Summary April 2016

Facebook provides an excellent and simple facility for conducting group discussions in text form, including support for still pictures and movies. As a result, with our Facebook Group page we have better media-rich communication within Noosa Yakkers than ever before, with lots of info and useful material appearing on our Group page because it's so easy to post. Not on Facebook? Don't despair. We have no intention of dropping our tried and true Google Group email or our indispensable blog of Trip Reports and general useful yak fishing info. I'd just encourage you to dip your paddle in the Facebook sea and give it a try. If the oldest members of Noosa Yakkers can do it probably you can.

We're concerned that Trip Report info which is appearing on our Facebook page but not on our Trip Report blog is not getting out to the non-FB element of our community, especially prospective new members.

To bridge that gap here's one approach: a monthly summary, published on the blog. Any constructive ideas to improve this summary and/or volunteered editorial skills are welcomed.

Summary April 2016

This post on our Trip Reports blog is a monthly brief summary of fishing trip information which has been posted on our Facebook Group page or elsewhere and not posted on this blog. Noosa Yakkers Facebook Group

In some cases the direct link to the individual Facebook post has been included.

Water temp at end of month: 23.9°C (last month: 27.2°C)

Weather conditions: Quite a lot of good weather days in the early part of the month, but conditions deteriorated from about 21Apr onward.

02Apr16


Stu at Caloundra nailed a longtail, a big mac tuna and this outstanding queenfish.


The Middle Groyne crowd got amongst them, too.

Corie M-t: I got 4 longtails and a shark a little under 5ft all caught between the river mouth and little halls and about 1km from shore. Lost something that took over 100m of line within seconds. Great day back on the beach around 8.30 with 3 tuna on ice.

Tunny: Eyetag, Corie and I hit Little Halls while Bomber, Jimbo and Microbe opted for Jew Shoal. Microbe got a nice Sweetlip (see earlier post), but the rest of the action was North shore/Little Halls. Corie got 3 Longtails, Eyetag either 3 or 4 (not sure), and I got 2. Jimbo, Eyetag, Corie and I all also got Mac tuna. It seems like the whole coastal strip is full of tuna at the moment as my wife was on a Stand Up Paddleboard off Mudjimba and had to dodge the jumping longtails



03Apr16

Participants: redwood, weeksie, diesel, stormin, thorney, sunshiner, jasper endersby (launched from Teewah beach).

Stormin: 2 longtail for me this morning. One on white soft plastic and one on white lure (rapalla slashbait) others still out there chasing bustups.

Stormin's pair

Kevin Long: Donut for me and it seemed the fish were scarce although I did get a dropped hit on a HLP in Qantas colours. I left the area (6-7 km north of Middle Groyne) early to avoid the forecast southerly which came in pretty much as predicted. Well done stormin. Pics?

Jasper Endersby: Nice work, I only got 1

Norman Dalangin Good on u Jasper Endersby but where are you this morning?

Jasper Endersby Launched from infront of Teewah and headed towards stingers Norman Dalangin

Thorney: Went out to little halls this morning, started off a lot quieter than yesterday with far less bust ups, but as the morning went on bust ups started becoming more and more frequent especially around 9am. Trolled all morning with hard plastics, ended up getting 2 long tail on the same white n gold bomber.

Thorney's pair

Redwood's pics

Weeksie

Stormin

Diesel: Gregory Williams. I had a great day with a pod of dolphins surf my bow wave most of the way to the shoal. 14 fish onboard and all thrown back ,undersized and undesirable in some cases. The plus is that most of them were Snapper so the future still looks bright. I know it's boring but maybe next time.

Weeksie: Paul Weeks. Hey Tim . Thanks for sharing the pics. They were hard work initially, before LT missiles started launching around me at Little Hall's
You're a poet & didn't know it


07Apr16

See TR on this blog

Sat 09Apr16


Two locations: Laguna Bay and Moffat's Beach, Caloundra

Noosa

Stormin
Not much to report guys but tuna is out there. I trolled slimy for awhile at JS without a touch. Swap to hardbody lure and had a couple of bump. Birds working here and there definitely longtail but not in numbers. Mattbee lost a longtail yak side when heading in from JS. Decided to have a look at LH about a kilometer to destination when noticed there's no action on my rod. I lost a lure didn't even feel the hit. More birds activities further north but not much left in the tank to keep going besides everybody is back on the beach (microbe, mattbee and my mate Chris). If I'm going tomorrow to chase tuna Halls would be my choice.

