Trip report - 28Sep13

TR by Cybertech

Participants: Cybertech, Doctor Dog
Conditions: Run out tide, 5 knot winds

I decided to launch at weyba creek and take the tide out to the river mouth and follow it back in, has been a while since I launched at weyba creek on low tide. Don't think I will be doing it again for a while... Very shallow.

Launched around 8pm, didn't see much bait fish around and no boils at all. Very quiet fishing and decided to head back around midnight, on the way back I nailed this nice little estuary cod. Got me snagged real good but persistence and determination not to lose my only hookup paid off in the end.

Doctor Dog I believe also had a quiet night.

Dos, due, ni, zwei, èr, deux...two - 28Sep13

TR by Gemini

Participants:  Panno, DeeCee, Gemini
Launch Site: Strawberry Patch, Lake MacDonald
Conditions: Overcast, light-medium gusts


By the time I arrived this morning DeeCee was already on the water attacking the weeds alongside a stinky. Panno arrived shortly after me, and we quickly made our way onto the water to join in the fun.

The going was slow, and we barely had a touch before passing into Toga Bay. Here we separated a little and I pushed up towards the Palm Farm while the others hung back briefly, noting the stinky had bagged a nice bass along the northern bank.

A few casts into some lillies gave me my first decent strike of the day, but the little bugger ran with the lure and not the hooks, releasing seconds later. I cast again into the same lillies, and to my surprise I was rewarded with another strike, but this one held on.



After releasing the bass Panno caught up and started casting along the northern weed edge. I made my way over the southern edge to try my luck, as I hadn't tried that area for some time. Another missed strike here had my casting arm tingling. Not long after, a miss-cast directly into some lillies had my Jackal gobbled up off the surface by a hungry bass. I almost lost him to the weeds, and he pulled my yak around a little too, but I managed to keep him under control long enough to net him. Unfortunately, as I stashed my rod in the holder, the little bugger flopped his way free of the net and hook and bailed over the side! He was no record breaker, but a nice fish nonetheless. This is the best shot I have of him.



After making a few sad faces I started to cast my way back around to Toga Bay. Off in the distance I could see Panno working on his tackle against the bank, and I would later find out he had been snapped off by a rather frisky fish.

No more luck was had by the time I made the shore just before 9AM a short while later. As we compared notes on the bank, the discovery was made that we had all landed 2 fish a piece. The fishing Gods obviously saw us all worthy of equal treatment... :)


Additional by DeeCee

I arrived at the end of Grange Rd earlier than expected (5.10am) to a fair bit of surface action, so I rigged up and hit the water before the other guys showed up. I threw the popper around for 15 minutes just off the launch point but no had takers.

Andy & Matt arrived so I headed in to have a chat while they were rigging up. Once they were sorted we hit the water and headed north slowly. Lots of weed in this area and more often than not the lure came back all fouled up. I worked one side of the lake and then the other until I got up into the top corner and the first on my Bass for the day. A short little fight and it was in the yak.



A couple of casts later and I was hit again, this felt a lot bigger and put up a lot more of a fight before finally coming aboard.





No other hits (but plenty of weed foulups) and then it was time to go. I headed back to the launch point followed not far behind by Matt & Andy. We had a quick chat and we were on our way.

Childs Play - 23Sep13

TR by Gemini

Participants:  Sunshiner, Redwood, BeeJay, Pedro, Doctor Dog, Gemini
Conditions: Sunny, light-mid N/NNW breeze

A 5:15AM launch saw us all on the water with few problems (minus Doctor Dog, who appeared later in the morning), although the left side of the groin was a little hairy at times. On the incoming tide some quick building dumpers from the sand bar were present, so careful timing was needed to ensure a dry bum. Redwood and BeeJay opted to launch from the right side, and found it much easier.

