Carlton's Friday Night, 25Jan13

Trip Report By: Carlton
Wind: 20-25 knot gusts
Swell: N/A
Launch point: Munna Point
Participants: Carlton

I arrived at Davo’s at around 6pm for comp briefing and headed to Munna point at 7pm. As it was blowing a gale and raining on and off, I thought it would be best to head up Weyba creek and find a spot out of the wind.

After a quick troll around Weyba hole I paddled to what looked like a nice spot tucked away out of the wind. But getting there was hard as the wind was that strong I could barely hang onto the paddle. As I finally pulled up, dropped the anchor and kicked back with the rain at my back, I chucked a line out with a piece of fresh mullet. after a while with only a few bites I thought I would flick a gladiator prawn around, I see Ian always uses them so I would give it a go. Second cast and I had a good hit and I was on to a solid fish. after I was towed around for a while, I saw a round looking thing, Not a stingray! I must be doing something wrong with the Gladiator Prawn.

After re-rigging, I chucked out the old trusty savoy shad hardbody and trolled close to the jetties hoping to keep out of the wind. After about 2minutes of trolling i had a massive strike and before i could put the paddle into the holder and pick up the rod, the fish had stripped about 30m of line of my reel. I was being towed around for about 10 minute before landing a solid Jack. I had trouble getting it into the net. I paddled to the bank to get some photos and measure the fish. It went 59cm and later weighed 2.85kg.



Savoy Shad, same colour use to catch Jack.

I paddled around for a couple of hours and tried to fish woods bay but it was blowing too hard. So back up the creek I went and found Ian getting around, had a quick chat and we went our ways. I got sick of the wind so went to the sound bridge and pulled up for the night. At least I had one good fish and dinner.



Photo courtesy of Bill Watson taken at Munna Point.

And on the mat



Carlton

Contribution from Eyetag


I caught my first ? but unfortunately it doesn't count in the comp and I also had to release it which is a bummer, but I'm stoked to have caught it. Conditions were awful, bordering on dangerous. I might give it a try later tonight if I get itchy feet.

Redwood, Tunny, et al, 23Jan13

  

TR by: Redwood

Conditions: sunny
Swell: small
Wind: +-10 knot from the east
Current: fast to the east
Participants: Tunny, Redwood, Pedro, Emil, Soren

Everyone turned up at MG at around 4.30am. Pedro was there and out first and planed to go to JS then to Sunshine Reef. Emil and Soren were headed to Halls and who can blame them after the fantastic day they had there previously. Tunny and myself were going to JS.

Tunny and I were next out with an uneventful and easy exit as the surf was very small. We did not see Emil and Soren's exit. Beyond the surf zone Tunny and I both put out hard bodies lures as we paddled out to JS. Just before we got to JS I heard my reel ratchet very briefly, I grabbed the rod and I was onto something. which turned out to be a small shark (50-60cm). After a lot of trouble getting the treble out I released it. We both then travelled out to one of the JS marks I had on my GPS where we set up bait drifts, Tunny using strips of Bonito and I using prawns. After a few minutes I was on again—a trigger fish, which I again had a lot of trouble dislodging the hook (even with an excellent pair of pliers). I must have taken too long as the trigger fish looked to be a goner when I finally released it.

By this time we'd drifted 500m off the mark, so we paddled back and started again. I again hooked up with something putting up a decent fight, which again turned out to be another shark—this one a bit bigger (+- 1m). It was also released. I re-prawned (both sharks taken on pawns) and hooked up with something big, I suspect another shark. At first I thought I was snagged as extreme pulls on the rod seemed to do little, but hang on reefs don't take line! The 'thing' dragged me around for a bit but I was making some headway getting it in. I fought for 5 min or so before the line slackened slightly and it was gone. I didn't get a look at it.

It was 8.30am and I need to get back so we setup a final drift. I had a number of bites but didn't hook up with anything. Tunny had no luck with his bonito strips. After the final drift we headed back to MG where I managed to land without trouble (even surfing the evo in somehow), but Tunny, who obviously had had enough of the tourists this season, tried to take as many out as he could with his return.

You can see the results here:



Emil and Soren had also arrived back at MG and came in like experts, leaning, bracing and basically showing us how it's done.



They reported that they had no action at all on their Hall's outing. Pedro was still out, so will be interested to know how he went.



Redwood's EVO 495 on the right of the photo.



Eric's Canoe 'Tunny'. Tunny in picture.

Cheers, Redwood.

NYTR Doctor Dog Solo, 22Jan13

TR by doctor dog
Wind: ENE 5-10 gusting more on the rain squalls
Swell: half metre Easterly
Current: not detected
Launch point: MG
Participants: Doctor Dog

I arrived at MG car park at about 5am finding I had it to myself apart from a couple of backpackers vans. I parked in my favourite spot(long enough to get the trailer in).



Conditions were ideal for launch beside the rock wall with a trawler riding at anchor in the bay.

I made the exit from the beach without incident (dry bum) and proceeded to set up out the back to troll a pilchard on an "easy troll" rig and a Halco Laser Pro 120 pilchard pattern and I had my preferred slug casting outfit to the ready.

I paddled north to Little Halls and onwards towards Halls reef proper. I passed a few sporadically feeding flocks of terns but no surface feeding fish until the far north of Halls at the level of the third cutting on Northshore beach. There I came upon a vigorously feeding large flock of seabirds and surface feeding fish. There was obviously a great bait ball aggregated on the surface so I was looking forward to getting a few slug casts into the melee. Unfortunately in my excitement I got a tangle and paused upwind to get that sorted.

Once untangled I looked up to find I had drifted within 5-10 metres of the bait ball which had now been joined by no fewer than 6 sharks feeding on the surface several of which were well over 2 metres.

Discretion being the better part of valour I chose to paddle away from the bait ball realising I would not succeed in landing anything I hooked even though there was clearly a large variety of pelagic species feeding including Longtail and Mac tuna as well as small mackerel presumably "spotties".

Time was marching on so I elected to head for home still trolling my untouched pilchard. I changed the HB to one in Qantas colours hoping to generate some interest.

I passed a Pro Fisherman in his big centre console tinny anchored at Little Halls. He was fishing for sharks but was on for a chat and recounted being around at Sunshine earlier in the morning trolling for Mackerel. He said he hooked three sizeable spaniards but lost them all to sharks.

I had just about given up any chance of hooking a fish this morning as I neared the river mouth only to be woken from my disconsolate reverie by the "scream of the reel".

A large vigorous fast and ariel fish had slammed my trolled pilchard and taken off for the horizon bursting through the surface in its first furious runs. I at first called it for a spaniard as it seemed to be silver and came to the boat readily after its first fast run but then reverted to its true species behaviour and continued to do repeated long slogging runs for 30 - 35 mins before I could bring it to the gaff.



118 cm of prime Longtail Tuna weighed at home at 15.5 kg

My return to the beach was uneventful.



Lacking Sunshiner's youthful charm and good looks I was unable to get any of the fairer sex to pose with my catch but here it is on the brag mat with the "easy troll" rig.

Cheers,
Doc Dog

Crofty's Sweetlip, 21Jan13

TR by Crofty
Wind: Clear Skies 10 knots Easterly Breeze
Swell: Half metre swell
Current: slight northerly
Launch point: Laguna Bay Middle Groyne
Participants: Pedro, Crofty, Dan King (unsure call sign)

After a fitful sleep in the car at Sunshine Beach, I dragged my rear down to Middle Groyne to set up. Pedro pulled up as I was getting out of the car and Dan pulled in shortly after. Note to self – sleeping in the car makes me more disorganised. It took me twice as long to set up, and the time advantage I’d gained by arriving the night before was swiftly lost. Leaving the beach was uneventful with little swell to contend with. I waited behind the breakers for Dan as he had no GPS and we were setting forth to Halls Reef together. As it turned out, I dislodged my battery cable with the rudder when I put it down and needed assistance to fix it up. An uneventful trip north, saw us arriving over Little Halls as the sun was cresting the horizon. Loads of bait was apparent on the sounder but little in the way of predators. We continued northward to Halls where we caught up with Pedro. Birds were working to the East but quickly returned to a searching pattern as we attempted to approach. Dan and I made the decision to stop chasing pelagics and set up a drift line for reefies.

I was fishing a lightly weighted Woolworth’s prawn with an open bail arm and tossing a plastic ahead. The first prawn in the water saw line flicking off the reel and I had difficulty removing the rod from the holder as it bucked and danced. No strong head bumps told me it wasn’t a snapper but something I enjoy more. Grassy emperor and a good one at that. I initially called it for high 50’s but later measuring it onshore saw it come in at 54cm. A few low 30’s snapper were released on the prawns but the plastic wasn’t being touched today. Dan was having the same problem. He was fishing plastics only and unfortunately didn’t get a touch. I’ve been there before and learnt this lesson. It can be really frustrating fishing the same water as the bloke beside you and not hooking up. Prawns will always accompany me in Noosa waters now. It can mean the difference between a fishy and fishless day.

After a while, the birds seemed to be working in close to shore and Pedro was off stalking the flocks. I decided to join him as the fishing wasn’t red hot anyway. Dan headed for home at this stage and I took off up the beach after the birds and Pedro. Some 3km later, I caught up with Pedro who was still fishless. A quick hello, and I decided that it wasn’t really happening here either with the birds seemingly vanished from the sky. So back I trundled towards Halls for a last ditch attempt before home. Halfway there, the water erupted with three long tails that looked more like beer kegs. Easy 15kg fish, which disappeared as quickly as they appeared.

There was more activity on Halls now on the change of tide with more bait and birds flitting here and there. I set up a drift and picked up another 44cm grassy to add to the spoils. I missed another one as I faffed about with a muesli bar and caught and released another couple of undersized snapper. Not to worry, I had a feed now.

Home time. I started making my way back towards the groyne. After passing Little Halls and having a quick chat to Pedro via radio to ascertain he was still fishless. Right in front of me, a school of tuna launched skyward. I fired off cast and couldn’t have timed it better if I tried. The slug landed square in the middle of the table sized white water and was snaffled before I cranked the handle. Unfortunately, after 10 sec of the reel singing, the line went slack. I don’t think I’d hooked up but it had merely been holding the lure in its mouth. Probably a good thing as I’d thrown my 6lb silly string at it and it would have taken forever to pull it up. No more excitement for the day from me as I head in to pack up. An aborted attempt at landing as I swung the bum of the revo through 180deg by accident, then a perfect landing even managing to surf a little runner to the beach. For those of you who have never ridden a revo, you’ll have no idea of how difficult that actually is!

