Subject: fishing today -- 10sep09
Date: Thursday, 10 September 2009 6:00 PM
The offshore forecast being perfect, Brian and I fronted again today accompanied by Jaro and Harry. It was arranged that we'd meet at MG to launch by 0600. I arrived at the carpark at 0530-ish to find Jaro and Brian already there. Jaro was dealing with his first launch of his new Viking Profish so needed extra time to get his act together. The rest of us were keen to see how the new yak went and Jaro was heavily engaged with making sure all the hatches were secure etc.
Harry arrived just as I was taking Jaro's photo.
0553. Jaro and his new fish marauder, a Viking Profish. Brian launching in the background, into a small but easily manageable swell.
VIDEO: less than 30 secs -- emerging into Laguna Bay and demonstrating the Profish's ability to internally store rigged rods.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZeE1ji2nOw
Given such good forecast conditions, Sunshine Reef, an hour's paddle away, was our intended destination and within a few minutes of the above pic being taken all except Harry were out the back setting up. Harry followed soon after.
The beauty of an early morning launch on Laguna Bay never fails to stir the emotions but the rising sun today was a bit of a problem in that we were tracking straight into it and potentially getting burnt retinas as a result. Good sunglasses and a hat which can shade the eyes a little are essential when the sun is so close to the horizon. But at least it was sunny, and the sea was pretty flat, with a decent swell running which brought whoops of delight from the boardriders at Tea Tree and Granite. As we paddled out we got great views along the tubing waves as they curled around the various headlands and provided that magnificent break that Noosa is justifiably famous for.
All that was left behind us as we rounded Hells Gates and fanned out to our respective chosen marks. After a quick recce of a close mark I'd registered earlier but had not since revisited I decided to head out to where Jaro was drifting, hoping to get a pictorial record of the first fish into the new Profish. But things were quiet. When no fish had been caught by anyone in 30 minutes (we were all connected by VHF radio), Jaro announced that he was going to head for another favourite spot he knew and paddled off leaving me to my own amusements.
I was fishing in water in excess of 30m deep, our drift was to the SE despite a SE breeze blowing us toward the NW and I gradually got the notion that perhaps I'd be better off in shallower water, closer inshore. My earlier recce was in just such a spot so after I'd spent the best part of an hour unsuccessfully fishing this deep water I decided to head back to that spot, which I'd not previously fished. This was a 1.2km paddle away, toward Alexandria Bay and about 30 minutes later, having spent a bit of time enroute prospecting another shallow ground, I was there. It was 26-28m deep and clearly, judging from the sounder display, decent reef. There were also a few fish pings which encouraged me. Very soon after arriving at this spot I caught a grinner. Well, at least something was biting! Soon after, another touch but no hookup, again on the soft plastic, which on examination after retrieval showed evidence that it had been mouthed and dropped. I cast again leaving the jighead and its impaled soft plastic to their own devices until I judged that the rig was near the bottom and directly under the yak. I lifted the rod tip a couple of times to impart some "life" to my offering and then felt it gently but firmly taken. I struck and found myself connected to an apparent dead weight. There was no panicked rush but by the same token I could make no headway. It was a stalemate. Soon I got a couple of wraps back on the spool. This did the trick. My reel howled and the rod tip was submerged to the fifth runner as my fishy opponent went for the bottom, several times. After a dogged fight I gained the upper hand and eventually saw some colour down deep then up popped the largest sweetlip I've ever caught. I had the video chest cam running and here's a still from the video.
0912hrs. The sweetlip is lifted aboard. (still from video). The cord above the fish's mouth is the security lanyard for my short gaff, which is in my right hand, out of the pic.
And here's how the fish looked once he'd been secured, and I'd cleaned the salt off the camera lens.
VIDEO: just over 1 minute. The capture of sweetlip -- salt on the lens makes for some interesting effects
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFS_vsG8fTY
Once the fish was stowed I radioed my companions to tell them. Brian (madcowes) responded that he'd also just caught a sweetlip, somewhat smaller, but Harry and later Jaro opted to join me as they were getting no significant action. A short time after they arrived I had another strike accompanied by a powerful horizontal run down deep, typical of a snapper. I knew I was in trouble when the run continued as the fish was in reefy country. Sure enough, the familiar slack-line feeling signalled the end of that tussle. Sometimes, they are unstoppable before the line grazes on reef or breaks due to drag pressure (water drag plus preset drag).
Then the whales arrived -- a mother and calf, with the mother showing her exuberance by breaching twice not far from Harry, who was to the north of me. After some time apparently feeding her calf, while Harry looked on, very close, the two submerged and headed south, straight toward me, as Harry let me know by radio. I had the camera ready and had stowed some of my loose gear in case she surfaced so close that I was tossed out. Suddenly an enormous body surged partly above the surface no more than 50m away. She was passing me on the western (shore) side so I turned around as best I could, shooting video straight over the stern and was rewarded with three big slaps of the pectoral fin, as if in greeting as she passed this tiny, insignificant creature so close to her path.
The second pectoral wave, of three, as she passed me.
As Brian later said, this was really cool. And it was even cooler when she decided to wallow in our vicinity, playing with her (~5 tonne) calf. Brian and I had a great view. Here are a couple of stills from that session during which I got a fair bit of movie.
Me, filming the whales, by Brian
My pic of Brian and whales.
VIDEO: Less than 3min of edited video of this special encounter with whales.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4FfeqlXDkQ
After that we decided to face the ~1 hour paddle home. It was an invigorating trip, initially downwind until we turned the corner at Hells Gates, to be met by a pod of dolphins which entertained us for a while as they cleared the water while playing their games.
Harry had left a little earlier but was waiting for us (Jaro, Brian and I) when we arrived to run the surf zone. All I'll say is that the youngest guy and the oldest guy took an involuntary dunking as they underestimated the trickiness of the small but persistent swell. Jaro needed to roll his yak anyway, to test its water ingress situation, which it passed with flying colours.
VIDEO: short 1:15 clip of the chest cam view of returning to Middle Groyne, Main Beach, in the very small surf working there yesterday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84qZWbW7Zu4
My sweetlip, 57cm on the measure mat. My best ever, but not quite as good as Jaro's of a couple of years back (62cm).
Jaro, Brian and Harry and yaks (mine's in the middle) on the beach at MG after running the surf gauntlet.
And lastly, a notable capture, which was released. During the fishing, Brian radioed me and asked for help in identifying a fish he'd caught about 30cm long. He described it very well, but I was unable to identify it until I saw this pic, taken by Brian before he released the fish. The fish is a juvenile Red Emperor, one of the most prized eating fish of our waters. Please note that this fish has a minimum legal size of 55cm. I've never seen one caught by Noosa Yakkers before but I'd dearly love to catch one at 60cm long! Note that as these fish get older, they become uniformly red, losing the prominent stripes so obvious in this pic. Thanks, Brian.
Another fine yakking trip. Weather's looking good for Sunday/Monday. Over to you, Jaro.
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://noosayakers.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment