Cobia among snaps. 25Nov12

TR by sunshiner

Wind: NE about 6-8 knots
Swell: 1m easterly
Current: at Jew Shoal, none detected
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: beejay and friend Brian, redwood, kingdan, gemini, lapse, carlo, sunshiner

As soon as I walked down to the beach at MG just after 4:00am I could feel the NE in my face. The sea was ruffled as well and the northerly chop was generating a small surf break. But it looked OK for a paddle and the others, who started arriving soon after I parked, accepted my call and started to ready their boats.

In the event it wasn't too bad but punching straight into the chop inevitably made for a slow plod out to Jew Shoal. Again, the sounder showed stacks of baitfish on the southern edge, where they were a few days ago. Terns were fluttering around picking off the unwary which happened to get too close to the surface, but again, no sign of surface feeding predators.

Redwood was following me closely, without GPS, on his first launch from Middle Groyne and his first visit to Jew Shoal and was quite relieved, I think, when I eventually told him that we'd arrived at our target. I chose to head toward the outer NE corner of the shoal to start my drift in safe but less than perfect conditions.

First drift, no action. I tried another line, still nothing. All of this time I was watching the terns fluttering to the SW, shadowing the bait schools. Eventually this got too much for me and I decided to get close to the baitfish schools to see if I could raise a fish or two. By now, all of the other participants had arrived, in dribs and drabs, and gemini had turned and gone home as a result of a sudden onset of illness (not seasickness).

The move closer to the bait schools proved worthwhile as before long I could see bait on the sounder, down deep. Within a few minutes I came to a sonar display which caused me to exclaim to myself "Gotta be fish here!" and just then the cast jig, which was at max depth directly below the yak, was whacked and the rod took a severe bend.

This was more like it. I initially thought it was a horse of a grassy and knew it was probably not a snapper. The battle took a few minutes on 6kg line but eventually my adversary appeared just below. Cobia! Not big but obviously legal. Very welcome.

Cobia and the SP which led to its demise.

As soon as the fish was aboard I radioed the others to let them know and encouraged them to travel to "where the birds are". I then paddled back up my GPS track and set up another drift on about the same line as the previous. The camera shows that the next hit happened quite soon after the first. The cast SP was clobbered again. This time I confidently called it as a snapper long before I could see it.

Snapper about 43cm, same SP as before.

I was quite happy about this result and even happier when beejay, nearby, hooked and boated a keeper snapper, indicating that the move to the SW part of the shoal had been worthwhile for him. I then elected to stop fishing and catch up on a few Members Blog pics as the opportunities were there. While I was taking a couple of pics of lapse he hooked up too and soon boated another snapper. Shortly afterward kingdan also hooked a quite reasonable snapper, all in the same area.

Lapse and snap.

Kingdan delighted with his snapper. Pic by lapse.

By now the wind had started to drop a little and the air temperature started to rise. Time to head back for me, so I announced my intention by radio only to find that the others were also interested in pulling up stakes. The trip back was uneventful although the last two arrivals at the beach (no names, no video) took a bath as the tide was now lower and the waves dumpier.

Another pleasant sojourn with Noosa Yakkers. Clearly Jew Shoal is starting to produce so is worth a visit if you get the chance.

Kev