Last I heard of Pedro, he was still out wide chasing the tuna. Perhaps he has a more exciting report?

Crofty

A few words below from Dan when he emailed me the photo.



Photo courtesy of Dan

Contribution by KingDan


Attached is the best photo of your 50cm+ sweetlip.  I hope your persistence paid off and you added to your catch. I had an uneventful peddle back however this was the first trip for a long while without the sail and my legs were feeling it by the time I back. I did encounter one bust up, 100m in front and saw some tell tail signs of spotties slashing at bait however a tinny beat me there and the finicky fish fled before they could get close enough for a cast and could get a look in.

Thanks for the tour of Little Halls and Halls.

Cheers
Dan

Fussy Fish, 20Jan13

TR by Gemini
Participants:  Lazybugger, Jaro, Gemini, Corie, Dano, Panno, Salty, BigKev, Redwood, Dave (Friend of Redwood)
Launch Site: MG
Conditions: ENE 6-8 knots, strengthening later in the morning

Well at least the carpark was full of eager souls this morning. I can't say the same for the fish in the bay...

We launched at around 4:45AM in dribs and drabs, scattering ourselves across the bay in small groups. Jaro and myself followed Corie out towards Halls, although Corie had opted to head out wide while I was a little further in towards the shore. As we passed LH the birds seemed to have no idea what was going on. They were scattered and seemed to be aimlessly searching. Not far past LH Corie advised us of surface action further out in his his direction.

Jaro and I turned to follow a large flock of birds busily diving into a fairly large boil. We tracked it out wide and managed to arrive before it dissipated, but only meters from casting distance some fool in a stinky raced into the boil and that was the end of that.

The boils then started to appear all around us, but nothing would take our slugs (or trolled lines). That coupled with the same stinky racing around like crazy made for an interesting time. Corie checked in with us and advised that the boils in his area were small mac tuna. Bummer.

The boats arrived in numbers then, positioning themselves out towards Halls reef. The boils continued to appear sporadically, but still nothing could be enticed to chew a tasty metal slug. At this stage I had a snack break and took some footage of the medusa which seemed to be everywhere. A banded sea snake also made an appearance a few meters away from me (something I wasn't overly pleased about).

Jaro then moved north of Halls with Corie who was reporting more bustups in his area. At this stage somebody over the radio reported a keeper snapper taken (BigKev perhaps?), but otherwise no other captures reported at that stage. I opted to try my luck back in towards shore for no other reason than it couldn't be any worse...stranger things have happened (but didn't).

On my way back in Jaro kept me updated with his adventures. Further out he encountered boils containing small yellowfin tuna, one of which a stinky landed in his presence. Unfortunately he couldn't replicate the same feat using almost every lure in his kit. The fish did not seem overly friendly today.

On the return trip to MG I narrowly avoided a wipeout against the wall much to the delight of onlookers. The wave took me by complete surprise, but somehow I managed to stay upright. See the video below (in HD where available).



Once on the beach I was informed that Dano had caught a keeper sweetlip, and Redwood had caught a leatherjacket; the only other fish for the day.


Distance 14.7 km
Max Speed 8.7 km/hour
Avg Speed 3.2 km/hour

Nasty Northerlies, 19Jan13

TR by Turtleboy
Wind: NNW 7-9 knots and strengthening
Swell: Half metre
Current: Turbulent
Launch point: MG
Participants: Stormin, Carlton and friends Matt and Digby, Kahuna, WhaleRider, Redwood and TurtleBoy.

I arrived at the car park at 4.45am to find Kahuna unloading, with WhaleRider and the Redwood pulling in behind me and the others already on the beach.



Photo of WhaleRider on the beach, Matt and Digby tandem in the gutter, others out of sight, Photo courtesy of Carlton.

After a quick discussion we agreed to head to Halls via Little Halls Reef. The going was tough into a nasty little northerly wind and chop but at least we would be wind assisted coming home. We were only averaging 4.4 kph going out and 1.8 kph coming back without even paddling.

Stormin was the first to arrive at LHR and was headed out to sea chasing birds. We witnessed a few splashes but very little activity. The rest of us were doing a combination of bottom bashing and circular loops with hard body lures. Redwood had a ganged skirt with Pilchard. He had one small hit but didn't hook up. Meanwhile, WhaleRider was monitoring his sounder with little success.

At about 7.45am, the fish-less WhaleRider, Redwood and myself decided to troll back to MG via the river mouth. Carlton and his friends had already turned for home. So we quickly radioed Stormin and Kahuna to advise. Hopefully at least one of them will be able to post some positive catch details into the comments section.

Watch this space for a video taken by Carlton on the front of his SuperliteX. Coming soon. And here it is !




Better luck tomorrow boys !

TurtleBoy.

PS. We did bump into another Noosa Yakker on the beach. Last seen scurrying up the sand cursing something about "Bloody HTML codes, trip reports".

