TR by sunshiner with contribution by pedro at end
Wind: gentle SW then NW, see pic
Swell: tiny easterly
Current: at Halls Reef, toward the north, about 1kph
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: pedro, richmond, barry (friend of richmond), turtleboy, eli, sunshiner
Even though recent close inshore fishing reports left little room for optimism regarding fishing, the weather today was so good for an offshore paddle that six of us showed up. I was the last to arrive at Middle Groyne carpark, at around 06:30, to find turtleboy prepping his yak. He and I hit the beach a few minutes later and could see Eli paddling off toward the north. Pedro, richmond and barry had left earlier.
Our destination, Halls Reef, is 5 km away in the direction of the high ground at centre right.
Soon turtleboy and I were in contact by radio with richmond and pedro at Halls who informed us that they’d seen no action and had boated no fish at that time. Bummer, but not unexpected.
We still opted to go for Halls Reef mainly because we couldn’t think of any other option which hadn’t been tried lately. The water was noticeably cleaner than on Sunday when I’d last launched here so that bodes well for the near future, as long as we have no more extreme weather.
All the way to Halls Reef we sighted brief isolated splashes caused by bonito or little mac tuna, but no large scale bustups. I trolled my HLP all the way without result and about an hour after leaving Middle Groyne we were in the company of pedro and co, less Eli who could soon be sighted approaching us from the east. A few very brief bustups were occurring and richmond had just reported by radio that he’d spotted a longtail leaping behind pedro so we were hopeful but unsuccessful at attracting strikes. By around 08:15 the limited surface action died away completely causing most of us to revert to bottom fishing, drifting with bait or SPs. Pedro was armed with salted mac tuna fillets and soon these started to produce results. A nice 500mm grassy was his first capture then he caught and released two more each around 350mm, followed by a 400mm specimen which somehow eluded his grasp and jumped back over the side. The rest of us were catching nothing of consequence, and in my case, nothing at all.
By about 09:30 all except pedro were heading south on the lengthy but pleasant paddle back toward Middle Groyne.
Five kilometres out from Middle Groyne, looking toward Noosa.
The closer we got to the river mouth area the more frequent the isolated splashes became, giving us some hope that we might get some action. But, as richmond tersely remarked, they were mainly small mac tuna which came up for five seconds and went down for five minutes.
Richmond and Barry were first onto the beach, followed by me and then Eli. I took the opportunity to take a couple of pics for the blog record.
Barry, on this his first offshore foray in a kayak, seemed to enjoy himself immensely and will likely join us in the near future.
Eli squeezes the absolute maximum from his tiny craft. He’d paddled at least 14km when this pic was taken. And he earned his Noosa Yakkers stickers today, this being his second trip with us.
Now, what about pedro? The latest info we had from him was that he’d moved to Jew Shoal and was thinking of travelling onward to Sunshine Reef. Hopefully he’ll fill us in on the detail later, if he can muster the energy.
Good luck to the guys going out tomorrow [at this time: carlton, hollywood (harry) and izak (first trip with us)].
Kev
From pedro
After Turtleboy headed for MG, I drift fished for another 40 minutes.
The day was so nice, I decided to head for JS and arrived when Turtleboy called on the radio after landing at MG.
JS was very similar to Halls with only a few bites and one snapper for the effort.
Arrived at MG 2.30pm 23klm on the trip computer and my legs are feeling it.
Cheers
Pedro
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