Rocks 12 / Kayak 0, 22May13

TR by Redwood
Wind: WNW 2-3 knots changing to W 8 knots later
Swell: 1.36
Launch point: Doggie Beach
Participants: Tunny, Redwood


I arrived at Doggie Beach car park at 7.15am and did a quick recce to see if the ‘hole’ was still working. It was and a SB launch was on. Tunny arrived soon after. We had a quick chat about the weather and decided that as the major system was still miles away at Roma and the rain at SB very light that the outing was still on.

The launch was dead easy, even the shore break was tame. We both paddled straight out without an issue and trolled halco’s to Doggie Beach Reef (1.34KM east). Once there we started bottom fishing, I with bonito chunks and pillies on a paternoster rig and Tunny with SP’s. I got a couple of small hits on the pillies but didn’t hook up. Tunny had no action. After 2 hours of nothing happening we decided to pull the pin and head back.

The wind had picked up at this point and was coming straight out of the west at about 8 knots, so a paddle back into the wind but only a kilometer or so—gotta love a SB launch! Long live the ‘hole’.

We’d marked our exit point very well; after Jaro’s tumble the other day I didn’t want to make the same mistake—and it paid off as we paddled straight through the breakers on either side and landed the boats easily.

So no action today and the score remains: rocks 12 / kayak 0.

Great morning out nontheless.

Cheers,
Redwood

Flat No Fish, 18May13

TR by TurtleBoy
Launch Point: MG
Swell: Low
Wind: Gentle SW
Conditions: Perfect
Participants: Owen, TurtleBoy

Despite the poor and varying weather forecasts leading up until the weekend, Owen pestered me to go fishing on Saturday morning. I think he's really keen to get his Noosa Yakkers sticker for his growler prowler photoed below.



Launch conditions perfect, looking north from MG at around 7am.


Owen's keen to get going, photos by TurtleBoy

So we launched on a lower tide and headed out with the gentle rip. Completely dry bum launch.

No sooner had I passed over "Pannos Bar and Grill" touching my paddle a few times on sand when I stopped to rig up and saw none other than Panno training with the NHSLC on his surf ski. We had a quick chat whilst I sorted my gear out and then it was off up the North Shore. Last I saw of Panno, he was paddling east towards the National Park, looking across at the bar and grill shaking his head !

It was an easy paddle to LHR with lures deployed but sadly no bird activity and no touches on the trawl. By this stage the westerly was starting to blow up a little and we decide to circle LHR for a period of time rather than push on the Halls into the increasing chop.

After 45 minutes and still no hits on the top nor bottom, we decided to paddle back in close to shore across the back of the surf zone down towards the river mouth. Photo of Owen below in close to the lower north shore.



In fact it was so smooth that we decided to cross the Noosa bar and paddle back into the river on the now rising tide. I crossed the sand bank on a small wave about 600 metres north of the river mouth and came down in a nice channel, whilst Owen paddled right though the middle of it.

We stopped and fished for 30 minutes on the north shore spit and chatted with Ann and Carol from Tewantin who are also keen paddlers. Hope you found our blog girls !

From there we circled the new doggie beach area and back around the channel and into Woods Bay to  land at around 11am.

14 klms without a bite but still a nice day out on the water.

Cheers, TurtleBoy

BigKev DIP, 18May13

TR by BigKev at DIP

Headed up to DI last Thursday for a 3 day stay with other Yakkers from the AKFF. Conditions looked promising with light westerlies predicted for our stay.

We hit a spot half way up the beach on out way up and 4 of us launched directly through the surf with varying degrees of success.

Although surface activity from predators was all but non existent there was plenty of bait rippling nervously on the top. I had multiple hookups on freight trains but lost about 5 fish to leaders breaking and even a knot failure. The other boys had already started landing long tails so I suspect these were the culprits of my bust offs. Soon enough though I got a good hit on a drifting SP and stayed connected long enough to land a nice longy.



Photo of BigKev with Longtail

From here we made our way north to the campsite and set up on a cold and drizzly afternoon.

Day 2 and the target was snapper on a mark kindly shared by Pedro just in front of DI headland. Although on arrival a pro line fisherman was working the area and later in the day The Keely Rose charter boat also dropped in, so I suspect it's a pretty well known spot. I pulled 1 snap at about 73cm and 20+ fish of sub 35cm from the area on plastics. The following morning I fished here again and lost a very good snapper early which saw the spot shut down completely as I think it may have spooked them.

