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)
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