Spotty Mack Mayhem Mk2, 18Jan13

TR by Jimbo
Wind: 5 knots
Swell: Half metre
Current at Halls Rf: Didn't have time to assess
Launch Point: Middle Groyne
Participants: Jaro, Soren & Emil (father & son combo), Jimbo

This was one of those days that kayak fishos dream about ... perfect weather, almost no wind, low swell, only one or two stink boats and the spotty macks going ballistic! I'll fill in the details shortly, but here's the ultimate outcome ... thirteen spotties between four yakkers:




Fish caught: Jimbo 3, Soren 1, Jaro 5 spotties and 1 slatey (one spot given to Soren) & Emil 3.

The details ...
We all arrived at MG car park shortly after 0400. Launch conditions were fairly easy. Jaro was first away when there was just enough light to see the low breaking waves at the end of the groyne.

This was only Soren and Emil's second launch into Laguna Bay, and Soren had only just purchased a new eTrex30 GPS the previous day, so we spent a little time with some basic GPS tuition for Soren, and revising surf zone launch tactics with Emil before heading out about 20 minutes after Jaro.

Given that Jaro had decided to head to Jew Sh (that destination possibly chosen by Jaro so he could come home aided by a slight NE tail wind filling his sail), I decided with Soren and Emil in tow, we would head towards Halls Rf to spread our reconnaissance over a wider area. We took a route along the north shore before heading out towards Halls Rf. We had had no strikes on our trolled hard body lures, nor were there any birds evident. However, about 1.5 km from Halls Rf Jaro came on the radio from Jew Sh to report he had seen numerous birds heading towards Halls Rf.

On arrival at Halls, we began to see birds starting to circle and gather about 300m to the north. By this time the breeze had dropped right out and the ruffled surface of a significant bust up below the birds could be clearly identified from 200m away. My initial thoughts were that this was probably the same lot of mac tuna we had encountered in the bay a week earlier. There was only two stink boats in the vicinity, both being pretty well behaved, and all three of us were able to paddle to within casting distance. Soren and Emil, having only one rod each with 30 lb mono and hard bodied lures, were limited in casting distance so had to paddle in close. This caused the bust up to divide into two or three smaller bust-ups (but not totally disappear) and I was able to target one of these with my favoured Halco polished chrome slug (can't remember correct name) attached to 15 lb braid on my light casting rod.

At this point everything seemed to happen at once. Emil shouted that he was on, and almost immediately I was hooked up on my first cast. After a couple of reel-screaming runs I was delighted to see the long-bodied silver flash of a spotty mackerel in the clear water below ... whoo wheee!!! ... the spotty macks were back in town and we were right in the middle of their neighbourhood! After a short tussle I landed and stowed my spotty then headed over to help Emil, who by now had also gaffed and lip-gripped his spotty but did not have pliers to release the hooks, and was unsure how he would stow the fish in the somewhat inaccessible forward hatch in his yak. (Apologies for smudge on lens of camera in next couple of pics).




Emil with his first spotty mack caught on only his second NY fishing trip.

In the midst of helping Emil solve these tasks, Soren yelled out that he was hooked up. After setting Emil free to chase the birds, still only a few hundred metres away, I paddled over to Soren and similarly help him stow his quite sizable spotty into his forward hatch. Soren was now declaring that kayak fishing was the best fun he had experienced in a long time.





Soren with his first ever fish caught from a kayak, also on his second NY fishing trip.

Somewhere in the middle of all that initial excitement I had radioed Jaro to tell him it was all happening at Halls Rf and that he should take the trouble to paddle over to get some of the action. He reported there was not much happening at Jew Sh but he had caught a sizable slatey bream (also known as a painted sweetlip?) but had released it as they are poor eating.




Jaro's slatey bream. Dr Dog note: A possible new species and record claim for the Record Fish blog?

Meanwhile, back at north Halls, the spotty mack bust-ups were occurring all over the place and we didn't have to paddle more than about 200-300m to be repeatedly amongst action. After helping Emil fix a loose screw on the bail arm on his reel, he then swapped over to a silver/blue slug which had improved his casting range and he and I soon after each landed our second spotty. I initially thought my second spotty was a shark as it was staying down and taking a lot of line from me, but this turned out to be another spotty foul hooked in the dorsal fin. I lost my next two strikes along with my two Halco slugs due to the spotties shredding the line above the wire trace. Interestingly, they would not touch two other slugs I tried, one blue/pink/white in colour, the other a simple small silver slug with no "action".

Jaro was at first a little reluctant to make the 4.5 km paddle over from south of Jew Sh where he had gone chasing some indistinct bird action. But my excited radio transmissions eventually got the better of him and he made the paddle over to Halls Rf where he too got into the action at Halls Rf proper along with the two stink boats. He was there not much more than about 30 minutes before he had landed three spotties.

By about 0800 Soren, Emil and I had migrated south to Halls Rf in the process of chasing the bust-ups, by which time Jaro had bagged out on his fifth spotty and had helped Emil stow his third. The generous Jaro loaned me one of his spare Halco slugs and gave one of his five spotties to Soren (still cast-limited due to having only a hard bodied lure) so he (Jaro) could continue fishing within his bag limit of five.

By 0845, Jaro and I had caught our 6th and 3rd spotties respectively, and with the sun now well up, despite the slight NE breeze just starting to build, conditions were becoming decidedly hot out on the water so we agreed to head for home. Jaro adopted a more south-easterly course so as to be able to take advantage of the increasing NE tail breeze with his sail set, while Soren, Emile and I paddled the direct 4.6km course back to Middle Groyne.

