Spots, snaps, schoolies. 29Nov15

TR by sunshiner


Wind: calm until we got back to the beach when the northerly kicked in
Swell: about 1m ESE
Water temp: 25.6°C
Tides: Low 03:40am (0.27m); High 10:21am (1.93m)
Current: gently toward north at Jew Shoal
Launch point: Middle Groyne and Doggie Beach
Surface action: Some bait on surface but no big splashes
Participants: diesel, panno, tunny, scottyD, jaro, irish_luck, sunshiner
My trip distance: 14.5km (had to have a sleep afterward)
Redmap: No sightings provided
Keen Angler Program: At least one snapper frame donated

All except scottyd launched at Middle Groyne. I'd briefly considered launching at Doggie Beach, where scotty launched, but based on the latest info I thought that northern Laguna Bay would have better prospects. Oops!

So there we were, at 4:00am, afloat and setting up in a glassy sea at Middle Groyne. We'd launched at dead low tide but the swell was tiny. A waning moon overlooked us and peeped through and between clouds moving slowly and low from the west. In the end, jaro, diesel and I headed for Jew Shoal, while tunny, panno, and (a bit later) irish_luck, went for Little Halls Reef.

Diesel and I, the forward scouts of our component, were on the shoal just as the sun peeped over the horizon. Probably panno and tunny were simultaneously arriving at Little Halls Reef. Radio comms were excellent between the locations and, as it turned out, very useful.

As diesel said "It doesn't get any better than this". He was, of course, referring to the weather. The sea surface was smooth, but unfortunately, not punctuated with explosions of baitfish and predators, as I hoped it might be.

Jaro was about 20 minutes behind us and was the first to get a strike on his trolled lure somewhere en route to JS, boating (and releasing) an undersize school mackerel. He also reported a good strike right on the edge of the shoal which failed to hookup properly.

After trolling onto the shoal without result I found some sign of baitfish down deep and decided to try an SP around them, mostly without success, unless a couple of grinners and an undersize pearl perch count. Neither diesel nor jaro were getting anything better apparently, as there was no triumphal announcements over the radio from them.

The Little Halls Reef push were doing better, for panno and tunny had happened upon some bait balls. The first we heard of this was when panno announced he'd had a solid strike and bite-off. (I reckoned it was likely a school mackerel as I've had that happen to me in that area before, successfully boating schoolies after beefing up the terminal tackle.) Soon the radio commentary between panno and tunny was making us feel envious. Apparently shoals of baitfish were visible on the surface, unharassed by terns. Using SPs, panno was picking off predators from underneath the shoals, using his sonar to advantage. First a small snapper, then another, then a flathead.

We were unaware that scottyd had launched until he came up on the radio, telling us that he was east of Doggie Beach (about 6km away on the other side of Noosa Head) and had just had a double hookup on spotty macs and boated both fish. He sounded chuffed, as you'd expect. As for us at Jew Shoal, we were torn between the two. Diesel and I decided for the west (3km paddle) while jaro, on his first paddle trip for ages and perhaps feeling frisky, opted to chase the spotties, a daunting 6km paddle there, and another 6-8km paddle home, some of it perhaps into the forecast northerly. By the time we were underway scottyd had confirmed that he was bagged out (as often happens when you find a patch of spotty macs) and heading back west to Doggie Beach. You can see scottyd's post on our Facebook group page; thanks for posting scotty.

Bagout on spotties. Nice going mate. Photo by scottyd.

Diesel and I knocked off the 3km in about 30 minutes, he a little less, I a little more. On arrival we could see panno and tunny paddling gently in circles on the millpond that was Little Halls Reef. The baitfish were moving quite quickly so to maintain contact with them required some effort. Patches of bait which weren't on the surface were also visible on sonar. Presumably, the baitfish which were on the surface were being harassed by snapper and other minor league predators, while the other sub-surface patches were simply resting between attacks, or lying doggo. Whatever, panno by now had picked up a third small but keeper snapper and a quite large slatey bream (to be confirmed when panno provides a photo).

A big, ugly, slatey bream aka painted sweetlip. Record breaker. "all on a white gulp 5 inch".

I pulled up next to the first patch of bait I came to, whacked an SP into the milling throng and let it sink (the whole reef is only 14m or so deep) and quite quickly picked up a small keeper snapper.

I reckon any old small SP will do. This fish took a battered and superglue-repaired prawn imitation which had caught several fish previously.