Once again on the return trip down the beach we stopped when we spotted longies feeding behind the break and surf launched to get amongst the action. Tracking a boil I cast my SP straight in the middle as soon as I got close enough and let it sink. Seconds later I was on, and 45min later I had another longy in the hatch.

Was a great weekend in an easily accessible area for any Noosa Yakkers with a 4wd and I hope to get up there again soon.





Editor's note: Is that you Trev ?



Snapper in the Box



Photos courtesy of BigKev

Kev

Doggie Beach doings, 16May13

TR by sunshiner

Wind: 5 knot westerly
Swell: 1.2m easterly
Current: none
Launch point: Doggie Beach
Participants: jaro, sunshiner

Just north of the Doggie Beach footpath a decent hole has formed at the edge of the beach. It encourages a strong rip running straight out to sea and also provides a channel to the open sea for people like us. Jaro had reconnoitred the location yesterday afternoon and pronounced the beach launch doable. This, and the welcome reports from sundry observers of bustup activity just out behind the break along that coast had Jaro and me fired up so we fronted this morning.

A lack of visible astronomical objects indicated cloudy conditions and a light westerly breeze whispered in the casuarinas which fringe the Doggie Beach car park and path. Willo, brand new and enthusiastic Noosa Yakker, turned up, sans yak, to witness the taming of the Doggie Beach shore break and outer bank. The pressure was now on Jaro and me to launch so we headed down to the beach with our yaks, accompanied by willo, without even checking whether it was doable.

It was doable, albeit with great care, for right out the back, at least 100m from the beach, occasional large sets arrived and broke spectacularly on the outer sandbank. But most of the time the swell just reared up steeply, threatening to break, then slid off harmlessly into the deep water as it approached the beach. This, then, was our exit from the deep hole, a channel fringed to north and south by a surf break which was already being used by several very early starters. The channel gap was about 50m wide, north-south, and the channel itself doglegged around the southern surf break. Jaro and I examined the whole scene for a couple of minutes, closely watched and listened to by willo, before reaching a verdict, “doable”, and removing the trolleys.

The launch point a couple of minutes before launch. Willo gazing at the sea standing between my yak, left, and Jaro's,

My plan was to paddle out to just short of the outer bank and hold until I was "sure" that no big sets were coming, then charge through. I estimated the total distance to travel to safety was about 250m, which would take me about two and a half minutes. But first some fine judgement had to be applied to dodge the shore break, which was quite fierce given the steepness of the shore just there. Seeing no point in stuffing around I went first, got a clean break through the shorey and was immediately in deep but choppy water, heading for the outer bank with assistance from the rip. Just on my right a board rider on a curling wave gave me a nod as I went my way outbound and he his way inbound. He was in shallow water and I was in deep water, yet we were both the same distance from the beach and only 20m apart. As planned, I hove to just on the beach side of the outer bank while one big wave, then another, crested in front of me. So far, so good. The expected lull appeared and it was time to get moving. For about 30 seconds or so I thought I'd stuffed it up as the waves I was pushing toward were steeper and higher than I'd expected. But soon I'd crossed the bank and the water was getting deeper. After cresting three steepening waves I was out the back, dry bum (Bewdy!), but kept going hard for a minute or so until I was sure the danger was behind me. Now I could turn and take a look at how jaro was going. He also had dodged the shorey and was paddling strongly toward me except that when he drew level with me he kept paddling hard, opining that we were still too close to the lair of the sand monster for his liking. Acknowledging that perhaps he was right I joined up with him as we paddled eastward for another minute before setting up.

Fishing. We trolled and bottom fished without success for the next three hours. No bustups, and only a couple of half-hearted touches on my SPs. Jaro lost a pilchard bait to some tiddler. We fished at Doggie Beach reef and the close in mark. We trolled at varying distances from the beach, going back and forth between the SBSC and the southern end of A-Bay. The westerly wind meanwhile was getting colder so by 09:30, with the rising tide increasing the depth on the outer bank, we were ready to head back in.

Turtleboy and Mrs Turtleboy (Kerry) were on the beach near our launch point, in contact with us by radio initially. There were more surfers now than earlier so clearly the waves were still pumping, but the channel was still intact and this is what we were aiming for. Helped by turtleboy's hand signals (my radio is always stashed below decks for the surf zone transit) and reading the break as best I could I went first and came through fairly easily, again passing close by the board riders on the southern side.

Coming in. Note the wave building on the outer bank, but I'm safe in deep water. Pic by turtleboy, date wrong by one day, time correct.

