Doc Dog breaks drought. 31Aug13

Noosa Yakkers Trip Report 31.August 2013
Weather --Calm seas swell less than half metre
Wind North West 10 knots
Paddlers- Sunshiner, Cybertech, Doctor Dog, Stormin, Bomber,DC
When I arrived at the DB carpark at a little after 5.15 Cybertech was already there so we strolled down the newly landscaped path to the beach to check out the swell and gutter formation. Cybertech had recently launched here from straight in front of the creek . That looked like a perfectly doable option for today so we returned to the carpark to load up ready for the launch.
The crew arrived en masse and quickly unloaded and headed to the beach. Being my disorganised self I was the last to hit the beach with Sunshiner heading out first rapidly followed by the rest of the crew. My transit to beyond the break was relatively untroubled as was the rest of the Yakkers launch.
We headed East towards the sunrise.

Sunrise as we rigged up just beyond the break
The five other yakkers headed east to other marks but with the rising North West breeze I chose to head north to Lion Rock and Paradise Cave. I have caught Snapper and Brown Maori there previously from power boats so I thought it would be good to spread the prospect of the fishing group.
Shortly after starting to paddle north trailing a soft plastic the bend in the rod indicated I had hooked or fouled something as there was not enough pull to activate the drag and or rachet. I had hooked and managed to land the 37 cm Australian Bonito- ( sorry no picture)
I released the Bonito healthy and it swam away vigorously in the blink of an eye.
Paddling along the 15 m depth line to the north I came across a good show of bait and some larger fish so I stopped and flicked my small light rig with a Jelly Prawn . It had not long sunk to about 10 meters when it was claimed in no uncertain manner. I have not often used such light gear offshore and enjoyed the clean fighting tussle with the head shaking typical of a snapper. After a short enthusiastic fight I was pleased to see the pink silvery flash as the 40 cm snapper slid onto my lap.
My fish drought is broken.

I reported the capture to the rest of the Yakker Crew and Sunshiner came over to join me for a few drifts under the lee of the headland.
I had no further hits and by 9.30 some of the crew were heading in so after a few more unproductive drifts over heavy bait shows around Lion Rock I call it a day as well. In spite of trolling soft plastics and bait I had no significant touches other than the first strike and hook up.

There were lots of dolphins and even the occasional turtle but no whales today
Some of us had a little trouble with the sand monster on the way back to the beach but no real harm done.




My drought-breaking little snapper.
Thanks for coming Noosa Yakkers I had a great day hopefully the fish will come out to play next time.
Cheers,
Doctor Dog

Tasting the salt(i). 29Aug13

TR by salticrak

Wind: 10knot SE
Swell: 1 m E
Current: none
Launch point: Doggie Beach
Participants: salticrak

So off to silver spoon country it was for me this morning. On a solo mission as me bestie sprocket had to earn some coin, or maybe he just has a better weather predictor.

You can smell the mink and Moet as you drive to the small car park for doggie beach, all asleep making $$$$$. I have a four wheeled dolly which I used to drag the duck egg blue to the beach, not ideal but better than my hobie cart conversion fail from Tuesday at Yaroomba.

Picked the gap and launched effortlessly into the pre dawn surf. As sunshiner would say me ass stayed dry. At his age I think this is something to look forward to.

Bloody hell she was a bit breezy out there. I'd say at least ten knots with whitecaps and a 0.5m southerly wind chop. I had made up some trolling rigs using a jig head as a weight for the lovely gar I had, some latte sipper rigs with a bit of Crak innovation for good measure.

latte rigs

I dragged this and chucked a new soft plastic I have found made in Japan called Keitech, they are soft and smell like squid and whale oil. They look the goods though. Nothing, nada. Peer pressure and Nad97's bleating kept me going. The sea was lumpy and I was not game to sit side saddle in these conditions.

Getting cold and cranky I decided to head in. There was a tiny swell shore break where I managed to see my ass three times playing in the surf, of course sunshiner was there to film it.

