Impromptu pays off, 16Aug10

Subject: Fishing today -- Monday 16Aug10
From: sunshiner
Date: 16/08/2010 6:06 PM

Weather
Cloud cover: none
Wind direction & speed: light and variable, initially from SW then from NE
Sea state: low swell (<1m current:="" n-="">S ~1kph

Participants: Jaro, Kev, Stu, LeRoux, Steve

I'd decided on Sunday afternoon that if the weather trend continued I'd consider a beach launch mid morning at Sunshine Beach. The wind was forecast to drop and the inshore swell had been knocked down by the cool SW winds of the previous few days. I was out of bed at 8am and wandered down to the shop and the beach lookout just down the road. Perfect! Only a tiny wave stood between me and Sunshine Reef, a mere 1.5 km from the strolling beachgoers.

Having made the decision to launch around 10am I emailed my fellow yakkers, telling them of my intentions then sat down and enjoyed a leisurely brekky with M in the warm mid-winter sun. First Leroux phoned: "Stu and I are going too", then Jaro succumbed to temptation, as I thought he might, and put aside whatever he had planned for today. Days like this are few and far between and I was very glad that I had no pressing matters to divert my attention.

And so it was that we started to assemble in the doggy beach carpark from 10am. One by one my companions arrived and by 1015 Jaro and I were on the beach ready to launch. Stu and LeRoux weren't far behind.
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1018hrs. Tough conditions! On the beach we met fellow Noosa Yakker Steve and his wife Kerrie. Jaro's chatting with Kerrie while Steve tosses up whether to join us. (He did, later.)
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This was one of the easiest Sunshine Beach launches I've experienced. Soon Jaro and I were out the back and LeRoux and Stu were paddling out to join us. As usual the water out the back was gin clear and the very light SW breeze promised to give us a little push to get to the reef.

From Sunshine Beach it takes only about 20 minutes paddle time to reach one of our favourite marks on this section of Sunshine Reef. Stu immediately boated a keeper tusk fish, first drop, using bait. Then all was quiet for a short while. I'd headed for an area that was about 400m north of the one chosen by Jaro, Stu and LeRoux. This area had numerous 2-3m "bumps" on the 22-26m bottom which clearly displayed on my sonar. I was recording a drift to the south, despite the breeze from the SW so clearly there was a current working N to S. I'd been having a lean fishing time lately and was hopeful that today would see a change in that so I was delighted when my soft plastic bait was slammed at 1118hrs, exactly one hour after the above pic was taken. After a short tussle, a nice snapper came aboard.
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1123hrs. Snapper taken on soft plastic, 1/2oz jighead with wire trace, in 26m.
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I radioed Jaro that I was on the board, secured and stowed the fish and then checked my tackle and recast, putting the rod down temporarily while I dealt with a small tackle bugger-up on the other rod, my trailing outfit. This task was interrupted when the rod went off again, with the jig head still swimming on its way to the ocean floor. Another brief tussle resulted in snapper #2 being invited aboard for tea.
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1128hrs. Snapper #2.
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I'd marked on the GPS a couple of interesting pieces of reef on this drift so now had some information on where the fish were likely to be but they still weren't showing on my sonar. Nevertheless I told Jaro and soon he could be seen heading my way, accompanied by Stu. On arrival I showed them my drift and a couple of the key places and left them to it. The next strike I took was only a few minutes later. I worked the hard fighting fish gently and before long a beautiful red-throat emperor popped up next to the yak. Its colours were striking and I was just imagining how good this fish would be on the plate when it rolled and splashed on the surface and the hook dislodged, allowing it to return to the depths. Bummer!

Conditions continued to be near perfect. The sun was warm, not hot, and the breeze was just strong enough to slow the drift down to a perfect speed. Out to the east was the stark horizon between sea and sky while to the west the village of Sunshine Beach lay basking in the sun. I wondered what other people were doing this Monday morning.
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There were quite a few small but sharp toothed critters down there today. Those soft plastics are about 90 cents each!
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Not long after Steve arrived, having also launched from Sunshine Beach, I could see Stu's rod bent impressively. With my two fish I was happy with my lot so took the opportunity to pull in my gear and paddle over to see what Stu had caught.
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1244hrs. A very nice grass sweetlip. That's Stu's version of a smile.
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Just as I was photographing this fish Jaro's familiar yell of triumph reached us from his yak a couple of hundred metres away. In search of more photos I started paddling toward him as he pulled in a decent snapper, then immediately yelled out that his other rod had gone off also. I kept paddling and reached him just before he boated the second fish.
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1249hrs. That's a nice Venus tuskfish. Mount Coolum is on the horizon.
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I wanted to take a pic of the snapper too, but had to forage for it myself in Jaro's capacious fishbox as the fish was out of his reach.
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Here's his snapper.
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Things went quiet for a while and the wind started to go around to the NE, a typical seabreeze locally. This of course, speeded up our drift so fishing conditions weren't as good as earlier. I was intrigued by a boat anchored near our drift line. It had arrived after we had and was now displaying a "diver below" flag. I could also see two safety floats down current of the vessel, whose sole crewmember appeared to be a small dog, anxiously scanning the surrounding waters. The two human crew were in the water, without scuba gear, free diving in 25m.
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I drifted close enough to the divers to ask how they were going. They hadn't taken any fish but had seen some large yellowtail kingfish cruising around. These are possibly the unstoppable bruisers we sometimes hook up with.

Meanwhile, LeRoux reappeared on the scene from the east. He'd got far enough out to see New Zealand but decided to come back to Noosa where things are warmer. Having spent a little time with us he then disappeared in a NW direction, toward Hells Gates.

Stu had one more surprise up his sleeve. I could see that he was fighting a decent fish so I pulled in my gear to see if a photo might be needed. I got there just in time to see him boat a beautifully-marked 45cm red emperor. He casually returned this beautiful and prized fish to the ocean -- its minimum legal size is 55cm!

With the strengthening NE breeze I opted to turn for the beach around 1430hrs and soon after came the others, less LeRoux. It's always exciting coming back in at Sunshine as you have to choose an entry point and then hope you've timed it well enough to avoid large following waves. But the sets were coming in regularly. Stu cruised in in his inimitable style, while I, Steve and Jaro bided our time and each followed in the last of a three wave set. Easy!
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Stu's tusk fish and sweetlip
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My two snapper
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Jaro's tusk fish and snapper
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The four yaks on the beach. What's on Steve's mind?

And what about LeRoux? Well at time of writing this, I don't know. I went down to the beach after loading my yak on the Zook and saw his unmistakeable trolley was still there, but could see no sign of him from the beach. How about letting us know how you went, LeRoux? [see end of post]

Great trip guys. Thanks for coming along. Let's do it again soon.

Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.com/

Email from LeRoux
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Hi Kevvy and fellow yakkers,

Thanks again for a great report Kev - always appreciated! My apologies for only writing this now, but my paddle back from NZ, and then to Hell ('s Gates) and back left me a bit lethargic!

One of the most disappointing days fishing I've ever experienced, I must say; I think the anticipation on the way to DB was about the highlight of the day for me...

After I left you guys at the reef I trawled to A'bay and back to the northern end of Sunshine Beach without as much as a touch. I then tried some bait, but after another half hour of only hearing crickets I decided to call it a day. I think the only thing that could have made it worse would've been for me to stack it in the shore break, but luck was with me and I had an easy paddle into shore; my embarrassment made worse only having to explain to the inquisitive beachgoers that 'things were very quiet out there today'...

Anyway, better luck next time. See you out there again soon.

Tight lines
LeRoux
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