As usual, I was the last to start the journey after rigging up, and I trailed the group out to Jew Shoal. Half way out the reports of whales in the vicinity came through, and the odd splash could be seen on the horizon. A call also came through from Sunshiner stating he had snapped a rod on a terribly unlucky turtle which had chomped his trolled line. The rod piece, turtle, and laser pro, were all irretrievable. I continued on trolling, but arrived at my destination strike free.

After checking in with Pedro and Sunshiner for an update on the fish situation (none), I got to work dropping my shopping bag and baiting my hook with a butchered pilchard. I cast, and just as it hit the bottom I had a strike. It was an undersized squire, and he quickly made his way back into the drink.



We drifted around for quite a while and fed the tiddlers, but without much luck. BeeJay was bemused by a legal bream which randomly jumped on his line, but it was quiet otherwise. At this stage Sunshiner announced his departure to do other things on shore, but was soon replaced by Doctor Dog tagging into his place. It was also around this time that Pedro decided to troll out to North Sunshine and try his luck there.

Sometime after I managed another hookup while bobbing along with Redwood for a drift, but it was only a nasty little grinner.



After a few more casts I decided to head back past the pinnacles and restart my drift. As I neared BeeJay on my way, an adult whale breached only a few hundred metres behind him out towards MG. I called it in to warn everyone to keep an eye out, as the whales were apparently behind us now too. I continued on to where Doctor Dog was drifting for a quick chat before I went to my mark, but I didn't get far past him. By then a pair of whales (mother and calf) were well on their way to our position. By their trajectory it appeared they were heading for BeeJay and Redwoods location, so I radioed to let them know. Of course, the whales swung hard and turned towards Doctor Dog and myself instead...

What happened then was a lot of back paddling, no fishing, and a lot of "ooh"'s and "ahh"'s, as the whales put on a show. Mum raised her tail a few times, but was otherwise happy to let junior have all the fun.

The following stills are from Doctor Dog...







...BeeJay...





...and video from me.



After the excitement was over and the whales had moved on (in Pedros direction), we continued our drift. We tried for a while, but there was no action, so everyone but BeeJay and Pedro pulled the pin. BeeJay followed along behind not long after.


Additional by Pedro





I made it to north sunshine and proceeded to drift fish with pilchard on the casting rod and let the trolled taylor I was using go deep. Nothing happened till around 12 when I hooked up (pilly) on a beauty that kept me busy for ten minutes before being cut off near the hooks. After this I headed back over the same ground and picked up 4 snapper and 1 grassie. All caught on pilchard.

Plenty of whales. I had a pod of five heading for me and slapping the hull seemed to make them pay attention and keep their distance.

Brekky for one. 22Sep13

TR by beejay

Participants: Beejay
Noosa River: Woods Bay and Munna Point.
Wind: 4 to 5 knots, N to SW
Low Tide: 4.54am

After Kev emailed that offshore did not look good on Sunday I decided to take a leaf out of eyetag’s book following his recent night river success. So, trundled the kayak through the park at the end of Hastings St for a 3.00am launch from first Woods Bay. Nice to try out the new homemade light pole which worked a treat.

Kayak ready for night launch

About half an hour later between Inner Woods Bay and Outer Woods Bay and I was onto my first (and only fish for the morning) – a trevally – great – breakfast (for one!).

Breakfast for one!

Continued enjoying having the river to myself and paddled over to the current line off Ricky’s hoping for fish on what was now low tide. Nothing happening so paddled around the point and to the bridge hoping the light might have attracted a few more trevally - hooked up to something and was almost immediately bitten off.

Went back to fishing the current line off Ricky’s till around 6.30am until the boat traffic (school holidays) and lack of any further action got the better of me. Headed back to inner Woods Bay where the early morning boat parking was at a premium. I arrived as the outrigger club were setting up for a breakfast function – maybe I could have joined in and offered to share my trevally!

Peak hour (7am) parking at inner Woods Bay.