That's me, out there. Normally I roar through the surf but today I tried some deliberate rollovers to see if any water came in through the hatch. Pic by sunshiner.

Kev had his wheels that are phat and offered to let me use them instead of my bloody set up. They are so good, Dennis put some of them aside would ya sweetcheeks?

Good to catch up with the bloody Banjo Patterson of yak fishing again.

salticrak

Doggie Beach again. 28Aug13

TR by cybertech

Wind: light NW
Swell: less than 1 m E
Current: none
Launch point: Doggie Beach
Participants: bomber, cybertech

Bomber and I set off early this morning launching at Doggie Beach just after sun up.

Tide was low and a few big sets rolled in but we both managed to time the launch well and got out dry.

Fishing scene: We tried a few different reefs around A-Bay, North Sunshine and one a bit closer. Only I managed to bag a small but keeper snapper going 40cm. Bomber had a massive hook-up but it got off halfway up. Other than that there wasn’t much action.

Around 11am we decided it was enough and headed in. This time tide was high but the wind had increased. Some big sets rolled in but we both managed to avoid most of it. Bomber headed in first and got right in close then had a massive nose dive and come off.

Bomber gets gobbled by the sand monster. Pic by sunshiner.

It looked funny from out the back then I realised… hang on, I'm next. But luckily for me I got in relatively dry without stacking.

This is me, bracing on the shorey. Pic by sunshiner

Thanks Bomber for the company, and thanks Kev for the photography and beach reports.

cybertech

VB Reef, 27Aug13

TR by TurtleBoy
Launch Point: Castaways Doggie Beach Car Park
Wind: WNW
Swell: Small and doable
Participants: Wendy, Pedro, TurtleBoy


With the excellent general boating conditions up and down the coast, Pedro, Wendy and I decided to try a different launch point to get to Victor Bailey's (VB) reef.



We arrived at 5.30am and were out through a hole and rip right in front of the northern dune entrance by first light. I had already told Pedro that I had a spot I wanted to find by reference to landmarks and using his sounder to check the bottom structure, but after 20 minutes and no success we headed SE for Victor Bailey's reef. Feeling almost as deflated as the famous stellar navigator Fred Noonan I followed along as Pedro led the way.

We arrived at our mark and set up a drift with the wind pushing us ESE at about 0.8 klm per hour.

First to strike was Wendy with a keeper snapper that she unfortunately dropped at the side of the kayak. She and Pete also caught other smaller snapper and a juvenile red emperor.



Pedro

I had my first strike fishing on the bottom with SP and jighead at around 830am and then again about an hour later. The snapper were 43cm and 39cm.



Strike number one with Noosa Headland in the background.



All Photo's courtesy of Wendy

At about 10.30 we decided to head back into shore. Pedro did a big trawl North and then directly in whilst Wendy and I witnessed a Tuna bust up with a large dolphin in pursuit.

We also saw a massive whale coming almost completely out of the water SE from our position. Magnificent.

We finished our day with a little swim in the rising surf to cool off. Very refreshing !

In summary, some really nice reef at VB's but its really only accessible with low swell conditions similar to Sunshine doggie Beach, else a very long paddle.



Cheers, TurtleBoy

JS Jimbo, 27Aug13

TR by Jimbo
Launch Point: MG
Conditions: Flat and Calm
Wind: NNW
Participants: Jimbo


I dry-bum launched in semi-darkness, about 0530, in probably the lowest tide I have ever witnesses at Middle Groyne and headed straight for the Pinnacles at Jew Shoal. I was wanting to be on-site before sunrise, about 0605.

I had dispatched my first cast prawn and was setting up my trailing rod when the cast rod suddenly bent double and line was being stripped off the reel. Unfortunately by the time I had stowed the trailing rod and picked up the cast rod, whatever had taken the prawn bait had headed into a hole in the reef and I was snagged. Still, things were looking promising. I did recover the weighted hook and then reset the drift over the same spot, generally to the east of the Pinnacles aided by a fresh westerly. On about the third drift I picked up a nice snapper, about 55 cm.

