Surf Mayhem, 16Dec12

TR by Jimbo
Wind: Very slight northerly initially, then nil
Swell: Officially 1.8-2.0m, but some bloody big buggers about 4m out at Jew Shoal
Air Quality: Very smoky due to bushfires on Noosa North Shore.
Current at JS and Lt Halls: nil
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants (ie, those who eventually got out through the surf): Big Kev, Dr Dog, Jamie-D, Jimbo, Kayakone (who now refers to himself as K1), Iain Gibson (welcome back), Scater, Scater's brother, Stormin, Tarzan
Attendees: Eyetag, Richmond, Jaro, Kahuna

This trip report is more a kayak surfing report, rather than a fishing report, as there was not one fish kept among the ten participants. With a predicted 1.8m easterly swell coinciding with an extremely low springs tide of 0.2m only 45 minutes before launch time (~ 0430), the launch conditions at Middle Groyne were always going to be testing, and so they proved to be. However, this being the second last weekend before Xmas, and some of the Brisbane-based weekend warriors having been up as early as 0130 in order to get to Noosa by 0400, most of us weren't going to be easily dissuaded from having a go. Thanks to Eyetag for his photos of the surf conditions.

On arrival at MG car park at 0400, BigKev, Jaro, Stormin, Kayakone (K1), Tarzan and Iain were already in the process of unloading in darkness followed soon by Jamie-D and Scater with his brother, the latter two with two kayaks mounted on a trailer. With the ominous crashing sound of the surf break coming from the beach, no-one was in any hurry to attempt a launch until the light improved. Most certainly, the need for safety assessment and the practical skills learnt during our recent NY surf skills day were foremost in my mind. Soon there were about 8-9 NY standing at the water's edge only about 10-15m from the end of the rock groyne, each making personal assessments about whether a launch was doable through the infrequent calm spells between some frightening swells that were building and dumping heavily on the sand bar extending 30-50m beyond the rock groyne. Notably, the 3 wise men Eyetag and Richmond, who hadn't even unloaded their yaks from their cars, together with Jaro, had taken up a vantage point on the groyne to better assess the conditions in the improving light, and/or watch the potential carnage that would certainly ensue if any of the yakkers got their timing wrong.



Early morning glass walls. Photo taken looking NNW from MG, Noosa. Courtesy of Eyetag.

BigKev, Tarzan and Jamie-D were the first to ventured forward to take on the sand monster, choosing an area about 50m west of the groyne that appeared to offer the best passage through the surf. All three waited in knee deep water for a reasonable lull, then climbed in and set forth. Tarzan was a little ahead and took on a couple of broken waves but made it through successfully, albeit with his Scupper Pro partly full of water, closely followed by BigKev who punched his Stealth Evo 495 up and over some forming dumpers, with Jamie-D in his wake forcing his way through mostly broken waves. The success of these three proved that a launch was indeed possible, and gave heart to the doubters still assembled on the beach. Next to venture forth was K1 in his "HMAS Ark Royal", looking more like a mobile radio station with at least four rods mounted vertically in rod holders. Not wanting to attempt a launch anywhere near K1, I waited at in knee deep white water while he eventually picked a lull and got out relatively unscathed. I was next in line and waited an inordinate time before I was prepared to have a go. It had become apparent that, due to the infrequent and short time between sets, it would be necessary to take on a couple of broken waves to give yourself sufficient time to get through the remainder of the surf zone before the onset of the next big dumper. This I eventually did, followed closely by Iain. That made six out, maybe three or four to go. The rest of this report is my interpretation of what happened subsequently, based on numerous radio messages passed between those NYs who did eventually make it out, and Jaro and Kahuna on shore, the latter who had apparently also arrived at Middle Groyne but also decided not to attempt a launch.

By the time Iain and I had set up, Bigkev, Tarzan, Jamie-D and Kayakone were already on their way to Jew Shoal, the intended destination of most of the NYs, given the success with many spotties caught in that area only a week earlier. Shortly after Iain and I set out for Jew Shoal there was a flurry of radio transmissions, as I was monitoring the Coast Guard Ch22 in addition to the NYs usual Ch 9.

I quickly learnt that one boat (and subsequently a second, I heard later) had been swamped or over-turned in the big surf while attempting a seaward crossing at the river mouth, about 500m to the west of Middle Groyne, with two occupants in the process of being rescued by other boats. The Coast Guard was then in the process of scrambling one of their rescue boats with the help of jetski operators to attempt a recovery of the swamped/up-turned boat(s). A few minutes later BigKev advised that K1 had caught and released an under-sized spotty mackerel somewhere off Tea Tree Bay, and Scater reported that although he and his brother had eventually got out through the surf, he had lost a box of lures in the process, and the two of them were therefore returning to the beach.



