Noosa Yakkers Trip Reports: WB, TB, Jaro, SR, surf vid, 24Oct09

From: "madcowes"
Subject: Fishing Today 24Oct09
Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009 3:42 PM

After harassing Jaro via email last night to join me for a trip to sunshine reef first thing in the morning he agreed, and met me shortly after 4:30 am at MG.

Our first challenge was to avoid the nasty little sets coming in and the lines from the guys fishing off the groyne.

Jaro times it beautifully

This done, off we headed to our usual haunts at sunshine reef.

An hour's uneventful paddling saw us at our chosen marks and harassing the fish.

Steve (turtleboy) soon joined after having a nice sleep in.

The drift was quite fast and nothing much was happening so I decided to put a dry t-shirt on which involved...
>>Removing hat
>>Removing PFD
>>Getting tshirt 1/2 way over my head
>>ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Of course my trailing Soft plastic which had been totally ignored for the last hour went screaming off to the depths of sunshine reef.

Somehow I managed to get my head thru the tshirt & set the hook simultaneously!

It felt like a reasonably good fish and I still had my PFD on my lap and #$@# everywhere.

I eventually brought a nice snapper of 53cm to the side of the yak & unceremoniously dumped him on top of my PFD.

I was surprised that the fish wasn't much bigger, as it fought way above its weight class and actually bent the hook on my jig head.

Shortly after that Steve came over and I gave him a heavier jig head and a nice new snapback plastic to try, as he suspected he wasn't getting near the bottom. Back to the start of the drift we went.

After Steve's first cast with the new jighead & plastic, I hear... "I'm on" and in no time at all he boated a lovely 53cm snapper and then vowed to go straight the to the tackleshop and buy some new SPs.

Jaro, who wasn't having any luck yet came over and we all went back to the start of THE drift and sure enough right on top of the mark his trailing rod with a pilchard bent over, followed by shouts of "it's a biggie" "it's a reeaal biggie" in typical Jaro fashion.

Jaro hooked up

Jaro proudly showing off my snapper - whoops I mean his snapper.

The rest of the morning:
>>I boated a nice sweetlip around 38cm
>>Jaro boated another snapper this time smaller at 40cm, then a tailor

Headed in about 9:30 am - just as well by the time we rounded Hells Gates the conditions were somewhat atrocious and to make matters worse I had just snapped my rudder cable, which on my yak, as it has a very flat bottom is an absolute nightmare.

I think I had to virtually do twice as many strokes on the right than the left just to keep heading towards MG as the wind was pushing me towards DI point.

Just past Granite Bay I hooked a 40cm tailor on a trolled pilchard rig, then another one which threw the hooks.

Then a small mackerel around 45cm just past the shark nets making for a rather interrupted trip back in.

Back at MG Jaro timed his run beautifully, I went next & nearly made it until a wave picked me up & I was heading straight for a boogie boarder whom I collected, in the process rolling my yak, no damage done, except to my dignity.

Steve also managed a lovely ride in unscathed.

VIDEO
We had a bit of fun at Middle Groyne yesterday and today. Warning: Some embarassment involved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2PXJTAXK4s

Kev was waiting for us on the beach with morning tea, which goes down a treat after a long paddle. (Thanks Kev - I think we'll have to organize this on a roster basis from now on).

Pics..