Although I tried various other marks around Jew Sh and picked up three small reefies, the snapper remained my only keeper. By 0930 the sun had warmed up and the breeze had dropped making conditions on the water glorious, but the fish had gone quiet. Having had an early start I decided to head for home.

Not long after leaving the vicinity of JS my trailed Gold Bomber was taken by a bonito, about 45 cm. This was released and I continued back to MG without incident.

One thing worth noting re VHF radio comms. When only about 500m out from Middle Groyne, I was able to have a brief conversation with NY Dr Dog on VHF Ch22 who was calling from Stumers Creek at Coolum. Given that we were about 15 km apart, in a straight line mostly over land with Noosa National Park headland in between, this demonstrates the benefit and power of the Ch22 repeater on Noosa Hill. I think Ch80 and/or Ch88 are also repeated from Noosa Hill. As soon as we both went to Ch09, to clear Ch22, the Coast Guard's main operating frequency, all comms between us were lost. I'm not suggesting for one moment that NY should use Ch22 (or Ch 80 or Ch88) but it is worth noting the extended range of these channels should it be needed for emergency communications.

Jimbo

Dogsnaps. 26Aug13

TR by sunshiner

Wind: light SE
Swell: 1 m SE
Current: none
Launch point: Doggie Beach
Participants: tunny, stormin, sunshiner

With the brilliant run of weather, it was on again and Doggie Beach the launch point. As befits an old gentleman, I elected to launch later than the young guys, but not too much later. Just enough to allow me a more leisurely breakfast.

It was dead low tide but the hole in front of the creek mouth invited an easy get-out.

Hah! I thought I'd picked the run pretty well and had a dry bum until one of those waves came out of nowhere, stood up high and broke just as our locations converged. After that, nothing on the outside of the yak was dry, but at least we broke through, in a shower of spray in the early morning sunlight. When this happens it is no time to pause as there’s possibly another wave right behind the first. Vigorous paddling quickly got me out into quiet water.

Here I opened the hatch and dragged the radio out from its storage bag, immediately calling the boys to find out what they'd been up to for the last hour or so. Tunny was continuing his good form, and was just putting his second snapper away when my call came. They were fishing a fair way out and stormin still hadn't scored.

After setting up, I trolled out to the vicinity of my two companions so that the three of us were in a north-south line, about 400m apart, with tunny at the northern end and stormin at the southern. There was just enough breeze to make a perfect drift toward the NW so I adopted my usual practice of fishing two outfits hanging a trailing rig (SP) out the back while I cast another downwind and let it fall gently to the bottom.

As experienced lately, the action was slow. Soon after I arrived stormin caught a fish which he couldn't identify. He took a photo before releasing it so I can now confirm its identity.

Finny scad, caught by stormin on a trolled lure. Bomber established the record for this species just recently in the same general area.

The three of us went our separate ways after a while, in search of action. Doggie Beach reef eventually was my next chosen drift area as that is a place that I know produces fish, but not always. Stormin reported the capture of a Venus tuskfish and also mentioned a whale he could see nearby, breaching.

On my drift I eventually started catching yellowtail (commonly known as yakkas) on my cast SP. Yellowtail form vast schools and are an excellent baitfish so I hoped that perhaps some snapper might be hanging around with them.

One of the several yellowtail I caught, three of them on consecutive casts.

Then the trailing outfit went off. On this I'd rigged a 125mm SP on a 30gm jighead and it was drifting along about 10m clear of the bottom. The fight was typical of snapper and sure enough, before long my first snapper in Noosa in 2013 was in the hatch.

Only 44cm, but welcome nontheless.

Around now tunny, not far from me, reported another snapper in the bag. All of his fish were caught on a large SP so he’s doing something right.

