both picked the waves nicely, gliding up to the beach without breaking any legs or noses of the holidaymakers. Once on the beach we took a few pics and, as usual, were swamped by admirers, particularly female.
Mac Tuna. No legal limit, take as many as you want.
Jaro's spotty mac and sweetlip.
Thanks for reading
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
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