We all made a relatively easy and upright return to the beach, with the usual interest generated amongst beachgoers by four kayak fisherman displaying 13 spotted macs for photographing. For Sunshiner, it wouldn't be a complete trip report without the obligatory fish holder (and her son).



An absolute magic day guys, one to be remembered by the four of us for a long time to come.

Jimbo

Sunshine Beach, 17Jan13

TR by Doctor Dog
Wind:light ESE
Swell: half metre
Current: not detected 
Launch point: Middle Groyne Noosa Main Beach
Participants: Doctor Dog,  Damo (DoctorDog's visiting brother) Kahuna, Brian (friend of Kahuna)

We arrived at MG a little before 5am and found Brian a friend of Kahuna's on the beach ready to launch for a non fishing paddle. We were informed Kahuna was already on the water headed towards HR but did not see him nor could I raise him on CH9.

Damien and I prepared to launch in what appeared to be benign conditions

We trolled all the way round to Sunshine beach with no action to report except for a strike and brief hook up at Lion Rock where some large fast fish took a liking to my trolled pilchard offering. There was a crashing take with ratchet screaming and much surface splashing as the fish jumped behind me and then took off in short blistering runs some of which came straight back at me leaving the line going momentarily slack. This took the pressure off and the fish dislodged my hooks. We returned to to a very peaceful and apparently fishes Laguna Bay and made a successful dry return to the beach at MG. Kahuna was there on our return. He saw more surface activity towards Halls with Mac Tuna and Longtails busting up and leaving the water but none could be induced to take his lures.

Doctor Dog

Is it bed time yet? - 16Jan13

TR by Gemini
Participants:  Gemini, Redwood
Launch Site: Lions Park, Weyba Creek
Conditions: Fine, light breeze



Well the river didn't fire as i'd hoped it would last night/this morning. Here's a brief account of the nights activities.

At 11:30PM Redwood and I headed in a clockwise direction from the Lions Park to loop back around to the Woods bays, trolling and flicking lures along the way. A slight technical glitch with rudders and trolled lines put us on the bank for a brief spell, but we were back at it soon enough. We followed the current line out towards the river mouth and back with no hits. On our way back around towards the bays Redwood managed to pick up a hairtail on a drifting pilchard. We trolled up and down between and around the bays with no joy. The fish were splashing around near the jetty's, but none were interested in what we had to offer. No boils were sighted all night.

The only action I had was a brief grab from something fairly large on my home way past the Sheraton. I had my drag locked tight, yet the reel screamed like crazy. Seconds later the hooks had pulled, and closer examination of the gold bomber showed a bent treble and teeth marks. I'm guessing it was a decent sized shark, but who knows...

We finished up at around 3:30AM. Not a great fishing night, but it was pleasant out there at least with no boats to bother us.

One Hit at Sunshine, 14Jan13

TR by Pedro
Swell: Half metre
Current: not detected
Launch point: Doggie Beach (Sunshine Beach)
Participants: Pedro


I launched around 5am without incident and trolled bait hoping for a mac. There were plenty of terns heading into the wind and eventually, at about 8.30 I saw them working just out from Lion Rock (the southern end of A Bay).



If you look carefully you can see Pedro at about 4 o'clock to the rising sun position. Photo courtesy of Kerrie Crisp 5.30am.

On arrival the terns were picking up small anchovy as they fed on the surface. The anchovy were thick and covered a large area. Not long after my bonito on spaniard special, ( thanks Richmond ) was smashed and took off fast.

I continued pedalling to maintain pressure while winding in the other line and the ratchet stopped screaming. The fish self released. On inspection the small treble on the last gang was hooked forward onto the wire that holds the spinners. I re-baited with a large gar and continued to troll the area for another hour without result.

By this stage the wind had dropped so I headed out to A-Bay reef and drift fished for an hour picking up one just legal snapper that went back. At 10.30am I headed for home via the Lion Rock area, doing a few laps amongst the anchovies then timing my landing perfectly I was on the beach upright.

Cheers
Pedro

13 Unlucky? 13Jan13

TR by doctor dog with contribution by lazybugger at end

Wind: Clear Skies 5-10 knots Northerly Breeze
Swell: low messy wind chop on a half metre swell
Current: not detected
Launch point: Laguna Bay Middle Groyne
Participants: Sunshiner, Lazybugger, Doctor Dog


05:07. Launch time. From left, sunshiner's Supalite X, lazybugger and his Evo 465, Doc Dog and his Supalite BFS.

We met in the carpark at Middle Groyne a little before 5.00 am; Sunshiner and Lazybugger had initially planned to launch from northern end of Sunshine beach but changed plans when early morning recce showed conditions too lumpy for a safe beach launch. Sunshiner made it through the small half tide shore break without any problem but Lazybugger had a technical issue with his paddle in the middle of the shore break and found himself back on the beach the wrong way up. Exit no 2 was uneventful for him and Doctor Dog did not time his exit as well as he should and wore a little white water on the way out the back.


Lazybugger and Doc Dog setting up just after launch. Pic by sunshiner.

Sunshiner lead the way towards Jew Shoal with Lazybugger interrupting progress just inside the shark nets to say he had hooked and landed a small shark which he released. The three of us punched out into the sloppy chop out to Jew Shoal with only a few terns cruising to all points of the compass not stopping to feed or harass any bait. No bust ups from predators just a few lazy jellyfish.

