Wind: westerly to 5 knots, increasing to NW 10-12 knots
Swell: small southerly
Current: at Little Halls Reef, Halls Reef, none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: daveyG, baptism, weeksie, sunshiner
Baptism was dozing in his car, with his Revo on the roof at Middle Groyne when I arrived at 5:00am. Thinking I'd let him sleep in a bit, I unloaded my yak only to find him standing sleepily behind me. Being keen to get going I didn't hang around as clearly he had a bit of prepping to go through before he hit the water.
Here's the launch time pic
Take a good look at the surf break. Looks benign, eh? Read on.
Anyway, I dry bummed it. Didn't even have much water in the footwells. I extracted my rods and electronics from the hatch, set up and then swung the bow to where the GPS needle was pointing, Little Halls Reef. As I paddled off, just a few minutes after launch, I glanced over my left shoulder to see baptism dragging his yak down to the launch point. He knew where I was headed so I'd see him out there I thought.
Conditions were beautiful out there but again, nary a sign of fish. No birds, no splashes from predators. Rush on, summer! Having trolled my HLP all the way to Little Halls Reef for zip I then set course for Halls Reef, a further 2.5 km or so.
When I was one km short of Halls Reef and about 45 minutes after my launch daveyG came up on the radio from back at Middle Groyne. After exchanging morning greetings and learning from me that there'd been no action so far and no sign of fish Dave revealed that there'd been an incident at Middle Groyne. Baptism had rolled his yak going out, with two rods erect (one unleashed) and worst of all, had lost his glasses. The unleashed rod, his SP casting outfit, had been found eventually by wading the shallows but the rod was broken, and the reel obviously soaked and sandy. No sign of the glasses. The leashed rod, a short heavy trolling outfit, had stayed in the rod holder and was usable so baptism was now back on the yak and heading out. Dave and new Noosa Yakker weeksie (pic later) were on their way with him.
By the time they got to me baptism was looking quite weary, understandably, after sleeping the night in his car and getting smashed on the way out. I'd started drift fishing at Halls Reef to no avail and the place was feeling very dead. Two or three stinkboats were trolling or anchored nearby but signs of action for them were not evident either.
A couple of whales showed up just to the north of us but that was the extent of the on water excitement for the day. Baptism and daveyG decided to call it a day, having trolled all the way for nothing and I meandered over to weeksie to introduce myself.
Meet weeksie
weeksie and his Swing
With that, weeksie and I also paddled home in a strengthening tail breeze. An uneventful beach landing completed the day.
No fish, but back on the beach by 9:00am!
Sorry to hear about your gear Baptism - that is very unfortunate. The surf is funny that way - sometimes you will make it through the big stuff only to be tipped over by a tiny wave.
ReplyDeleteI made it over the swells and past the breaks.
ReplyDeletefreak wave came out of nowhere and rose above my head...
only thoughts moments before it came crashing down is "oh sh*t. this is gonna hurt"
that wave decided it was going to dump right on top of my head/yak...
broke the top part of my 2pc rod (replacements wont be in australia till early next year...)
and the reel is gonna have to be sent for a service to clean it out.
worst part was as kev mentioned... losing my prescription glasses. $500 down the drain + ~$100 for the rod piece.
so I was pretty down being $600 out of pocket even before getting to do some fishing!
as Kev said, nothing much on the way back, did see some bait schools being hounded by predators but they were 15-18m down, well out of my reach trolling.
had a short strike on the way back but didnt hook up; too bummed out to care in any case =(
at least my crab pots back in brissy netted me a decent feed for my house guests