The surface patches of bait were moving quite quickly, as demonstrated when tunny and I started following one patch to get within casting distance. The whole patch was moving and we were paddling at about 5-6kph for several minutes, slowly catching them; several terns were having brekky on these fish as they moved. We could tell that we were not overrunning them because they weren't showing on the sonar until we actually caught up. So why were they moving so quickly? Either they were chasing smaller (and unusually fast swimming) prey or were themselves being spooked by the few predators present. My guess is the latter.

Panno had decided to head home, as he had a nice gift for his mother-in-law (touching, isn't it?) then diesel also departed the scene. This left only irish_luck, tunny and me. Tunny's persistence finally paid off when he boated a nice school mackerel about 70cm on a pillie bait and soon after that with the air temperature rising rapidly and the first signs of the forecast northerly we three headed for the groyne, arriving there about 0900. Jaro's sail was visible on the NE horizon as we approached the groyne and he came ashore soon afterward, fishless, knackered but still enthusiastic.

Now we know the spotties are around, it's likely just a matter of time before they enter the bay and start smashing the bait. Dust off your slug casting outfits, guys.

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

NYTR 27112015 DoctorDog nails a Mangrove Jack at last

TR by Doctor Dog
Trip date: 27.11.2015
Participants: DoctorDog, Eyetag
Launch Site:Noosa Heads Lions Park for Noosa River
Conditions:full moon light to moderate south east breeze overcast
Keen Angler Program: none kept

After launching around midnight Eyetag lead the way past the Sheraton to the Woods Bays where I  trolled a Gold Bomber and found no interest but was intrigued by the picture on the sounder of the myriad of holes and banks in an apparently open stretch of the river ; good fishy habitat indeed.

New Rod gets its first victim

This hungry Big Eye Trevally brightened up my evening when I moved towards the rivermouth and drifted a Gladiator Prawn on a light jighead. He hit it so hard the lure was well down his throat and my surgical skills failed to extract the new sharp hook without serious damage  so he went into the hatch.

A couple more drifts with the increasing breeze produced this 42 cm Flathead.  I was pleased with the variety of fish in the hatch but the quick drift had me wanting to follow Eyetag upstream to the more sheltered waters out of the breeze.
I changed to my heavier trolling outfit for the journey and mid way past the sandbags on my intended track to Ricky's and past Munna Point the  trolling outfit was slammed in a run that would have made any offshore pelagic proud. Fortunately there was not much boating traffic for this fish had me doing circle work in the middle of the channel and drifting downstream. Being heavily overgeared I was able to quickly subdue my first legal Mangrove Jack and stow it in the hatch after a short trip to a sandbank and a photograph on the bragmat.

They are truly magnificent fish and close inspection of the teeth and gill covers  show why they have such a reputation for being hard on gear.

Eyetag and I trolled the quieter waters until first light when I made my way back to our launch site  with no further action but very happy with my nights effort. 

Eyetag kept fishing and as always had many more captures than we mere mortals. He emailed me later with his tally and a photo of his Jack.

"from Eyetag"

"My tally was 1 small flatty, 5 small bigeye, 1 GT around 40 and the Jack in the photo. "

I had a great night-- thanks for the company" Eyetag" .
Good luck to those fishing tomorrow Tight Lines
 DoctorDog

Doctor Dog Riverfish 21.11.2015

TR by doctordog


Wind: Fresh North 10-15knots to start dropping to light and variable by 1:00am
Swell: nil
Current: run out tide
Launch point: Quamby Place Park
Participants: DoctorDog, Eyetag, Izak
I launched at the Quamby Place Park and paddled round to the sheltered waters of Weyba Creek where I met Izak and Eyetag in the process of photographing and releasing a nice Jack that had monstered Izak's trolled Gold Bomber.
As I am a Mangrove Jack virgin I was keen to get a part of this action and joined the quiet slow troll pattern out of the wind. I had no hits after a couple of fruitless hours  whilst the other fishers had some sporadic hits and hookups and release of several small Jacks.
Eyetag and I moved over to Rickys and with actively feeding fish it wasn't long before I was hooked up hard to a strong fighting fish. Mindful of my last break-off I was gentle with the drag but also scared of fouling the moored boats nearby. My first river GT eventually succumbed to gentle persuasion and I was able to lift it into the hatch.

My first River GT in the hatch still attached to the Gold Bomber

GT on the brag mat at home

With the Rickys bite going quiet I paddled downstream past the sandbags and found Eyetag catching and releasing some small trevally. Pulling up on the sand bank to stretch my legs I found my trolled Bomber had attracted the attention of a 38 cm Dusky Flathead which kindly posed for a pic before swimming away.

Beautifully Marked Dusky Flathead

With the fish going quiet it was time to call it a night. 