A procession of power boats were heading out to Sunshine reefs and beyond but no evidence of any fish being caught. One power boat was anchored up at Jew Shoal but did not seem to be producing anything and moved off back to the river mouth as soon as we turned up.

With the strength of the breeze now freshening to 10-12 knots conditions were not suitable to staying at Jew Shoal so we headed towards Halls as there seemed to be more bird activity that way. Sunshiner and Lazybugger were trolling HB lures and I had a Laser Pro HB and a large pilchard on a trolling rig (Easy Troll).

We paddled in a wide spread over to Little Halls and apart from Sunshiner spotting a flock of birds over a small and shy school of bonito there was no fish activity to speak of.

We gradually made our way back to MG with a few diversions to flocks of birds but no fish. We all returned to the beach right way up through a small full tide shore break with little surf.


Lazybugger returns to Middle Groyne. Pic by sunshiner


Doc Dog returns to Middle Groyne. Pic by sunshiner (frame from movie file)

Cheers, Doc Dog

---

Contribution by lazybugger

I arrived at the Doggie Beach car park not long after 4am. I went for a walk down the path to check out conditions, which wasn’t easy at it was still a bit too dark. On my way back I found Kev, who said it was a bit too messy to bother with a Doggie launch, so off to MG it was. I’ve got to admit I was a little relieved as dragging my yak up that steep path wasn’t something I was looking forward to.

Dr Dog met us shortly after our arrival in the carpark. Kev was first to launch and made it through fine. I thought I was ready but as soon as I put my paddle in the water I realised I’d stuffed up. I put the 2 piece paddle together back to front. I pulled it apart and put it together quickly but soon realised I didn’t get it right again as the blades weren’t hitting the water at the right angle and as a result power was down. I decided to go anyway and fix it after the break. That was a mistake. Unlike Kev who got a clear run, I had a couple of slightly larger waves break on me and they pushed me sideways. With paddle power reduced, I couldn’t get straight again by the time the 3rd or 4th wave came through and into the drink I went. Back to the beach. I fixed the paddle, drained the water out of the footwells and seat and made it out fine on the next attempt.

After setting up the rods it only took a 100m or so for the first run of the day. Unfortunately it was just a baby shark. After a bit of surgery he was released to terrorise the nudey beach. No photo, sorry, he didn’t look that exciting.

After that I had my second bit of drama as the drift while I was fiddling with shark meant I had to paddle over the shark nets. Sure enough my rudder got caught first time and then the second. I moved a bit further away from the big buoys and took things a bit faster rather then trying to glide over for the third attempt & had success.

I was a fair way behind the other two by this point. I wasn’t too far from Jew Shoal when Kev suggested a move to Little Halls as that’s where the birds were heading. Along the way I thought I’d check my pilly rig and realised that I’d turned too tight earlier and the Halco Laser Pro on the other rod was now caught in the rudder. Rather than risk going in the drink, as the way my luck was going that would have been the outcome if I tried untangling myself, I called Kev and asked him to fix it for me at Little Halls.

Little Halls certainly had a bit more action on the sounder but no luck was had by any of us. Kev cut the line and retrieved my Halco for me. The current was pretty fast though, due to the large high tide. Not sure that the few casts with SPs that I had got close to the bottom because of it.

Kev made the call to head back and I followed not far behind. Again no action on the troll although I did see a fish swimming on the surface go straight past the front of my yak. It looked like a reef fish with a dorsal fin along the length of its body and was mainly brown with black spots. Trigger fish sort of shaped I’d guess. At least I saw a fish.

All three of us made it in unscathed.

A few lessons learnt today. I might stop breaking down the paddle and just keep it as a one piece from now on. It fits in the car anyway.

Youngest best, today. 12Jan13

TR by sunshiner with video etc contribution by gemini

Wind: Light west to NW then NE about 6-8 knots
Swell: small northerly
Current: at Middle Groyne, none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: Soren and Emil (first time), jimbo, gemini, jaro, stormin, bigkev, redwood, scater, indiedog, sunshiner

The earliest arrivees waited on the beach together until there was just enought light to see how wet we were going to get at launch time. Jimbo looked after first timers Father/Son duo Soren and Emil and I was happy to see that all three got out safely without serious problems. Jaro, first to launch, almost took a big bath, getting slightly airborne just in from of me as I waited my turn in the channel. I was first away from Middle Groyne and headed for Jew Shoal into a choppy sloppy sea, even though the wind was still quite light.

As I headed out I trolled my usual HLP and was heartened by the sight of dozens of terns overtaking me and flying very low to the water. This looked promising. Unfortunately this apparent good sign was not accurate, at least for where we were.

The waters at Jew Shoal were still churning as a result of strong winds earlier in the night and there was even some swell. Accordingly drift fishing out there was less comfortable than usual. Sea sickness overtook several yakkers who are not normally afflicted, thus curtailing their trips. Those who stuck it out didn't reap any significant reward although young Emil (aged 15 I think and thus the youngest Noosa Yakker) scored a small keeper snapper.

Jaro had picked up a small throw back snapper on bait and while drift fishing near him I spotted, in quick succession, two Spaniards leap in beautiful arcs about 100m away. Nothing we did could tempt them to take our offerings, however and that was the last surface action I saw all morning.

