Spanish for Soren, 23Dec13

TR by sunshiner

Wind: SW ~5 knots
Swell: 1.2m E, with chop from NE
Water temp: 24°C to 25°C
Current: at Jew Shoal, west to east, light
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: jono, stormin, soren, tunny, sully, sunshiner

Sully let us know last night that he'd be a later starter, around 05:00, but the rest of us were itching to get out there as early as possible. Probably due to the northerly which had blown for a portion of the night, that and low tide, some quite nasty waves were smashing into our launch point. But we all got out OK, admittedly with wet bums, after a deferral while we awaited a little more light so we could see the oncoming waves better. Stormin opted to go for the eastern side and also got out, wet.

A crappy chop from the NE made for a slower paddle out but before long we were all hanging out at Jew Shoal, either bottom fishing or trolling or chucking SPs. While there wasn't as much bait showing on the sonar as two days ago, there were still significant patches, particularly to the north of the shoal and also near the Pinnacles. No predatory action was visible but there seemed to be lots of turtles there today.

An undersized cobia was hooked up by stormin on a whole dead yellowtail which had been in the freezer for months. It was released after confirmation that the min legal size is 75cm.

By around 0645 I'd decided that I'd take the opportunity to take some shots for the Members section of the blog:

Here's sully in his quite old but good Stealth Supalite

And here's jono in his OK Torque (motor deliberately left at home)

While I was taking these pics soren had announced that he was heading in and it was only a few minutes later, while I was chatting to jono and sully, that soren came up on the radio to let us know that he was hooked up. Hoping it might be a Spaniard, I immediately started paddling toward him as I could see him just a little south. The occasion of a man's first Spaniard capture is worthy of a photo on the water, so why not get there to take the pic if possible?

Yes, it was a Spaniard; soren's first. He was stoked as he'd really put in the hard yards over the last couple of years. I think this was his first fish over a metre long from a kayak.

Soren's first Spaniard. Taken on trolled Halco Laser Pro, Jew Shoal.

After this, most of us headed back toward Middle Groyne, leaving only tunny out there (please let us know how you went, tunny).

The Spaniard went 107cm. Nice fish Soren!

OK, who's going tomorrow, and maybe the 25th?

Kev Long
Sunshiner
Author Kayak Fishing Manual for iPad and Mac (click linked text to view)
Stealth Supalite X, yellow/orange