With cav and bigkev at DIP. 21-22Nov15

TR by crofty


I haven't been on the yak much this year. I picked up Cav from his place mid Saturday arvo and we scooted north, laughing at some clown with his yaks strapped to his yak in the most ridiculous fashion. We met Bigkev and his entourage at the ferry and he kindly lent me his stauns (?) but didn't bother to deflate his. Running up the beach flat stick at bang on high tide on road pressure.

I don't think I've been up there on the weekend before and it was busy. Took us a little while to find a camp but we soon had the fire stoked and beers cracked. I'd brought a full standup harness and my TLD with 900m of 30lb braid on it. I jumped into cav's yak and paddled a deadbait out through the knee high swell before dumping it well past the breakers. Back in to the beach and took a swim in the shorey. The water was beautiful. Life was looking good.

A couple more beers and I spun up a couple of tailor in the gutter in front of camp. They were right at my feet and I could see the school cruising in the breakers. The original bait I'd paddled out hadn't been sniffed so we switched it out for a fresh tailor. Kev did the deed this time paddling out and sufing back in. There was a bit of weed on the beach making life tough though. It would have been nice to hook Ethan into a noah, but dinner was calling so we pulled it all in and retired to the fire. Some kebabs, boerie, steak and a few more beers before tucking up for the night.

The new day dawned slightly overcast but with barely a zephyr ruffling the tent flaps. The surf was non-existent. A quick scarf of some cereal, drag the fully laden yaks down the dune and away. Cav caught a breaker in the chest but stayed upright, Kev ploughed out without any drama and the waters parted for me and I made it from the beach to the rigging point without going through broken water. I wish it was always so easy.

I stuffed about for ages getting ready and Cav was hooting and hollering in the distance. I paddled over to discover he'd found bait and was having a ball catching myriads of fish. I dropped my bait jig down, picked up a few yakkas and into the tube. Then started getting pearlies, moses perch, wire netting cod, grinners and the list goes on. All of them were of reasonable size but unfortunately the pearlies were too small. With bait in the hatch I headed north.

Several laps over the reef produced no strikes and I hadn't marked any large fish to warrant continuing with trolling for pelagics so swapped over to chasing demersals. And holy moley, every drop produced a fish. Mostly undersize red emperor, squire, more moses perch and grinners. Then I got my livey tangled with my slow fall jig. I was busy stuffing around trying to untangle it when my deadsticked rod gave a little bump. Then another. I dismissed it as another small fish, until I started to get towed along and the little 2500 started singing.

I too-ed and fro-ed for a bit then got colour several metres below the yak. I called out to Cav...
"What's legal for a Red Emperor?"
"55!"
"I reckon I'm in!!"
"No way, 55's a big fish"
"I'm pretty sure I'm good"

Then the fish broke the surface and Cav ate his words.
"Bloody hell! That is a good fish!"
"Hell yeah!!!"
I measured it three times to be sure as I couldn't get it properly flat on the bottom of the yak - 58cm. My day had been made with the first fish in the hatch. You bloody beauty.

Yak-caught legal sized red emperor. Rare!

Back up to the mark and I picked up my second for the day with a 36cm moses perch.

Moses perch, although the fingermarks are faded. What was Moses doing in SEQ anyway?

Cav was still hooting and hollering as he was filling his hatch with a great bag of fish. Kev had paddled off into the never never in search of a cobia. I think he was secretly trying to just get some breeze on his face as it was dead calm and bloody hot.

I found a bream and a nice 40cm grassy to round out my bag before i started to get concerned about my fish in the heat and we began to head for home. We headed for the beach, Cav turned turtle, Kev paddled all the way to dry land and I rode my trusty steed like a bronco that had a chilli smeared thumb stuck up its ass. At least until I went turtle as well.

All up a fantastic stress release from the rigours of work and study.

Marlin on SP. 22Nov15

TR by sunshiner


Wind: calm early, but SE over 10 knots from about 7:30am
Swell: about 1m ENE
Water temp: 24.4°C
Tides: High 04:51am (1.66m); Low 10:54am (0.50m)
Current: None detected at Jew Shoal
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: None seen
Participants: diesel, tunny, redwood, beejay, scottyD, sunshiner
My trip distance: 11.5km
Redmap: No sightings provided
Keen Angler Program: No donations today, as far as I know.

While last night we had a yak fisher's ideal forecast for today, the reality at 3:00am was somewhat different, with an unforecast 25 knot SE appearing on the Live Weather down at Cape Moreton, and spreading to Maroochy airport by 4:00am. Meanwhile, at the proposed launch point the air was still. After some discussion on the beach we all agreed that we should launch but keep a weather eye open for the first signs of the strong SE should it reach as far as Noosa.