Bigkev, on the way back to MG, encountered a bustup of very small mac tuna near Granite Bay and promptly boated three of them.

I understand that Soren and Emil met the sand monster and that gemini has some footage to prove it. The most spectacular beach return as far as I know was stormin's. While gemini, bigkev and I stood watching on the beach without cameras at the ready, stormin timed his run to coincide with the arrival of a nice little wave. We all thought he was a goner for sure but he cleverly braced on the wave and stayed on it, surfing it to the west, into the concentration of swimmers who hurriedly made way for his revo as it carved up the wave.

So, very little to show for our efforts today, except for bigger leg and arm muscles. I could not find any bait concentrations around Jew Shoal and there were only one or two scattered blips of bait in the bay. This is a huge change from the previous time I'd fished here, on 09Dec, when bait schools were evident all over.

Congratulations on your first outing with us Soren and Emil. May there be many more.

Kev


Track map and video added by Gemini.





Distance 11.8 km
Max Speed 6.2 km/hour
Avg Speed 3.0 km/hour

Fishing Noosa River early morning, 12Jan13

TR by Eyetag


I launched from Noosa Heads Lions Park around 12.30 am and headed straight to the Woods Bays trolling a Gold Bomber.

A couple of laps around the Inner Bay and then to the Outer Bay which was where I got my first strike, a bloody Hairtail. I trolled the current line out from Ricky's and I got another Hairtail.

The wind was still up a bit so I decided to head up to Weyba Hole. Things were pretty quiet there but I did manage another Hairtail. This one was a big specimen but unfortunately was missing about 400mm of tail (no record claim). The wind was starting to drop so back to Ricky's.

By now it was quite pleasant with a lot of bust ups. I did a slow drift casting a small Gladiator Prawn and retrieving it with a slow roll across the bottom. This was producing small Big Eye Trevally which were still fun on 3lb gear but I wanted something bigger. I could hear more fish busting up a little further down stream. Again the small Gladiator worked well with small Grunter Bream and some good sized Tarpon. I was bitten off twice.

With the Prawns being so easy for the fish to swallow whole I thought a bigger lure might stop them biting me off, so I started slow rolling a Gladiator "Slim Jim". This also worked well on the Grunter and I landed a nice Mangrove Jack but I was bitten off again. Thinking there was Tailor around I decided to troll the Gold Bomber up to Ricky's and back. On my second lap 50 metres out from Ricky's it got smashed by a monster with the first run taking me toward the river mouth and with some serious drag on an 8kg rod he was still taking line. When we got past the sand bags, I was in serious trouble. I fought the fish for 10 minutes then the hooks pulled. BUGGER, big Jew I think.

The fish were still there in numbers so I went back to the Prawn and was getting Tarpon after Tarpon. I must have hooked at least 30 but only landed 4, with their acrobatics and bony mouths they are hard to hook well. With the tide slowing so did the bite and after hooking Mr. Hairtail again I headed in without a touch on the way back.



Tarpon, a great sportfish, but not very good on the tooth



Mangrove Jack after being on ice.



The two Gladiator Slim Jims used.



Small Gladiator Prawn rigged on 1/8 oz 1/0 heavy hook.

Eyetag.

Solo Jaro Snapper, 11Jan13

TR by Jaro
Conditions: At 6.30am a north-easterly wind around 12 knots, white caps slowly abating to around 9 knots around 9.00am.
Sunny periods.
No swell to speak of but very choppy.
Participant: Jaro

I woke at around 3.20am with Seabreeze showing wind at DIP at 13 to 15 knots. Not good I thought and worse at Cape Moreton. But I was up and it was predicted to abate so I decided to go anyway.

There was quite a few email communications from others stating that they were pulling the pin and heading back to bed. I arrived at MG at 4.05am and found it very windy and though it was dark I could see the white caps easily so I pulled the pin also. I met Gemini coming along Hastings St as I was going. We stopped and chatted with Gemini deciding to also pull the pin. I had told Gemini I would keep an eye on the wind and if it abated I would probably go later. On arriving home I noted an email from Corie stating he had been down to MG and had decided to pull the pin also, and sure enough, at 5.30am Seabreeze went to green for go and so I took off after emailing all that I was going.

I arrived back at MG and still found it windy with white caps but decided to go anyway. The channel along the western side of MG was now well developed so getting out dry was a breeze. I was on the water at 6.10am. I decided to troll to JS using a Halco LP and as I was paddling directly into the wind and choppy slop, it was slow going.

My plan was to get to JS and then troll back to MG as I did not fancy being on my own. Anyway, as I battled on, I became more comfortable, confident and settled. I arrived at JS at 7.30am and decided to switch to trolling a pilchard. At around this time Turtleboy made contact with me from shore and I was just going to reply when I had a strike and a good one at that. I quickly told Turtleboy I was hooked up and proceeded to do battle. At first I thought it was a shark but soon realised that the pulse on the line was different so I knew it was something else. The fish did a few runs but soon gave up the ghost and I could see it was a very decent sized snapper. It even looked like it could be a record when seen under water. However, when I boated it I could see it was not a record but a still a very good fish indeed.



Well that encouraged me to troll some more around JS which I did till but after having no more action by 8.30am I decided to troll back to MG. I had noted that there were more birds around today but were well spread out. I also noted that there was a lot of bait fish in Laguna Bay.

