Wind: NW from 3-5 knots
Swell: 1 metre south easterly
Current: at Doggie Beach Reef, none
Launch point: Doggie Beach
Participants: bomber, jimbo, imax, jaro, sunshiner
04:30 in the Doggie Beach carpark. All five of us were there. I’d got there earliest, about 04:15 and strolled down before unloading the yak to take a look at the beach break and judged it to be doable.
By launch time there had been a few changes, in that the swell seemed to have picked up a bit or maybe it was just that the tide change was causing the waves to build a little just before they crashed into the shallows.
Launch time.
Anyway, I could see that there were launch opportunities and so quickly grabbed the first one that came along and paddled madly through the shorebreak just after a big set had come through. Before long I was out the back, but a fair way out, because there were a few waves breaking on the outer bank.
While I was rigging up, imax paddled out on his Supalite X. I could see that bomber was through the break but in the growing light could still see two figures on the beach. Imax paddled up to me and explained that jimbo had been clobbered by a wave and was back on the beach tidying up. Jaro apparently was still waiting for a lull.
There was nothing I could do to help so I set course for Doggie Beach reef, about 1.5 km out, accompanied by bomber, who'd never been out there before, and imax.
Before I got to Doggie Beach reef jimbo came up on the radio saying that he'd made it out on his second try. Jaro was still on the beach and unbeknown to me at this time had also been clobbered by a wave and taken some water on. Then jaro came up on the radio and explained that the waves had grown in ferocity while he was standing there (not unusual at Doggie Beach) and he was therefore aborting. The sand monster had had a big day today.
As usual recently, things were quiet out there. A couple of stinkies were anchored up but there was no sign of activity aboard them. Drift conditions were great with the gentle moist NW breeze causing low cloud formations on top of all visible high ground around the headland.
I drift fished in my usual style, using lures only, one cast, one drifted. My trolled HB offering on the short journey out had been ignored. One thing very noticeable in the water today was a large number of jelly blubbers, many accompanied by squadrons of tiny fish.
I fished on the same drift line for about an hour before I got my first hit. The cast SP was taken by what was obviously a small snapper and shortly I was on the board with a keeper, albeit fairly small.
The SP and jighead are visible at lower right and this snapper has had an encounter with a dorsal fin damager.
From about an hour after sunrise there were lots of small fish bustups (probably bonito) evident all around us at Doggie Beach reef. Clearly these fish were chasing tiny bait fish which could be seen on our fish finders. But no larger predators were evident.
I couldn't hang around very long because I had some work commitments so shortly after 8:30am bomber and I were heading for the beach. Imax is in the middle of exam preparation and stayed out for only an hour or so, and jimbo had headed for A-Bay Reef, where he'd had a couple of small shark encounters (he brought one home) and an unstoppable.
Having been warned by radio by imax (thanks mate) that the best place to do a beach return was at the creek mouth, bomber and I hit the beach there, bomber ending up quite damp, but not as damp as he'd expected.
Waiting for us on the beach was NY salty, who is recovering from an operation which has left him with an impressive scar on his torso, but he'll be back on the yak soon.
I understand from jaro, who'd decided to return to the beach sans yak about 9:00am, that jimbo cruised in to the beach with hardly a splash on him.
Result: Several wet bums, one shark taken for food by jimbo, one snapper caught by me. Thousands of bonito shoaling out there so the food for the prize prey is arriving. Hopefully not much longer to wait before the action picks up.
Kev
sunshiner
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