15 kilometre paddle. 27Apr15

TR by sunshiner


Wind: light SW-S (as forecast, see comment in report)
Swell: 1.5m SE
Water temp: 27.2°C
Tides: 3:05 am : 1.54 H; 9:57 am : 0.65 L
Current: n/a
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: Yes, all tuna
Participants: diesel, tunny, sunshiner
Keen Angler Program: missed out again today as we were targetting tuna!

Looking at the weather forecast we could tell that from Tuesday to Friday conditions were unlikely to be suitable for an offshore trip. This was frustrating given that we knew there were likely to be tuna in Laguna Bay at least today, as we'd seen their activity from shore and knew from the TR that there were heaps of them present on Saturday.

Sunday was windy enough to blow a yak to Port Douglas (as forecast) but Seabreeze indicated a small window of opportunity today. So I turned to Meteye for confirmation and clarification. Meteye is a relatively new facility for our area, but has been available in other parts of the nation for at least a year. The most useful information it provides for offshore kayakers is a rolling wind forecast in map form for seven days for any point on our coastline.

Meteye website wind map, centred on Noosa Head. Note that forecasts are provided in three-hour blocks, 24/7. The site deserves detailed exploration by users as it has many facilities which are not readily obvious at first glance.

Meteye told us that the wind in Laguna Bay today would be 5-10 knots S and SW between 0700 and 1000. Outside of these times the wind was likely to be stronger. Here was our only likely offshore fishing opportunity this week and we grabbed it. This explains our planned relatively late start, of around 06:30.

Tunny indicated he might be a little later than diesel and I, but in the event, he got there before us.

He'd left a little message for us at the launch point, complete with arrow pointing out to sea.

As we usually do, on arrival diesel and I took a quick stroll down to the beach to check conditions. Perfect! And aren't they tuna busting up out there? Yep. In record time we were back with our yaks ready to launch, at which time we noticed tunny's message.

Launch time. Doesn't get much nicer!

Once we got out there we could see a bunch of terns (and some seagulls) wheeling around about 800m out. Soon we were paddling toward them. Meantime, tunny, approaching Granite Bay, had been telling us by radio of bustups out that way and really got us fired up with the unmistakeable sound of his threadline drag as it yielded line. This fish, predictably, turned out to be a mackerel tuna which tunny released.

Part of the bustup action we were into as soon as we paddled out. That's diesel in the distance. (GoPro video frame)

Diesel and I got only a couple of fruitless casts away before the fish disappeared, so we set course to join tunny, out north of Hells Gates. All the way along on this trip we could see splashes, large and small, but couldn't attract any customers. As happened last Saturday, the action died out around 0730 so we all headed toward Jew Shoal in the hope that activity would erupt there.

Nope, no action out there, so after about an hour we decided to paddle the 3.5km to Little Halls Reef to see if that area was any better.

Conditions were superb, with the wind at no time exceeding 5 knots. Clear sky, no stinkies to be seen. Light southerly pushing us to the north as we drifted. Diesel was using SPs as he'd brought no bait for bottom fishing. So was I, by preference, although my faith in SPs for bottom fish had been weakened lately (bloody good for longtails and cobia, though!). Grinner! Diesel! Then my SP was picked up, to my astonishment. Immediately I knew it was a small fish, but still, it was my only hit of the day, so very welcome.

Grass sweetlip, probably just size, but released. Lovely day, eh? (GoPro video frame)

At Little Halls Reef we encountered a couple of more minor bustups, but again, they were so fleeting that we couldn't get a decent shot at them. By now we'd been on the water for over four hours so, with no further action, decided to head for home. Tunny positively identified some longtail tuna while we paddled this leg but the only action we could get was a shark each, for diesel and me, hooked at the same time, about a kilometre apart, on trolled HB lures. Mine was hooked just off the river mouth, and accompanied by a similar sized specimen when it arrived at the yak.

Spot-tailed shark. It's nice to have a hatch to restrain these buggers while the lure is removed. Released.

We hit the beach at low tide and I noticed one beachgoer walk around, waist deep, on the sandbank from the western side of the groyne to the eastern side, as I was lining up to come back in. Thankfully the swell was low which gave a good chance of getting in without embarrassment.

