Wind: Light east to south east 8-10 knots
Swell: variable .3 to .6 metre
Current: light current at Jew Shoal from the south approx 1 kph
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: DoctorDog and Stormin
Waking at 4am I checked the live weather feed from Cape Moreton and Double Island Point and found the forecast was holding true and the winds were lighter to the south. This had me thinking a Trip to Jew Shoal was in order and possibly even round the corner to Sunshine if the breeze dropped out.
The carpark at MG was remarkably empty when I arrived shortly after 4.30.
As I unloaded my recently repaired BFS I could hear occasional loud reports of waves breaking on the beach in the still morning air. This was to be expected as the tide was dead low. Stormin arrived shortly after me and was first to have his gear on the beach and ready to go.
He paddled out gamely into the dawn ahead of me but sadly the sand monster awoke and tumbled him back to the beach. I was lucky and spotted a slight lull and managed to get out the back with barely a splash. Norman was not so lucky on his second attempt but eventually made it out after I had set up and started heading for JS.
Paddling out to Jew Shoal was relatively easy as the normal early morning boat traffic was very light with the very low tide making bar crossings hazardous for motor craft. I passed some dolphins on the way out but no whales today. I trolled a Laser Pro 120 with no hits.
Stormin joined me at JS marks on my GPS. Fortunately my new radio was working well but I was struggling with gear getting a tangle of line around my rudder necessitating a break off. I also dropped a packet of my two spare batteries, GPS and breakfast snacks. Everything except the batteries floated but I was mightily annoyed with myself for making such a rookie error.
After regaining my floating debris and rejoining my broken line I set up to drift with breeze and current working together to carry me over a nice selection of old GPS marks.
A second major annoyance of the morning was a boatload of divers motoring at some pace across my trailing lines only to anchor right at the top of my planned drift. I turned it to my advantage though as my GPS with flattening batteries could be conserved by just paddling back to the anchored boat or near about at the start of each drift. I failed to observe the dive flag stay clear area but neither did I cast lines in the direction of the spear fishermen as they worked around their home base.
I had a pilchard on an unweighted gang of hooks drifting midwater that was repeatedly shredded by pickers. My nuclear chicken SP claimed two mid-30 cm sweetlip and a couple of other solid fish had the hooks pulled. A good sized yellow tail yakker hit the SP as well and soon found it self being used as live bait.
Several turtles turned up around the shoal but there was no evidence of large pelagic fish nor sea birds diving on bait anywhere in sight around the bay. There were plenty of yellow tail yakkers chasing the SP on retrieve but no larger fish chasing them.
Stormin picked up a pan sized snapper on pilchard bait and was annoyed by a few grinners as well. My solo “vermin” fish was a foul hooked “Happy Moment” which I was careful to release untouched by human hand thus avoiding any of its reputed painful spines.
Stormin and I left JS around 9.00 am and had an uneventful trip back through the surf. I threaded my way through the crowds on the western side of MG while Stormin took the less crowded option of the eastern side.
Our wash down area was over run by a bridal party so wash up was more perfunctory than usual. Although it would have made a good pic I did not prevail upon the blushing bride to hold our fish for a photo nor did I give in to my childish whim to spray her with the hose.
My two sweetlip looking a little pale on the Truth Mat at home.
Tight lines
Doc Dog.
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