Cheers
Norman (stormin)

Moffat's

https://www.facebook.com/groups/527838470643832/permalink/981959115231763/
Lazybugger: Picked up a longtail and Spaniard at Moffats this morning. Spaniard on a slimey, 125cm and 10.5kg.Longtail 110cm, 11.5kg, over an hour and half battle, towed for well over a km past the blinker and broke a rod tip at the death. On a 3 inch zman out the back. Also got spooled to the knot at the beginning.


10Apr16.

Laguna Bay
See TR on this blog.

and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/527838470643832/permalink/982574558503552/

And at south Noosa…
Mark W showed us this specimen taken on a drifted white SP.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/527838470643832/permalink/982541605173514/

Mark W and another longtail

11Apr16

https://www.facebook.com/groups/527838470643832/permalink/983027055124969/
Laguna Bay
Peter Hassett: Well it wasn't the best start to the morning as I left my radio at home, it was too far to go back and get it. Anyway met up with Jim at 5:30 and we headed off to little halls without much sign of birds or they were miles away. I decided to head in towards the shore and found a small school working a bait ball just as I was about 10m from it. my trawling soft plastic went off 20min later and a sore back I had it in the yak (why do they come so bloody close when you hook up, so frustrating) so sent the lure back out and hooked up again not long after. I was on my way back and hooked up again about 1 km from the launch site. This one was casting soft plastic into a small school that was working. This fish was returned. Sorry the reports so long

12Apr16


Snapper (for a change of pace)

Laguna Bay.
See TR on this blog, includes movie.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/527838470643832/permalink/982574558503552/

plus Instagram embed


19Apr16 (approximate, date not specified, no description provided)

Shorty seems to have bagged a longtail on the annual BigKev Fraser Island trip.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/527838470643832/permalink/988134447947563/

19Apr16

Laguna Bay

Tunny: Fishing at Jew Shoal today. Great sunrise but not fish!

Kevin Long (sunshiner): Participants: diesel, tunny, jimbo, hassle, scottyB, bomber, sunshiner. MetEye forecast was pretty accurate but the wind strengthened sooner than predicted. I was 4km north of MG, the wind was from the SSE, so I pulled the pin early, being wary of an even stronger southerly. Even so, it took me an hour before I was safely on the beach. Nice to meet Peter Hassett (new nickname "hassle") for the first time. Thanks for coming along guys.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/527838470643832/permalink/987914997969508/

22Apr16

Caloundra area

Mark W posted again
https://www.facebook.com/groups/527838470643832/permalink/989699954457679/

Around 15 kilos of muscle - I mean the tuna!
Caught on a drifted small whitish paddle tail plastic in an area where there had been a few bustups.
Put up one heck of a fight.
Towed me around for way too long.

16-23Apr16

BigKev and several other Noosa Yakkers fished Fraser Island with amazing results:
http://www.theyakshed.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4843 (Probably only Yak Shed members can access this.).

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
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Two and a half snapper. 12Apr16


TR by sunshiner


Wind: Light SW-southerly
Swell: 1m easterly
Water temp: 26.7°C
Tides: Low 05:58am (0.57m); High 11:46am (1.44m)
Current: n/a
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: Lots at Halls Reef, a little at Jew Shoal
Participants: diesel, sunshiner
My trip distance: 12.3km
Redmap: No sightings provided
Keen Angler Program: Two and a half snapper frames donated.

I've had a poor run, fishing-wise, lately, with enough donuts in the last month to stock a shop. Last time I was out, only a few days ago, I hit Jew Shoal and dropped two decent fish, one to a weird bite-off, and the other to a puzzling failure of braid under very little pressure. So I was down two jig heads and at least three SPs, for no take home result. Things had to get better.

That put me under pressure today. I was 90% sure that snapper were present at Jew Shoal but failure to catch one today might make me question my tactics and techniques.

The carpark was empty; nobody camping in cars and vans. Holidays are over. Diesel, as usual, was there before me. The launch in near darkness was dead easy with a light SW land breeze. We parted company, diesel heading west and north, while I set course for familiar territory, Jew Shoal.

My plan was to use the breeze to gently move my yak over the reef while I fished two SPs, one hanging down 10m or so behind from a rod held in the stern rod holder, the other fished from the hand, working the surface to the bottom and back again, as often as it took to get a fish.

