Subject: fishing today -- 21Oct09 -- I'm still here, whew!
Date: Wednesday, 21 October 2009 3:03 PM
Bloody whale -- scared the crap out of me (details later).
Only Jaro and I had indicated we'd be going today. Last night, over a glass of red or two at the surf club, we agreed to meet at the doggie beach at 0445 this morning to check launch conditions. I was a bit early and was there at 0435, to make the hurried judgement in the half light that it was do-able, but there was no way one could avoid getting wet on the way out. Accordingly, aware that Jaro preferred to launch at Middle Groyne unless conditions were perfect at Doggie Beach, I left the carpark before 0445 intending to intercept Jaro on his way down there. This all happened and a few minutes later we were pulling in to Middle Groyne carpark where the sleeping occupants of the adjacent (illegally?) parked campervan probably got an unexpected wakeup call as we went about getting our gear ready.
0502hrs. Launch time -- for once I was ready before Jaro.
As you can see, perfect conditions. And they remained so all the way out to Sunshine Reef, at which Jaro and I arrived together. We'd both trolled baits/lures all the way without a touch, but it was noticeable that there are schools of baitfish in Laguna Bay -- just no big predators yet.
Starting around 0610hrs I deployed the usual rigs, and started my drift from the area I'd been frequenting in the last few trips. There were few fish on the sounder but that doesn't mean they aren't there, as I've discovered in this area before. As we had a SW breeze, we initially drifted toward the east, very slowly, probably because we had a small southerly current. It didn't take long to get some action. My cast jig head was seized near the bottom as I jigged it upward, probably an indication that fast movement of a lure probably makes it stand out from the background in 28m of water with early morning light levels. A smallish but keeper snapper was soon in the footwell.
0621hrs. Snapper #1 in the bag.
I don't know exactly when it was, but it was likely around 0630 when Jaro and I, drifting along peacefully about 70m apart, both heard a snort. A whale, which I spotted about 200m away, was heading toward Jaro, who couldn't see it because he had his back to it. I warned him and he decided (probably wisely, as it turned out) to immediately pull in his lines and drogue and pick up the paddle to turn the yak. He did this just in time to see a massive tail rise above the water as the whale slid steeply toward the bottom, still headed in his direction. Jaro needed no further urging -- he was off, heading into what was most likely to be safe water, behind me and well out of the whale's last known path. Jaro paddled past me and headed west, back toward where we'd started our drift. I fished on and after a couple of minutes hooked up on what was clearly not a big fish and which was soon revealed to be a maori cod about 35cm long (undersize). I was just pulling my camera out to get a pic of this fish while still hooked, in the water, when I heard a commotion behind me. I glanced around to be met with a vision one does not relish when sitting in a kayak, bum one inch above the ocean surface. Nightmare stuff! There, apparently suspended briefly against the sky was the entire body of the whale. I clearly remember seeing the tail out of the water, and everything else too. And this was about 50m away. For a moment I thought "What a fantastic sight" as the whale now hit the water sending a huge splash which seemed to block out 30% of my sky view. My fish was still in the water on one line, I had a trailing line out also, and my drogue was still deployed. The whale hit the water pointing directly toward me and then did it all again, even closer, perhaps 30m away. Holy shit, if it did it one more time it could drop on top of me! Driven by a huge surge of adrenalin, I immediately paddled frantically away at right angles to the path I'd mentally computed the whale might take. I wasn't going to bother about looking behind me, what was the point. I just went in a straight line. The hooked fish, still in the water, was being pulled along the surface by my frantic paddling, even though, as I soon discovered, the drogue was still out and reducing my paddle effectiveness by at least 50%. This last matter was very quickly corrected.
NOT my pic. This is what the whale was doing, except that in my two close experiences today, it was fully clear of the water and was rotating.
As far as I'm aware the whale didn't breach again (I wasn't looking) but as I paddled toward Jaro, who hadn't seen any of this, again because he'd been (wisely) paddling away, I gradually calmed down from an adrenalin high unmatched by my other recent experiences. It seemed to me that had the whale breached again it might have dropped right on top of me. It was at least 2-3m above the water and could have crashed down on top of me and my yak, probably ruining my day.
Once I'd calmed down I took the hook out of the mouth of the maori cod which had been waterskiing along beside the yak and he swam strongly away, a puzzled look on its face. Things were back to normal -- or normal as they are ever, in a fishing kayak, on the ocean. Now if I'd only had the presence of mind to take a pic... I might have posthumously won the AKFF monthly photo comp.
Back to the fishing... It took me a while to settle down and I started to feel slightly lethargic as the adrenalin wore off. The breeze gradually dropped and after a while I noticed that we were now heading much more southerly as the relative strength of the current became dominant. By around 0715 Jaro, still without any fish action, had decided to head out further to some marks he had out there, while I decided to continue fishing the shallower water (still 28m deep) closer inshore. There was very little action and few fish on the sonar so I decided to go further north, about 200m past my mark, in order to allow the drift to sweep me along through this area which had previously been productive for me. I reached the planned drift start point around 0755, deployed the drogue and my trailing outfit (1/2oz jighead with snapback SP on it) and cast out the light jighead (1/4oz with Squidgy SP). My attention was then seized by a remarkable (to me) piece of drifting biology, just under the yak. I grabbed the camera, pushed it under the water and took a quick pic...
No idea!! But it was close to the yak (Later: the string of objects is a colony of salps).
The sea was so calm that the lines I'd deployed were cutting straight tracks in the trichodesmium floating on the surface. Trichodesmium, an algae which occurs in all warm ocean waters, was known as "sea sawdust" by mariners in previous centuries, a pretty good analogy, really. Then all hell broke lose. First the trailing outfit went off, the loosely set drag howling as the rod tip was bent to below the surface. In retrospect, the drogue should not have been deployed (no breeze) for soon it somehow managed to entangle its holding cord in the line being pulled from the reel. Some swearing at this point... The sounder was displaying many fish within the last 5m of the seabed and I was keeping one eye on this, and marking the location on the GPS and simultaneously trying to entangle the drogue cord when, you guessed it, the casting rod, now cradled in my lap, went off with its rod tip also being bent steeply toward the seabed and line pouring off the spool against the drag. With my newly-found third hand I grabbed this rod and set the hook. I then decided the priority lay with this light outfit, already in my hand. I played out this fish (a snapper) and dropped it into the footwell on top of the drogue which had been earlier placed there in an attempt to minimise the tangled mess on the starboard side. My left foot was then placed on the fish to hold it down while I dealt with the trailing line/drogue cord combo which was still showing signs that a decent fish was attached, 30m down. After some juggling and some assistance from me the tangle resolved itself and I played out the hooked fish which soon joined its companion in the footwell on top of the drogue. Had the whale turned up in the middle of all this I hate to think how my sanity would have been affected.
There are two fish there, both still hooked up, one under my left foot. The black "Noosa" bag is the drogue.
It was near 0820 by the time all of this was tidied up and I was back to normal. By radio I reported my success to Jaro who revealed he was now anchored up and unwilling to return to where I'd found the fish. Although I fished on for a while longer, I decided soon to start the lengthy paddle back to Main Beach. Jaro having been informed of my intention, decide also to head back. I turned for home around 0850 and was back on the beach just before 10, with Jaro still about 20 minutes behind me as he started from much further out.
1005hrs. My fish, on the beach. Not big, but good enough.
Thanks for organising and keeping me company, Jaro. Hope you bag some next time. I'm probably going on Friday, not tomorrow, but will possibly be on the beach when jimbo and whalebait (and any others) come back in.
Now for a well-earned nap...
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://noosayakers.blogspot.com
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