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

ANZAC Day Pandemonium - 25Apr15

TR by Redwood

Trip date: 25 April 2015

Participants: Stormin, Tunny, Redwood (and couple of non NY yakkers)

Launch Site:  Middle Groyne

Conditions: 8-10 knots gusting to 15

Keen Angler Program: None

Dawn Service the NY way - behind Stormin and Tunny a Gallipoli re-enactment was going on

Being ANZAC day we were a bit concerned about getting a park (Stormin was so worried he arrived at 1am and slept in the car), but we managed to park without trouble in the usual area. We unloaded and were ready to go just before dawn. Stormin was either delirious from lack of sleep, very eager or both but the sand monster was not going to be humoured and off he went with Tunny close behind. Both managed to jump a couple of largish waves and they were away. I was going to wait for the flat spots which I knew were there if you waited long enough, but I didn't time it perfectly and so all three of us had wet-face launches (bit like that old spice ad were the guy gets a slap in the face from a hand off screen).

We were now awake and ready for action. Stormin said he could see birds diving (must have better eyes than me) and had a feeling it was going to be a good day. I chucked on a garfish left over from Straddie and think the other two were trolling HBL's and we headed off into the sun to JS.

The action started about half way to JS with small bustups of what looked like Mac Tuna coming and going quite quickly. I had the gar on the one line and a white SP on the other and trolled these straight through a coupe of bustups with no result. As we approached JS there was a sustained bustup and Tunny announced he was on. I radioed to asked what on and got the reply "halco twisty". I had my rod holders full so had to get the slug caster out of the hatch. I fired off a number and wound in as hard as I could but didn't hookup. Tunny radioed in to say he'd landed a +- 80cm Mac Tuna and had put it back. Not long after he announced he was on again which also tuned out to be a Mac Tuna. All those sessions with the Sangoma were paying off for Tunny as he continued his remarkable run. There were also a few boats out and a number of them also hooked up.

The big bust ups went for about 30 minutes and then, poof! At 7.30 they vanished. Someone blew the whistle and the Tuna must have taken an orange break. Although the majority of the bustups were Mac Tuna, every now and then we'd see a small Long Tail bustup and we were all hoping we'd hook up to some sashimi.

We all spread out over the shoal and toward the headland chasing smaller bustups and birds, but these bustups were very fast moving and fleeting. Stormin decided he'd had enough chasing Mac Tuna and announced he as going to bottom bash for a while.

The sporadic bustups continued for a while and Tunny and I continued to chase them and as time went on it seemed they were becoming more frequent and lasting longer again. Then somewhere around 9am the entire bay went into Mac Tuna mayhem. There were bustups and Mac Tuna everywhere. Having not caught a fish for a while I was keen to bag one of these even if they were MT, but I also need to get back to the beach. I radioed the others and they said they were also heading in. The bay is full of fish feeding and we're going in--yip, those MT are not good eating. On the way back I couldn't resit throwing a slug into a few boils and eventually I hooked up to a MT. Give the plague type numbers, they were not easy to catch. To give you a comparison, the numbers here made spotty mac mayhem a couple of years ago look tiny. These things were literally everywhere.

A catch is a catch. One of only 3 Mac Tuna to be lifted out the water onto a yak. The other 5 million stayed in the water. Despite the numbers, these stripy buggers were hard to land.

We headed back in with Tuna all around us. Tunny reported seeing a large Long Tail at the shark nets but it wasn't interested in his trolled halco.

The return was tricky if you didn't time it right as the waves were dumping, and some were quite large. Tunny and I made it in safely, whist Stormin he needed a bath as he'd slept in his car.

A troop of lads from Gloucester made their way over as soon as the MT made an appearance. One was kind enough to be a fish holder (this ones for the ladies in the club--are there any?).

Lads from Gloucester - check out those pecs (on the fiiiiish).

A crazy and enjoyable day. Next time I'm hoping they'll be spotty macs.

Sweetlip, Tuna, Shimano T-Curve: 23 April 2015

TR by Tunny

Trip date: 23 April 2015

Participants: Diesel, Sunshiner, Tunny, joined later by Schiffer

Launch Site:  MG

Conditions: Wind SSW 5-8 knots, Swell 1.2 m

Keen Angler Program: Nothing donated

Diesel, Sunshiner and I headed out at 5.30 am.  The previous day I had walked through the National Park and spotted some bust-ups East and North of Hells Gates.  So I decided to follow the coastline to Hells Gates while Sunshiner and Diesel headed for Jew Shoal.

