# Qld: Blistering longtails and more. Noosa, 28Sep12. (+Vid)



## sunshiner

Noosa Yakkers nicknames/call signs used throughout.

"I'd love to get a longtail", said kahuna (AKFF: kahunanui) recently, after catching a mac tuna, his first ever tuna, a couple of weeks ago. Well, after today, I wonder what's next for him.

I launched a few seconds after the pic below was taken. It was a dry bum exit, but I did back paddle at the end of the wall as a few wet bum waves threatened to spoil my exit.









That's beejay's Prowler on the left. He just trundles it along Hastings Street to our launch point, doesn't need a car park.

Although there were already several other Noosa Yakkers out there, I was the lone candidate initially for Jew Shoal, where I hoped the snapper and sweetlip would be cooperative. The others mainly headed for Little Halls Reef and Halls Reef, with longtails on their shopping lists.

One interesting observation: there were thousands of pale blue jelly blubbers suspended in the water just off the groyne, out the back. Never seen that before, here.

Having trolled a HLP all the way to JS for nix, I settled in to really blanket the place with tempting offerings. Two hours later my offerings had not been touched, and nor had jimbo's succulent bait offerings, although he hadn't been out there as long as I had. On the western front (LHR and HR) all was ominously quiet, nary a radio call to interrupt our reverie. I wondered if they'd all gone to sleep over there. The last guy to launch was stormin, who came up on the radio about 07:30, explaining that he'd just finished a 12 hour work shift.

Anyway, just before a pod of whales turned up at Jew Shoal the radio crackled into life. Beejay was hooked up at HR to something fast and powerful. Yay! And then kahuna came up on the radio for the first time explaining that he also was hooked up similarly and was dodging waves as he was towed close in to the beach break near First Cutting. Yay! again.

The breeze was just starting to strengthen, and shift more to the north when jimbo and I decided that the total lack of action at Jew Shoal was not worth any more effort, and so we started to head back to our Middle Groyne launch point.

By now, beejay had boated a longtail and was headed in under sail, and jag-one had stirred the pot a bit more with a report that he'd left the ranks of the fishless by boating a very good grassy, estimated (under-estimated as we later discovered) at 55cm. Pedro was engrossed in sticking with kahuna and giving us a progress report by radio from time to time. Incredibly, a full 90 minutes after hookup, kahuna had yet to see his fish.

In due course tarzan, jimbo and I had beached safely. Jaro and beejay were visible just offshore, stowing their sails after their downwind trip all the way from Halls Reef. A couple of kids came up to me on the beach and asked to see our fish. Well, being a little embarrassed, I managed to put them off by explaining that the next kayak in had a biggie aboard.

And so it had, and the word had got around, also. Beejay was met by a crowd of fish lookers, all ogling, and pointing and "What sort of fish is it?" when he eventually dragged it out of his storage pod, which the tuna had shared with reels, rods, tackle, drogue etc.

A few pics of the occasion:





































The hubbub died down a bit and then we spotted jag-one in his oil tanker just out there. By now the wind had picked up quite a bit and the break was looking decidedly flaky. In came jag-one&#8230;

He was going OK and keeping it straight until just abeam of the end of the groyne the bow went hard to port.









The yak hit the rocks with a thump that I could hear from where I was shooting video. And then they rolled over in waist deep water.

No real damage was done and jag-one's prize fish was secured to the yak by clip and leash. The crowd gathered again to ogle the fish, the fisherman and his strange boat.









On the mat!










Now... Leaving the best till last!

The crowd had now spotted two more yakkers (pedro and kahuna) just out there, preparing to come in. And they'd been led to believe that one of the yaks had a monster tuna aboard. By now we could have sold tickets to view the fish!

Pedro had waited with kahuna while he finished off the fish after fighting it for over two hours, and they'd travelled back to Middle Groyne together, in a strengthening northerly breeze.

I waded out to video kahuna's return to the beach. As he got closer to me, I could see that it was a pretty big tuna alright, as it was sharing the meagre cockpit with him.









Cropped frame from video.

As the kayak ground to a halt in ankle deep water, kahuna fell full length face down into the water, further exciting the gathering crowd, who by now had seen the fish and could hardly believe their eyes.

It was a bloody nice fish and kahuna's first longtail. So here are some pics:


















Mat#1









Mat#2, supplemented by stormin's tape measure.



















And now a 55 sec vid added 30Sep12. See jag-one hit the wall at 23 sec.





Thanks for reading AKFFers. Tight lines!


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## bunsen

Wow! That's a nice LT.
Cant wait to make it up that way one day and head out with you guys.


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## keza

How good is that.
Great read as always sunshiner. Can't wait for the video.


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## SharkNett

Another great effort. There used to be reports of longtails down around Jervis Bay in summer but don't hear much about them these days. Seems odd since the oceans are getting warmer.


