Wind: Very little, the whole session. The seabreeze kicked in around 1:00pm, but didn’t exceed 7knots or so.
Swell: ?? not much anyway
Current: at Halls Reef, none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: sunshiner, pedro
Is winter gone? It certainly felt so to me this morning The yak was loaded last night but I still had time this morning for brekky on the deck with M before heading for Middle Groyne. I theorised that the lack of fish recently was justification for a late start. I wasn't expecting to catch anything so a later start couldn’t make things worse, could it?
One of the problems with a late start on a nice beach day is car parking. Keep that in mind guys, but at 9:00am there were still a few slots although my usual preferred spot, selected because it’s easy for me to unload and load my Stealth in it, was already taken. In a jiffy I was trundling the yak down to the beach where I expected to find a flat calm launch only to discover there was a small wave running. Nothing that would deter the determined Noosa Yakker though. I knew that richmond and pedro were out there somewhere and planned to get them on the radio straight after launch.
Launch time. Crowded. Stefan, the French kayak rental guy, was taking out some punters for what seemed to be the first time they’d been afloat.
No problems getting out. Fired up the radio and richmond came up right away, teasing me with his casual comment that there was something fishy and over a metre long in his fishbox. I had planned on hitting Jew Shoal but richmond’s description of the baitfish up at Hall’s and LH reefs convinced me that I should try that area.
Having reached LH without interruption I met richmond there as we’d planned by radio. He filled me in on the detail and I then turned directly for Hall’s (1.8km further) as richmond headed for home. Just like tag team wrestling.
Conditions were perfect and I had the ocean to myself. Not a sign of pelagic action, though. Gannets were bombing the water here and there but my shallow running HLP avoided their attention somehow, even though they travelled directly above it a couple of times.
I was now in touch with pedro, out at Sunshine Reef, where he'd managed only a small keeper Venus tusk fish. Despite my best efforts, with two SPs out, I failed to get a touch in 90 minutes or so at Halls Reef, drifting beautifully from east to west with the help of a gentle breeze. My next move was to LH Reef, which was on the way home, anyway. In the meantime pedro had travelled from Sunshine Reef to Jew Shoal which turned out to be just as quiet as everywhere else. When he heard that I was heading for LH Reef he agreed to meet me there, which he did. We were drifting along close together in the sunshine, he with baits out, and I with two trailing SPs, when my heavy trailing outfit went off loudly and vigorously. This had been rigged with a 1/2 ounce jighead with a white snapback on it. Depth was 13m and the jig was drifting along about 8m depth. A fish at last!
Not big, but a welcome keeper on a quiet day.
Shortly afterward, we decided to head for home. As usual we both trolled back and I had opted to troll with the rig that had just caught the snapper. This rig was quickly lost when it was bitten off at a sudden strike, probably by a tailor. We knew tailor were around as richmond had caught a couple earlier.
With the dropping tide the swell was kicking up a wave at Middle Groyne, especially as a great deal of sand has been deposited around the end of the wall. Look out for this if the swell picks up a bit.
Kev
No comments:
Post a Comment