Sunrise (photo by Sunshiner)

I trolled a Halco 120 (the lucky one that gave me the Spaniard on Sunday).  On arrival at Hells Gates there were no signs of any bird action or bust-ups so I headed North to Jew Shoal where Sunshiner and Diesel were busy bottom bashing, Sunshiner with soft plastics and Diesel with bait. Diesel was the first to catch a fish, a nice Sweetlip followed by smaller ones which he released.

There were sporadic patches of diving birds and fish busting the surface so I opted to chase these.  I went from bust-up to bust-up but never got close enough to cast my Halco Twisty.  Eventually about 1.3 km East of Jew Shoal I caught up with tuna busting up.  I casted the Halco Twisty several times to no avail. As the tuna started moving away I put out a soft plastic and trolled after them. The reel started screaming and I grabbed the rod.  A minute later I heard what sounded like small gunfire as my rod parted mid-way and I was left with the butt plus about 3 feet of rod.  This was the only expensive rod I had ever bought for kayak fishing, a Shimano T-Curve (and will be my last).  The remainder of the rod slid down the line to the tuna. The fish had several strong runs, which seemed even stronger when using half a rod.  Eventually the strong runs turned into the circular motion tuna typically do in the latter stages of the battle and a while later I had the fish alongside the kayak, gaffed it and placed it in the hatch.  A nice Longtail measuring 92 cm.

Longtail into the hatch

Photo by Sunshiner

We continued fishing for another hour, both bottom bashing and chasing the occasional bust-ups before heading back to MG.  On arrival at MG we were welcomed by Michael Schiffermuller (call sign Schiffer) who had started a little later than us and had a trip out past the Headland.  Although Schiffer did not catch a fish, he looks pretty well prepared in his Stealth Profisha and is keen to get out again soon..

Schiffer with his Profisher

Fish caught by Diesel and Tunny

Spaniard, Snapper, Sweetlip: 19 April 2015

TR by Tunny, with commentary and photos by Diesel

Trip date: 19 April 2015

Participants: Diesel, Scatter, Stormin, Paul Siboni, Tunny

Launch Site:  MG

Conditions: Wind NE less than 10 knots, dropping later.  Swell 1.4 m

Keen Angler Program: None

Diesel got almost all the fishing action in the first few hours, which he described as follows: I arrived at MG just after 5 am and went and checked out the surf. It would be an easy launch with half metre waves and lots of churned white water, the Sand Monster at work. Tunny arrived soon after, closely followed by Paul  and Stormin . We all said our good mornings and then got down to the preparations for a day on the bay. The launch was uneventful and we all made it out back to set up our trolling gear then headed for the shoal. I arrived first and put out a floating bait of cut Mack Tuna  and loaded the paternoster with Mack Tuna cut baits and squid and got under way. Just before 6 am I had a big hit on the paternoster and after a short battle I boated a 40 cm Sweetlip Emperor which was a first for me. Over the side went the paternoster again and within 10 minutes I had another big hit on the bottom bashing gear. The struggle was similar to the last one but this one turned out to be a 43 cm Snapper. In the hatch it  went, the day is getting better. All went quiet for 20 minutes then mother of all hits got my attention. A big hit and a short run which I pulled up quickly. I managed to get a few metres back then it reefed me and nothing I could do would move it. The stalemate lasted 15 minutes and then it broke me off.  I picked up a few rubbish reef fish in the next hour but it seemed my day was over and Tunny's was just beginning.  Tunny's comments as follows:

By 8 am nothing else had been caught.  I had been trolling Halco lures and jigging soft plastics without success.  Although I normally troll a weighted pilchard I decided to switch to hard body lures and soft plastics given the recent successes of Stormin and Eyetag who used lures and soft plastics to nail Tuna in the bay.  I started to doubt my choice with the success Diesel was having with bait.  These doubts were reinforced when Scatter who had been trolling a weighted dead bait reported a very strong run but the fish, which he suspects was a large Spaniard, bit through the wire.  I trolled my Halco and jigged the soft plastics at Jew Shoal for another half an hour when Scatter and Paul announced they were heading back to MG. Stormin, Diesel and I decided to go back via Little Halls.  

About 300 m from Jew Shoal my reel started screaming, with a very strong fast run as about 100 m of line was stripped off.  The fish felt a lot stronger than anything I had hooked recently and the initial run was followed by three shorter but equally strong runs.  I radioed that I was onto something decent and Stormin replied that he had also hooked up but had been bitten off.  After a good fight I had a large Spaniard next to the Kayak.  Diesel paddled closer to capture the fish being gaffed and lifted into the hatch.

