Woolgoolga, Round 1, 25Mar13

TR by sunshiner

Wind: NW less than 5 knots
Swell: 1m easterly
Current: toward north, gentle
Launch point: Woolgoolga Main Beach
Participants: me, alone

First time fishing in a new place is always a challenge. Add a kayak launch on a surf beach and a new dimension is added.

I'd chosen Woolgoolga as a two day stopover with the yak mainly because it's about half way to Sydney. Accommodation within a short yak trundle of the beach was also important, so here we are at Woolgoolga Beach Caravan Park, and we've cracked great weather with light winds and low swell.

Here's the situation. The location bubble is where our cabin sits.

Daylight savings time applies in NSW so it was a late start this morning, particularly as the sun presently rises a little later here anyway.

Launch time. Beaches down here are afflicted with what looks like a type of kelp.

Getting out was dead easy and after setting up I immediately set out for the big bommie, as visible on the map above. A young couple in a double yak with a fishing rod were also out, earlier than I was and we exchanged good mornings as they headed back in toward the beach, fishless, I understand.

I found that there was lots of structure east of the bommie in 12-14m depth, so decided to fish Noosa style here. Other than a shoal of small baitfish that I drifted over, I got and saw no action, so started to look around. About 800m east there was a stinky with a couple of blokes in it so I paddled over to find out why they were there. The water here was 20m or so but these guys were catching nothing so I decided to hang around there for a while and did so, for two drifts in about 45 min before I started to get the itch to have more of a look around.

The view from offshore.

To the south the headland you can see just east of my launch point caught my attention so I headed out in a straight line across the bay toward it. All of the time I was paddling I had a lure out, just in case. On this track I came across obvious surface upwellings and at the same time began noticing the depth reducing from around 18m to 16m. Here there were also some faint surface actions and a few terns hanging about. After taking a good look around with the sounder I decided it was worth a try so pulled up and deployed my plastics. No action at all, and as my self imposed deadline of 09:30 was imminent it was time to head for the beach. My trailing outfit had been hanging out the back with a four inch SP on it and as I was retrieving this quickly it got slammed and I was on.

The fish seemed to me to have been probably a snapper around maybe 50cm so I was really stoked as I was clearly going to break my duck. Then the line went slack. Bummer; the hook had dislodged. Headed for the beach, tail between legs, cursing loudly.

Again an easy surf zone transit. Now getting ready for a late arvo session, same place. Then tomorrow morning again. Wish me luck.

See you in a couple of weeks.

Kev