Returning was a breeze with the wind behind me and my sail up. About 1.5km from MG there was suddenly a lot of birds congregating and diving so I paddled towards them as fast as I could, seeing that there was a large bust up but of course they disappeared before I could get a cast in. This happened a few times with the same result so I gave up and headed for MG and then caught a 1 metre shark 500 metres from shore which I released. Getting in was a breeze. I arrived onshore at 9.30am where I was met by Andy Pannifex who kindly helped me with my kayak and also took the following photo.



Photo above by Panno



The snapper measured 70 cms. Turtleboy - I was going to crop Jaro's toes off but thought it might hurt !

So all in all a great day.

Jaro

Tim, 10Jan13

Hi Yakkers,

Very quick trip report from this morning; arrived at MG car park at 5.15 and had a quick squiz at the conditions. Very choppy with some swell but not to many white horses so decided to give it a crack. 

Launched at 5.30am and got out without a problem, dropped my red and white Rapalla X-rap and headed out parallel to the headland. Conditions close to shore were not too bad but the further out I got the worse the wave/swell conditions got with some big'ns every now and then. I was a bit edgy because of a rollover last week at Morton, so was trying very hard to maintain my centre of gravity in the right spot. 

After I reached the headland point (out near a series of yellow buoys--shark nets??) , I decided it was time to turn back. Going with the waves was much more difficult than going against them and was quite quickly pushed toward the headland. With some effort and concentration I negotiated the conditions back to MG where I landed without incident at 7.15am. 

An interesting and challenging paddle with no bites of any kind. Hopefully tomorrow will be better paddling and fishing.

Tim

Pedro e` Lorenzo, 08Jan13

Pedro and Lorenzo
Wind: Easterly 5 to 10 knots
Swell: 1m to 2m
Launch point: MG

Participants: Pedro, Lorenzo

As promised, I took Lorenzo out for a fish today before he returns to Italy.

We launched at around 5am and even though it was Lorenzo's first time in a kayak he did well, staying upright and making it out the back after being pushed back in by one of the bigger waves. I also made it out between sets, on my first attempt.

We headed into the easterly breeze toward Jew Shoal trolling gar on Spaniard special and chin guards. JS was a bit lumpy, with a few waves measuring just above 2m on the sounder.



View from Jew Shoal looking across to Noosa headland. Photo by Pedro.

As there hadn't been any surface activity nor birds sighted so far, and as it seemed like the birds had moved, we headed for Little Halls.

About half way to LHR Lorenzo thought he had a hit but it didn't hook up and later once at LH his SS came in missing its gang hooks. I suppose the swivel broke. It pays to test all connections.

Upon arrival at LHR, I bottom fished with prawn for ten minutes and Lorenzo did some laps with gar on chin guard. The fish weren't playing for us today so I set up to troll back to MG with a 35cm mac tuna on chin guard. About fifty metres into the pedal the bait was taken by something (a shark probably) and the only bit left on the hooks was the tail.

Turtleboy had radioed earlier in the morning that he was at MG and might still be on the beach when we land so I put out a call. Kev responded and was waiting on the wall.

Lorenzo was tipped and I managed to stay upright after aborting a landing and facing a couple of bigger ones.

See you on the water,
Pedro

Pedro and Corie, 02Jan13

TR by Pedro with contribution from Manscaped


Less Swell Than Expected
Wind: light West turning SE 10knots
Swell: 1 to 1.5m
Launch point: MG
Participants: Corie, Pedro


Wendy and I arrived at 4.45am and after having a look at conditions and calling Corie on the radio(no response, I tried several times). I launched in Wendy's prowler, picking a lull made it straight out no worries.The sand monster was lurking but asleep for most of the time.

I spied Corie heading north but I also saw that the birds were heading east so I followed the birds. JS was quiet so after a couple of laps trolling pilchard and HB I headed for Nth Sunshine and it wasn't any different there, although there was some terns looking for a feed.

On the way back headed for JS, I saw one school of small mac tuna bust up. Back at JS another school of mac tuna were hitting the surface occasionally with birds overhead. I trolled then bottom fished then trolled and with no strikes or bait lost I headed in at 9am. The tide was in and I had no problem picking a gap and landed safely.

But once home I did have a problem with my arms, neck and back as I normally pedal not paddle.

Happy New Year NY's

Pedro



Good morning all,

I went out this morning arriving at around 4am the wind was almost non existent and the bay looked inviting so of I went. There were waves standing up at the end of the groyne but the sets were well spaced and I made it out unscathed.

I set course for halls trolling a hb and a pillie along the north shore. Before getting to halls the southerly was picking up so I headed out wider and headed back towards the river.

Halfway back I noticed flocks of turns heading in so the schools of bait must have been deep. Once I found the dirty water line I followed it for a while before deciding I had enough.The only fish I had seen were flying fish flying away from me as I paddled along.

After stowing my rods I headed in to MG. After watching the sets roll through I waited for next ones and paddled in after them making it all the way to shore untouched.

Corie

PS. Also saw a tiny tinnie out there would have been 10ft max. My evo looked like the titanic compared to it and was wondering how he got out. Go have a look at the pictures on the FishingNoosa Facebook page. They at either exceptionally keen or stupid.