Spam, sharks, surf, smashed. 26Feb16

TR by sunshiner


Wind: None
Swell: 2m+ easterly
Water temp: 27.2°C
Tides: Low 03:53am (0.50m); High 10:06am (1.77m)
Current: n/a
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: none
Participants: tickey, doctor dog, stormin, diesel, red greg, sunshiner
My trip distance: 12.5km
Redmap: No sightings provided
Keen Angler Program: Nothing today.
Mexican Immigrant Food Appeal: One spot-tail shark donated.

A whole week of strong winds before, with today's forecast lull the last for another week, made for a keen bunch of Noosa Yakkers; keen to get a fish, but not so keen to take on the huge swell resulting from the remains of TC Winston, which recently made a mess of some parts of Fiji. We'd gone to the trouble of recce-ing the launch point 12 hours before but we knew a larger swell was coming. It was only a question of when it would arrive.

So there we were on the beach, just before 5:00am, all five of us ready to go and not a man under 60 years old (kid stormin came later). The waning moon was bright and the sky almost cloudless. Low tide was at 4:00am, so the water was shallow on the sandbank out the front of the groyne. As every seafarer knows, shallow water causes waves to break, and the bigger than usual swells were certainly breaking spectacularly right in front of us. The background roar and the frequent "crump" as a biggie spent its energy trying to smash the end of the groyne were enough to make a grown man want to return home to bed.

It's important in this situation to minimise the time you spend in the crunch zone, so this means you get as close as you dare to the maelstrom before boarding. Once aboard you go like hell, as staying in your place is not possible; you'll either be swept sideways or backward. At one stage this morning, while waiting to jump on I saw tickey next to me, submerged to the chest and still holding on to his upside down Supalite; this was before he'd even boarded.

The difficult part is judging when to board and paddle out, especially in low light, as what seems like a coming lull can change in an instant as a big nasty surprise appears from nowhere. There were no dry bums today. But we all got out, some on their second attempt, and paddled the minimum 300 metres or so to the "safe" area out the back. Here, diesel spent some time trying to catch a small shark, which were here in plague proportions last time we launched. In fact I had a presumed shark whack my paddle as I paddled out.

Red greg and doc dog opted to visit Little Halls Reef/Halls Reef while the remainder headed for Jew Shoal. Stinkboats were not an issue today as the swell, and the resulting hair-raising bar crossing, deterred all but the desperate and the crazy.

Jew Shoal was dead. No sign of surface action, no sign of bait shoals on the sonar. It was quite a relief when doc dog told us that he'd seen some baitfish and longtails at Little Halls Reef. Off we paddled, tickey, diesel and I with tickey demonstrating that he really has mastered his GPS by travelling unerringly the 3.5km across the bay to our mark at Little Halls Reef.

Little Halls Reef seemed dead also. Certainly no surface action. Doc dog had moved on to Halls Reef where he reported that a small turtle there was begging pilchard pieces from him. Tickey pulled the pin around 8:00am while diesel and I had agreed that we'd head in around 08:30. Stormin had launched (much easier launch than at the earlier time) about 7:30am after working all night and opted to paddle to Halls Reef.

I was just tidying up to leave when my trailing outfit, with large SP and jighead hanging down about 10m, went off with a scream. For 30 secs or so I held a faint hope that this might be a snapper, but of course, as you'd expect, at this time of the year and in this place, it was a spot-tail shark. Diesel and his missus love eating shark so I radioed him and he confirmed he'd take it if I didn't want it.

Dinner for diesel.

And so we headed back in, noting as we approached the groyne that there were some big waves blanketing the outer edge of the rocks and throwing spray high into the air.

It's important here to time your run well if you wish to avoid embarrassment. Wait as close to the break zone as you dare until a set of three or so big waves have passed through then verify that no more big waves are visible before paddling like hell for the beach. Invariably you'll be run down, but by then you should be past the break zone and into water where you can deal with these fairly easily.

I saw diesel dash through safely and followed soon after, picking up a nice small wave to carry me right in to the beach.

Then came doc dog and red greg. You can see how they (and I) went in the video below.

Tickey confessed that he'd got a soaking both going out and coming in. The only fish brought in was the shark that I'd kept for diesel. Several other sharks were caught and released, a couple of them right in front of the groyne.

Hope to see some of you for a beer at the NH surf club, 5:30pm next Wednesday.

Thanks for reading and thanks to my companions today for coming along.

Kev Long
Sunshiner
Author Kayak Fishing Manual for iPhone, iPad and Mac (click linked text to view)
Stealth Supalite X, yellow/orange
FREE iBook "Kayak Fishing Laguna Bay & Jew Shoal" for iPhone, iPad and Mac

Cuddles in the Spaniard Club. 18Feb16

TR by sunshiner


Wind: None
Swell: about 1.5m easterly
Water temp: 26.7°C
Tides: High 05:00am (1.79m); Low 11:30am, (0.66m)
Current: at Jew Shoal, toward the east
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: sporadic, tiny longtail tuna (see pics below)
Participants: cuddles, diesel, jimbo, sunshiner
My trip distance: 12.5km
Redmap: No sightings provided
Keen Angler Program: Nothing today.

