Subject: fishing today -- 13jan10
Date: Wednesday, 13 January 2010 1:25 PM
What a crowd we had today! And such glorious weather. Plenty of fish, but most of them tiny.
I woke really early and couldn't get back to sleep so consequently I was almost the first in the carpark. Jimbo had arrived already and there were a couple of unfamiliar guys (Ian and Frank?, friends of Mal G) setting up their Hobies. Graham Feeney had turned up as an observer. I could see him in my headlights beam as I swung into Ian's usual spot because my usual spot was occupied again by that same battered Toyota van whose occupants have been "camping" there for a couple of weeks.
The surf was potentially tricky but doable so I headed back to the Zook to find that the dynamic duo (Steven and Charles) had turned up, as promised. Now there were 6 yakkers there and it was barely 0430 and still dark. Then Mal G turned up just as I was trundling my yak down to the beach. 7!
The dynamic duo were first to launch in their double yak, in the semi darkness, followed by Jim. I opted to wait on the beach for Jaro and meanwhile Kev and Keith, two AKFF guys from Brisbane showed up, each with a Viking ProFish. That's 9 yakkers! Jaro wasn't expected on the beach until 0500 so I took a pic of some of the assembly as the light slowly improved:
0452hrs. From left: Graham, Frank (?), BigKev, Mal G, and Ian.
All others present had successfully launched by the time Jaro arrived. He launched immediately and I took the customary launch conditions pic.
0457hrs. Keith launching, Jaro about to launch, followed by me, as soon as I stow the camera.
Launch was easier than I'd anticipated although I had to climb a couple of steeper waves near the exit. It was a bit crowded out the back compared with the usual situation, and even more crowded when Doctor Dog turned up, muttering "So this is what the world is like at 5am!". Then a familiar yak could be seen paddling out toward the flotilla -- it was whalebait, who'd scored a leave pass even though he was in the midst of packing his household for a removal. So we now numbered 12 afloat in 11 kayaks.
No one knew where the dynamic duo had gone. Jimbo was reporting by radio that he'd already reconnoitred the eastern part of the bay and was now turning toward the river mouth. The Hobie flotilla and Jaro headed for the river mouth area, Big Kev and Keith headed straight out into the middle of the bay while Doctor Dog, whalebait and I opted to head for a large patch of birds which could be seen on the NE horizon, off Boiling Pot.
The white line represents my approximate track over the next couple of hours, starting at MG and going in an anti-clockwise direction.
The huge number of birds off the Boiling Pot turned out to be working a patch of baitfish which seemed to be intent, as Doc Dog proposed, on eating even smaller baitfish. There was no visual sign of large predators and so I headed for Little Halls Reef. Part way toward LH Reef I was informed by radio that Jaro's trusty Halco Laser had scored a school mackerel and that Jimbo had hooked up a shark on his Spaniard Special (aka Shark Special).
Then turtleboy came up on the radio, announcing that he'd just launched accompanied by two other yakkers whom he'd encountered in the carpark. These two later turned out to be Jay and Wayne, the latter out with us for the first time in his Viking Nemo. This made 15 yakkers out there!
Approaching LH Reef I could see far fewer indications of the presence of predators than on recent trips, but the baitfish were there, being hammered by occasional squadrons of small bonito or mac tuna. I was trolling continuously and stopping occasionally to cast where I could see action but couldn't raise a strike.
By 7am I was heading back toward the river mouth area, Jaro trolling parallel with me about 150m away. He yelled out and reached for his trolling outfit and then gave me the only reasonable opportunity today to get an on-water photo of a fish.
0710hrs. Jaro with school mackerel. A tough call for the camera, facing a very bright background. The flash helped a little.
By 0730 I was off Middle Groyne and couldn't resist chasing one last patch of birds. Unfortunately they were the same as every other patch I'd encountered that day -- unaccompained by large predators. And so I opted to head in, but not before bumping into one more yakker whom I didn't recognize at first.
0803hrs. Wild Bill Barnett floats fishless off Main Beach.
So Bill made 16 participants -- a record for Noosa Yakkers I think. With that I headed for the beach just behind Bill, and found that Keith and the dynamic duo had already returned.
I hung around on the beach while one by one the flotilla members paddled or pedalled in. BigKev had a nice school mackerel which I photographed on his measure mat.
0910hrs. BigKevs' judgement was that this is a school mackerel, not a spotty. At the time I agreed with him because the pectoral fin didn't have the characteristic scoop shape of the spotty. But now I'm not so sure, especially as I didn't take a close look at the lateral line path. Either way, it's legal.
Just before the last few guys (Jaro, jimbo, doc dog, turtleboy) came in Doc Dog announced by radio that the spotties had shown up, just off the MG beach. This delayed returns but had the benefit of producing one spotty mac for the combined take-home catch (pic later).
All but one of the returning yakkers had an uneventful ride back to the sand. We specialise in frightening old ladies (she's one of our fans, too!). The yak came in to the beach right way up while its operator took a warm bath.
Jimbo's shark, just under 1m.
Doctor dog's spotty mac.
Jaro's two school mackerel.
It was a beautiful day out there. Thanks all for coming along. And please don't hesitate to put in your two-bob's worth if you can flesh out the report.
Thanks for organising, Jaro. Can we fit in another soon (Sunday?)?
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://noosayakers.blogspot.com
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