Stealth Comp, Noosa, 07Dec13

TR by sunshiner with pic contribution by redwood


Special Event: Stealth Kayaks inaugural Summer Series comp; here in Noosa was the first for the Series, the second being scheduled for Palm Beach, Gold Coast, late January
Wind: 10-15 knot ESE
Swell: 1.5m SE
Current: n/a
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: a total of 35, of whom the following are Noosa Yakkers: lapse, eyetag, pedro, lazybugger, jayman, jamieD, redwood, tunny, sunshiner, imax, isobar, bigkev, sprocket, tomT, redgreg, kayakone. Any other Noosa Yakkers who launched and are not listed here please accept my apologies and let me know.

With a launch time of 04:30 and so many competitors from near and far I felt it imperative that I get to Middle Groyne early to secure a good carpark and help out in any way possible with the arrangements. As a result I rolled in at 3:00am and found to my delight that my favourite carpark was available. Scattered around the carpark were several vehicles with Stealth yaks on the roof and, I guessed, hard bitten owners having a tough time trying to sleep before the rigours of the day to come.

Only ten minutes after my arrival the first of a stream of vehicles rolled in, the carpark started to fill up and headtorches thronged the gloom as yaks were removed from roofs and final prepping was undertaken.

Australian Kayak Specialists (the event organizers) were well prepared and arrived with a team of helpers who immediately started to put up the two shade marquees on the beach, allocate rented Stealth yaks and generally dealt with the inevitable enquiries. Generally, however, there was no fuss. The moon had set the evening before, there was a clear sky and obviously most present were used to getting organized in the dark. Soon the launch beach was filling up with yaks ready to go.

Signing out and signing back in later was mandatory for all, with this sensible arrangement ensuring fairness, because no-one could sign out before 04:30, and more importantly, SAFETY, as there existed on the beach a list of all who had launched. A first-line safety matter was that radio communication was established (using Noosa Yakkers' normal channel) and as a backup AKS provided a team of three jet skiers (VHF equipped) whose presence was very welcome.

Within a few minutes of 4:30 kayakers could be seen heading toward every part of the sea horizon, with light winds in close masking the likelihood of lumpy and sloppy seas once the shelter of the headland was cleared.

Launching underway. Panoramic pic by redwood

I was around the last to launch, about 4:40am.

Amazingly, given the final result, the best fish of the comp was nailed by Brisbane-based Noosa Yakker lazybugger just past the shark nets within a few minutes of launch. The rest of us fished long and hard for very little. I personally trolled a Halco LP from launch to around Hells Gates, then turned north west and hammered Jew Shoal for a number of trolling circuits. I then switched to a Spaniard Special baited with a yakka and trolled around Jew Shoal, then south to Dolphin Point, into the bay and then across to within one click of Little Halls Reef when I turned toward the river mouth and Middle Groyne, beaching around four hours after starting with nothing to show except for a doubly unfortunate metre-long hairtail which had lost part of its tail to some predator and then was free-gaffed by me as it floundered near the surface outside the river mouth (not eligible for weigh in).

Anyone with an eligible fish had to be back on the beach by 10:30am to weigh it in. Only three fish were weighed in:

(1) Lazybugger's stonker GT (pics below). He also boated a 74cm Spaniard and of course had to release it.

(2) Yaqdog from Coffs Harbour weighed in a 80cm Spaniard and reported losing another somewhat larger, both at Jew Shoal.

(3) Carnster from the Gold Coast weighed in a mac tuna.

Anyway, here’s the lowdown on lazybugger's great match-winning catch. He was trolling a dead fish bait, having just put it out near the shark nets (which are around 600m from the beach). It was taken almost immediately and it was not until the last moments of the fight that lazy knew what he'd hooked. Some pics on the beach:

Giant trevally, best I've ever seen caught at Noosa. 10kg. Potential New Noosa Yakkers record. Great catch, Scott.

On the mat

Held well by visitor from Denmark.

