Swell: low NE
Current: none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: turtleboy, sunshiner
Note: Jimbo opted to fish in the Noosa River this morning but, except for the content of radio conversations, I cannot comment on his experience but perhaps he will, separately, or as a comment on this report.
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Glorious morning today, with the SE change getting ready to arrive. Here's what it was like at 0430, when I launched, alone.
There's still an occasional nasty little break at the end of the groyne, especially at dead low tide, which this was. I waited for a large set to go through and paddled out on a glassy sea.
I was mainly out for a paddle today and opted to head for the western side of the bay to find out whether there were any baitfish schools, and, more importantly, any mackerel or tuna feasting on them. Consequently I set course for Little Halls Reef, 3.5 km NW of the groyne where we'd often previously had success at this time of year.
Counting the terns as I went, I was up to two by the time I heard the crackle of another radio joining our channel. I figured this would be either jimbo or turtleboy so put out a general call to which jimbo responded immediately, from Munna Point where he was about to launch for his river expedition.
Paddling onward, by 0500 I was due north of the river mouth and about 1.5km from MG when my trolling outfit went off with a scream. Bewdy! I picked up the rod quickly only to find that there was no longer any weight. I should probably have turned and done another run over the area but opted to continue the mission, reconnaissance, after a quick check to see that the lure (HLP) was OK.
Little Halls Reef was reached without further incident. I drifted here for a short while, dropping out a soft plastic, but a lack of bait on the sounder and the paucity of fish at Jew Shoal over the last couple of trips soon made me return to trolling and generally looking around.
About now, 0530 or so, turtleboy called up on the radio, asking for a sitrep and my location. I obliged, advising him to troll near the river mouth and informing him that I intended to continue trolling in LH Reef area (by now I could see a few terns starting to cluster). The terns, about a dozen or so, were to my west and were lit up by the sun. They were fluttering and circling over a fairly wide area but there were no telltale splashes.
On reaching the terns' hunting ground I soon came across patches of baitfish on the sonar. These are the bait accumulations which usually herald the arrival of the pelagic gang and were exactly what I was looking for. Still no obvious predators, however.
The morning was so pleasant that I simply paddled along, meandering from bait patch to bait patch, never seeing any splashes but enjoying it all anyway. At last, on approaching one of my previous marks, NW of LH Reef, the trolling outfit went off. You know what it's like, you hope for somethng else but your instincts and experience tell you this is a small shark. And so it was.
This animal successfully released and my lure safely retrieved I continued the paddle, heading back toward the inner bay where I intended to rendezvous with turtleboy, who by now had been informed by radio of the shark event.
Then it was turtleboy's turn with a shark. He called up exclaiming that he had a shark on and I thought to myself, "That figures, probably my 5:00am strike was also a shark".
The next radio call from turtleboy shattered that illusion. "Hey, it's not a shark, but a cobia about two to three feet long. What's the legal length, please?" I informed him (75cm) and welcomed him to the Cobia Club. I could see his Swing about 500m away so offered to paddle over to get some pics, and turtleboy happily accepted, opting to remain where he was while the cobia was brought under control.
video (15 secs), turtleboy talking about the capture, on the water,
This fish had been hooked at the NW edge of the river mouth, very close to a surf break and in about 6 metres depth. Nice catch, Steve.
We had a brief troll in the area but decided to head home so gently trolled the remaining 1.5km or so back to MG where we easily negotiated the break despite the presence of a couple of board riders in the slot.
Turtleboy in control of the surf and looking fantastic
Let's hope that the SE change coming in today will also bring in some pelagic predators.
Kev
Hi Yakkers, as noted by Sunshiner, given the continuing poor returns from fishing in the bay, I opted for Noosa River this morning, launching from Munna Pt at 0500. Conditions were terrific, overcast and nil wind. Whilst low tide was scheduled for 0555, slack water didn't occur until about 0830 so there was a considerable out-going current running the whole time. I trolled 3 different small HB lures into the western end of Woods Bay, down around the sand islands of the Frying Pan, back out and then down to the river mouth and just outside the river mouth but slill within the sheltered waters of the outer sandbars. Although I disturbed lots of ,surface-feeding bait fish (I think mostly yakkers), the HB lures remained untouched. I pulled the yak onto the edge of sandbar right opposite the car park at the river mouth, and cast a SP on small jighead and retreived along a drop-off created by the fast running current. I was finally rewarded (after about 20 casts!) when a 47cm flathead took my offering. I then trolled back past (the now failed and ceased reconstruction work at) Dog Beach, Culgoa Pt, under the Noosa Prd bridge, made a U-turn then back past the Coast Guard to Munna Point, again without a touch.
ReplyDeleteIn summary, like Sunshiner's experience, a nice 10km paddle but bugger-all to report on the fishing front.
Cheers
Jimbo