Participants; Richmond, Tony, Turtleboy
I was first into the car park this morning. A quick look confirmed my thoughts that I’d have a dry bum launch. You beauty, mission accomplished!
I headed straight for Jew Shoal after reading about Sunshiner and Pedro's day yesterday. It was a great paddle out with the NW wind at my tail blowing about 5knots. The sea was still a bit lumpy though from the strong northerly wind the afternoon before.
About a kilometre from Jew Shoal I could see the birds dipping over the water. The horizon was black with birds, they were everywhere. As I approached Jew Shoal, the birds and bust-ups were heading east. Typical I thought, with the main body of birds heading for the horizon, there were still quite a few chasing a feed at Jew Shoal.
I was towing an X-Rap 15 on the trip out and I decided to keep trolling around waiting for the bust-ups to appear. I then had a fish frenzy in front of me about 30 metres away. I cast into the froth and wound like mad. When the lure was about 20 metres from the yak I had a big Longtail take the slice whilst jumping out of the water heading straight for me. Mouth open, pectorals flared, it was an unreal sight! The Longy entered the water 10 metres or so from the yak, spitting out my 40gm Raider. I couldn’t put any weight on him to sink the treble.
I kept trolling around and casting the slug into bust-ups. I eventually hooked up to a nice fish that fought pretty hard for its size. After a couple of minutes, I had dinner sorted landing a Yellowfin that went 74cm on the mat.
Above, underwater closeup shot and below, now safely on the kayak
With that fish dispatched, back to the routine, trolling and waiting for fish to appear on the surface. About 10 minutes passed when I hooked up again. This tuna was much smaller, but still a bit of a goer. He played up at the yak a bit, tiring himself out. I leant over a tail grabbed a 58cm Striped Tuna.
It was still pretty early and good to have company out there as Turtleboy and Tony arrived on the scene whilst I was hooked up to the Stripey. But alas, with every passing 5 minutes, the birds and the fish broaching the surface were diminishing rapidly.
After having a chat with Steve and Tony, we persisted for another 30 minutes or so but to no avail. The birds were gone, the fish had gone deep. We decided to head back in and had an uneventful landing, beaching about 9am.
It was a beautiful day out there, nice to get a couple of fish. Let’s hope they’re there tomorrow.
Striped and Yellowfin Tuna, 58cm and 74cm respectively.
Jeff with his Catch - Pic by turtleboy
Jeff
(Richmond)
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