Bracing in the shorebreak. Pic by turtleboy, date wrong by one day, time correct.

Looking back from the safety of the beach I could now see that jaro was about to start his run. One of the problems today that I haven't mentioned was that the exact breaking positions of the waves was not fully predictable. The entrance to our channel was quite narrow but even then, some waves seemed to break in unexpected places, thus making the entrance even narrower. This problem, and the difficulty of picking it from the seaward side, led to jaro approaching a little further south than was entirely safe. Quite suddenly he was in the midst of a set which started to break. Here he did the best he could by paddling hard to the north, suddenly realizing that the deeper water was in that direction. Uh, oh, he's in trouble, we thought as a wave caught him sideways on just as it started to break. Skilfully, jaro braced hard on the offshore side and hung perilously on the top of the wave in white water before he slid down the back of the wave and reached the deep water. This event occurred too far from the beach to capture movie, unfortunately, as it would have provided a great lesson in how to get out of the situation.

The shorey was all that was left as jaro paddled into the strong current toward the beach, just as at Middle Groyne, except that here the swell was bigger and the beach much steeper.

Jaro approaching the beach. Pic by turtleboy, date wrong by one day, time correct.

Here, in the shorebreak, the sand monster played his last card and won a trick.

Images sourced from movie shot by me.

Jaro was uninjured, and sort of pleased we'd captured the event in a movie so that it could be used as instructional material. Note that he suffered no equipment damage or loss. All his vulnerable gear was either stowed away or strapped down or both.

Movie to follow if I get time before I leave on Sunday.

So, (one) wet arse and no fish!

Kev

DIP Trip Report, 15May13

TR by Pedro and Wendy
Wind: SW 10 to 15 knots
Swell: 0.5 to 1m
Launch point: Western side DIP
Participants: Pedro, Wendy


We caught the 5.30am ferry across the river and arrived on the beach to view a spectacular sunrise.


Sunrise at 3rd cutting

Even at low tide there was little room between the coffee rock and the water line in several places. We headed for DIP Western side. We launched about 6.30 and pa/eddled out toward some birds working just of the shore.

Soon worked out that it was bait fish feeding with no larger fish evident, we continued on to the our destination, a bommie just of the headland. The breeze had picked up, even though we were partially protected by the headland and with the high cloud shading the sun, it was chilly.




We trolled circles around the bommie with Pedro landing 3 snapper on his new preda pro trolling rigged with pillie, and a nice greasy cod on a spaniard special with gar.



Wendy on the other hand, trolling a 7"sp".....got a hit on something that due to inexperience got away........but did manage to get a small snapper to the yak, Pedro arrived to unhook it and released it back to the wilds.

Wendy headed in early due to chill factor, Pedro stayed out landing his cod before coming in at 12pm.


All calm on the beach, all photos courtesy of Pedro

After relaxing on the beach for a couple of hours we headed over to the Eastern side. We spotted a good fishing hole and pulled in to try for some Tailor and with none caught by 4.30pm we headed home on the low tide.

Take note: Make sure if you are traveling on the beach to have your permits. There is a guy taking photo's of number plates at 3rd cutting.

Cheers
Pedro and Wendy

Hot River Night, 08May13

TR by Eyetag
Location: Noosa River
Wind:5-10 knots swing from S/SW to E/SE
Tide: running out
Participants: Eyetag

I launched from Lions Park Noosa Heads around 9.30 pm Wednesday and had plans to fish the current line out from Ricky's. On my way through the Inner Woods Bay trolling a Gold Bomber I got a Hairtail and after some cursing, he was released.

Sticking to my plan I entered the Outer Woods and had a better strike that turned out to be a larger specimen, more cursing. As I got to the current line my rod had a quick bounce and the Bomber was gone. So while re-rigging I put a Gladiator Prawn out to drag along the bottom. I hadn't finished rigging before the Prawn was taken and I was hooked up to a nice fish. Five minutes later I landed then released a Jack around 40 cm.

Hoping there was more around and being pretty clean territory I got the 3lb outfit hoping for some fun.

Mayhem would better describe the next 3 hours. I landed 9 Jacks, 2 Bream, 4 Big Eye Trevally, 1 Flathead dropping about 15 fish and got busted off 5 times.

One of the Jacks I dropped right at the yak would've been 60cm at least (the one that got away). I kept 2 Jacks, 1 which had to be the unluckiest fish in the river that night. Somehow I got my line tangled with another while it was out and while untangling it a fish hit hard breaking the tip of my rod and my line.

