TR by Jimbo & Redwood, photos by Tunny & Stormin
Wind: Light westerly, then nil
Swell: 1m ESE
Current: None
Launch Point: Middle Groyne
Participants: Redwood, Tunny, Stormin, Jimbo
NOTE by Jimbo: I have inserted the relevant paragraphs of Redwood's report at (about) the appropriate point in my report so the whole story can be read in context.
JIMBO: Redwood, Tunny and Stormin were already unloading their kayaks when I arrived at the MG car park at 0520. Although the tide was low, the consensus of opinion was that, whilst easily doable, the annoying shore break was less on the eastern (SLSC side) of the groyne.
Here's Redwood ready to launch just before sun up.
Redwood and Tunny had determined they would wade their yaks beyond the shore break, about 25m out into waist deep water and then jump aboard. This worked for Redwood with his long Stealth Evo 495 kept pointed into the waves, but Tunny managed to get his Erick's Canoe a bit sideways and got knocked backwards as the shore break picked up his yak and shoved it into his chest and shoulders. Stormin and I chose to mount our yaks in the very shallow water and then hold position in the broken waves until a lull arrived and paddle through, albeit with wet bums from water taken into our cockpits.
REDWOOD: Tunny and I arrived at MG at 5:15 and got ready for a 5.30 launch. Stormin and Jimbo arrived soon after. Tunny and I had decided that given the low tide we'd try and wade the kayaks beyond the breakers on the east side of the rock wall. As explained by Jimbo, this worked for me but not so well for Tunny… we had picked a bad time to go with the set building not dissipating. Stomin revealed afterward that he was a bit jealous of this launching technique which is really reserved for those over a certain height (although Stormin and Jimbo timed their launch better and got considerably less wet).
As the sun peeked out from behind the horizon and we headed out to JS trolling hardbodies as we went. Once at JS I headed for the Pinnacles mark and lobbed in a squid bait which was immediately taken by something decent; from the bites I'd say a good size snapper. I hooked up but alas was off again after 30 seconds. After that encouraging start I thought it was going to be a good day for fishing, but as it turned out the bites were few and far between. I did land a small reef fish (not sure of species) but that was it. I was getting some good bites but was not able to convert them to catches. I think if I had had another hour I would have been able to snaffle something decent.
JIMBO: Stormin had initially thought of re-visiting Lt Halls/Halls Reefs (having fished there the day before) but once launched decided to join the Redwood, Tunny and I in paddling to Jew Sh. I was a little late in arriving at JS, having more set-up to do before setting out. On arriving at JS, Redwood, Tunny and Stormin were already drift fishing generally to the east and south-east of the Pinnacles, so I went out to my westerly mark with the cool westerly breeze setting up a nice E>W drift towards the Pinnacles.
I hadn't long cast my first prawn, and was still setting up my trailing line (with a pilchard) when my unattended cast rod bent sideways with line being taken against the lightly set drag. Prospects for the morning were looking good as I lifted a ~40cm snapper into the footwell.
I reset the drift over the same spot a number of times over the next 1.5 hours, but was only able to entice a couple of undersized sweetlip and a wire netting cod. During this time Stormin also caught and released at least one undersized sweety, and he, Redwood and Tunny reported infrequent but short-lived longtail surface activity. Moreover, they were reporting a couple of whale movements in their vicinity, and this is when things became a bit exciting ...
I heard a whale "blow" about 200m to the south of me and realized there was at least one, and possibly two whales heading almost directly towards me. At that point I had only seconds earlier cast my light weight prawn-baited line to the east (~30m) and it was sinking to the bottom and my trailing line was hanging pretty much straight below me. To minimize the likelihood of a collision, and reduce the possibility of the whale snaring my cast line, I quickly pulled in the drogue and started paddling furiously to the east, towards the cast line. To my dismay, the whale, now only about 50m away, also changed direction as if to cut me off. I immediately stopped paddling and gaped as the this magnificent animal slid by on the surface just 10m in front of me ... I was hoping above, and clear of my cast line.
