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 unbeatable support for adding still pictures, movies and "shares". 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 quickly on our Group Page because it's so easy to post, to view and to make comments. Not on Facebook? I 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. Not convinced? Don't despair. We have no intention of dropping our tried and true Google Group email or our indispensable blog of Trip Reports and generallyj useful yak fishing info. But if you're not on Facebook, you're missing out.
To help retain contact with our established world wide blog audience we've decided to publish this monthly summary of our fishing activity. The info has been extracted from our closed Group Facebook Page. Constructive ideas to improve this summary and/or volunteered editorial skills are welcomed.
Don't want your Facebook post reproduced here? Please contact a committee member.
Summary September 2016
This monthly brief summary of fishing trip information is only a fraction of the useful and interesting info and banter appearing on our Facebook Group Page. You can see our Public Page here: Noosa Yakkers Public Page (includes Sign Up link)
and our Group Page (fully accessible only to members) here: Noosa Yakkers Facebook Group
Overview, weather and species
Noosa sea temperature 01Sep16 21.1°C and at 30Sep16 22.2°C
Fish species mentioned or featured in Noosa Yakkers' reports this month in Noosa area: snapper, spotted mackerel (undersize, 1), grass sweetlip, mangrove jack, school mackerel, Australian bonito, longtail tuna, cobia (record fish), bigeye trevally, mackerel tuna, flathead, red emperor (undersize)
Notable MIA this month: Spanish mackerel (absent from this summary for the first time in 2016)
01-10Sep16: strong winds, no fishing reports
# 11Sep16
lazybugger:
# 12Sep16
tunny:
# 16Sep16
shorty:
# 17Sep16
doctor dog:
sunshiner:
paulo:
# 20Sep16
sunshiner:
tunny:
irish_luck:
# 22Sep16
doctor dog:
# 24Sep16
redwood:
# Night 24/25Sep16
doctor dog:
# 26Sep16
unsinkable (Owen Gray)
# 27Sep16
cav:
# 28Sep16
redwood:
Finished off the month with a couple of exceptional fish, eh?
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
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 July 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 01Jul16: 21.7°C, and at 01Aug16 21.7°C.
Fish species included in Noosa Yakkers' reports this month in Noosa area: Spanish mackerel (2), snapper, grass sweetlip, mackerel tuna, flathead
Wind: Light southerly
Swell: 1m SE
Water temp: 21.7°C
Tides: High 05:45
Current: toward SE at Sunshine Reef
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: None sighted, except whales
Participants: eyetag, redwood, jimbo, sunshiner
My trip distance: 14.3km Redmap: No sightings provided Keen Angler Program: at least one snapper frame donated
I was getting desperate. I'd fished on several occasions during July and had failed to boat a fish and had only one hookup. Mid winter is usually tough with occasional diamond days, however, so I reckon it's worth persisting on every opportunity that comes along.
And so it was that yesterday, the last day of July, at dawn, I was trundling my yak down to the old familiar launching point on Main Beach. Another set of trolley tracks had followed the same path very recently, I noticed. Jimbo followed me down and we both launched into the gentle swell, dry bumming it again!
I'd decided to work over Jew Shoal thoroughly, despite the recent run of failures, and headed for there, while jimbo opted for A-Bay Reef area.
About 1.5km short of Jew Shoal, I heard redwood announce on the radio that he'd launched. He also opted to head for Jew Shoal.
My first cast SP was in the water at about 06:40, ten minutes or so after sunrise as I drifted north with the breeze. Then scatter came up on the radio explaining that he was crossing the bar in his stinky and heading over to say hello. And then eyetag (the mysterious early launcher) radioed that he was getting a little action at A-Bay Reef, nothing big, but persistent action from small snapper. Hmm! Might be worth a shift over there.
A short time later redwood was just visible to my south and at the same time scatter showed up on the shoal, apparently not to fish but just to look for whales. This was the cue for redwood to announce that he was hooked up on his trolled hardbody. Scatter offered to take a pic of the mac tuna (for that's what redwood had caught) before redwood released it.
Scatter's shot of redwood and mac tuna.
Another half hour of inaction for me at Jew Shoal. That was it, at least eyetag had proven that there were snapper biting at A-Bay Reef. On being told of my decision to head for A-Bay Reef, redwood decided to do the same and we independently set our courses for the 3km SE journey to our mark where jimbo and eyetag were drifting.
We were there in 30 minutes, helped by the current which was meandering toward the SE from the vicinity of Hells Gates. As soon as I arrived next to eyetag he boated a small but keeper snapper, caught on bait. This he kindly passed to me instead of releasing it, which he'd intended to do. Later, in turn, I passed this fish off to redwood to supplement his catch.
The sea floor in the A-Bay Reef area is pretty flat but with a sonar you can see occasional low undulations and, possibly more importantly, the gradual change of depth which goes from 30m to 27m over a relatively short distance. Eyetag explained that all of his fish had come from this shallower water area. On my sonar I could see occasional faint markings down deep which indicated fish, but the screen was not exactly lit up with fish echoes.
So redwood and I put our lines down at around 08:00. Jimbo, nearby, was fishless despite having been there since around 07:00. Eyetag wasn't busy, either. Pretty soon, though, redwood bagged a small snapper. Then the whales turned up, a mother and calf. Conditions were superb and the scenery amazing so it was great just to be out there in our tiny craft.
As usual, I was fishing using two outfits, both equipped with jig heads and soft plastics. The casting outfit, cast, let sink, jig for a while then retrieve, had a 1/4 ounce head and 90mm SP. The trailing outfit, just hanging vertically down was equipped with the heaviest jig head on the boat, 5/8 ounce, and a pre-loved 75mm prawn look alike SP which was the actual one taken by a Spaniard in May. This was hanging down an estimated 20m,
All remained quiet. Eyetag headed off home. Jimbo mentioned that he'd be going soon which prompted redwood to also decide for departure and me to announce that I would hang around until about 10am at the latest. It was just after 9:30am. Then my radio conversation with redwood was interrupted by a loud buzzing. The trailing outfit had gone off and line was peeling off at a furious rate. You can see how things went in the following one minute movie.
Here you can plainly see the jig head and SP. The depth on the sonar is 28.4m, but this was a few minutes after the initial strike. In any case I was fishing the slightly shallower banks area, from 27-29m.
This one fish made my day and my month!
We then decided to head home as we were facing a one hour paddle at least, depending on the opposing current. On the way home we ran the gauntlet at Hells Gates of a pod of whales and spectators in stink boats and jetskis but came through unscathed, and applauded, I like to think, by the many standing spectators on the headland.