Then about 20 minutes later, I hooked up and was fighting a fish when all of a sudden in came my Gladiator Prawn and it was tangled to some line. I grabbed the tangle, hand-lined it for about 20 metres and on the end was my Gladiator Prawn in the mouth of a Jack.

By now the tide had slowed and the fish went quiet so I headed home.



The top Jack was the unlucky one



Photo's of Jacks above and busted tip rod, by Eyetag

Cheers EyeTag.

Not much today, 07May13

TR by Pedro
Wind: SW to South 10 to 13 knots
Swell: .5m at MG
Launch point: MG
Participants: Eyetag, Pedro


Eyetag and I were ready to launch when we deemed it light enough at about 5.15am and made it out the back with dry bums. Eyetag with rods up and I decided to lay mine down behind me with a drybag slipped over the reels and tied off with a cord. Not 100% watertight but I'm sure it makes the reels last a bit longer and saves time fully rigging once out the back.

We headed for LHalls hoping for some tuna action but it wasn't our day with myself getting one short strike on a gar rigged on a Headstart trolling rig. We also copped a soaking by a quick shower, so much for the dry bum launch.

We saw a few turns heading north but there was nothing happening in our area as far as surface action, except a single pilchard left the water in front of the yak.

Headed in and landed safely around 9am.

Just a note on looking at weather predictions.

I look at Seabreeze, wind guru, and Coastwatch coastal forecast- Double Island Point to Point Danger ( same as BOM). The later predicting lighter SW winds inshore early was on the money as the others were saying 15knot SE.


Wet and Cold but still Smiling. Photo by TurtleBoy taken in MG Carpark.

Cheers
Pedro

Go Dad, 04May13

TR by Gemini
Lake MacDonald

Just a quick report from the lake this arvo. I took Dad out for his first ever yak fish and he managed a couple of nice ones. He even took the largest of the day at 38cm. Not bad for his first bass AND first fish from a yak. Mango (Brian) also ventured out to join us later in the afternoon to check out the surroundings.



Photo of Dad (Peter), courtesy Gemini.




ADDITIONAL: Two bass each was the total for the day, but I did lose my first lure in the lake as well. Just entering the Palm Farm area I had a heavy strike amongst a lilly patch there. Whatever it was took off like a rocket and snapped me clean off down to the join for my leader. I'm not sure if I had a loop around the end of my rod or the drag was too tight, but it gave away with a PING and a sad groan from yours truly. At a guess I would say it was a big toga or eel. Bummer.

Cheers!

Matt (Gemini)

EyeTag and Stormin', 04May13

TR By Eyetag with Contribution from Stormin'
Wind:
Swell:
Conditions:
Participants: Eyetag, Stormin'


I launched this morning around 6.am just after Norman who'd made it out with a dry bum. So the pressure was on !

I sat at the end of the wall waiting for a lull seeing an opportunity I hit the turbo button and I made it out with a dry bum. Clear of the sand monster I rigged up my gear and headed North with Norman.

We got to LH before seeing our first sign of fish activity with a few Longtail jumping about 200m to the North. Norman started fishing the bottom and I paddled onward in search of Tuna. I returned to LH about 15 min later fish-less and Norman had been throwing slugs at the odd bust up. He decided to fish the bottom again and I went toward the first cutting hoping for a Longtail. I hadn't paddled far when the reel screamed to life and I was hooked up to a Longtail that was boated in around 15 minutes.

I returned to Norman who was also successful with a Squire on board. He said he was going to keep bottom fishing for a little while then have a troll. I then travelled the same path as before to the first cutting and then home as I have family visiting and time was limited. On arrival at MG the Sand monster was in a calmer mood so I stowed all my gear and waited for the right moment still having some turbo thrust available I got to the beach upright.



Photo Courtesy of BillyBob Watson www.fishingnoosa.com.au

Cheers EyeTag

Contribution from Stormin' Norman

I left home around 5:15 knowing I might be doing solo mission as Solman is not feeling well. Arrived at MG car park just after 6:00 and went straight to the beach to assess the conditions. Swell is not to bad and there's a decent gap between set so I'm going. When I returned to the car park I'm happy to see another fishing kayak it was Eyetag's. Quick chat with him and we both start setting up. Launch was easy or I got really lucky dry bum but my legs got wet.