Scater getting ready to brace in towards the fast approaching white water. Photo by Eyetag.

In the meantime, Jaro had decided to attempt a launch from the quite shallow water on the lee side of the groyne very close to the end. He was holding position in close to the rocks, paddling forward against formidable in-coming broken waves and then back-paddling against the intervening out-rushing current threatening to wash him out into the maelstrom. Eyetag and Richmond, were instructed to give Jaro a signal to race forward when they spotted a lull in the sets from their vantage point on top of the groyne. Ultimately there was some poor communication between Jaro and "the two wise men" on the groyne which resulted in Jaro eventually becoming exhausted after about 40 minutes of maintaining his stationary maneuver, during which time the launch conditions appeared to have become even more threatening. Jaro wisely decided that discretion was the better part of valor and finally aborted a launch attempt. Jaro then gave something of a running commentary of Stormin's stoic fourth successful attempt to get out (after his failed first three attempts), along with describing Scater's brother's kayak .... "being thrown six feet in the air"... in the process of returning to the beach.



Brother of Scater ( perhaps now to be known as Scattered Bro ) meets the Sand Monster face first. Note the base of the dumper sucking outwards creating an even steeper concave face. Photo by Eyetag.

While all this was happening, Dr Dog had successfully launched on the eastern side of the groyne but was being directed by Kahuna (apparently now also standing on the end of the the rock groyne), to check out a large floating object he had spotted in the water somewhere nearby. It appeared from Kahuna's air of urgency (asking Jaro to stop transmitting on Ch9), that he thought the floating object might have been an occupant of one of the swamped boat(s) at the river mouth. Thankfully the floating object turned out to be a palm frond, or some other similar piece of floating flotsam.

After this exciting first hour, the rest of the trip was rather mundane. Seven of the eight NY trolled and bottom bashed around Jew Shoal for a couple of hours without a bite, other than Jamie-D who reported one good strike on a HLP but no hook up. There were numerous birds wheeling around but no concentrated feeding frenzies. These were similar conditions that had existed for the 4-5 weeks prior to last weekend, with plenty of anchovies feeding on the surface but apparently no predators underneath. Tarzan even ventured to the northern end of Sunshine Reef and later reported similar non-success. There were some exceptionally large swells rolling under our kayaks out at Jew Shoal, but conditions were eerily quiet with absolutely no breeze or current, and the sun being masked by cloud and a pawl of brown smoke from the bush fires over on the North Shore.

The only other piece of excitement occurred for me when Iain and I had just arrived at the Pinnacles, having been paddling abreast for most of the journey to Jew Shoal. A stink boat crossed too close behind us causing his and my trolled lines to hook up. I began shouting at the boat driver to stop as line was being stripped off my reel against the drag and across Iain's body pulling our two kayaks together. I had to hastily release the lever drag on my overhead reel causing the spool to rapidly over spin, resulting in a horrible tangle of nylon within the reel. Luckily the power boat stopped and somehow our two lines separated, and I was able to recover about 100m of my line, albeit wound over the top of the tangle. It took me about another half hour to run out the line and undo the underlying tangle before I could resume fishing. Be wary of such unthinking stink boat operators over the coming holiday season.

By about 0745, BigKev, Kayakone and Stormin decided to try their luck over at Lt Halls Reef, followed soon after by Dr Dog and me. At about this time Jamie-D decided to head back to MG, as did Stormin and Iain due to the onset of seasickness. By 0900, and with still no fish having been caught, the rest of us had also started heading back to MG, being aware of the battle with the sand monster that inevitably awaited us.

As it turned out, the threatening surf conditions had abated somewhat due to the tide having risen by at least 1.5m compared to launch conditions about 4.5 hours earlier. Dr Dog and Jamie-D had provided some intelligence via radio on the best approach passage to the beach, indicating that good timing after a set was essential, but that even the broken waves were still creating significant push. As far as I am aware, BigKev, Tarzan, Dr Dog and I got back in upright, but K1 was not so successful, suffering at least (as a minimum I would think) water and sand ingress into his reels. I'm not aware of Jamie-D, Iain or Stormin's outcome.

Well that's it yakkers. In summary, fish caught: nil, kayak launch and return experience in surf conditions: invaluable.

Jimbo

Contribution from Doctor Dog

This morning I arrived at the MG car park at 4.45 and there were already a multitude of cars and yaks in the carpark and heading to the beach. There was a lot of boat traffic audible in the still morning air as was the loud sounds of waves breaking along the beach and it was not until I trundled my new toy to the head of the rock wall that I could see what was going on. There were lots of yakkers and onlookers at the head of the beach and out on the rock wall and there was a cluster of boats at the river mouth.

