Spotty Mack Mayhem Mk2, 18Jan13

TR by Jimbo
Wind: 5 knots
Swell: Half metre
Current at Halls Rf: Didn't have time to assess
Launch Point: Middle Groyne
Participants: Jaro, Soren & Emil (father & son combo), Jimbo

This was one of those days that kayak fishos dream about ... perfect weather, almost no wind, low swell, only one or two stink boats and the spotty macks going ballistic! I'll fill in the details shortly, but here's the ultimate outcome ... thirteen spotties between four yakkers:




Fish caught: Jimbo 3, Soren 1, Jaro 5 spotties and 1 slatey (one spot given to Soren) & Emil 3.

The details ...
We all arrived at MG car park shortly after 0400. Launch conditions were fairly easy. Jaro was first away when there was just enough light to see the low breaking waves at the end of the groyne.

This was only Soren and Emil's second launch into Laguna Bay, and Soren had only just purchased a new eTrex30 GPS the previous day, so we spent a little time with some basic GPS tuition for Soren, and revising surf zone launch tactics with Emil before heading out about 20 minutes after Jaro.

Given that Jaro had decided to head to Jew Sh (that destination possibly chosen by Jaro so he could come home aided by a slight NE tail wind filling his sail), I decided with Soren and Emil in tow, we would head towards Halls Rf to spread our reconnaissance over a wider area. We took a route along the north shore before heading out towards Halls Rf. We had had no strikes on our trolled hard body lures, nor were there any birds evident. However, about 1.5 km from Halls Rf Jaro came on the radio from Jew Sh to report he had seen numerous birds heading towards Halls Rf.

On arrival at Halls, we began to see birds starting to circle and gather about 300m to the north. By this time the breeze had dropped right out and the ruffled surface of a significant bust up below the birds could be clearly identified from 200m away. My initial thoughts were that this was probably the same lot of mac tuna we had encountered in the bay a week earlier. There was only two stink boats in the vicinity, both being pretty well behaved, and all three of us were able to paddle to within casting distance. Soren and Emil, having only one rod each with 30 lb mono and hard bodied lures, were limited in casting distance so had to paddle in close. This caused the bust up to divide into two or three smaller bust-ups (but not totally disappear) and I was able to target one of these with my favoured Halco polished chrome slug (can't remember correct name) attached to 15 lb braid on my light casting rod.

At this point everything seemed to happen at once. Emil shouted that he was on, and almost immediately I was hooked up on my first cast. After a couple of reel-screaming runs I was delighted to see the long-bodied silver flash of a spotty mackerel in the clear water below ... whoo wheee!!! ... the spotty macks were back in town and we were right in the middle of their neighbourhood! After a short tussle I landed and stowed my spotty then headed over to help Emil, who by now had also gaffed and lip-gripped his spotty but did not have pliers to release the hooks, and was unsure how he would stow the fish in the somewhat inaccessible forward hatch in his yak. (Apologies for smudge on lens of camera in next couple of pics).




Emil with his first spotty mack caught on only his second NY fishing trip.

In the midst of helping Emil solve these tasks, Soren yelled out that he was hooked up. After setting Emil free to chase the birds, still only a few hundred metres away, I paddled over to Soren and similarly help him stow his quite sizable spotty into his forward hatch. Soren was now declaring that kayak fishing was the best fun he had experienced in a long time.





Soren with his first ever fish caught from a kayak, also on his second NY fishing trip.

Somewhere in the middle of all that initial excitement I had radioed Jaro to tell him it was all happening at Halls Rf and that he should take the trouble to paddle over to get some of the action. He reported there was not much happening at Jew Sh but he had caught a sizable slatey bream (also known as a painted sweetlip?) but had released it as they are poor eating.




Jaro's slatey bream. Dr Dog note: A possible new species and record claim for the Record Fish blog?

Meanwhile, back at north Halls, the spotty mack bust-ups were occurring all over the place and we didn't have to paddle more than about 200-300m to be repeatedly amongst action. After helping Emil fix a loose screw on the bail arm on his reel, he then swapped over to a silver/blue slug which had improved his casting range and he and I soon after each landed our second spotty. I initially thought my second spotty was a shark as it was staying down and taking a lot of line from me, but this turned out to be another spotty foul hooked in the dorsal fin. I lost my next two strikes along with my two Halco slugs due to the spotties shredding the line above the wire trace. Interestingly, they would not touch two other slugs I tried, one blue/pink/white in colour, the other a simple small silver slug with no "action".

Jaro was at first a little reluctant to make the 4.5 km paddle over from south of Jew Sh where he had gone chasing some indistinct bird action. But my excited radio transmissions eventually got the better of him and he made the paddle over to Halls Rf where he too got into the action at Halls Rf proper along with the two stink boats. He was there not much more than about 30 minutes before he had landed three spotties.

By about 0800 Soren, Emil and I had migrated south to Halls Rf in the process of chasing the bust-ups, by which time Jaro had bagged out on his fifth spotty and had helped Emil stow his third. The generous Jaro loaned me one of his spare Halco slugs and gave one of his five spotties to Soren (still cast-limited due to having only a hard bodied lure) so he (Jaro) could continue fishing within his bag limit of five.

By 0845, Jaro and I had caught our 6th and 3rd spotties respectively, and with the sun now well up, despite the slight NE breeze just starting to build, conditions were becoming decidedly hot out on the water so we agreed to head for home. Jaro adopted a more south-easterly course so as to be able to take advantage of the increasing NE tail breeze with his sail set, while Soren, Emile and I paddled the direct 4.6km course back to Middle Groyne.

We all made a relatively easy and upright return to the beach, with the usual interest generated amongst beachgoers by four kayak fisherman displaying 13 spotted macs for photographing. For Sunshiner, it wouldn't be a complete trip report without the obligatory fish holder (and her son).



An absolute magic day guys, one to be remembered by the four of us for a long time to come.

Jimbo