Jew Shoal, early, and HR, 17Nov11

Contributions from, in sequence: jimbo, imax

Subject: Fishing Report - Thur 17Nov11
From: "Jim Thompson"
Date: 17/11/2011 5:23 PM

Hello Yakkers,

WIND: NNE 12-15 knots initially, decreased 8-12 knots by mid morning.
SWELL: ~1.0m but short period with wind chop
CLOUD COVER: 8/10 burning off to 5/10
CURRENT: 1-1.5 kph NW>SE
LAUNCH POINT: Middle Groyne
PARTICIPANTS: Dan (Imax), Jimbo

With nil returns for my last three outings I was determined to score this morning. Given Jaro and Imax's report from yesterday when the fish suddenly went off the bite by about 0600, it seemed that I would have to be on the water early if I was going to be successful. So I arrived at MG car park in almost total darkness at 0345 (my earliest launch ever!), but was beginning to think maybe I should have stayed in bed as I faced a brisk 12-15 knot breeze coming straight onto the beach together with absolute bottom tide causing a messy shore break right at the end of the rock groyne. Anyway, I got through okay with just a bit of a wet bum - I think not being able to see the waves in the half light makes the situation appear worse than it really is.

It was a slow paddle out to Jew Sh straight into the stiff headwind and a short lumpy sea, plus, as I was soon to discover, a moderately strong current coming from the NW. I went straight to my NE mark at Jew Sh expecting the wind to take me back towards the Pinnacles and over a couple of my closer in marks. I loaded my casting rig with a large king prawn (having observed Jaro's recent success with prawns threaded onto a large 8/0 hook) and cast this offering downwind while I set my trailing rig with a slimey on a 3-gang hook.

I was initially disappointed to discover the prawn had only sunk 2-3m below the surface as it drifted under the yak and I was beginning to think these were not going to be very successful. However, on the second cast the prawn was taken by a maori cod. The maori cod was released, the drift re-set and another prawn loaded and sent off. This time a 40cm snapper attacked the slowly sinking prawn and was soon retrieved and stowed in the fish box. I'm now starting to think Jaro might be onto something with these prawns. Before I had re-set the drift, the trailing rig went off and soon a nice 42cm sweetlip was retrieved and this also added to the fish box.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I called up Imax who had launched some time after me, and reported my success. Imax was over at Lt Halls in similar lumpy conditions but no fish at that time. As the wind had eased a little Imax indicated he was going to try a little longer over at Lt Halls but might join me later if no success. I didn't hear any more transmissions from Imax but learnt later from the surfboard hire guy at MG that he had caught a couple of fish... perhaps you can fill us in on the details Imax.

I reset the drift across my successful mark and picked up another maori cod on the trailed slimey. This was larger but still under sized and was released. However, like Jaro and Imax yesterday at Sunshine Reef, everything seemed to go quiet after about 0615. Although I tried another four marks at Jew Sh over a further 2.5 hours, I did not get one more bite. I can only put this down to increasing light level due to the rising sun (the water is presently very clear). So the moral of the story at present is... Fish early! Maybe this is why Eye Tag catches so many fish?

It was a pleasant paddle back to MG with a trailing sea and a mild tail breeze. The surf transition was pretty easy with a half tide on the rise, and I cancelled my coverage with Noosa Coast Guard once on the beach at 0945.

Cheers,
Jimbo

From imax
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Subject: Re: Fishing Report - Thur 16Nov11
From: "Dan"
Date: 17/11/2011 7:22 PM

Hi Yakkers,

Jimbo has covered a little of my morning. As he said it wasn't very pleasant out until the wind dropped off around 6am. I went out with the full sail setup today and sailed upwind as much as possible. With 2 big tacks I made it up as to the start of the sandhills on Teewah beach. During this time I was trolling a bait and lure which weren't touched at all.

As the wind died off I decided to try my luck at Halls reef. First cast with a soft plastic and I landed a 53cm Grassy. I was only fishing 6lb line on my bream rod so this fish pulled some serious drag which was good fun. I kept another 42cm Grassy and released a legal snapper and had a decent hit each cast. All of these fish came around 7am or slightly later and I could see lots of feeding fish on the sounder. It was about now that the only boat I had seen all morning went full tilt past me about 15m away and consequently shut down the bite. I called it a day after this and had an easy sail averaging 7km/hr back to MG.

I'm thinking of heading out tomorrow morning again with Jaro and Kev launching from Sunshine Beach also. I don't know if I can get there for a 4am launch so I will meet you out there.

Regards
Dan