Jaro was paddling and back paddling in the chute beside the rock wall waiting for the nod from fellow yakkers on the vantage point of the end of the MG, several yakkers were spread along the beach to the west waiting fro a lull in the swell. Apparently a boat had overturned in the low water dump on the bar and with the turn of the tide it appeared the swell was building . Many of the boats were buzzing round either trying to get out or retrieve gear and persons from the water.

On 12.12.12 after my river paddle I had enjoyed a body surf to the east of MG so rather than crowd the folk trying to surf and get out thru the break to the west of MG I wandered east with my new fat tyred buggy and BFS to see if the deeper water I had prospected on 12.12 would give me an easier exit.

I chose a spot about 250 Metres east and parked the yak and returned my trolley to the carpark. Patience is a virtue I've been told and this morning I must have been very virtuous I waited quite a while for the various sets to dump on the outer bank and with the merest hint of a lull I charged out . My patience paid off and although there was a lot of loud hull slap as I thumped down over the back of the small set I had chosen to challenge I got out the back without too much trouble.

Stormin was determined to get out to chase another Yellow fin and was rolled 3 times before he finally made it out - "Well done that man "

Jaro demurred after waiting for half an hour to get a clear shot from beside MG .

I paddled out to JS and found Jimbo and 6 or so others ( Kayak one - Big Kev and others - Eli was out there somewhere). I trolled HB lures and floated pillies and trolled pilchard rigged on easy troll - there was minimal drift and breeze - I even distributed a KG of burley pellets I have carried with me since herring fishing in WA last summer. I could not buy a bite . I did not see any birds seriously feeding , no bait boils or schools . All in all a very quiet morning on the water - There were some monster swells coming thru so it was with some trepidation I returned to the beach to tangle with the "Sand Monster". After packing up my rigs and stowing them I surveyed the beach . My earlier exit point seemed like the best point to return to "terra firma" as there were a lot of swimmers and surfers elsewhere. I rode the back of a small set in but had to surf a small wave of white water that threatened to overtake me.

A great adventure and thanks for the company

Doc Dog


Contribution from BigKev

Sundays attendees included:
Scater & his brother, Jaro, Tarzan *, Kayakone *, Jimbo *, Jamie D *, Stormin *, Iain from AKFF *, Doctor Dog *
Spectators: Eyetag & Richmond
* denotes those that made it out to fish

Made it through a lull in the dumping shore break at dead low tide but still got very wet with a few waves standing up in my path but just kept moving forward and eventually found clear water.

Waited out the back for K1 and made our way to JS trolling as we went. K1 picked up an undersized spotty (50ish cm) about level with tea tree. No action at JS but birds were about in hundreds but constantly searching. Found patches of bait that were not being molested at all. Apart from a couple of isolated missed hookup a was very slow on the fishing scene. Radio chatter however was highly amusing with tales of carnage at MG and the concerning with the news of boats being flipped on the bar, hopefully only pride was injured.

K1 and I headed for LH and Stormin and Iain both felt sick so headed in. LH was also quiet apart from 2-3 isolated bust ups that looked to have tuna involved. Once again we found bait schools but no predators. We were joined by Jimbo and Tarzan before heading in.

A well timed return saw me come in easy, K1 however was not so fortunate.

As always a most enjoyable day, despite the lack of fish. Thanks Noosa Yakkers, I'll be back again soon.

Kev
(The bigger one)

Contribution from Jamie D

Was the second one out this morning behind behind Bigkev, watching his kayak get just about vertical going over the face of the growlers this morning up'd my adrenaline levels ten fold , thank God for leg straps they really help to brace against the power of the wash. It was sloppy and big swell this morning followed Tarzan out to Jewies trolling a ganged pillie then headed north for a bit . Got one decent strike on a halco laser pro later in the morning when the fishing was dead, whatever it was hit the lure fast and hard , took the rod from the holder to strike but but missed sinking the hooks, that was all the action I had , tried relaying that info when it happened via radio but was having communication problems all morning. Hit the beach about five minutes before stormin on the main beach side of MG, got picked up by a huge dumper that had me bouncing towards the beach like a bullet made it a struggle to keep a paddle blade in the face ,

Great to catch up with everyone

Kind Regards
Jamie D :)


A Timely Reminder.
Photo below of a local boat after being retrieved by Coast Guard Noosa . It reportedly overturned doing a spontaneous outward crossing of the bar at around 5am this morning. Driver hospitalised, medical condition unknown and perhaps lucky to be alive. In the words of James Ingram, the remained of the boat including the bimini is "Somewhere out there". Hopefully it won't reappear and become entangled within a prop during a future inward or outward crossing.



Photo taken at Noosaville ramp courtesy of Richmond