Hi all, I'm redgreg and here's my first trip report for Noosa Yakkers, with some editing help from sunshiner.
On Saturday 19Mar16 at 5am I, with a group of very motivated yakkers (Bones, Walawala, Bigkev, Cav, freeyaker, Reedy) paddled out from Doggie Beach. The day was hot -- hot with birds working over bait fish that were getting eaten from below and hot as in 30°C.
My plan that day was ready. One km off the beach I found bait on the screen. Down goes the jig and up come five pike. I get three into the yak as two of them bit off the hooks.
The next part of the plan was to paddle around with a 300mm live pike with a 4x strong stinger on 44lb wire in its back, looking for Spanish mackerel. This last part of the plan was set.
So for five hours that live bait went all over Sunshine Reef. The boys were all over the reef plus there were 15 stink boats. Half of the stinkies were continually on the move, going from bust-up to bust-up and not a bent rod that I could see.
By 10 am all the birds had moved on. I decided to try one more mark in 20m of water then go off home. I had the bait 15m down with some lead on the end of a 6m leader hanging off a rubber band. On my way up the face of the reef from 32m of water the TLD told me that something was looking at my little friend! By the time I had the rod in my butt holder in my lap, with the reel drag as tight as I dared, the line was half gone from the spool. So by the time she turned me around the TLD that had started with say 350m of 20lb mono was emptying fast. That was about the same time as I saw two guys in a big boat out to the right. They stayed away but they told me later they saw the hit and then had the show of their lives.
I called it for a shark for the first 20 minutes then she came up half way 10m down. It was magic because I had my line coming back and we were going 2kph out to sea. By the time I saw her in about 15 minutes she had calmed down. Not me, I wet myself.
This Spanish mackerel was moving us fast, locked in close to the yak with line up high, gaff in hand. "Here goes…", remember the boaties are having a side show. As I was manoeuvering the gaff around her big head to get a clear shot, the handle of the gaff hit her and she got upset and ran away. (I gave a gaff away to a mackerel last year.) She came back after ten minutes; same place hard in to my yak. This time I put the gaff under her head and up hard.
Oh dear, here goes, I am kilometres off shore and those two guys in a stink boat thinking how funny it was. I then said "Now what?" 32kg (70lb) of fish longer than me. She went into the hull on the fourth try.
With that I gave the guys in the boat the two live baits and made I way back to Doggie Beach, arriving at about the same time as most of my mates.
Beach pics…
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