Conditions in a word, perfect.
Sunny day with no wind to speak of, with the water glassy all morning.
Participants: Sean (Yakfinn), Matt (Gemini) and Jaro.
We all arrived and launched together at low tide making it a little tricky as far as getting wet was concerned. Some of us made it dry, others were a little wet but ok.
We all headed for Little Halls Reef and as we went we noticed a lot of birds heading for shore....not a good omen. Little Halls Reef was reached with no signs of action so on we went to Halls Reef where there were a couple of boats that were bottom fishing and we did likewise.
It wasn't long before I got a large strike and it wasn't long before I knew I had a shark and a big one at that. After being pulled around for a while I finally managed to get it near the kayak to see I had foul hooked it in the the gill slits. It was in a cantankerous mood and I was not keen to bring it on board. Luckily the hooks had not dug in deeply and I was able to cut the hooks away from the skin enough for it to give one final thrust and it was away. Matt, in the meantime, had also hooked a shark, which was smaller. He handled it with ease and also released it.
After a while Sean decided to do a circuit back to MG via JS. Matt and I stayed half an hour with no success and so decided to head for home hoping to come across some activity. Out to sea from Little Halls we did come across some activity and paddled to the birds and the bust up and saw Seam was doing the same from further out. I had a few casts with no success before the fish (tuna) disappeared. Sean then relayed his hard luck story. He had hooked up on his trolling hard body lure and after a fight he got the large yellow fin tuna to the yak only for it to free itself. (Sean's report below)
Sean then continued to paddle back to MG. I don't know if he had any success on the way.
Matt and I continued to JS, then to Granite Bay and back to MG without any sign of activity or action on our lures.
The tide was now in and the return was as easy as one could imagine.
Jaro
:::::::::::::
The story with my yellowfin hookup goes as such; I hooked up on what appeared to be a good size fish, it had 3 or 4 really powerful runs. It took me about 15 mins to get it to the side of the boat, a good sized yellowfin. I gaffed it in the gills and it started to bleed everywhere (probably not the best spot in hindsight, what is the best spot to gaff a tuna?).
I dragged it up onto the yak between my legs and it was going crazy, thrashing everywhere, and blood was spurting everywhere, I got a bit nervous at this point as I have heard a few stories about sharks. I was holding the tail of the tuna in one hand and reached for a towel with the other. It thrashed again violently and it slipped out of my grip and back into the water and scrurried off. I dont think it would have lasted too long though with the amount of blood that was coming out of it. The sharks would have been onto it fairly quickly.
I was devastated !
It was the first time I had tried to land a decent sized tuna from a kayak and I was just a bit inexperienced. A lesson learned.
Thanks again for today and I hope you guys have a good day tomorrow.
Cheers,
Sean (yakfinn)
Since mid 2007, members of Noosa Yakkers have been writing and illustrating kayak fishing Trip Reports and publishing them by whatever means available. This blog collects all of our early reports (sent out by email) plus the later TR published here on Blogger, and more recently, Monthly Summaries of the reports published on our Facebook Group.
Sean,
ReplyDeletesounds like the tuna wasn't spent when you pulled him aboard. Obviously I wasn't there for the fight but experience tells me it's better to be patient and make sure the fish is truly spent by proper use of the drag than to get it in as fast as possible. A decent sized yellow fin will put up a good long fight even on decent drag settings. When I gaff I try to aim for the dorsal part of the back of the head - nice and thick here, otherwise if it's smaller I usually just grab the tail with my hand.
Kodaz