Short and very sweet. 29Oct14

TR by sunshiner


Wind: calm early, expected southerly arriving about 7:00am
Swell: 1m+ NE
Water temp: 23.9°C
Current: at Jew Shoal, none detected
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: weeksie, sunshiner
Keen Angler Program: Frame donated

So I was first yakker on the beach this cloudy morning.

As you can see the channel is partly reformed. This was at low tide.

Sloppy launch, with the NE swell pushing sets of small high frequency waves into the launch point. Never mind, a wet bum in 24°C water is no big deal.

On turning on the sounder while setting up, I noticed that there were numerous echos from life forms occupying the entire water column; it was busy below me. Surface was glassy, no splashes.

Paddled out, all alone, not even a stinkie in view. Still glassy, so glassy that my wake was visible as a track of bubbles going back a hundred metres or so. But I was aware that a southerly was expected and that it would come in suddenly, some time in the morning.

Sea Breeze forecast graph, with the spike arrowed.

Jew Shoal is not a pleasant place in a stiff southerly, or a stiff wind from any direction, actually. But a southerly means a tough paddle home. Be warned. I had already resolved to head for home at the first puff of the southerly, but had no idea exactly when it would arrive.

It was 0540. I was on the shoal. Water looked dark, but the sounder was lit up with life forms. It felt fishy!

Popped out the trailing outfit down at 10m, then started casting with the light rig in 15-20m. Drogue hanging loose in the water, but a tiny ESE breeze was moving me very slowly, lots of stuff on the sounder. No one else around and then I detect colour and movement peripherally. It's weeksie, whose radio, as I later discover, is not transmitting today (battery charge problem). He can hear me, but not respond. He paddles over to say g'day just as I hook up on a perfect bait-sized pike, destined for my freezer-based rigged bait collection.

Weeksie has to go back to work so is only around for a quick couple of trolling laps before heading in. Off he disappears behind me on his first lap and I lay out another cast after stowing Mr Pike. The 4gm jig splashes down gently, about 25m away and starts its gravity-propelled swim downward. It doesn't get far, about 2m in fact. God, I love this kayak fishing! Bump, bump, screaming reel, rod tip bouncing around; I've felt every tick, flick and surge right from the pickup. Got the ocean all to myself, except for my mate weeksie of course, whom I now call on the radio telling him I reckon I've got a nice snapper on. While playing the fish I hear weeksie's paddle splashes as he heads back to me.

Yep, a snapper, over 50cm, as I suspected. It's a beautiful sight in the pale light, starkly coloured against a dark background of deep water. I reckon I'll never tire of the thrill at that first view of a snapper as it surges into view below the yak. I feel sorry for fishos who don't use a kayak. No I don't!

Weeksie takes a front row seat as the gaff pins the snap and I haul it aboard and into the open hatch. He has his camera, so weeksie takes a pic of me and my catch. Thanks mate. Then he paddles off for another lap before heading for the groyne.

Just in case, I take a pic too.

57cm snapper. Worth getting out of bed early for.

So I've been drift fishing half an hour by now. But soon afterward I feel the first puffs of a freshening southerly breeze and remember my promise to myself to leave for home as soon as the breeze arrives. In the meantime a very large pike takes the jig, almost the next cast after the snapper. This fish is too big for a bait and self releases as I lay it on the hatch cover for a pic.

As I paddle back toward Middle Groyne the breeze freshens, as you can see from the above, which would have happened a little later at DIP than Jew Shoal.

That swell is still kicking up at Middle Groyne when I arrive. But this time I'm going with it and to cap off an already perfect morning we (my boat and I) pick up a shapely little mid size wave and ride it all the way to the sand. Doesn't get any better than this. And tomorrow's another day and it'll be here again. And yes, I love kayak fishing.

So who's coming out tomorrow, and Friday?

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