Wind: calm to gentle NE
Swell: 1.0m ESE
Water temp: 26°
Current: n/a
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Participants: pedro, soren, sunshiner
Yesterday (Wednesday), the last few kilometres of our 1200km drive home from Sydney were along David Low Way, the route deliberately chosen so I could observe the swell on Noosa's eastern beaches. As I'd hoped, it was small, and totally consistent with the Sea Breeze forecast, as was the wind. Having neither paddled nor fished for over two weeks I was keen to get out today.
Despite my best efforts, pedro was already parked (in my favourite spot) and had his yak on the beach before I'd even turned off the zook’s engine. It was only about 04:15. Shortly afterward soren rumbled in. Low tide, but no launch problems. A shower or two threatened but getting rained on would be a pleasure as the air temperature was still around 22°C, I'd say. And we did get rained on, for only a few minutes.
Very little stinkboat traffic, and a solitary catamaran anchored in the bay, about 1000m out, its masthead light gleaming like a just-risen planet to the north east. No wind here in the inner bay, making for glassy swells and easy paddling.
To avoid the shark net deployed E-W across part of the path to Jew Shoal, I usually paddle NW initially and deploy my chosen trolled HB as soon as I can and did so today. Once I judge I'm clear of the net I alter course more to the NNE and head for The Pinnacles, at this stage about 3km away. When I was passing the anchored catamaran, whose crew had yet to show signs of life, my trolled HLP was grabbed and then after a quick flurry of action was dropped. Reeling in to check that all was well, then redeploying the lure 35-40 strokes behind, I paddled off again only to have the lure grabbed again very soon afterward. This time the strike was more assertive, and the line pulled off against the drag, whose clicker emitted that satisfying buzz which we all enjoy.
The water was very clear, for even in the half-light I could see, from the chrome-like flash below, that I had hooked one of the mackerel species as it came up for a first look at the yak. Mistaking it for a spotty mac at first, I quickly saw that it was a schoolie once I got a good look at it.
Queensland school mackerel, min length 50cm, possession limit 10. It's easy to mistake this species for a spotty mac, which has different minimum length and possession limits. The schoolie usually displays spots on its flanks (as does the fish above), but these spots are always bigger than the fish's eye, while on the spotty mac they're smaller, and usually more numerous.
School mackerel can often be caught in large numbers as they hang around together. Almost certainly the earlier strike would have been a schoolie also. With bigger fish in mind, and fresh fish dinner in the hatch, I headed on toward Jew Shoal, which was being worked over now by only two stinkies plus pedro, of course.
About 1km south from the Pinnacles mark, just as soren passed me, I turned on the sounder to check for the presence of baitfish. None, or not very much, anyway. No terns present. But pedro was displaying his fishing skills by simultaneously trolling with one outfit and casting with another, indicating he could probably see something worth casting toward so I headed for his location, near The Pinnacles. Here I also could see large baitfish showering out. They looked to me like small longtoms or perhaps wolf herring (aka ribbon fish), as they left the water like a shower of arrows at the Battle of Hastings. Just as I got up to pedro he hooked up to what turned out to be a longtom, of a size typical of those which hang around Jew Shoal, that is, nearly a metre long, and skinny and squirmy as a snake. This he intends to take home and rig as a Spaniard bait! How about a pic of your rigged longtom bait, pedro? Presumably you'll have a stinger right in the tail?
About now pedro and I started to see Spaniards leaping clear of the water, just to the north, and mixed up with them some tuna, also leaping clear, but not as high as the Spaniards. So that's where we headed, all the time letting soren and each other know by radio what was going on. Pedro reckoned the tuna might be yellowfin and I agreed.
I was trolling my usual HLP which had already scored two strikes this morning for one fish in the hatch. The surface action was spasmodic and no clusters of terns could be seen, just one or two terns flying around and dipping every now and again to feed off baitfish which had fatally swum too close to the surface. No flying fish. Down deep there were occasional shoals of bait displayed on the sounder and the whole place felt very fishy. Foolishly, the stinkies had by now left for so-called greener pastures, so it was only we three Noosa Yakkers out there.
As I often do, I'd paddled upwind, which was also up-sun today, with the intention of turning through 180° and running with the wind (sun nicely at my back) in a SW direction back toward The Pinnacles. I'd made my u-turn and was enjoying the better view and the easier paddle when off went the HLP again. You never know what you might hook at Jew Shoal but it's fun trying to work out what it might be. By now the sun was high enough to push photons further into the depths and soon I was rewarded with the splendid view of a chunky yellowfin tuna, down deep, its huge pectorals spread and its brassy colours resplendent. Unfortunately it was nowhere near as big as stormin's whopper from just over a year ago, but nice to have anyway, especially as they're so good to eat. I let my companions know that I was hooked up to a yellowfin because where there's one yft there are usually more. Soren started paddling over to me, just north of The Pinnacles. I'd just gaffed and hatched my fish when soren arrived, with a bang. He let out a whoop as his trolled HLP went off, not 20 metres from me. "Probably you've got a yellowfin too", I opined as he got down to business with this nice surprise. I think soren was hoping that it was a yellowfin, but if so his hopes were dashed as he saw the unmistakeable vertical bars of a Spaniard and let out a louder whoop.
Soren hooked up.
My yft
Soren's second Spaniard. Nice shoes, soren.
I'd planned to get home early today and with two nice-eating fish in the hatch decided to head back in soon afterward.
My journey back in was notable only for the fact that there were a few shoals of bait inside the bay, around 1 to 1.5km out from the beach (about where I got my schoolie on the way out). There was no surface action, however, but if the bait hangs around the predators will surely arrive. A mix of spotties, Spaniards, longtails would be nice, so close in, as we have encountered them before. Fun days ahead, methinks.
A couple of beach pics of my fish
Who's coming on Saturday?
Kev Long
Sunshiner
Author Kayak Fishing Manual for iPad and Mac (click linked text to view)
Stealth Supalite X, yellow/orange
Late addition from soren
Here I am showing the prominent pectoral fins of the yellowfin tuna. Pic by soren.
Soren finished up with two Spaniards, 89 and 81cm. Pic by soren
Contribution by pedro
I trolled all day today…
Launched 4.30, trolled around JS with slimey mac on home-made rig.
You tie baitfish's mouth shut with copper wire and keep the front hook at an angle; swims great.
With pedro as my call sign it was a hard choice at 10.30 to head in. I've a grand tally of one Spanish in four years of yak fishing.
As sunshiner and soren reported, the bait fish were in the inner bay and the birds were working small bustups when I got there. It's amazing how your whole attitude changes and energy comes from nowhere when there's a chance to turn around my donut.
I chased bustups for the next three hours ending up with two yellowfin and one spotty mac, missing two other hookups and losing my gaff on the first fish.
I saw a fish close to the yak just hit the surface, you know how they create a vacuum implosion. It was huge.... no large dorsal, ruling out shark and dolphin, it was an estimated 2m long 45cm wide, amazing.
All fish were caught on cast slugs.
32k on GPS
Check out the parasite eggs in one of the tuna in the pics below.
Cheers
Pedro
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