Stealth Comp, Noosa, 07Dec13

TR by sunshiner with pic contribution by redwood


Special Event: Stealth Kayaks inaugural Summer Series comp; here in Noosa was the first for the Series, the second being scheduled for Palm Beach, Gold Coast, late January
Wind: 10-15 knot ESE
Swell: 1.5m SE
Current: n/a
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: a total of 35, of whom the following are Noosa Yakkers: lapse, eyetag, pedro, lazybugger, jayman, jamieD, redwood, tunny, sunshiner, imax, isobar, bigkev, sprocket, tomT, redgreg, kayakone. Any other Noosa Yakkers who launched and are not listed here please accept my apologies and let me know.

With a launch time of 04:30 and so many competitors from near and far I felt it imperative that I get to Middle Groyne early to secure a good carpark and help out in any way possible with the arrangements. As a result I rolled in at 3:00am and found to my delight that my favourite carpark was available. Scattered around the carpark were several vehicles with Stealth yaks on the roof and, I guessed, hard bitten owners having a tough time trying to sleep before the rigours of the day to come.

Only ten minutes after my arrival the first of a stream of vehicles rolled in, the carpark started to fill up and headtorches thronged the gloom as yaks were removed from roofs and final prepping was undertaken.

Australian Kayak Specialists (the event organizers) were well prepared and arrived with a team of helpers who immediately started to put up the two shade marquees on the beach, allocate rented Stealth yaks and generally dealt with the inevitable enquiries. Generally, however, there was no fuss. The moon had set the evening before, there was a clear sky and obviously most present were used to getting organized in the dark. Soon the launch beach was filling up with yaks ready to go.

Signing out and signing back in later was mandatory for all, with this sensible arrangement ensuring fairness, because no-one could sign out before 04:30, and more importantly, SAFETY, as there existed on the beach a list of all who had launched. A first-line safety matter was that radio communication was established (using Noosa Yakkers' normal channel) and as a backup AKS provided a team of three jet skiers (VHF equipped) whose presence was very welcome.

Within a few minutes of 4:30 kayakers could be seen heading toward every part of the sea horizon, with light winds in close masking the likelihood of lumpy and sloppy seas once the shelter of the headland was cleared.

Launching underway. Panoramic pic by redwood

I was around the last to launch, about 4:40am.

Amazingly, given the final result, the best fish of the comp was nailed by Brisbane-based Noosa Yakker lazybugger just past the shark nets within a few minutes of launch. The rest of us fished long and hard for very little. I personally trolled a Halco LP from launch to around Hells Gates, then turned north west and hammered Jew Shoal for a number of trolling circuits. I then switched to a Spaniard Special baited with a yakka and trolled around Jew Shoal, then south to Dolphin Point, into the bay and then across to within one click of Little Halls Reef when I turned toward the river mouth and Middle Groyne, beaching around four hours after starting with nothing to show except for a doubly unfortunate metre-long hairtail which had lost part of its tail to some predator and then was free-gaffed by me as it floundered near the surface outside the river mouth (not eligible for weigh in).

Anyone with an eligible fish had to be back on the beach by 10:30am to weigh it in. Only three fish were weighed in:

(1) Lazybugger's stonker GT (pics below). He also boated a 74cm Spaniard and of course had to release it.

(2) Yaqdog from Coffs Harbour weighed in a 80cm Spaniard and reported losing another somewhat larger, both at Jew Shoal.

(3) Carnster from the Gold Coast weighed in a mac tuna.

Anyway, here’s the lowdown on lazybugger's great match-winning catch. He was trolling a dead fish bait, having just put it out near the shark nets (which are around 600m from the beach). It was taken almost immediately and it was not until the last moments of the fight that lazy knew what he'd hooked. Some pics on the beach:

Giant trevally, best I've ever seen caught at Noosa. 10kg. Potential New Noosa Yakkers record. Great catch, Scott.

On the mat

Held well by visitor from Denmark.

I hope Scott has the time to give us a full account of this great catch so we can add it to our blog as an individual report. Any video of the catch would also be welcome.

Scott's GoPro vid:



Sorry this report had to wait until today, but I really couldn't do it justice yesterday.

Thanks Dennis and Tom for putting on this event. Let's do it again next year.

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