Jew Shoal was the preferred fishing location because it would allow us to easily find shelter behind Noosa Head from the strong SE wind should it eventuate.

Sea conditions were near perfect, but baitfish were scarce and this probably was the reason why none of us was getting fishy action. I tried trolling my HLP for a while and then reverted to using SPs, working through my favourite haunts in anti-clockwise sequence around the shoal. Zip, zilch, nothing! Same for everyone else, it seemed.

By 06:15 I had arrived at an easterly mark which showed no more promise (on the sonar) than anywhere else I'd tried today. Here my cast SP attracted a small squid (a first for me at Noosa) which hung on just long enough to give me a water squirt in the face just as he headed back to the depths.

Having no more ideas, I stayed put, drifting very slowly toward the west in response to a light easterly which had arrived. I was fishing in my usual way, in 20m depth, with my trailing outfit hanging down around 10m, while casting ahead with a lighter SP.

An identical copy of the 5 inch SP which was hanging out the back, 10m down on my trailing outfit. This lure had caught a couple of snapper in the past, including one nice specimen very recently and I fancy it might be big enough and visible enough to attract a longtail one day. 'Nuff said.

My GoPro was running continuously, in its usual position, secured to the end of a (leashed) suction cup post just on the starboard side, forward of the footwell. This is a position which allows me to stretch-reach the camera from my seat (presuming I have a spare hand of course). I'd just cleaned the lens, as is my habit, removing droplets of water and miscellaneous salty streaks which inevitably accumulate on the case.

All was quiet, but I didn't notice that the trailing outfit was attracting some interest. The GoPro did, though, as you'll see if you watch the movie. Eventually my peripheral vision told me that something was not quite right. We're in 20m depth but the trailing outfit rod has a bend in it. I picked up the rod and noticed that there was in fact something moving, albeit sluggishly, at the end of the line. Turtle? Large squid? Whatever; I clear the decks for action, retrieving and getting ready to stow the casting outfit, just in case. Whatever it was stayed down when I applied gentle pressure, but angled slowly up toward the surface. If I recall correctly no extra line had been taken from the spool, I still had around a max of say 12m of line out. Now the critter was coming up slowly toward the surface. Now there was a bit of surface splashing around 12m away, just to my right front. Now all hell broke loose as a baby black marlin leapt high into the air at that spot and crashed back with a loud slap. It jumped and jumped again and again, and one jump was fully caught on the GoPro.

This jump features in the movie (embedded below) so go on, take a look, and please subscribe if you like it.

There was no fierce run on the lightly set drag, but clearly some line went out. The fish was still within 10-15m of the yak, mainly out the front right, where the camera couldn't see it. The bill of a marlin is bloody fiercesome up front, especially when it's rocketing out of the water only a couple of metres away. And then it popped up right next to my starboard bow and jumped and jumped again, coming closer to me and actually brushing the glass as it went. The GoPro shows my reaction as the marlin crashed down on the deck of my Supalite, just where the fish hatch hinge is, temporarily disabling the camera by swivelling the base so that the lens pointed down into the front of the footwell. I really thought that I might be speared and took defensive action to fend the fish off (as you'll see on the movie). At this stage we parted company as the line had wrapped around the rod tip and the knot to the lure gave out as the marlin dropped back into the sea and swam off. Phew! So glad I had my GoPro running and also glad that I'd let my fellow fishos know early in the tussle, that I had a marlin on. Several of them saw the fish leaping around near my yak.

Movie, two minutes. Please subscribe to my channel if you enjoy it.

I'm not sorry the marlin escaped and feel privileged to have experienced this close and spectacular encounter. It's a hell of a buzz, I can tell you. And if you come to visit me at some future time when I'm old and feeble and unable to paddle offshore make sure you ask me to tell you the story of the first marlin I hooked from my yak. It'll make my day!

Soon afterward the wind picked up and we all headed home, fishless. But we now know what's possible out there at Jew Shoal, right now. So what's stopping you? See you next time.

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

Fish holders aplenty. 19Nov15

TR by sunshiner


Wind: up to 5 knot W
Swell: less than 1m SE
Water temp: 24.4°C
Tides: High 01:14am (1.28m); Low 06:59am (0.63m)
Current: None detected at Jew Shoal
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: None seen
Participants: diesel, fatyak, jimbo, sunshiner
My trip distance: 14km
Redmap: No sightings
Keen Angler Program: No donations today, as far as I know.

As many of you know, I've been away from Noosa for around ten days. That's bad enough, but I had to leave my yak behind too, so I was itching to get out for a paddle today even though I only arrived home late yesterday afternoon.