And then a whale event. I'd just cast my lighter SP downwind and was still looking in that direction when a whale surfaced briefly, obviously travelling straight for me. It was about two or three cast lengths away and my first instinct was to reach for my camera but I quickly changed my mind when it became clear that it was moving steadily directly toward me. In the water I had my casting outfit, probably at about 10m depth and sinking slowly, my trailing outfit at about 20m depth with 30m of line out, and my drogue. All of these were in the direct line of the whale’s approach. Frantically I retrieved the closest first, the cast outfit, then the trailing outfit, then the drogue and by then whale was so close I could see that a collision was nearly certain. Paddling out of the way was now my only option and I did so, turbocharged by adrenalin. The whale submerged a little as it got to me and I literally looked straight down at it and its calf as they passed directly under my yak, which was now moving forward and out of the way. To my horror the calf appeared to peel off and come to investigate me, followed, naturally, by Mum. There was a huge swirl on the surface as they turned. As for me, I was still paddling flat out looking back over my shoulder to get out of the general area. The risk as I saw it was of an accidental collision which might end up with me in the water and my kayak upside down. Fortunately, that was the last I saw of them although we all saw more whale activity in the distance afterward.

Just after 11:00 we decided jointly to head for the beach as fishing action seemed to be slowing. By now the tide was much higher than at launch time, but there were still some tricky small waves, especially the shore break. I went in first and had a bit of fun on the shorey, which deposited me sideways at the top of the beach but right way up.

Tunny followed me in, using his special South African beach break balancing technique. He finished up OK.

Stormin is now a close associate of the Doggie Beach sand monster as many of us have been in the past. No real harm done, due to careful stowage procedures.

Some pics on the beach

Tunny's fish, all taken on SPs

And tunny with his Tunny and fish

Stormin's tusky, not quite a Noosa Yakkers Record.

Stormin, his fish, and the sand monster hiding in the background.

My fish, yakkas taken for future troll baits

Thanks for coming along, guys

Kev Long
Sunshiner
Author Kayak Fishing Manual for iPad (click linked text to view)
Stealth Supalite X, yellow/orange

Solo Eyetag, 25Aug13

Participants: Eyetag
Launch site:Middle Groyne Noosa
Swell:Tiny swell
Wind; 5 knot NW breeze increasing to 7 knots and swinging W/SW by the time I returned.


I launched 5.15 am in a very calm sea and headed North. I had a good strike at the RM that pulled drag for a second, but unfortunately so did the hooks, so he swam free (the one that got away). Then I kept heading up the beach about 1km off shore all the way to the 3rd cutting and back.

 I didn't have another strike until I was inside of LH where I landed a Grinner. I got back on land around 8.30 am and had travelled 17.2km's. It was a very nice day on the water having seen lots of Dolphins and a Turtle.

Glad I went cause we all know we won't catch them at home.



Looking East just before sunrise

Eyetag

Picture Perfect Day, 22Aug13

Participants: Pedro and Jaro
Launch site: Doggie Beach at Sunshine Beach
Conditions: In a word...perfect. No swell, wind and current to speak of and a clear sunny day (but it was freezing early on).


I arrived at doggie beach at 5.30am to see that Pedro was already on the water. There was a negligible surf and soon I was out there with a dry bum.

We fished all over the place seeking the elusive fish till 10.00am to no avail save for a few nibbles. Returning to shore was as easy as I have ever had at doggie beach, even though it was still prudent to time the shore break, which we both did well.

No fish, but still a beautiful way to spend a morning on a picture perfect day.

Jaro

Jewie at JS. 21Aug13

TR by sunshiner

Wind: light NW swinging to north 7 knots about 2:00pm
Swell: 1.3m NE
Current: none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: sunshiner alone

Having had no success locally since I returned to the Noosa fishing scene in late July this year despite several trips, I was starting to wonder if I'd lost my mojo. Today the weather offered an opportunity for an afternoon trip and I spotted it about 9:30 am after viewing the forecast and noting that the wind was lighter than forecast and the wind speed trend was downward. Having no commitments I couldn't postpone I demurred for a while then finally cracked about 10:30 am, it was irresistible.

Opting to launch from Middle Groyne and head for Jew Shoal for the afternoon I was well aware that the biggest hassle on sunny days at Middle Groyne is finding a carpark. Amazingly, the number 1 carpark, usually eyetag's, at Middle Groyne was vacant when I arrived so I grabbed it. Maybe it was my lucky day!

