Fishless Four. 25Jul14

TR by sunshiner


Wind: gentle SW early, swinging to a 5knot SE about 0800.
Swell: less than 1m SE
Water temp: 20°C
Current: at Jew Shoal, none
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: jimbo, diesel, josh, sunshiner
Keen Angler Program: N/A

The forecast was spot on, as we discovered, with launch conditions dry-bum easy. Diesel, very keen, was early and so first away, heading strongly for Jew Shoal. In the event, we all had our first baits/lures out at the shoal by just before 0700, having been treated to a brilliant sunrise on the way out.

On my first pass over the shallows to the SW of The Pinnacles I could see on the sonar a huge cloud of bait, stacking up from the bottom to within five metres of the surface. Alas, nothing seemed to be feeding on this smorgasboard, but, as often occurs, there were several longtoms flipping out of the surface nearby.

As mentioned by email earlier, none of us brought any keepers home. Helping to relieve the boredom was a whale which turned up to the east, breaching several times while we watched, but bypassing Jew Shoal on its path northward. And then diesel paddled over to me with a small green turtle occupying the cockpit with him. You guessed it, the turtle had become accidentally hooked in the flipper. Diesel managed to lift it aboard to make sure that it was safely released but I was surprised to see how relaxed the turtle appeared to be, comfortably resting and seemingly enjoying his short journey out of the water. It swam away strongly once diesel nudged it over the side.

We paddled back to Middle Groyne individually and once there encountered scater gazing at us from the wall, sporting a pair of crutches and a very complex splint-thingy on his left leg. Apparently he was injured in a basketball match and will be somewhat disabled for about three months. Our commiserations, Sam.

So, the pesky snapper are still not around. Looks like July has been a very poor month, fish wise. Still, it was nice to get out today and have a go. One of these days the effort will pay off.

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

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