PB for PeeBee at Jew Shoal, 11 July 2015

TR by Tunny

Trip date: 11 July 2015

Participants: Jaro, Diesel, Stormin, PeeBee, Tunny

Launch Site:  MG

Conditions: Wind W to SW less than 10 knots, swinging to Northerly later. Low tide 10 am

Keen Angler Program: Nothing donated

Jaro, Diesel, PeeBee and I launched before 6 am.  It was a very easy launch and pleasant paddle over to Jew Shoal with just enough offshore wind for Jaro to use his sail.  We trolled a mix of lures and baits with Diesel trolling both a hard body lure and weighted pilchard, while I trolled a Halco 120.  There was no surface action, very few birds and no fish caught on the way out there.

Sunrise over Jew Shoal with Diesel in the distance

On arrival at Jew Shoal we all switched to bottom bashing, Diesel and Jaro with bait and PeeBee and I with soft plastics.  Several small reef fish were caught including two Pearl Perch, one by Diesel while I got the other, both just missing the size limit.  Jaro reported some small catches but no keepers.

An undersized Pearl Perch before being released

Stormin arrived at MG after a night shift in the plastics factory and radioed to announce that he was heading over to join us at Jew Shoal. A few minutes later we received an excited call from him that he had seen a whale just near the shark nets.  As the rest of us had seen nothing, Diesel and I concluded Stormin had probably inhaled plastic fumes while and work, and was hallucinating.  Stormin made it out to Jew Shoal and reported a second sighting.  Again Diesel and I saw nothing which reinforced our conclusion regarding the plastic.  But after Stormin's fourth sighting we also spotted the whale - the first for us this season.

At around 9 am I noticed BeeBee's rod doubled over so paddled in his direction.  He had hooked something big and was being towed in a southerly direction.  Diesel also paddled over to watch the action, with both of us staying far enough away to allow him to fight the fish.  After about 20 minutes a large ray jumped out the water. I only got a brief glimpse but it was black on top with a white belly.  Diesel reckons it was a Manta Ray but I am really not sure as I did not get a good view.  It was probably at least 1.5 metres across. PeeBee's battle continued with the ray having a few powerful runs that stripped most of his line from the reel. Eventually he had the ray beneath the kayak  At this stage I suggested to PeeBee that he cut the line rather than try and get the ray into the kayak as we did not want to name a road after him.  So he set the ray free. This is the biggest fish PeeBee has ever hooked and it certainly put up a good fight.

PeeBee fighting the ray

We continued bottom bashing and Stormin caught two Grassies, one of which was around 40cm.  I hooked a few more reef fish then caught a very small bonito on a trolled lure.

Small bonito 

Jaro and PeeBee headed back home at around 10 am with the rest of us following an hour later.  The beach landing was easy.  Overall a fund day out!  And condolences to Sunshiner who missed the trip due to a flat car battery.

Stormin's Grassy