A couple of cobia. 06Nov14

TR by Jimbo; pics by sunshiner
Launch Point: Middle Groyne.
Conditions: Overcast initially then clearing.
Wind: Cool NNW 12-14 knots initially, a 20+knot SW blast for 10 minutes around 0730, then attenuating to 5-8 knot northerly.
Swell: ~1.0m but with a lumpy short wind chop on top
Current: None detected at Jew Sh (wind too dominant)
Participants: Pedro, Jaro, Sunshiner, Jimbo

Pedro already had his yak on the beach ready to launch and was just stowing some gear in his truck when I arrived in the MG car park at 0410. Jaro was also on the beach ready to launch but preferred to wait for sufficient light so he could better see the odd breaking wave just off the end of the groyne. I had nearly finished loading my yak ready to trundle down to the beach when Sunshiner arrived about 0420.

By the time I got to the beach, Pedro was already well on his way to Jew Sh and Jaro was just launching. It was still about three hours before high tide and I judged the launch conditions were reasonably docile so decided to rig my second rod on the beach rather than in the yak after launching. By the time I completed this task Sunshiner had also arrived at the beach, locked up his trolley under the lifeguard watchtower, launched, and was also on his way to Jew Sh.

As I too set out for Jew Sh at about 0445, the conditions were quite unpleasant, the stiff northerly causing a very lumpy sea with whitecaps had me thinking this was potentially the one of the worst launch decisions I had made in the last eight years since taking up kayak fishing. However, having now launched, and knowing there were three of my yakking mates also putting up with the same conditions, I pressed on, hoping conditions would improve.

On arrival at JS, I joined Jaro and Pedro out to the NNW of the Pinnacles intending to drift towards them. Sunshiner reported that he was somewhere to the south of the Pinnacles.

Jaro was the first to report a keeper sweetlip, but had apparently boated a very large (75 cm?) grinner not long before that. Shortly after Pedro reported boating a mid-40 cm sweetlip.

It seemed as though grinners must be in near plague proportions on the NW to NE side on the Pinnacles, since Pedro also reported catching and releasing a couple, and I finished up catching and releasing no fewer than six of the pests for the morning. Still, this must have been sufficient to encourage Sunshiner to move to our side of the shoal, as he reported being fishless up to this point.

The next piece of excitement occurred when Jaro hurredly reported being hooked up to something decent, but made an early call that he thought it was a shark. Then, as is typical of Jaro, he let out a loud …"Whoo Hoo… It's a cobia". Pedro and I, being within 200-300m of Jaro, didn't need the radio to hear this. Having established the minimum legal length for a cobia from Sunshiner as 75cm, and determining that his cobia was just longer than this, Jaro happily secured his catch.

The NNW wind, which seemed to have abated slightly by about 0730, suddenly swung to the SW and increased dramatically, and was gusting to what I guessed at 20+ knots, with a commensurate increase in whitecaps and the size of the wind-driven waves. I was beginning to think this was getting to be the roughest conditions I had experienced while kayaking and had announced to my colleagues that if this SW blast didn't ease in the next 5-10 minutes I was going to be heading in. However, "The Old Man of The Sea", Pedro, suggested the wind would probably drop as soon as a straight-edged cloud bank, now receding from the west, moved over us. As if on cue, about five minutes later, the strong south-westerly suddenly dropped, and soon swung back to a steady, 5-8 knot north-westerly, for the next couple of hours.

Shortly after the SW blow, Kev, still being fishless, and having to be back home early (today being his wife's birthday) anounced he was heading back in.

At about 0815, Jaro, being well satisfied with his catch of a sweetlip and a cobia, and having nearly used up all of his prawns, announced that he would shortly be heading back. I also had only a couple of my squid baits left and decided I too would be heading in after trying one other mark to the west of the Pinnacles. Pedro of course decided he would fish on for "half a day" (joke).

The paddle back in was uneventful, until about a kilometre from MG, my trolled HLP (that I had just about forgotten about) was hit by something reasonable which started the reel screaming… What a wonderful sound, particularly not having caught anything of any size since last summer. I announced this to Jaro who was now on the beach, and he got Sunshiner to delay his departure for home to take a couple of pics of Jaro and me with our cobia… thanks Kev.

The two 80+ cm cobia on the mat (jimbo's at the top). You can see from this pic how cobia can be easily mistaken for sharks when viewed through the water from above.

Jaro and jimbo

Jimbo shows the main features of a cobia to a future Noosa Yakker and the mother.

That's it guys. A day that started out looking like it was going to be crap produced my (and Jaro's?) best catch for many months. Pedro, maybe you could add a comment to tell us how you finished up.

Jimbo