I hope Scott has the time to give us a full account of this great catch so we can add it to our blog as an individual report. Any video of the catch would also be welcome.

Scott's GoPro vid:



Sorry this report had to wait until today, but I really couldn't do it justice yesterday.

Thanks Dennis and Tom for putting on this event. Let's do it again next year.

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

3 comments:

  1. I hope the GTs of that size stick around for a while. Nicely done Lazybugger!

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  2. Thanks to the Noosa crew for providing marks that were spot on . Very pleasant for us interstaters . Good fish chasing spot you got there . Thanks to the stealth crew for their efforts and the sponsors AKS ,Beachwheels , Pulsator lures . Some photos are on the Stealth web from me and I will knock up a video of sorts in the next couple of days .
    Big thank you again
    Yaqdoq

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  3. Well the day for me started with a panic the night before. I arrived at Noosa, checked into the apartment, got some luggage out & decided the car wasn't as straight as I'd like and a bit inconsiderate for the car next to me. So I decided to move. Car would turn over but not start. ahh. No way to start a weekend away. So I said stuff that and decided to see if it got better after a bit of cool down. Went out for a nice dinner with the missus and tried again. No luck. Nightmare scenarios going through my head. I decided if it was truly stuffed there wasn't much I could do. Sent the call out to competitors by email. Doug suggested to hit up Bigkev, which I did & transport for the morning was arranged. Kev picked me up about 3.15 and we were in the car park with about a 10 other early birds not long after.

    It was a relatively easy launch. I copped a couple of small splashes across the chest but nothing serious. I set up and headed straight out towards Jew shoal but making sure I was passing North of the shark nets as I have managed to catch my rudder on them in the past. I was about 100m past the nets when the big slimy I had picked up from Palmy a couple of weeks ago went off. A screaming first run had me thinking mack. This was followed by a couple of other fast runs but not quite as long. I could definately feel a fair bit of weight. I was truly afraid it was a shark but some of the tail beats had me thinking it might not be. Other yakers were still passing me 10 minutes into the fight. Tom stopped by and thought it might be a cobe & I was coming to the same conclusion but wasn't going to say it out loud as it would have been my first. It was a long fight and although I could see the fish on my sounder 6m or so down I didn't see it until about 16 or 17 mins into the fight. Then I realised it was a big GT. It was a bit of a struggle to gaff & boat but I eventually managed to squeeze him into the hatch.

    I got onto the VHF and told the fleet the challenge was on. I got a garbled response from someone mentioning a pedro. I didn't catch all of it or who said it but decided to call them all a pack of bastards just in case.

    After that it was on with my only other slimy which has bitten in half within 100m. So then it was on with a small yakka and out to Jew Shoal. I paddled around there for while, had a few chats and eventually hooked a small spaniard on a pilly. Could only stretch him to 74 so back he went. I decided to head closer to the rocky shoreline and followed that back about 100m out most of the way back around to MG without a further touch.

    I was back in just before 10 I think, I knew I had a decent fish so didn't want to be late. The GT came in at 10kg and 101cm.

    Finally, just to annoy you all the safa rig actually broke at the knot join for the treble stinger. Luckily the weighted hook was very well dug into the side of the fish.

    Big thankyou to Dennis and Tom and the gang for organising another wonderful day. And to the sponsors. I already had a wheeleez so Dennis has let me have some store credit in its place. Tough decisions ahead.

    A big thanks to Bigkev for picking me up and to all the others who offered to help around the same time. Thanks to Sunshiner for asking the Danish girl for a pic And finally a big thanks to Trev who agreed to take my yak & gear home so I didn't have to worry about it if the car got stuck at a dealers getting fixed.

    I did get the car running in the afternoon thanks to the roadside assist. Something broken with the push button start, but manual start with a push of the accelerator at exactly the right time gets it going.

    http://youtu.be/nNIklpgYo3I


    Cheers

    Scott

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