My first cast went out at 6:07am in beautiful conditions with an ideal drift speed and the shoal all to myself. Ten minutes later I was really peeved. My hand held rod is closely monitored, with the braid running over my index finger providing just a little pressure as the attached jig explores the water below. But this slight pressure had seemingly vaporised. The line was slack; I'd felt nothing. Reeling in I discovered that the jighead and SP were gone, and so was some of the leader, cut neatly as if by scissors. This was not a good start. I rerigged.

Soon afterward this rig picked up a small snapper, just legal, which I stowed. I was on the board but the monkey wasn't quite off my back yet.

After two drifts with no further action I opted to try a drift over one of my personal marks just north of The Pinnacles. Here, as we slowly moved along above the sunken landscape I at last spotted some decent bait patches on the sonar. This looked promising, and sure enough, when my cast jig head was drifting toward the bottom it got hammered with a typical snapper Whack! This was what I'd got out of bed at 4:30am for: the possibility of boating a decent snapper. So I played him super carefully until at last I could see the beautiful pink shimmering flanks. In went the gaff and he was mine.

One of the most satisfying sights in the Australian kayak fishing scene.



My morning was made, and of course I immediately radioed diesel over at Halls Reef to let him know that I'd got my snapper, the one I'd specifically come out to get.

I could have gone home then, but decided to try to find the same bait patches again, by dead reckoning and use of the sonar. It took a little time, but soon I reckoned I was in similar if not exactly the same territory. The sonar echoes were similar and the depth was the same. This time I decided to try to predict a hookup and so broke into a live commentary which I recorded on my point-and-shoot Pentax while my GoPro was recording the visual aspects. A GoPro mounted in a waterproof case on a yak does not record voice very well.

Anyway, the two simultaneous recordings show what happened. Within a minute or so of my prediction that a hookup might be likely, the jig was grabbed by what was clearly a lively, but not large, snapper. But the fight rapidly got more vigorous and I recorded myself speculating out loud that the snapper may have been eaten by another fish. After yielding quite a bit of line to the fish, all resistance at the fish's end stopped and I retrieved what was left.

Close up

Overview

Movie (2:45) of this "catch" including live commentary.



Shortly after this, diesel let me know he was heading over to the shoal from Halls Reef and he duly joined me for a short time before we headed home together to make sure we beat the forecast southerly, which actually arrived suddenly when we were still 3km from Middle Groyne.

On the way we passed a few small and brief bustups of what could have been juvenile yellowfin tuna, or possibly small longtails.

Beach pic

On the mat

Note that I intend to go through the GoPro material in the next day or so and produce a small movie or two from today's action. The movies will be posted here and on our FB page.

Thanks for reading and thanks to my companion, diesel, 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
No comments:

Tuna, tuna, hallelujah 10Apr16

TR by Redwood
Trip date: 10/4/16
Participants: Sunshiner, Diesel, Tunny, Stormin, Weeksie, DougOut, KiwiKelv, Redwood
Launch Site:  Middle Groyne
Conditions: Bloody beautiful


The alarm went off at 4am and I was reluctant to get up and go. Thoughts of taking the kids fishing started to cross my sleepy mind, but luckily the stubbornness kicked in and I decided to go. I was considering a Moffats launch, however hitting the snooze button 4 times put that idea to bed so it was off to Middle Groyne.

The car park was full when I got there (couple of palooka's taking up multiple bays with single vehicles) and all yakkers were already on the water. I'm not sure who this yakker was but he made for a good photo against the sunrise.


With Stormin's intel from the previous day I decided to head to Halls. Tunny and Stormin were already there whist Sunshiner and Diesel went to Jew Shoal and Weeksie to Sunshine Reef/Abay.

My plan was to slow troll a floating pillie around the tuna to try and pick up a Spaniard. I waited until I had crossed the mouth before deploying the rig as a lot of boats were crossing the bar. Around this time Tunny announced that he could see some birds diving closer in to the shore around Little Halls. I continued progressing north very slowly and it wasn't long before the reel went off... a small shark, which was released.

The bird action started to intensify but there were no bustups under them early on. I was in-close less than 1km off the beach and had just gone past Little Halls when the first of the Longtail bustups started. Tunny was not far away from my position and Stormin was a bit further north past the north shore campsite. The bustups started to get more frequent and soon Tunny and I were in chase mode chucking halco twisties into boils. My pillie was still floating out back along with a white softie dangling close to the boat which suddenly went off with a furry loosing line at a rapid rate... Longtail! If I boated this one it would be my first and playing on my mind were the number of Tuna fails I'd had. I took my time, backed the drag off a little and kept the pressure on. My second line was now getting in the way as it was being collected by the one the Tuna was on, so in fear of losing the fish to a weird tangle related incident I decided to cut the second line to mitigate the risk. I fought the fish for 10 or 15 minutes until I had it close to the yak. It did a couple of circles and then went right under the yak no more than 1/2 a metre and I could see the fish clearly... very nice fish I was thinking, when suddenly, 'pop', it was off. Grrrrr!