Beejay

B-B-B-Barra. 22Sep13

TR by eyetag

Wind: 5-10 knot E/SE then dropping out
Current: Run out tide
Launch Point: Noosa Heads Lions Park
Participants: Eyetag

In bed 8.30pm Saturday with the alarm set for 11.00 and by 11.45 I was on my way to Ricky's current line.

It was school holidays, but the tide was ideal and there wasn't a boat in sight. On arrival at Ricky's I could hear surface activity and as I was heading through the current line off went the Gold Bomber and soon after a Big Eye Trevally was on board. Another pass and another fish but no joy this time with a Hairtail on the other end. Not wanting any more of these toothy critters I paddled a little further down stream.

I'd only gone about 100 metres when another Big Eye took a liking to my Bomber. There were fish all through the current line from Ricky's to well past the sand bags. The routine was like last weekend's, drift down with a Gladiator Prawn and troll back with a Bomber. I fished this way for about two hours for one small Jack, one Flatty and a heap of Big Eye from 25-40 cm. All the Trevally and the Flatties were released.

Although this was a lot of fun on the light gear (3lb drifting and 8lb trolling) I wanted something bigger. So off I went to spot "X" which I had been talking about recently with local Barra guru, Kim (kimbo) Vitale, who told me that he was suprised I hadn't hooked a Barra there before while trolling, that they have been a bit shy lately but it may be worth a try.

On arrival at spot "X" I did hear a couple of boofs from feeding fish and on my first pass through my Bomber was hit hard and within seconds I'd lost about 30 metres of line then it hung deep and I knew by the weight it was a big fish. Ten seconds later it was up tail walking and I could identify it as a Barra. The fight continued. Twice I paddled one handed into more open water getting away from jetties. Another two aerial displays and he was starting to tire then finally after a very tense 20 minute fight she was in the net. The Bomber had two of its trebles slightly straightened and the 30lb fluorocarbon leader was quite frayed. This was one unlucky fish and one very lucky and happy angler.

Thanks Kimbo for your advice.

The fourth hooked, second landed and first barramundi I've kept from the Noosa River in 25 years. Oh, yeah, it went 87cm.

This 43cm Jack had swallowed the Gladiator Prawn deep and couldn't be returned without the lure.

eyetag

Noosa Yakkers Surf Day, 2013

TR by sunshiner with some pics contributed by redwood and video contributed by DaveyG


Dave's video

Wind: NE 10-15knots
Swell: 1.1m E
Launch point: Noosa Main Beach access track 11
Participants: (1) paddlers: jimbo, emil, soren, cybertech, beejay, carlo, redwood, tunny, willo, weeksie
(2) trainers and others: lisbeth, owie, stormin, daveyg, imax, isobar, turtleboy, sunshiner

Noosa turned on ideal conditions today for Noosa Yakkers second annual surf skills training day, with the stiff northeasterly pushing up a wave which built on the small swell. These are often conditions we have to deal with at Main Beach when returning from summertime fishing trips so getting some practice today was well timed and will likely stand all in good stead.

Conditions were certainly better than last year's event which is recorded for posterity here.

Anyway, yaks started appearing from behind the dunes and being dragged along from the Middle Groyne area. By 2:00 pm, the appointed start time, virtually all expected were present.

The beach scene

Dave started by taking a buoy out on a paddle board almost to Jew Shoal and anchoring it out there, behind the break zone but it was still visible so couldn't have been quite that far out. Nevertheless, the hushed gathering watching this on the beach, wondering what this bright orange float was for.

This was soon made clear, paddle through the break out to and around the buoy and return to the beach. But not before Dave went through the important stuff such as how to avoid a wet arse, etc.

Classroom in the shade, hanging on his every word

So, with no more than three paddlers in the water at a time, the procession started. For the next 60 minutes or so there was a more or less continuous procession of craft heading out and coming back in. Here's the story in pictorial form.

