Longtail, Snaps and Sweeties, 25Mar13

TR by Jimbo with additional contribution from Pedro


Wind: 5 knots nw
Swell: 0.5m
Current: Very strong at A-Bay Rf, 1.5-2.0 kph to SSE
Launch Point: Middle Groyne
Participants: Pedro, Yak Finn, Redwood, Tarzan, Jimbo

At last! A day when there was almost no swell or wind, the water quite clear, cloudy initially then sunny, and a few NYs caught a some fish! It seems like more than year since the conditions were so ... normal.

When I arrived at MG car park at 0515, followed minutes later by Tarzan, Pedro had already launched, and Yak Finn and Redwood had their yaks on the beach and were preparing to launch. Redwood was a little restricted for time and so decided to head for Jew Shoal. The rest of us decided to head for Sunshine Reef, encouraged by Whalebait landing a massive Spaniard there on Sunday. The launch was dead easy with the low swell and only an hour before high tide.

Heading out past the Witches Cauldron (the headland on western end of Teetree Bay), I was surprised, but delighted, to wind in a ~40cm snapper that had attached my trolled gold bomber lure.

On arriving at A-Bay Reef, Yak Finn and Tarzan had headed further south chasing a bust up of longtails but had not been able to get within casting distance. There were a few sporadic surface bust ups during the morning at Sunshine and Jew Shoal (reported by Redwood), sufficient to indicate there were longtails around, but none sufficiently large, or remaining long enough to be able to chase. We all bottom/drift fished at our chosen locations, but generally agreed the action was slow. A summary of the spread of NY and their fortunes for the morning is as follows:

Pedro landed 3 or 4 keeper sweetlip at the northern end of Sunshine Reef on bait (mullet strips?). He also tried Jew Shoal briefly on his way home but without adding to his tally.

Redwood hooked up to something pretty big at Jew Shoal and fought it for about 30 minutes before it broke his braid line. In hindsight Redwood thinks it was probably a shark. Without the necessary tackle to re-tie his terminal gear, and with flat batteries in his GPS, he decided to head for home, probably a little earlier than he had initially anticipated.

Yak Finn and I both initially bottom bashed around A-Bay Reef, having to reset our drifts often and by significant distances because of the very strong SSE current. After about an hour, Yak Finn moved off to try his luck at Jew Shoal but eventually returned home without success.

I tried a mark about 800m east of A-Bay Reef without success, then returned to A-Bay Reef where I landed two more snapper in fairly quick succession. One was about 55cm on a trailed pilchard, the other just legal size (but returned) on prawn.

Tarzan was fortunate to land a "standard" sized (90-100 cm) longtail on bait while bottom fishing about 750m south of A-Bay Reef, but then had a long paddle back home against the strong head current, as we all did.



Photo by TurtleBoy

Well that's about it. The return to shore shore was a little more tricky with the tide now quite low and the odd wave standing up on the sand bar about 20m out from the end of the groyne. After de-rigging I started to follow my normal procedure of positioning myself parallel with the beach just outside of what I thought was the break zone, ready for a lull in the sets to make my run into shore. Annoyingly, I was surprised by a rogue wave that quickly sat up just to seaward of me before I could turn into it and was ungraciously rolled as Turtleboy was filming from the shore. Hopefully this action will be too distant from the camera to be useful, and Steve will insert the footage of me cruising gracefully into shore after righting my yak and climbing aboard.

Click below to see Jimbo's video, take 1 and take 2



For those who will be around, the Easter long weekend looks like offering a few great days to get out, but be careful of fleet of stink boats that will inevitably be out there as well, particularly if you are crossing the river mouth.




Photo by TurtleBoy

Cheers,
Jimbo

Contribution from Pedro

I launched at 4.30am after trying to get a few live mullet with the castnet at Lions park, I only managed to catch one around 40cm which I kept for fresh bait.

The paddle out to Hells Gates was uneventful and I found the bait schools that Turtleboy mentioned yesterday and did laps trolling pilchard and large SP without result.

So I headed out to North Sunshine and drift fished, discovering how fast the current was running I changed tactics and used the peddles to slow down the drift and keep my bait near the bottom (hover fishing,hobies only). The fishing improved and I landed three average grassies with the biggest going 42cm.

I stopped off at JS on the way back and managed to get bricked by something before returning to MG around lunchtime, deciding to land with rods up, always risky, and made it in upright between waves.

Cheers,
Pedro