Gaffing the Spaniard (photo by Diesel)

Going into the hatch (photo by Diesel)

Stormin and Diesel continued on to Halls reef while I headed towards MG trolling the same Halco lure. There were a few birds diving near the river mouth but I arrived back at MG without any further action.  Paul was just about to head in and Stormin and Diesel arrived about 15 minutes later.  The beach landings were uneventful.

Diesel's fish

Into the Yeehah Zone

  

Unpleasant payoff - 07Apr15

TR by Gemini


Wind: N 8-14(?)knots over the course of the morning
Swell: 1.1m E
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: Yes
Participants: Panno, Corie, Wouldnot, Gemini
Keen Angler Program: No frames donated

The weather forecast had slightly deteriorated overnight, but not enough to stop us heading out at 5:30AM as intended. The breeze was there, but manageable, as we headed directly into it towards Little Halls. Corie was off at a fast pace followed by Panno, while Wouldnot and I took the rear after some additional setup on the water.

Wouldnot in his Hobie widened the gap between us rapidly, his pedal powered machine having a definite advantage in the wind compared to my Viking tank. I plodded along alone across the river mouth, and then I ran into trouble...

I was pretty much past the mouth, about 700m from the bar, when a well known local fishing charter boat appeared from the river and raced towards me. He was about half way to me from the bar when I started to think he hadn't seen me, so I waved my paddle in the air and hoped he would change course. He did, but not enough, nor did he slow down. He raced past my stern and picked up my trolled line. My reel screamed and emptied rapidly, getting pretty hot in the process. I waved and screamed at the boat to stop, and a few passengers noticed and pointed towards me, but there was no slowing or stopping from the skipper. Luckily my leader gave way and snapped free, leaving me to retrieve the line (minus a 120mm Qantas LP lure and a few feet of leader). I was pretty miffed as you could well imagine, but it could have been worse. The GPS track below has the event location marked, as you can see where I drifted back while rigging my line again.



After swearing a bit, re-rigging my line, and then swearing some more, I resumed course to Little Halls. Wouldnot was there waiting for me flicking some lures about, but no action as yet. I noted the water here was also a very dirty brown colour. During this time Corie called through from Halls with the news that he had boated a nice Spaniard, and things were heating up out his way. Another paddle into the now stiffening breeze didn't thrill me much, but we pressed on anyway.

Not far from Little Halls the bustups starting to appear out wide from us. Wouldnot and I battled heroically against the wind to reach a number of them, but they were either just out of reach, or they dissipated before we could get there. Wouldnot managed a brief hookup on a cast into a disappearing bustup, but it spat the hook shortly after.

The wind by this stage was really starting to whip up. I was wearing nearly every wave I paddled into against the wind, and a visit to Halls at this stage was pretty much off the cards. Wouldnot and I paddled around looking for opportunities going with the wind, but the pickings were slim. Eventually I spied a few reasonable sized bustups back towards Little Halls, but the closer I got, the faster they moved to the north into the wind. It was at this stage I gave up and headed back to MG with a nice tailwind.

The beach landings were mostly incident free, although Wouldnot had a swim near the end of the wall. Lucky for him it wasn't caught on camera!

Unpleasant wind and events aside, at least Panno and Corie had a decent morning out. Panno took 2 mack tuna, and Corie took a shark, 2 mack tuna, and a very nice Spaniard.


(image provided by Corie)

Bustups, Boys! 06Apr15

TR by sunshiner, with some GoPro pics from stormin's video files

Wind: calm (as forecast)
Swell: 1.3m E
Water temp: 26.7°C
Tides: 3:04 am : 0.43 L; 9:00 am : 1.61 H
Current: no significant
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: Yes, lots, all tuna
Participants: diesel, stormin, eyetag, cuddles, weeksie, beejay, sunshiner
Keen Angler Program: missed out again today as we were targetting tuna!

Eyetag's tipoff from sightings yesterday that tuna were likely in the western bay today proved accurate. Conditions couldn't have been better, as long as care was taken at the 0530 launch time as the tide was still a long way from high. I understand that cuddles may have taken a bath, but as far as I know everyone else got out and back without problems.

Beejay and stormin were running a bit late, but the rest of us were on the water as planned, and soon after heading for the NW on what was certainly a glorious morning with glassy seas, low swell and clear sky.

Stormin's GoPro #1 captured this frame at launch time.

