Wind: 10-15kn
Swell: 1-1.5m
Water temp: 25.8
Current: Unknown - trolling
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: scatter
Keen Angler Program: No frames donated
I had this theory that this morning would provide a window of glassy conditions before the breeze got up as forecast. I was wrong. I launched alone at 4:45 into a very messy sea and made my way out to Jew Shoal. It was slow going with white caps and a lot of wind swell and at one point I had to paddle hard to get over a cresting wave in the middle of the bay! Once at the mark I deployed a nice big slimey on a safa rig and trolled around the assorted boats for a couple of hours. I was chasing one of the cobia that every man and his dog's been catching here lately but despite some fantastic looking marks on the sounder it wasn't to be.
I decided to pull the pin at about 7:30 as I was monitoring the coast guard channel on the VHF (22 at Noosa) and the forecast was warning of increasing winds and swell as the day went on. I headed in and was a good couple of hundred metres south-west of the shoal when the ratchet screamed. Last time I was out in a bit of chop and hooked a decent fish I ended up taking a swim as I allowed the fish to get side-on to the yak before I got the rod out of the holder. This time I continued paddling for a few strokes a la RodPac/RokkitKit to make sure he stayed behind me.
The short fast runs convinced me pretty quick this was no cobe. After a brief fight I had my first spaniard of the season yakside and while he was no giant, I was well pleased. It was at this point I remembered that I hadn't packed the gaff. I've been doing a few before-school trips the last couple of weeks and these are by necessity catch and release so I had no need for the gaff. I was now faced with the prospect of either tail-grabbing or lip-gripping this fish and after a few false starts I managed the latter. Unfortunately the GoPro had run out of batteries by that stage. I even managed to surf a wave all the way to the beach!
Mack ended up going a metre on the nose.
No comments:
Post a Comment