From: sunshiner
Date: 5/08/2010 4:34 PM
Weather
Cloud cover: 8/10
Wind direction & speed: SW 5-7 knots
Sea state: Pretty flat
Participants: Jaro, Kev, Mark, Steve, Bill B.
Perfect weather from dawn said Seabreeze so of course, we had to get up and go. I was early for the planned 0545 arrival at the carpark but Jaro was there even earlier. We're getting quite good at doing our final pre launch preparations and checks in the dark and soon we were down on the beach. Totally flat sea! A slight wind ruffle 100m or so out from the Groyne made it clear that a southerly breeze would be found once we cleared the immediate shelter of the shore.
0555hrs. The human eye does a better job than the camera but it was still pretty dark, 30 minutes or so before sunrise. That's Jaro, about to paddle off.
As it happened, I got away first because just then Jaro's hearing aid batteries gave him the warning that they were about to die. He had replacements ready, of course, on the kayak! The low light levels are not conducive to easily running line through rod runners or tying knots so I buggered around "out the back" for about five minutes longer than usual. By the time Jaro was ready and I still had one rod to set up, there was a little more light available. I asked Jaro to hold nearby while I took this shot with the Canon.
0615hrs, still 10 minutes at least until sunrise. Laguna Bay dawn. Fantastic! See what you're missing.
Incidentally even with the low light levels at 0600, when we launched, the water was so clear that we could both see the sea floor clearly while paddling along, and off the end of, the groyne.
Keen to get going, Jaro headed for Jew Shoal and left me to follow a few minutes later. What was very noticeable as soon as we got under way was that there was a lot more dolphin activity than usual, the whole time we were out there. I don't know why they were so active but they were frequently sighted near us, jumping clear of the water or porpoising along.
On the way out we were briefly distracted by some terns wheeling and diving over a patch of baitfish. We both soon concluded that any predators were probably only mackerel tuna and not worth the diversion so continued on our way. On arrival at Jew Shoal I saw that there was another yakker present (the only other boat out there). This was John, the Hawaiian guy, in his red Mission Catch 390. He must have launched well before we did but had caught nothing of significance. When last seen he was heading off trolling a deep running lure in the hope of enticing a snapper.
And so we started fishing. I was determined to stick with the soft plastic while Jaro had half a tonne of prawns and pillies aboard. Doctor Dog (Mark) radioed in and informed us he was on his way to join us and by the time he'd arrived I'd had no significant action and Jaro had his first keeper snapper and reported the near catch of a squid. And for me it went downhill from there. Turtleboy (Steve) then checked in by radio and informed us that he'd met up with Bill Barnett and that they intended to paddle down toward the river mouth and check that area out. Soon after, Jaro got his second keeper snapper. Then Steve announced he was heading toward our spot just after Jaro got his third. These were all small snapper, but clearly the bait was outfishing the plastics as both Mark and I were using them for no result.
The breeze was cool out there and we only saw the sun for a few fleeting minutes at a time -- conditions which made things less than ideal but much better than on many occasions we'd fished JS. Just after Steve joined us, Mark decided to leave and just about then Jaro started to get more hookups. I was fishing near him and we'd both remarked on a particular bump on the bottom, visible on our sonars in about 20m depth which had fish hanging around it. By this time Jaro had caught a couple of keeper sweetlip as well. I was still on zero. (You can't count a small flathead and a couple of small black-tip cod, can you?).
1016hrs. Jaro's hooked up again!
This particular piece of underwater terrain was certainly the spot. At one stage I paddled over to take a close look at one of Jaro's fish when I saw that he hadn't noticed that his other rod was showing signs of being dragged out of the yak. I pointed it out to him and he (expletive deleted) handed the first fish, on gaff, to me, and I held it while he battled the other, yet another sweetlip.
At last I caught an undersize snapper on my SP at this spot but Jaro couldn't do a thing wrong. Even after he'd run out of bait and put a soft plastic on he was still getting strikes. While all this was going on Mark called up to inform us that he'd lost his treasured Halco Laser Pro lure to a bite-off when trolling on the way back to the beach close to some bird activity. Steve left about now, presumably deciding that perhaps he could benefit from this info and soon called me to ask the legal size and bag limit for mackerel tuna as he'd caught some (no size or bag limit).
The last fish Jaro caught at JS today. This juvenile red emperor was returned to the water quickly. Note that the minimum legal size for this prized fish is 55cm.
By 1145, shortly after I spotted a whale breaching about 500m away to the NE Jaro and I decided that it was time we left. By now the wind had dropped out completely and we had an idyllic paddle back.
Mark and Steve were hanging around on the beach when we got back in case we needed a hand to carry all the fish ;-) . The return to the beach was as easy as I've ever seen it.
Jaro's take-home catch. The biggest was the grass sweetlip at bottom left -- 48cm.
So well done Jaro. The bait fisherman won today. I'm still keen on the SPs though.
Thanks for coming along guys. See you Sunday, perhaps? How'd you go, Bill?
[Bill’s response: Kevin, Caught a small legal flathead and have a photo of another small fish I’'ll get you to identify one day –about the size of a whiting but with a ferocious looking head and needle teeth. Great morning pics. Cheers, Bill.]
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://www.noosayakkers.blogspot.com/
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