Conditions at sunrise. What were you doing?

I was somewhere in the centre of the pack, with eyetag and cuddles (no radio) up front. Stormin and beejay announced their launch when the rest of us were at least half way to Little Halls Reef. Then the first indicator came by radio from eyetag "Bustups, boys!" as he approached Little Halls Reef. Then a bustup occurred right in front of me. I could see these were small fish, likely mac tuna, and largely ignored them, trolling onward with my usual HLP. About now eyetag announced a hookup, on a trolled hardbody, and it was on for everyone. The sun was just clearing the horizon and everyone was seeing splashes as the tuna started to feed in earnest.

A typical bustup today, sometimes only a few splashes but often many more. (GoPro frame)

Confirmation that there were longtails mixed up in the melee came from eyetag when he boated the first, early in the action. Bringing up the rear, of course were beejay and stormin and they breathlessly joined in the radio conversation to announce that they were in the midst of lots of bustups, not far from the rivermouth. Soon stormin had hooked up on a trolled hardbody which pulled free. Then he cast a SP into a bustup, while his trolling outfit was deployed. The SP was seized, so he started to retrieve the trolling outfit when it was also taken, so a double header under way. The SP fish busted off but he then turned his attention to the other fish and boated it.

Stormin's first longtail in the new Stealth ProFisha (cropped GoPro frame). That's beejay in the background, also taking pics.

Meanwhile, back up near Little Halls Reef, I was tagging along with eyetag, sure that he would soon hookup. I'd been told not to bring a fish home today so was concentrating on trying to get some good video footage. Sure enough, soon eyetag had hooked up to a decent fish by casting a slug into a bustup and retrieving it flat out. I asked and received permission to move up close with the GoPro and then set up so that I was about 10-15m from, and parallel with, eyetag's yak, just letting the GoPro do its thing.

Eyetag's boating technique (frame from GoPro)

After capture pic (frame from GoPro)

Optio pic with time stamp

Meanwhile, stormin was providing a breathless radio commentary of a second longtail hookup, down near the river mouth.

Stormin's longtail #2, captured with his GoPro #1.

No one else seemed to be having much action, or at least there was no radio talk from them. But surely I would get a hit soon? In between shooting movie and manoeuvering for this purpose I'd been trolling my HLP, fully expecting it to go off at any second. But, just in case, I also had rigged a slug and the opportunity to use this arose eventually. One cast into a bustup and I hooked up. This turned out to be a fairly standard mac tuna which was foul hooked in the belly and therefore took a bit longer to subdue than I'd expect. Anyway, it was easy to release when the time came.

Releasing the mac tuna.

Diesel around this time had a tail of woe to tell over the radio. Having spent quite a time hooked up to a longtail on a trolled hardbody, he had the misfortune to have it self release yak-side, but he did get his lure back. Next thing on the same lure he'd hooked a spot-tail shark, which is considered great tucker in Chez Diesel, so it went home with him.

By around 07:30 the action had tapered off considerably and I started to head for home as I wanted to make sure I was on the beach to get the pics I wanted.

Just off Middle Groyne I was approached by a guy in a very flash outrigger boat. It was our own Hollywood (Harry), recovering slowly from a shoulder injury.

Beautiful craft, eh?

The beach return was pretty easy, the tide being pretty high by now. But there were many visitors in the water near our beach, collision prospects all.

Some beach pics

The larger of eyetag's two longtails. The other was 80cm.

These ladies asked us to take a photo of them with eyetag's fish.

Stormin had three longtails. This was the largest, the others being each around 80cm.

Three longtails on the ProFisha seat.

Diesel and beejay with some nice yaks.

A very happy stormin, who'd filled the hatch of his new boat at last!

Great day. Sorry you missed it. Movie now available:

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

541 Schoolie Easter Sunday - 05Apr15

TR by Jimbo


Wind: 5-8 kn WNW
Swell: 1.0-1.5m E
Tides: High 1.8m 0820
Current: Strong W->E "upper layer" current aided by a slight WNW breeze resulting in a very fast 1.5-2.0 kph drift speed. Suspect there was a "lower layer" current heading in opposite direction, ie, E->W, given fast rate the cast line transitioned below the kayak while the drogue was hanging quite loosly beside kayak.
Launch Point: Middle Groyne
Conditions: Cloudy initially, brief shower about 0815-0845, then clearing to sunny late morning.
Keen Angler Program: no contribution.
Participants: Eyetag, Stormin, Wardy, Jimbo and new NY member Paul Siboni.

