TR by sunshiner
Wind: None
Swell: about 1m SE
Water temp: 26.7°C
Tides: High 05:17am (1.82m); Low 11:39am (0.61m)
Current: none detected
Launch point: Middle Groyne
Surface action: sporadic, mainly mac tuna and spotty macs
Participants: cuddles, jaro, tickey, weeksie, muzza, sunshiner
My trip distance: 39km
Redmap: No sightings provided
Keen Angler Program: at least one snapper frame donated.
The moon had set, the sky was clear and so star and planet sprinkled. Slight pink tinge on the eastern horizon. We early starters launched at 4:00am, one hour 15 minutes before sunrise. Weeksie and muzza were a little later.
Dead easy launch, almost dry bum class. All of us were headed for Halls Reef, after tunny's TR from yesterday. Glassy seas met us as we paddled NW. From the river mouth onward to Little Halls Reef we paddled among rippling patches of baitfish moving along, without harassment, on the surface.
I was first among the yakkers to Halls Reef, although there were already several stink boats hanging around. A few terns were wheeling around but there were no signs of bustups at that stage. This made it easy for me to decide to rerig with my prawn SP to try for a sweetie or snapper, which I did. First cast went out and I let it sink gently. Flat calm, 19m depth. A couple of minutes later the SP was whacked, just as I drifted over a large patch of bait showing on the sonar and I was on.
On the board!
By now cuddles, jaro and tickey had also arrived at Halls Reef. They quickly adapted to a waiting game, necessary until the spotties started to show up. And show up they did.
Cuddles was first off the mark with the spotties.
Then tickey, who combined his spotty mac catch with a hit and run deal by a local dolphin.
The dolphin was quite aggressive (see movie to be uploaded in a day or so).
Then muzza, who had brought up the rear, caught up.
Muzza's first Noosa Yakkers fish. Many more to come, I suspect.
Shortly after this, cuddles hooked up again when casting to a nearby very brief bustup. He has no radio, but managed to let me know that this fish was bigger than he expected. Seeing how quickly he was being towed made me conclude very quickly that he'd possibly hooked a longtail tuna. Intent on getting GoPro footage, I decided to stay with him until the end.
This is how it was, most of the fight, with his yak being towed at 3kph most of the time.
Staying till the end turned out to be a lot longer than I'd planned. Even worse, there was no epic capture at the end, as the leader knot failed after 3.5 hours. I felt for cuddles, who'd just lost perhaps the largest fish he'd caught from his yak so far. Neither of us actually saw the fish, which is doubly frustrating. Notably, during the fight, a juvenile marlin chose to display his strength by free jumping about seven times in a row nearby.
By the time cuddles and I had hit the beach at 11:30 am, the wind was up and all the other Noosa Yakkers had headed for home.
Beach pics
Cuddles' two spotties and my snapper.
Provided by jaro
Tickey's (top) and muzza's spottie Macs
Tickey and muzza
Trip Report movie, 1min 40sec:
Thanks for reading.
Kev Long
Sunshiner
Author Kayak Fishing Manual for iPhone, iPad and Mac (click linked text to view)
Stealth Supalite X, yellow/orange
FREE iBook "Kayak Fishing Laguna Bay & Jew Shoal" for iPhone, iPad and Mac
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