Soren on first of many circuits

Redwood cutting through

Isobar in his amazing SIK, beach launching from the sitting position

Soren gets the Prowler up on the plane

Jimbo in his Espri

Tunny in his Eric's Canoes Tunny

Willo, over 60, experienced seaman but first kayak launch in the surf. Well done mate!

Not yet 16, but a veteran of quite a few launches, Emil heads out…

…and returns safely from his circuit

There's the instructor, helping out beejay

Weeksie takes his turn (Perception Swing)

Carlo bided his time but eventually the peer pressure got to him

Weeksie, again

Jimbo near the end of the longest surf he's ever had on the Espri

It's so easy to miscalculate boarding

Tunny heads out to do battle with the kite surfer

Cybertech lines up for a second or third run

Today was a great opportunity to pick up some valuable skills and it's all down to DaveyG's generosity and skills. Thanks Dave. We appreciate it.

---

Contributed pics by redwood

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

River lively after dark. 14Sep13

TR by eyetag

Wind: 10-15 knot N/NW
Current: run out tide
Launch point: Noosa Heads Lions Park
Participants: Eyetag

With the forecast not looking too good for Sunday I thought if I want to catch a fish then Saturday night was my best chance.

I launched 8pm and headed to the Woods Bays. I'd just got to the first channel marker when my Gold Bomber was hit by by something and after a short tussle I had a Big Eye Trevally on board that was around 35cm. I repeated the last 200 metres of my travels and had another.

With my real target being Mangrove Jack I headed off to the current line out from Ricky's. On arrival I found the conditions to be quite challenging with wind against and across the current depending on location but I persisted trying different things and ended up going toward the RM and drifting back against the current slow rolling a Gladiator Prawn.

This worked well with every drift producing at least one fish and the return paddle trolling the Bomber was also producing fish more often than not. I fished until midnight and had caught roughly 20 Big Eye Trevally from 35 to 49cm, three Flathead to 52cm and about 10 Hairtail, which came in as the last three fish and were the deciding factor to pull the pin. Most of the fish were caught on the Gladiator Prawn, except the Hairtail with all but one of them on the Bomber.

I kept these for a good feed. Note the white tip on the dorsal fin which is an identifying feature of the Big Eye Trevally, and the big eye of course. [Editor: Trevally, no size or possession limits in Qld]

Eyetag

El mío es un pequeño. 12Sep13

TR by salticrak

So I had my arm to its elbow up my itchy and scratchy when the bloody fone rings and it's sprocket McClacka, with these words. “Wanna go fishing mate?”

I politely informed him of the current state of affairs, to which he said “We'll take the A.I.s out for a run off Mooloolaba”.

I started soeking straight up "Have you seen the bloody wind mate, she's straight out of the north, we'll catch sweet fanny all in that wind… blah,blah blah."

I returned his call half an hour later, told him I would see him at six. I got there earlier to take my time setting up and casting an appreciative eye at the nubile joggers.

Very light winds early up, had to pedal sail. We got to what we call
the 'marlin grounds'; bullshit more like bloody whale grounds. Sprocket was yelling at one point that I was heading straight over a whale, and that I should be more whale aware ;-). Pinged one on the sounder today, it looked like a massive blob of baitfish, I could hear his song reverberate thru my hull, kinda like that cheesy hippy musak.

Sprocket

Caught a few small reefies, whilst drifting. Bugger that, time for a troll. I put on a gar, and a Rapala on my Freshie stick. I was trolling at a mere 1.8 knots when all hell breaks loose on the gar rod.

After a spirited fight, I have a SPANISH on board. Yeeehaaa, I started hollering like a stuck pig.

Did I say the spanish was not a record fish?

The other rod with the rapala was taken into the stones during the fight.

Sprocket caught some sort of mackerel and a lovely snap, I am sure he will add more later.

Also I whupped his ass sailing back to port, he really must hate my wake, the poor thing.

Salti