No point in getting bent out of shape, much better to re-rig and try again. The Longtails were now starting to go a bit berserk, popping up all over the show and I was back into spinning slugs through boils with my trusty white softie hanging out the back. Tunny had been spinning the boils all this time and obviously he'd not hooked up yet so we had a quick conversation about how we might change tactics and improve our chances. Tunny said he was going to try his home made weapon; a 40g twistie painted all black except for the tip which was left silver to look like a head. This was a pretty crafty move by Tunny. He could have just used a smaller twistie but then he would have lost casting distance, so instead he was going to try and make the 40g slug look smaller by changing the colour. Optical illusions work on us, so why not fish. I wonder if Tuna see a blue and black dress or gold and white? One cast of the painted slug and Tunny was on and landed a nice Longtail.

I switched to a number of different casting rigs from small clear softies (which worked for Weeksie the week before) to different size slugs (couldn't get good casting distance on smaller ones). I tried everything I had but couldn't tempt them on a cast.

The Tuna were now everywhere and all around Tunny and me. Jaro has come over the radio saying he was on a stinky and that he was surrounded too but could not land anything (serves him right for being on a stinky ;-). Stormin reported a lot of action at his position further north. Sunshiner and Diesel reported that it was all quiet on the eastern front.

With all this Tuna about I was very surprised that nothing had taken my trailing white softie so I decided to check it. The paddle tail had been bitten off so I replaced it with a new one and dropped it back in the water. A few minutes later the reel was screaming.... Longtail! I was very keen to boat this one. Once the line became tight I yanked the it a few times to try and set the hook better if it wasn't already. Again I was in no rush and knew I had wire trace and 15lb mono, so no reason not to land this baby. This one seemed to have more fight in it than the last one I lost and I think it must have been around 20min before I could see the fish. It was indeed a nice Longtail. It started to circle under the yak as I'd heard about and then I started to worry about not cocking it up in the last stages. I kept the pressure on at all times and slowly got the fish up higher and higher under the yak. I radioed Tunny for some gaffing advise and he said I might only have one chance... great, just what I needed... more pressure. The fish was very near the surface and still circling and a new concern crossed my mind... what if it wraps itself around the rudder? I tried to shorten the line so that it wouldn't. It did a few shallow circles and then I put the gaff under the chin and lifted it out the water and into the hatch. Mission complete. I asked Tunny if I needed to bleed and both he and Diesel thought it only made a slight positive difference to eating to do so.

During my fight Stormin had also hooked up by casting a white softie into a bustup. I'm sorry I didn't take a photo when we were back at the beach of his rudder as the fish had wrapped the braid 20 times around it. I'm still a bit perplexed how one continues to reel in when the line is wrapped around the rudder.

Sunshiner and Diesel had decided to pack it in at JS and thought they might swing by our position in case the action was still going on. When they arrived their was still the occasional bustup but I think everyone was ready to head in. We loaded up our HBL and headed back to MG. Just before the wall I hooked up with a small school mackerel which as usual managed to wiggle itself off my hook.

So 3 Longtail caught which is good, but considering the massive number of fish around it's surprising the catch count wasn't higher. Think it goes to the fact that unlike Spotties who'll take half a golf ball when they're on the chew, Longtails are fussy buggers.

I thought I had taken a movie of the mayhem, but I must have not hit the record button. That is a pity as I've not seen anything like it. Makes spoottie mac mayhem look tame. Here are some of the pics from the day from various contributors.

KiwiKelv on his maiden voyage
Redwood, Tunny and Stormin (size of fish matching size of man)
Redwood - 4 years in the making. halle-!@#$!!ing-lujah.
Redwood and Tunny Longtail
Stormin's Longtail with two monster Mac Tuna

Redwood's Longtail with fishholder who wanted to remain anonymous 

Fantastic day out on the bay with a bunch of great guys. Thanks to all and sorry if I've missed anyone or any important details.