Launch time. Dry bum today!

The gentle NW just ruffled the surface of the bay and barely slowed me down as I headed for Jew Shoal. My trolled HLP got no action as I covered the 4km without sighting any surface action. Planning on my usual drift and cast routine, which has worked well in the past but not recently, I found that the breeze was perfect for a slow drift from NW to SE. The first two drifts were uneventful except for the hookup of a tiny bar-tailed flathead in 21m SE of The Pinnacles. Conditions were perfect but there seemed to be nothing around.

I'd already decided that I'd be heading back in about 3:15pm and a wind shift and increase in strength around 2:00pm reinforced that. I figured I had time for one last drift and, as I'd been fishing the deeper water without success decided to target the shallow water around The Pinnacles. Here the slightly rougher conditions and reducing sunlight might encourage predators to get amongst the baitfish which usually hang around there. It was worth a try anyway and I had no better ideas.

So by around 2:20pm I was setting up the drift in about 14m, starting by deploying my trailing outfit then laying out a cast with my preferred snapper outfit (6kg braid) loaded with a 1/8 ounce jighead and 100mm soft plastic. This sinks very slowly but even so you need to fish it very carefully to avoid snagging.

This cast was clobbered soon after it hit the water. After a couple of minutes I was sure that either this was the biggest snapper I'd ever hooked or possibly it was a big slatey bream. It wasn't a tuna, which I've hooked many times in similar situations. Early on I thought that I'd been reefed as I seemed to be able to make no progress at all and the depth was around 10m. But after a while it was clear the fish was free swimming, but probably pretty big and that was why I couldn't lift him. In all of this, the trailing outfit snagged up and as the yak was pulled around it seemed likely that a tangle would ensue so I quickly opted to cut it loose as it wrapped around my head.

At last I started to get line back and then the leader (about 5m) appeared and was wound on to the reel but was then given back, several times. I still hadn't seen the fish, possibly because it was directly under the yak but then it suddenly appeared out to my left and I thought, in quick succession, cobia, shark, and then as it got closer to the surface I could see it was a magnificent jewie. My first!

It must have been completely knackered as once it came to the surface planting the gaff was easy, and it didn't even respond. By now the Stealth hatch was open and with a heave I dragged the jewie across my lap and dropped the heavy end into the hatch. The tail followed, but I had to slide the head forward to get it all in. Stoked!

Some on water pics

There's the jighead. SP totally gone.

Knowing that there probably wouldn't be many people on the beach I phoned Jaro who agreed to meet me at Middle Groyne and witness the measurement and take a photo. Thanks mate! The trip back was very quick, helped by the northerly breeze.

Some pics on the beach

Pru, who agreed to hold the fish while I took the shot.

Jaro's pic with my camera

It measured 1.17m and, at Davo's weighed 12.5kg. Not bad on 6kg line. Top day!

Kev Long
Sunshiner
Author Kayak Fishing Manual for iPad (click linked text to view)
Stealth Supalite X, yellow/orange

Many firsts. Doggie Beach. 19Aug13

TR by sunshiner

Wind: NW, light earlier going to 10 knots around 09:45
Swell: less than 1m SE
Current: none
Launch point: Doggie Beach
Participants: tunny, bomber, soren, lisbeth, jimbo, eyetag, stormin, sunshiner

Another good roll up today with three of us taking another crack at Doggie Beach after last Wednesday’s effort. Experiencing their first Doggie Beach launch today were eyetag (yes, surprising but true), stormin, lisbeth and, I think, soren. Lisbeth really did it in style because this was her first kayak launch into the ocean as well. Not only that, but I think this was the first time Noosa Yakkers had a lady launch at Doggie Beach.

Anyway, Doggie Beach was quite heavily overcast early this morning, as moist air coming over the Noosa headland from the NW was cooled and condensation occurred. Eyetag launched in fully dark conditions, probably at least 30 minutes before any of the rest of us came down to the beach. When I asked him about this later, he reckoned he could just discern the dark horizontal lines of building waves coming toward him.

