Who needs fish, anyway? 11Sep2012

TR by sunshiner

Wind: SE to 5 knots
Swell: 1.5m southerly
Current: at LH Reef none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: pedro, richmond, kiwibro, crofty, tarzan, jimbo, sunshiner

Jimbo and I, being respectable old gentlemen, were last to launch today. There was a bit of a wave but nothing we couldn’t handle and I think we both got out with dry bums.

Launch time

A quick radio call or two established that pedro was at Little Halls Reef and richmond at Jew Shoal, both fishless. But at least at Little Halls Reef there was bait showing on pedro’s sounder so, when in doubt, head for the bait schools. That's what richmond reckoned he was going to do anyway.

Outside the river mouth a Coastguard boat was hovering. Then the shark net contractor's Noosacat "Catapult" could be seen laboriously heading outward on the bar. Towed behind it was 150m of sealed slurry pipe, bound for who knows where. Understandably, this put jimbo and me off our trolling for a minute or two.

While jimbo opted to troll up the north shore toward Halls Reef close to the beach, I headed straight for my Little Halls Reef main mark which I arrived at simultaneously with richmond coming from the east. Also out there were kiwibro, who had reported a couple of massive runs but no hookup on pilchard baits, and pedro who was towing around a live yakka not much smaller than his Revo in the hope of a marlin hookup.

Not to be outdone, I switched to a vintage lure, a massive and ancient deep-running Rapala which, when trolled, drags the stern of the yak under the water. This I trolled for the next couple of hours, tensing up whenever I knew the lure was going straight through a dense pack of bait, visible about eight metres down on the sounder. Nothing! Richmond was doing something similar, but with two lines out. Nothing either!

At one stage our trolling patterns coincided and we found we'd both concluded that a foray to the river mouth area in search of cobia was in order. So off we went, independently, where I found myself eventually overtaken on the western side by kiwibro who was dodging the breaking waves in about four metres depth right in close to the beach.

In about seven metres my big old Rap was dragging the bottom so I switched to the one metre running Laser Pro after cleaning the bottom debris off the Rap before putting it away again. One of these days that lure is going to go off and you probably won't see me again!

By now it was around 09:30 so richmond and I meandered toward Middle Groyne, having exhausted all options available to us. Just as we pulled up to prepare for surf zone transit richmond saw a cobia around a metre long swim past casually under the yak. This is not surprising to me as we have previously hooked several cobes inside the bay. Maybe a live sand crab or grinner might be a worthy temptation for a cobe in the area near the shark nets some time.

And so to the surf, which presented the sole opportunity this morning to get the heart rate up because the tide was low and, as usual, the small swell was kicking up a steep wave on the sandbank north of the groyne.

Richmond inspects the incoming sets while my chestcam records the scene (cropped frame from video -- ignore time stamp).

As I thought he would, richmond cruised through, picking up a small wave which carried him through until his BFS skeg cut into the sand in ankle depth. I also got a nice little wave in and also cut a groove in the sand. I should mention that kiwibro had already cleared the beach by the time we got there.

Three other unfamiliar yaks appeared at the end of the wall just after we beached and, as the occupants showed no sign of surf competence, I waded in with camera at the ready. All three, the last a double, were rolled and all three events were captured on movie, though a long way away from the camera so not suitable for still frame shots, except perhaps for the one below. Maybe a video later.

Double trouble (cropped frame from video)

Then, in a long chain, came the remainder of our colleagues except for pedro who avoids the camera by staying out fishing all day and into the night if necessary.

Tarzan, who was awarded a "Save" by the judges on the beach, for putting his body in danger rather than get his fishing gear wet (cropped frame from video).

Jimbo, who got through successfully first time (just!) decided to go out and try again. The above was the result (cropped frame from video).

Crofty, in his Revo, was still out there, just behind the break. In fact we were speculating as to what he was doing (saying the rosary perhaps?), he was taking so long. But crofty's obviously been out the back of a small but steep surf break before and was feverishly stripping and stowing gear to minimize the damage in case the sand monster put in an appearance at this, one of its favourite venues.

Eventually crofty lined up and went for it, paddle in hand, flippers folded. His first run was aborted when the Revo headed east when it was kicked by a wave, but he stayed upright and hovered in the break zone for a few tense seconds while we watchers on the beach mentally urged him to "get the hell outa there". Which he did, pushing water backward with renewed energy, into the home straight where he opted to take a closer look at the wall then came back the other way, finishing off with a flourish as he braced with the paddle on the starboard side.

Crofty bracing on a small wave. Nice job, in the end. (frame from video)

So, a grim result, fish wise, although pedro might yet salvage the day. But hey, it was fun, and a beautiful day on the water. Too bad we had no work for the legion of fish holders obvious on the beach!

Pedro, how'd you go?

Kev