Redwood.
1 comment:

NOT a longtail day. 07Apr16


TR by sunshiner


Wind: Light SW-southerly
Swell: 1.5m easterly
Water temp: 26.7°C
Tides: Low 01:34am (0.28m); High 07:45am (2.00m)
Current: n/a
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: Nil at Little Halls Reef, heaps at Jew Shoal
Participants: jaro, diesel, gemini, jimbo, tunny, dugout, bonnyboy (scratched), sunshiner
My trip distance: 11km
Redmap: No sightings provided
Keen Angler Program: Unknown, but two snapper possibles.

Longtail fever hit the Noosa Yakkers community recently, coincident with the arrival of superb kayak fishing weather for about ten days. And those of us who could got out more often than the Australian cricket team batsmen; and some of us even got ducks. Then came four days of strong SE winds, which ended yesterday.

The news of the longtails even reached Victoria with the result that one keen yakfisher loaded up his big white van and joined Noosa Yakkers while en route to Noosa, texting and emailing us from his phone while he hammered up Highway One. Justin (aka bonnyboy) became the quickest join we've ever had, and he was posting on our Facebook page within five minutes, asking about longtails.

And yes, bonnyboy was in the Middle Groyne carpark when I arrived in the dark this morning. He was chatting with tunny and diesel and copying down the recipe for boiled longtail (a little prematurely, as it turned out). Ominously, on the roof of his van was a Hobie pedal craft (Outback or Revo). Even more ominous was the crump of the shorey. We three offered him launch advice, additional to the detailed written advice he'd already received via our new-member joining system.

The tide was over half way in, so the shorey wasn't too bad. Out we went, apparently without problem, other than the expected wet bums. But then no one knew where bonnyboy (no radio, no GPS) was. He'd been seen heading for the beach, Hobie in tow but apparently didn't make the set up area, out the back. In the end, we could do nothing, as no one had actually seen him attempt to launch. The rest of us, of course, were in contact with each other by radio; tunny opted to head to Little Halls Reef while the rest of us headed for Jew Shoal, led by diesel.

Half way to Jew Shoal a surprise. Dugout (long time Noosa Yakkers member and occasional Noosa resident) called up for a radio check, telling us he had launched from Coward's Corner, and was also heading for Jew Shoal.

I was intent on catching a snapper so headed for my favourite SP drift area for a SW breeze. Diesel was recycling some mac tuna, jaro used prawns, dugout was trolling for mackerel, while jimbo and gemini opted to chase the tuna schools with slugs (not the garden variety). Gemini hooked up really quickly.

Gemini's mac tuna as seen by his GoPro.

Then jaro announced he had a shark on. Dugout, who is not a Victorian, but lives there a fair bit, offered to take it off his hands. So that was dinner sorted in the dugout household.

Meanwhile, all around us, terns were fluttering and diving and eruptions of white water showed where the baitfish were being smashed.


Two shots from gemini's GoPro as he approached the bustups.

I fished on and eventually got a good solid run on my cast SP but the hook dislodged after a few seconds (bugger!). Shortly afterward jaro confirmed that snapper were present by telling us he'd boated a 50cm specimen. Then I got another run, spool buzzing as it released line and again the hook failed to find a firm hold (double bugger).

Diesel, meanwhile, was continuing his informal survey of species present at Jew Shoal.

Spangled emperor (undersize, min 45cm)

Maori cod (undersize, min 45cm)

Yellowlip Threadfin Bream, Nemipterus aurifilum (Ogilby 1910) (aka butterfly bream)

And finally, a keeper

Tunny reported no action at Little Halls Reef and that he was heading in as he had to be home early today. Shortly afterward, with tunny's arrival at Middle Groyne, the mystery of bonnyboy's whereabouts was cleared up. Tunny found him still in the car park, eating canned tuna (alright, I made that up) and doing makeshift repairs on his fishing gear. Yes, he'd been smashed in the small surf, with terminal damage to some vital fishing equipment. Ask him, maybe he'll tell you the story or maybe the pic he supplied this arvo will do the job (see below).

At least two smashed rods as far as I can tell, and all the reels will need servicing. Don't transit the surf zone with rods held vertically.

Bonnyboy, we appreciate your candor in sending us this pic. Perhaps you should consider buying a kayak Rod Bag (Google "pedro's rod bags"), invented and sold by Noosa Yakkers' member pedro, who uses a Hobie Revolution and launches from Middle Groyne.

Shortly afterward we were all heading back. The tide by now was high but dropping and the Middle Groyne sand monster was on the prowl. Several baby surfers were blocking our usual entrance (surely school holidays must end soon) so some of us opted for the eastern side of the groyne. The shorey was spectacularly nasty.

Experimental embed from instagram (15 sec movie)


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
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