As I usually do, I went down to the launch point for a look before unloading and judged it safe. Bomber was already unloaded, having full confidence that the lack of wave noise at the carpark was a positive sign.

The high tide and low swell were certainly making things easy as the hole right at the creek exit easily absorbed the waves pulsing through, resulting in no white water at all straight ahead, and only occasional breakers on the shallow banks to the right and left.

That's bomber about to launch. Stormin went next. I waited until I was sure soren and lisbeth didn't need my guidance.

Looking back to the launch spot. Note the misty conditions.

Lisbeth admitted to me that she’d got a bit wet at launch time, missing her footing when trying to scramble aboard in the shore break. I assured her that we had all done this at some time. Other than that, all launches went OK.

Contacting eyetag by radio as soon as I'd launched I was happy to hear that he’d hooked a 40cm snapper on his first cast, in the dark, but released it as he thought this might be a sign that fish were plentiful today.

Heading east toward Doggie Beach reef after launch. Awesome.

Pretty much straight away bomber came up on the radio and announced the capture of a small keeper snapper. Unlike eyetag he kept this, though, no doubt recalling last Wednesday.

Keepers were scarce today. It was interesting though, that by 09:25 only bomber and tunny had caught anything fitting the description of keeper, but within the next 15-20 minutes, the catch reports flowed in from widely separate places. Jimbo had caught a snapper, eyetag had a double hookup on small sweetlip then another double of snapper, then soren radioed asking ID advice on what eyetag and I called for (correctly as it turned out) a tusk fish, soren's first. Fishing with lures only, I had not had a touch. Stormin, fishing with bait, was also fishless.

Although most of the time I was well separated from the rest of the group, at one stage lisbeth drifted close to me and presented the opportunity for a pic.

Our lady participant with Hells Gates in the distant background.

Around 10:00am the wind speed started to increase, accompanied by a few drops of rain. These factors, plus a distinct shortage of fish, caused all to head for the beach, where the water level was now much lower and the swell a teeny bit bigger.

Just as we were packing up, out the back, stormin saw a couple of longtails clear the water right among us. I think that was the only fishy surface action any of us saw.

In we went to the beach, bomber (second to run) deciding that the water looked too inviting and going for a swim. By the time I hit the beach (third, and yes, right way up), the little sandbank out the front was starting to allow waves to kick up and break. So I switched the camera to movie as the remaining five came back to the beach.

Jimbo hamming it up for the camera

Stormin did pretty well but was stitched up by the Doggie Beach shorey

Oops. Who was this? Surely not!

Soren sent lisbeth in first, to appease the sand monster.

Then he was clear to paddle in.

Lisbeth waded and swam back in after soren swam out and rescued… the kayak!

On beach pics

Fish of the day

bomber, tunny, jimbo

soren and his Venus tusk fish

beach scene

Thanks for coming along guys and gal.

Kev Long
Sunshiner
Author Kayak Fishing Manual for iPad (click linked text to view)
Stealth Supalite X, yellow/orange

Teewah Trip, 18Aug13

Teewah TR by Pedro
Participants; Wendy and Pedro


Wendy and I took the opportunity to take advantage of the good weather and booked into a beach shack at Teewah for a couple of nights.

The shack is on the front row of houses at Teewah village which is about 10klm north of third cutting (Noosa North Shore).

We arrived Sunday afternoon so I fished the beach for 4 Tailor.

Monday morning we headed up the beach and launched the yaks and fished Double Island Point for a total of 2 snapper between us, one of those being Wendy's, (her first keeper fish from a yak, went 56cm).





Monday night I fished the beach in perfect conditions for 10 Chopper Tailor.

Tuesday DIP again for another couple of snapper, one going 60cm. Wendy had a close encounter with a whale, with it surfacing nearly close enough to touch.




Before leaving Tuesday arvo, we sat at the picnic bench across from the shack and looked out over the water from the top of the dunes, light offshore winds, whales heading north occasionally and clear blue water, bloody beautiful !




Cheers Pedro