We trolled hard body to LHR with out luck. Start bottom fishing using prawn bait while eyetag doing a big circle around me hoping for long tail. Snapper are biting in numbers but mostly undersized. Got one snapper 37cm when eyetag paddled to me and announced that he already got a long tail (left his radio at home) and heading in in few minutes. In total I landed 8 snapper and a bream at LHR all in prawn bait.

Time to chase long tail as my supply of bait run out but no sign of them at this stage so went further north trolling rapala slashbait. About 400 metres to HR and I can see lots of birds and lots of splashing I'm thinking these is going to be another day for me. Got to the spot and there's at least two bust up going on and I'm so excited where to cast. Encountered several bust up but predators don't like shiny metal I'm offering tried different sizes 40grms 30grsms and 20grms. Been casting metal for quite some time and getting desperate when another bust up appeared right in front of me. Didn't bother with my casting gear this time I just pedalled straight in the middle and hooked up immediately. Finally!! Fight only last for 20min and to my surprise the fish appeared tail first as its been hooked its body near tail!


Stormin's Video of the capture - almost !

It's after 9am and some action still going but its time for me to head in. I got what I want and I know sand monster is waiting for me. Trolled hard body on my way with out any more luck.

Sand monster is happy to see me (I'm not happy to see him) his favourite victim and once again he succeeded to take me to Panno's Bar and Grill for a swim. On the beach Lauren from England is happy to pose for a picture holding my fish.


Photo of Lauren by Stormin'


Photos by Norman

Cheers
Norman (stormin)

Sharkies, 02May13

TR by Jaro with Contribution by Pedro
Conditions: Mainly clear day with little to no wind early increasing to 8 to 10 knots then dying to nothing.
Swell: 1 to 1.5m

Participants: Yakfin, Soren, Dr Dog, Pedro and Jaro

I arrived at MG at around 5.30am with Soren and Yakfin and looked at the conditions. Gibbo was also there just to see how we would handle getting out. The sand monster was working very well beyond the end of the groyne. The sets were very irregular so timing would be more luck than good management. To be perfectly honest I was quite ready to head back home but the nerveless Soren was going to have a go so we decided to watch his efforts.

Unfortunately his luck was out as far as his timing was concerned and after bashing into and through a number of waves the valiant Soren was hit by one wave too many and over he went. However, unperturbed he immediately righted his yak, boarded it and ploughed on through the waves out to safety. You would think that this was enough to send the rest of us home but no Yakfin and I ventured out with trepidation.

I sat in the channel waiting for a possible lull but yakfin seized his moment and took off and was greeted by a smaller set which he negotiated brilliantly and got out fine. Meanwhile yours truly was waiting and waiting until I finally deemed there were no shadow lines (waves) visible and took off with adrenalin surging through my veins paddling at a furious pace and sure enough the waves appeared but not soon enough and so I got out with a wet bum but a dry top.

We decided to head for JS and just as we headed off Dr Dog had also made it through the gauntlet, proudly telling me he got through with a dry bum. We arrived uneventfully to JS and started bottom fishing. It wasn’t long before I caught a shark (released) and then had a large strike which I was sure was another shark but a big one. Fortunately it disengaged itself after a 5 minute struggle.

By this time Pedro joined us and after a short time headed for HR. We all followed at different intervals. Pedro was the most successful in that he caught a schoolie mac and 2 sweet lips plus a few sharks. I caught another shark (released) and I think the others caught a shark or two.

Simon and Soren headed home early while Dr Dog and I headed home later leaving Pedro still out there. We came across a few small bust ups in Laguna Bay of what appeared to be large long tails but had no success. Dr Dog hooked 2 sharks (making it 3 in total) near a bust up and kept one.

We both timed our return well and got back to shore upright at around 12.00 which was close to high tide. I don’t know how the others fared.

So it essentially was a day for sharks on another beautiful day on the Noosa waters.

Jaro


Contribution by Pedro



The waves were big when I was ready to launch at 4.45am so I decided on cowards corner and wheeled the yak down the beach launching opposite the surf club.

A bit of wait and picking a lull paddled out punching through a couple that went over the bow giving me a full soaking.

As I was close to the headland I headed around to the northern end of sunshine beach before trolling back and meeting up with the others at JS.

A couple of laps around the pinnacles trolling and the other guys being quiet, I decided to troll to Halls. I bottom fished picking up two grassies, a squire, and a school mac. The only surface action I saw all day was on the way back to MG at Little Halls, where some mac tuna were busting up occasionally.

The landing went well as I managed to sneak past a pretty big, active sand monster.
24k on the trip meter.


Photo of Pedro's catch

Cheers, Pedro