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## AJD

You're making me very sad that I made the move south Kev.
Congrats boys they are 2 very impressive fish. A great grassy and a superb long tail. Well done boys.


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## paulo

Fantastic day on the water boys. Thats a big longtail and a horse of a sweetie.


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## paulsod

Top story Kevin and what about those fish,fantastic.


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## Wrassemagnet

Don't you just love it when the brag mat isn't long enough 

And to think the season is just starting...


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## ben123

Wow awesome fish guys!

Will have to get my butt into gear and get out there for a fish with you guys.


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## kayakone

Wrassemagnet said:


> Don't you just love it when the brag mat isn't long enough
> 
> And to think the season is just starting...


I can see that length being eclipsed by a certain Jew fisho..... 



paulo said:


> Fantastic day on the water boys. That's a big longtail and a horse of a sweetie.


It certainly is. What is your record Paul?

trev


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## paulo

kayakone said:


> paulo said:
> 
> 
> 
> Fantastic day on the water boys. That's a big longtail and a horse of a sweetie.
> 
> 
> 
> It certainly is. What is your record Paul?
> trev
Click to expand...

Not mine, but the biggest Ive ever seen was mate Steve, when he got his first off a kayak at Fraser a few years back. It went 139cm and 28kg. Heres a pic of it.


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## wardeyak

hell ya


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## Dodge

Great fishing among you Noosa blokes, and a good read Kev.


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## carnster

Fun times boys, nice report Kev.


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## Zed

Oh boy!
Is there no off season?


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## Scott

Fantastic as usual Kev and crew. Now the big challenge for you is to put DaveyG onto a good fish.


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## Guest

Zed said:


> Oh boy!
> Is there no off season?


Lol. Yeah there is but the fish are bigger during the off season.


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## Zed

NOOsasunshiner said:


> One interesting observation: there were thousands of pale blue jelly blubbers suspended in the water just off the groyne, out the back. Never seen that before, here.


OK interesting we've had a plague of salps this year too. Don't know what pale blue jelly blubbers are ha, but salps are jelly-y and pale blueish and foul up your lines when you troll and cast and I think ultimately affect line visibility. Meaning you don't catch fish in the salps. Curious what your pale blue jelly blubber where.

Anyway there's salps all over inside and outside the kelp, here including on the beaches. There's alarmists that say the changing pH is causing different algae/plankton/jelly cycles and these plagues will be more common. Currently the Mola mola population is thriving, anyway.


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## richmond

Zed, Here's a couple of underwater pics of the blue jelly blubbers we get here in Noosa, these were taken middle of August, 6 weeks ago.



















Jeff.


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## sunshiner

Zed said:


> NOOsasunshiner said:
> 
> 
> 
> One interesting observation: there were thousands of pale blue jelly blubbers suspended in the water just off the groyne, out the back. Never seen that before, here.
> 
> 
> 
> OK interesting we've had a plague of salps this year too. Don't know what pale blue jelly blubbers are ha, but salps are jelly-y and pale blueish and foul up your lines when you troll and cast and I think ultimately affect line visibility. Meaning you don't catch fish in the salps. Curious what your pale blue jelly blubber where.
> 
> Anyway there's salps all over inside and outside the kelp, here including on the beaches. There's alarmists that say the changing pH is causing different algae/plankton/jelly cycles and these plagues will be more common. Currently the Mola mola population is thriving, anyway.
Click to expand...

Hi Zed

Interesting to have a fellow observer of ocean critters on the other side. Jelly blubbers are totally different from salps, which we occasionally see here, although I understand they are more a cool water organism. Here's the jelly blubber.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelly_Blubber

Jelly blubber swarms are common in our coastal waters but less so, in my experience, here in the open ocean. For example Moreton Bay, just a degree or so south of here, often has large quantities of these animals in its sheltered waters. I've also seen large quantities in the sheltered waters inside the Great Barrier Reef, 1000 miles north of here. In hundreds of launches at Middle Groyne I've never seen them before in the concentrations that were present yesterday. They were only in close to shore and were not evident at all at Jew Shoal, 2.5 miles out. Water is crystal clear and about 21-22 degrees Celsius.

Richmond's pics are very good. He also is a Noosa Yakker and is interested in all things marine so not surprising, really. Nice pics, Jeff.

I've never seen a sunfish (Mola mola) at all and suspect our water's too warm for them.

Kev


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## Zed

sunshiner said:


> Here's the jelly blubber.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelly_Blubber


Ha. I thought you made that name up.

Thanks Kev!


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## sunshiner

Just added a 55 sec video of the beach and surf bits.

Kev


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## carnster

We have plagues of the blue jellies as well, they have been around for a couple of weeks now. Unfortunately we do not have plagues of longtails, just heaps of cobes, at times anyway, unless your name is Ant, he can catch a cobe anytime on request.


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## actionsurf

Top stuff guys. Looked a nice day for a swim


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