Since mid 2007, members of Noosa Yakkers have been writing and illustrating kayak fishing Trip Reports and publishing them by whatever means available. This blog collects all of our early reports (sent out by email) plus the later TR published here on Blogger, and more recently, Monthly Summaries of the reports published on our Facebook Group.
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 try 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 May 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. We must point out that there's much more information and banter appearing on our Facebook Group page than we can possibly summarise here. Noosa Yakkers Facebook Group
This time we're trying a slightly different approach, displaying screen shots in a timeline from the Facebook page plus embedded movies where they're accessible. We think you'll like it, so here goes:
The walking ladies of the early morning greeted diesel and me again, at Middle Groyne. The air was still, the sky black but peppered with pin pricks of light. No surf. In fact we both dry bummed it. We simply waded out a little until the yak was floating, eased our aging frames into our (dry) seats, made ourselves comfortable and paddled out, with no opposition. Easiest launch for months!
This was 5:20am, an hour before sunrise. Soon we were on our way to Jew Shoal. Behind us came the others, although cuddles was quicker than most off the mark, catching up to me just north of the shark nets.
There were seven of us out at the shoal by about 6:45am. Each using his own preferred fishing method. Being an old dog, and so according to the old proverb unable to learn new tricks, I was trying for a snapper using SPs. One was rigged with a 1/2 ounce jighead on my trailing outfit and hanging, yes, just hanging, 10m down. The other was rigged with a 1/8 ounce 3/0 jighead with prawn lookalike SP and this I was casting out and letting fall as we drifted along gently with the breeze. After an hour of little success despite trying several localities (no bait visible on the sonar), I decided I'd try a mark we call Old Faithful, in the far SW corner of the shoal.
I arrived here at around 07:45. Conditions still perfect, but glad I'd worn my wetsuit for the first time this year.
Last time I was here, just days ago, my trailing outfit had been savaged by what I took to be a shark, with a biteoff the result.
"Oh no", I thought, "not again", as the trailing outfit went off. I laid the casting outfit on the front deck and grabbed the trailing outfit, which by now was sporting a considerable bend. The fish's behaviour led me to believe that it was a shark so I put the trailing rod back in the holder in order to retrieve the other lure, which was drifting around about 15m down at this time. A fast retrieval was necessary to minimize the chance of entanglement with the fish on the other rod, but this also made this lure more attractive to a passing denizen as the soft plastic prawn was clobbered during the retrieve.
Double hookup! This fish went hard and initially I thought it was another shark but I've been mistaken before so decided to wait and see although a couple of times I was tempted to just bust it off. This was a good call because late in the fight the fish came to the surface and the unmistakeable vertical bars of a Spaniard were visible. The fight had been vigorous, with me armed with only 6kg braid, 6kg mono leader and no wire trace, but the key decider: carbontech drag washers in my Stradic 3000 FJ. At the end the fish was completely knackered and it didn't even twitch when the gaff struck home (second try).
Check out the vid for the screaming runs and radio commentary (synchronised audio from the chest cam). The fight lasted eight minutes but the video runs for only 3:30.
And there was a small shark still on the trailing outfit when I retrieved it.
Here's the jig lodged securely in the front of the upper jaw.
Video
Direct embed from YouTube
Embed via Facebook (test)
Shortly afterward diesel and I headed for Middle Groyne where we took a few pics.
Great shot by diesel. What a beautiful day!
1.05m, not huge but a nice fish.
Bluedog was hanging about the beach with his family. This young lady is his daughter, Lily. Photo by bluedog.
Wind: Light South to South West 5 knots with a 9.00am glass off followed by a light Northerly
Swell: variable less than a metre metre
Current: little detectable current at Little Halls Reef
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: doctor dog, tunny, microbe, kiwikelv, redwood, the hoff, bomber, cuddles, stormin, diesel, sunshiner
I for one was very keen to get back on the water after 6 weeks of light duties recovering from a shoulder injury. Bomber and Diesel were already in the carpark when I arrived at 5.00 and the rest of the crew came in dribs and drabs leading up to sunrise with Stormin bringing up the rear after an atypical sleep in. We were met with a small wave beside the rock wall which although not big still wet me as I punched out in the dark with a mistimed run.
I was less than organised this morning forgetting to pack jig heads but fortunately Tunny came to my rescue with a couple of loaners.
Bomber and Diesel and Sunshiner headed to Jew Shoal while Tunny , Microbe , Cuddles and I headed north along the beach following the early flights of terns as they chased the bait schools. Dodging the boats coming out of the river mouth is always interesting in the half light of dawn.
After a few unsuccessful casts at tuna crashing through bait close inshore just north of the river mouth I suffered a few early tangles and found myself drifting towards Little Halls while I made repairs. Taking this as an omen I followed my old GPS marks to LH where a couple of stink boats were catching a few live bait. Both my sounder and GPS were having minor technical issues but I persisted after seeing one of the stink boats landing a nice squire (aka small snapper). I found the line of the LH reef and with my drogue deployed was pleased that the breeze took me in a perfect drift along the length of the structure . With the sounder now working properly I was able to identify structure, bait and some larger fish. I have in the past only fished here for live bait or pelagics so I was well pleased when my cast SP offering was hammered by what proved to be a nice 50 cm Sweetlip.
Repeating that drift I passed over some interesting territory but no bites. On the third drift my SP was hit again and this time I was pleased to boat a nice 45 cm snapper.
I should have called it a day then but I was keen to grab a bit of pelagic action so I followed some birds and bait schools almost into the surf zone in front of Halls Knob. Here I could see mack tuna and I believe also some long tails crashing through the bait but they would not take a lure. One last cast and I was on but this fish was not behaving normally and came to the Yak very meekly after its first spirited run. Only when I had it along side my craft did I realise the hook was not imbedded in any part of the fish but rather the lure and line had wrapped round the fish to form a loop on itself and the loop slipped to the tailstock. I merely dragged the unlucky fish to me in reverse. Release was very easy and the startled but unharmed Mack tuna swam away strongly.
My lack of paddle fitness showed as I struggled to make it back to MG against the inshore northerly drift . Return to the beach was relatively uneventful in spite of the crowds.
the third fish - little snapper is courtesy of Cuddles - Dwayne Thuys. I was surprised so few legal fish were landed today but pleased I had a feed. Tunny declined my offer of a fish for the loan of the jig heads.
Great paddle out on Laguna Bay this morning. Thanks for the company and thanks for the jig heads Tunny - I owe you a beer or 6.
- good luck to those heading out tomorrow,
Tight Lines,
DoctorDog