My hopes were dashed as line started to peel off the reel of my cast line as the whale cruised by on its course to the north. Although I could feel weight on the rod, the rate of line coming off the reel was not commensurate with the speed of the whale now disappearing in the distance. It quickly became apparent that I had somehow hooked up to a fish, of some sort, as the whale had passed. A short battle ensued resulting in me bringing what I first thought was a small dark coloured shark ~50 cm long next to the kayak. However, it then became obvious because of the flat "suction plate" on the top of the fish's head that it was a "suckerfish" that had (I assume) momentarily let go of the whale to attack my prawn as it passed (see pics of the suckerfish below).
I reported this to my fellow NY by radio and noted that the whale had breached about a kilometer to the north of me but had now turned and appeared to be continuing on its migratory course to the south ... back towards my fellow NY.
Soon after I was looking south where I could see at least two whales had decided to put on a show for Tunny, Redwood and Stormin. Stormin caught some of this on video but unfortunately he was too far away to see any detail. I'm hoping Redwood might insert his description of one of the whales breaching VERY close to him.
REDWOOD: So the fishing wasn't too hot but the whale show was spectacular. As recounted by Jimbo, it seemed that a pair of whales and a juvenile (maybe a calf) where cruising the area. I first reported them headed SW toward the beach between the yakkers and the headland. They must have then turned north and gone past Jimbo's position, then as mentioned by Jimbo, turned again and headed SE, this time cruising between Jimbo's westerly position and the rest of us who where to the east. My radio was on the fritz so I couldn't hear Stormin's warnings that they were headed straight for me. Eventually I saw them and the direction they were headed so I picked up the pace trying to get out of their way. This was my first encounter with whales on the kayak and perhaps I was blissfully ignorant of the danger in the situation, but I felt I could see where they were headed and that I was sufficiently out of their path, so there was no great panic, I was just enjoying the show. As they were headed toward me the youngster, roughly the size of a car, seemed to be having a marvellous time breaching and splashing back down into the water and it seemed to me that it was doing barrel rolls. It breached a couple of times between Jimbo's position and my position and then disappeared. At this point I could see the other two non-breaching whales porpoising past me about 50m away, but no sign of junior. Then suddenly it launched itself fully out of the water just behind my yak and came splashing down again with an almighty sploosh! A fantastic thing to see and hear and I'm spitting that I didn't have a camera!
I can't recall if junior breached again after that as I think my brain was trying furiously to record the show to the memory banks. The whales moved off and we continued fishing for another hour and half or so before heading back in.
JIMBO: Shortly after all this excitement, about 0815, Stormin reported that his Merlin pedal drive in his Hobie Revo had broken so he was then setting out to paddle the 3.9 km back to MG with his somewhat inefficient plastic paddle, something he had never before attempted. Some 30 mins later Stormin reported he was well on his way back to MG but he had been able to recover from a potentially disastrous situation. He had discovered that after lifting the Merlin drive out of its slot in the footwell of his Hobie Revo, presumably to reduce drag while paddling, water had been leaking into his kayak and it was substantially full of water. Luckily Stormin was able to stop the leak and had a very large sponge which he was able to use to "bail" out his kayak. He subsequently made it back to MG for an upright beach landing.
By 0900 I had used all my prawns and so decided to head in, followed shortly after by Redwood and Tunny who remained fishless for the morning. We three also made it safely back to the beach where Stormin took the following pics of my snapper and the suckerfish.
Some later research determined the correct name for suckerfish is "remora" (echeneidae). They are also found attached to turtles and dugongs. The sucker plate on this remora's head is about 17 x 7 cm. The slat-like cross ribs open and close to create suction.
Here's a better shot of the weird looking head of the suckerfish, also called "whalesuckers" and "sharksuckers" depending on what they are found attached to.
An eventful morning, but unfortunately still rather unproductive as far as the bottom fishing is concerned.
REDWOOD: Besides my seasickness, which marred the day slightly, it was a brilliant day out on the bay in terrific conditions. The whale show certainly made up for the slim fishing pickings.
JIMBO & REDWOOD