As doc dog has pointed out in his FB post today, it was a beautiful night, with nary a cloud, and moonless at 4:00am, when diesel and I were the only users of the Middle Groyne carpark. We scuttled down to the beach with our yaks where we found a tiny splashing shorey and glassy seas close in to the beach.

On going back to his car to retrieve a forgotten frozen pike, diesel found that fatyak had arrived so we then knew that there would be three of us at least.

Despite sunrise being 40 minutes off, there was adequate ambient light for launching and soon we were out the back setting up our gear and pointing our nav devices at Jew Shoal, four clicks away over the northern horizon. We paddled off into a gentle swell curving into the bay and, as we got further out, a building breeze from the west.

In due course fatyak called up for his radio check and confirmed that he also would be heading for Jew Shoal.

At Jew Shoal the breeze was around five knots and steady from the west, giving a brisk drift toward the east. I chose to start looking for baitfish at the SW corner of the shoal, paddling and trolling along with one eye on the sonar, then eventually turning to run with the breeze toward one of my eastern marks. Bugger all fish on the sonar, so eventually I chose to heave-to north of The Pinnacles where I popped out my drogue and deployed my two drift fishing weapons. Hooked up on the second cast with my prawn look-alike SP.

In case there's anyone out there who hasn't caught one, this is a grinner, toothy critter quite capable of biting through light monofilament. They love everything. Unfortunately their only redeeming feature from a fisho's point of view is that they can be converted to bait.

About now jimbo called up for a radio check. So now there were four of us in the bay. He opted to head for Little Halls Reef/Halls Reef when he was told by diesel we had yet to get anything worthwhile.

Fatyak turned up, to my surprise aboard a ProFisha. Last time I'd seen him he was in a Prowler laden with sweeties and snapper.

Fatyak in his new ride. Pic taken a week or so ago by diesel in Laguna Bay.

We fished on, all of us at Jew Shoal using mainly SPs and catching mainly nothing much except reef ooglies and the odd tantalizing bump or run hinting of the occasional presence of good fish. Diesel is honing his SP skills and was having some success with them today, including one good run which was almost certainly a decent snapper (hook pulled out before sighting) and this near-keeper.

Close, but no cigar. We rarely get keeper pearl perch at Jew Shoal and in fact we have yet to establish a record for this species, whose min legal size is 35cm. Pic by diesel.

I got one hookup which resulted in disappointment and the addition of a snapper tooth to my growing collection. As diesel quipped, I only have 63 teeth to go to have enough for a necklace.

Jimbo, at Halls Reef, reported a run on his drifting pillie, but no hookup. Then later let us know that he had a 40cm snapper next to the yak but lost it when the hook dislodged before he could get it aboard.

And so our enthusiasm proved incapable of overcoming the problem, no decent fish, or no decent fish biting. Fatyak opted to head for Halls Reef, paddling off into the easing westerly and shortly afterward diesel and I pulled the pin, hoping as usual that the troll home might shift our doughnuts to a later trip. No such luck. But at least the sand monster was absent. Annoyingly there were plenty of fish holders available and diesel actually considered lining them up to practice the skills which will surely be needed by them very soon when the pelagics visit our waters on their annual holiday.

By the time we hit the beach jimbo was already half way home from Halls, fishless and down a kilo of prawns. Fatyak was still out there, intent on doing his utmost to put a big snapper in his ProFisha. And it wouldn't shock me if he did. Let us know how you went, fatyak.

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

Another Sunday night on the river 15Nov15

TR by eyetag

Wind: Windy
Current: run out tide
Launch Point: Noosa Heads Lions Park
Participants: Eyetag


I launched around 2.am and trolled a gold bomber through the Woods bays and upstream to some of my favourite snags. Half way there my reel screamed to life and after a hard 5 minute battle I had a solid GT on board. The rest of that trip was fishless.

On arrival I could hear the odd fish feeding on the surface. Excitedly I started casting into the snags but nothing seemed interested in my offerings on my first drift so I paddled back and tried again, second cast I was hooked up solid to a fish that was trying hard to get back to his snag, I managed to keep him out in the open and some minutes later landed a nice Jack. I continued this method for a while and after two solid strikes that straightened hooks (due to bite force)and two lure changes I eventually stayed connected to another hard fighting fish and after a very tough battle landed a 2nd Jack.

A couple of very healthy Mangrove Jack

First light was appearing by now so I trolled around the Woods bays for a while but things were quiet then as I was about to exit the bay for home I had another big strike and after a brief but fierce fight the straightened hooks pulled again from a fish with a seriously powerful bite that also straightened a split ring.

Tougher terminal tackle required