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.
Any Noosa Yakkers member who doesn't wish his or her Noosa Yakkers Facebook posts to be reproduced in this blog should contact a committee member.
Summary August 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
Overview, weather and species
Noosa sea temperature 01Aug16 21.7°C and at 31Aug16 21.1°C
Fish species mentioned or featured in Noosa Yakkers' reports this month in Noosa area: maori cod, snapper, pearl perch (undersize), Spanish mackerel (large, 1), grass sweetlip, longtail tuna (large, 2), Australian bass
# 08Aug16
Doctor Dog:
# 09Aug16
Diesel:
Tunny:
# 10Aug16
sunshiner:
# 13Aug16
paddlepara:
# 14Aug16
redwood and irish luck
# 20Aug16
sunshiner and tunny:
jbone posted, but removed his post soon afterward (don't know why). Anyway, he'd caught this very nice longtail at Sunshine Reef. Image recovered from email.
Wind: Light south westerly
Swell: 1m SE
Water temp: 21.1°C
Tides: High 03:20am (1.22m); Low 09:40am (0.60m)
Current: none detected
Launch point: Doggie Beach
Surface action: None sighted, except whales
Participants: doctor dog, jimbo, sunshiner
My trip distance: 6.3km Redmap: No sightings provided Keen Angler Program:one snapper frame donated
A Doggie Beach launch has some attractions: it's really close to deep reefy water and the launch and beach return are always a separate couple of adventures to add to the zest of the trip. Doggie Beach is also the closest launch to my home, which is a two minute drive away.
So today three of us fronted up. The wind was light from the SW and the surf, well, it was almost non-existent. But as anyone who's launched there will agree, the Doggie Beach sand monster is always prowling. I was last to launch as I'd had an issue with my car key. Lost it, after parking obviously. More about this later.
I trundled my yak past a sad looking guy, who was holding his dog lead, which was attached to his sad looking dog. He was staring out to sea to where doc dog and jimbo were just visible, having launched some minutes earlier. "Do you blokes just go out there and sit there waiting for the whales to come past?", he asked. I explained that this craft I was towing was a fishing boat and that we go out into the ocean in our kayaks to catch fish. I doubt he's a future Noosa Yakker.
The launch scenario here changes frequently, almost minute to minute sometimes. So I spent a little time watching the wave patterns and selecting my departure track before dropping the yak onto the beach and heading back to the secret trolley securing point.
Once safely out the back I established radio contact with doc dog and jimbo. Jimbo was soaking wet. Apparently he encountered several waves on the way out but his yak and skills got him through. Initially we were widely separated in our chosen fishing spots. Doc Dog was heading for a close in area just to the north while jimbo was already at a spot just to the south. I headed for "Noosa Yakkers' own" Doggie Beach Reef, which had been kind to me in the past and is about 1500m from the set up area.
The sun was just rising as I closed in on the mark and set up my drift, with the usual two rods, one trailing out the back with a SP about 15m down, the other held in my hand and fished deep, also with a SP, but on a 1/2 ounce jighead to get it down near the bottom (24-30m depth). The first cast went out at 6:40am and I worked it gently as it drifted toward the bottom and the yak overtook it. Pow! Wow! I'm on. First cast!
My first grassy in months. The jig hook popped out just as I gaffed the fish.
As you can imagine, I had great pleasure in announcing this catch to my colleagues. My morning was made already.
The steady SW breeze was pushing me along at a just-right pace and pretty soon I was 400m NE of my start point. Any drift which produces a fish is worth working over, so that is what I did today, paddling back to near my start point and starting a new drift. This second drift soon produced another strike and a determined run by the striker.
Although I repeated the drift a couple more times there was no further action. So, satisfied with my morning I opted to head back inshore to get ready to return to the beach. Doc Dog and jimbo had both indicated by radio that they'd be heading in by about 09:30 anyway, so I was stowing my gear away just off the beach at about 09:20.
Movie: My track for the day. Note that the end points are where my GPS was turned on/off.
Jimbo and doc dog soon were also on the beach and as I trundled my yak to the top of the path leading from the beach I was delighted and relieved to catch sight of my car key (on a string which I hang around my neck) left by some kind and honest passer by in a prominent place next to the shower point. Lovely morning, and thanks for coming along doc dog and jimbo.
Conditions: Wind from the south, 5-10 knots, low tide 6.20 am
Keen Angler Program: Nothing donated
Diesel, Airwolf and I headed out from MG just after 5.30 am, across the river mouth and north just behind the backline. I was trolling a weighted pilchard (see photo of my rig) hoping to pick up some Tailor as there have been reports of these fish being caught by beach fishermen over the last few days along the North Shore. There was bait breaking the surface and some terns working, but no signs of any Tailor.
Sunrise over Little Halls
We then headed for Little Halls where we found several patches of bait. I trolled over a nice bait ball that was sitting at a depth of about 10 metres (4 metres off the bottom). My weighted pilchard had a 1/2 oz chin weight so was probably sitting a bit high in the water column.
Weighted pilchard rig
I did a second run over the bait ball, this time slowing down once I was past it so that the pilchard would drift into the bait ball. As I did this the bait got taken and after a short fight I had a 75 cm snapper in the hatch. Nothing else was caught by the time Diesel and I headed back to MG, but Airworlf was still out at Halls so hopefully he had some luck.
75 cm Snapper, a PB for me off a kayak in Australia