With an overcast sky, waxing moon already set, and a 5:30am sunrise, light levels on the beach were low at 4:45am this morning. Even so, by the time we launched into the small surf we could see reasonably well, especially the bright whiteness of the broken waves marching toward us. Cuddles, diesel and I launched together, with jimbo electing to come along a little later. Launch was easy, and in fact I dry-bummed it.

Both diesel and cuddles reported seeing, even in the low light levels, many small sharks swarming under and around their yaks in 6m depth as soon as they stopped to set up after launch. I couldn't see the sharks, but perhaps they avoided my boat!

Cuddles, with no radio, GPS or sonar, opted to stick along with diesel and me, heading for Jew Shoal and so we three headed NNE together in clammy, calm conditions.

Diesel kindly let cuddles know when we'd arrived at The Pinnacles, explained the depth and structure to him and left him to his own devices. As for me, I'd decided to use up my Jew Shoal time on trying for a snapper or sweetlip so out came the soft plastics. As we've shown on many occasions, we catch snapper in every month of the year, so it's always worth a shot. Diesel was digging out his bottom fishing rigs.

At first there were no signs of tern or surface action. Then, quite suddenly, soon after sunrise, I noticed a large flock of terns wheeling around out to the east. Diesel was right in the middle of them and radioed back that they appeared not to be feeding, but simply wheeling around in expectation that something might happen.

When fishing for snapper and sweetlip I usually try to find baitfish down deep on the sonar and fish there. But today, I could find no baitfish around Jew Shoal. Nevertheless, I stuck to my plan after briefly considering paddling after the large flash crowd of terns, still visible, but obviously working their way toward the SE, ie, further away.

My first SP was launched around 6:00am and I hadn't had a serious touch by around 7:30am, when I suddenly boated an undersize Maori cod. Simultaneously diesel reported from a couple of hundred metres away nailing a just undersized snapper, then another. Earlier, he'd hooked a shark near Old Faithful and lost it boatside (Mexicans love to eat shark and this one had a narrow escape). Speaking of sharks, Jimbo, who'd launched later than we had and headed for Little Halls Reef called us up and reported that he'd boated a small bronze whaler and whacked it in the hatch. As for cuddles, we'd last seen him paddling toward the SE after the flock of terns.

By 8:00am I was contemplating pulling up stakes and heading home when I noticed that the flash mob of terns had arrived back at the eastern end of Jew Shoal. And there, paddling directly toward me from the centre of the flock, was the unmistakeable figure of cuddles. When he was closer I could see he had a big smile on his face and was just waiting for me to ask how he went. So, of course, I didn't ask, for about ten seconds.

After confirming with me that there's no size or possession limit on tuna, he confessed that he'd been chasing the terns and been casting a slug into them. So he had six tiny tuna in his strap-on bag (his Stealth Splash has no fish hatch). Needless to say they were little guys but he'd kept them in the hope that they might be good eating. But, more to the point, he'd just nailed his first Spaniard a few minutes before, right among the flock of terns.

Cuddles' first ever Spaniard, taken on a trolled dead bait and SAFA rig. Nice fish, 119cm.

He had to head home as work beckoned, so off he went. Soon afterward I decided that I too would head in as there was no sign of the snapper that I wanted. Diesel agreed to head in also, so I turned toward Middle Groyne.

On the way, off Tea Tree Bay, I found myself paddling near a bust up of the small tuna which cuddles had done battle with. I was curious to see exactly which species they were as cuddles' fish were definitely not mac tuna. They were easily within range of my light SP casting outfit so I chucked the SP in and got a hookup instantly followed by a spirited fight, and in due course, a live release.

Isobar caught one of these on Christmas Day last year, at Sunshine Reef (the day he caught his marlin) and I saw and photographed the specimen he kept. (See his TR from that day.) Being a fisheries scientist with lots of international contacts isobar eventually concluded that it was a juvenile longtail tuna. Those who have caught adult longtail tuna will notice that this juvenile has a much larger pectoral fin than you'd expect and also perhaps that the eye seems larger than you'd expect too. Nevertheless, the experts reckon that it's a baby longtail. Until I saw isobar's specimen on Christmas Day I'd never seen tuna like this. Now we have a bay packed with them. They'd be dynamite as a live bait, I reckon.

Cuddles promised to send me a photo of his Spanish next to a measuring device, and duly delivered on that promise:

119cm Spaniard. Well done and congrats on joining the Spaniard Club, cuddles.

Thanks for reading.

Kev Long
Sunshiner
Author Kayak Fishing Manual for iPhone, iPad and Mac (click linked text to view)
Stealth Supalite X, yellow/orange
FREE iBook "Kayak Fishing Laguna Bay & Jew Shoal" for iPhone, iPad and Mac