Subject: fishing today -- 15sep09
Date: Tuesday, 15 September 2009 3:12 PM
The weather was just TOO good to resist. But in recognition that I'd probably be going again on Wednesday I opted to head for the shorter journey to Jew Shoal and also for an early return -- back on the beach by 1100. Jim decided to join me.
Also at the carpark and beach this morning was Roger Hunt, of Tewantin, who'd got out of a warm bed at 0515 to see for himself how Noosa Yakkers do a Middle Groyne launch. His motive was that he wants to join us soon and he'd brought his camera as an aide memoire. Jim and I both spent some time with Roger explaining the arcane art of yak surf launching and rigging and then demonstrated with a live launch into a very forgiving beach break. It's not always so easy, Roger.
0549hrs. Two Espris line up for launch in a very easy break. Jim adjusts his leggings.
30 sec Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K1OXMnO8EI
Before long we were on our 3.5km paddle to Jew Shoal...
About 2km into the paddle it became apparent that we had a land breeze less than 5 knots, pretty typical for this sort of weather, and as usual it was coming from the south west. So I headed for a mark on the SW corner of Jew Shoal, intent on drifting right across to the NE corner, propelled by the breeze.
The plan was fine, and the sonar was showing lots of small fish schooled up in the ~20m water. Unfortunately, after 45 minutes during which I'd drifted some 800m exactly as I'd hoped I would, I hadn't had a touch. I'd seen several turtles bobbing around in the small swell and an eagle ray which cleared the water nearby twice in quick succession, as they do, but no takers for my offerings.
That drift done, I opted to drift again, parallel to the first drift and further to the SE this time. As I turned to head for my new start point I noticed Jim was fairly close to my planned track so I decided to deviate slightly from my line to go over and have a morning chat. Just as I was getting close to him he hooked a fish large enough to put a reasonable bend in his SP outfit. At this stage, with the sun still low and partly obscured by cloud, I'd opted for helmet cam (still in the experimental phase), so as I approached Jim I reached up and turned on the camera then pressed the shutter for some video.
30 sec Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlhKrbFWuyQ
0742hrs. Jim displays his very freshly caught snapper.
With this encouragement I figured that I was still in with a reasonable chance to get a take-home fish. I subsequently tried several places, all of which my sonar revealed had heaps of small fish but by 0930 I'd caught only a couple of the very beautiful but undersized black tipped cod. Jim had reported by radio that his pilchard bait, dressed in a frilly squid outfit, had gone off big time as he'd been relocating to a new drift line. This bait was on his heavy outfit so he was well set up to do significant battle but apparently the fight lasted only a minute or so as the creature on the other end had apparently managed to inhale the pilchard, three ganged hooks, the squid skirt, a heavy sinker, a couple of swivels and the wire trace as the line was bitten through above the wire trace. This was probably a shark. Anyway, that's fishing...
I announced to Jim that I'd be leaving at 10am unless the action suddenly picked up. Jim opted to do the same and so when the appointed time arrived I let Jim know and departed for Middle Groyne on a glassy sea for the land breeze had dropped away some thirty minutes earlier, killing our drift.
So that's all there is to report today. The surf break was up a little compared with earlier but both Jim and I came through without fuss. I must admit though that I stood with camera running while Jim came in, hoping that he'd misjudge the break and pick the wave of the hour, which he didn't.
OK, who's up for tomorrow? I suggest Sunshine Reef, but a launch at MG as the surf is pretty big at Sunshine Beach this afternoon and will possibly get slightly bigger overnight. Might be some good camera opportunities tomorrow when we come back through the surf ;-) ...
Kev
Red & Yellow Espri, black paddle
VHF channel 09 or 22 (if alone), Call Sign: sunshiner
http://noosayakers.blogspot.com
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