When I arrived at the Middle Groyne car park at first light at 0520, Stormin had already transferred his yak at the water's edge and was returning his trolley to his car, and Paul was completing his preparations. Stormin reported the launch conditions were doable but a wet bum was likely, and that Eyetag must have already launched earlier at "Oh-dark-hundred".

On the beach I gave Paul a few suggestions on how to better stow his gear, and offered some guidance on how to best negotiate a surf zone crossing next to the rock groyne. The sand monster was definitely working but with careful timing we three made it out the back relatively unscathed.

After setting up, we learnt by radio from Eyetag, now already trolling around Jew Sh, that Wardy was ahead of us, also on his way to JS. Paul, having only one rod, was first to set up and then set off towards the NE, which was a lille strange as he did not have a radio or GPS, and had said he intended to tag along with Stormin.

On arrival at JS, there were no birds to be seen, and no surface action, so I went into bottom bashing mode with prawn bait out towards the west of the shoal to utilize the W->E drift while Eyetag, Wardy and Stormin continued doing trolling laps around the shoal, which we were sharing with 3-4 stinkies. I could not see Paul anywhere, but distant visibility between yakkers was problematic with the prevailing swell.

After about an hour, with no hook-ups reported, Eyetag decided to head to Halls Rf, apparently followed by Wardy. About a further hour later, Stormin, having determined from Eyetag that he had not fared any better at Halls Rf, decided to give A-Bay Rf a try. Stormin reported that he also had lost sight of Paul, but had last seen him in the vicinity of the Pinnacles.

About this time, my trolling rig baited with a trailing pilchard started buzzing. Initially I thought this might have been a small shark, but was pleased when a smallish school mackerel came yak. A quick check of my new NY Limits Table indicated the minimum length for a schoolie was 50 cm, and given my hooked model was clearly about 60+ cm, I was happy to sink the gaff into him and pull him aboard.

At around 0830, and with light rain falling, Stormin reported that there was nothing happening at A-Bay Rf so he was going to start heading back to MG. About this time Stormin also received a radio call from an unidentified boat operator asking the location of "Stormin in a kayak". A brief conversation with this boat operator indicated he was passing on a message from a kayaker named Paul located ... “about 4 km north of the river mouth”. The boat operator was asked to pass back a message to Paul that all his fellow kayakers were now heading back to Middle Groyne and he should now start doing the same. Unbeknown to all of us, Paul had apparently left Jew Sh and made his way, without a GPS, to somewhere in the vicinity of Halls Rf, but was not seen by either Eyetag or Wardy.

Not much else to report fishing wise. Wardy, about 1 km north of Halls Rf reported hooking up to a longtail, apparently on a small cast slug, but the hooks pulled before it could be landed. Eyetag on return to the beach, reported there were bust-ups and birds all over the place around Halls Rf but trolled HBL and cast slugs generally proved non productive.

Back at Middle Groyne, the sand monster was still lurking, as was Sunshiner standing on the end of the rock groyne armed with his Go-Pro ready to video the surf zone returns to the beach. Anyway, four of us managed to judge the sets and land upright back on the beach at around 0945. Being Easter Sunday, with the cloud clearing and the sun now starting to stir the tourist beach goers, it was easy to entice a couple of junior fish holders.

Pic by Sunshiner

Here's my school mack on Stormin's new brag mat, thanks Stormin. Pic by Sunshiner

After we had all washed down our yaks and loaded them onto our cars, and it now being 1030, our thoughts turn to the whereabouts of new NY Paul who had not been heard of since the unidentified boat operator's message about two hours earlier. Sunshiner hung around for a while and subsequently reported that Paul eventually returned to the beach around 1100, fishless, and asking where he could buy a radio and which one he should buy!

Here's Paul after his very extended maiden Laguna Bay fishing trip with NY. It appears he had no concept of how easy it is to become separated from other yakkers in the open sea. At least he's now convinced of the great value of a VHF radio. Paul, perhaps you could add a comment below on how you managed to get from Jew Sh to somewhere near Halls Rf without a GPS, and how come it took so long for you to get back to Middle Groyne after receiving my message from the boat operator.

An Easter Sunday that looked very gloomy to start with, but turned out quite nice in the end ... well, for me at least. And good prospects for those yakkers intending to head towards Lt Halls/Halls RF and the North Shore this morning (Easter Monday).

Jimbo