# Qld: Tangling with tuna, Laguna Bay, 01Mar12



## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

The forecast wind was ideal for kayaks today but it seems the murky inshore water, caused by the recent downpour, deterred all but pedro and me. So we met in the carpark around 0500, and agreed that the launch would be doable, albeit with the small risk of a wet bum.

Shortly afterward we had our yaks on the beach, with the clear sky allowing sufficient light to see that our immediate adversary, the surf, was quite subdued today.









05:26. Pedro, dressed for the occasion.

The water did not look inviting. On most launch occasions it's clear but today it held a brown tinge and, especially near the groyne, large amounts of vegetable matter swirled in the current, making the water even murkier. We were not optimistic about finding fish but hopeful that out further better water conditions might be found. Little did we know that our hopes would be answered in spades.

Launch was easy. I followed paddling-pedro closely and we both held briefly in the hole at the end of the wall while allowing a couple of larger waves to pass under us. "Dry bums!", we yelled as we got out without taking a drop of water aboard.

Jew Shoal was our intended destination as we reasoned that it was more likely to be clear than the Halls reefs, given that the dirty water coming out of the river often travels straight up the coast. Shortly after 05:30 we were off, pedro pedalling and I paddling. Both of us trolled at least one lure; my choice was one only: my trusty Halco LP on my trusty trolling outfit.









05:47. Nice sea conditions, eh?

The lack of visible terns reinforced the feeling that perhaps this was going to be a fishless day, but we pressed on and in just over 30 minutes we were on the shoal. Still no birds. No wild life at all, really.

Individual plans came into action now, although they were influenced by a massive strike on a trolled lure for pedro as he swung over the pinnacles. Although the fish self released, at least we knew that there was something unseen down there. And even though the light levels were still low, we could tell that the water was clearer here than closer in.

I don't know what pedro's plans were but I opted to retrieve my Halco and switch to my 6kg casting outfit and SP in the hope of nailing a snapper. There were still no signs of pelagic predators, but sometimes they don't get active until an hour or so after sunrise, so there was hope yet. In the meantime I thought I'd just target the snapper, or anything, really.

Drogue deployed, I laid out my first cast. It plopped down about 25 metres away, down wind. As usual, I allowed the 1/8 ounce jighead to sink slowly, impeded only by drag from the braid. We were in about 20 metres depth, so this slow sink can take a while.

Snapper! I thought, as the jig was clobbered about 30 seconds after hitting the water. It did indeed feel like a snapper, at first, but the next move had me reappraising my assessment. The fish went straight to the south, at high speed, and down deep. I was only fishing 6kg so couldn't do much about it. The yak was being towed, but the fish was going much faster. Ten minutes into the fight I knew I was undergunned, I was just starting to get line back onto the depleted spool and the fish still had lots of fight.









06:35. I'd switched the camera to movie and started to record what was happening. (Frame from movie)

At last I was getting line back and I knew the fish was fairly close, as I saw a large swirl about 20m away as it came up to the surface briefly before charging off again. The drag on my 3500 Stradic was starting to judder under the strain after around 30 minutes and I wasn't surprised when the knot to the jighead failed shortly afterward. Reflecting on the event, I'm pretty sure I hooked a pretty big tuna, possibly a longtail, as I've done before while fishing for snapper with SPs.

Anyway, pedro delivered his commiserations by radio, together with a message that while I'd been dealing with my fish (or the other way around, perhaps), he'd bagged a nice snapper, taken on a trolled garfish.

It was now about 06:45, just over an hour since sunrise. A switch was thrown somewhere as suddenly there were several flocks of terns visible and white splashes underneath them. Pedro, by radio, drew my attention to action near him while I was tying a new jighead on. I looked around to find that I had two bustups within a couple of hundred metres of me! Off comes the jighead, on goes the slug! This process took a couple of minutes but I was soon ready, only to find that the bustups were now further away (situation normal!). Figuring that I may as well have an extra chance, I put out my trolling outfit while keeping my casting outfit close to hand and began paddling toward the nearest and bestest bustup. Note that there were no other boats around. I had this all to myself and pedro had similar bustups all to himself also, within a few hundred metres.









(frame from movie)

This was the one I chose. I managed to get close enough to fire off a cast, thinking "This'll be a sure thing!". I retrieved through the edge of the bustup, and was disappointed to see my lure emerge unscathed on my side of the bustup. Then I heard a low growl, just like that emitted by my trolling outfit's drag. Glancing over my right shoulder while still retrieving the cast slug, I could see the trolling rod take on a glorious bend, just before the trolling reel started to scream. Putting down my casting outfit, slug still 20 metres or so away, I grabbed the trolling rod and confirmed that there was something substantial on the end. What to do now? Knowing that to leave the casting outfit hanging in the water is to invite calamity, I shoved the trolling outfit back into its rod holder and picked up the casting outfit. By now the trolling rod had a spectacular bend and line was being grudgingly given by the reel, and worse, the yak had an alarming tilt to starboard, as that was the side the fish had chosen to run to. Leaning to port to counteract the yak's roll, I retrieved the slug successfully and stowed the casting outfit before once again picking up the trolling outfit to take the fight to the fish. Whew! All under control.

I was pretty sure I had a tuna on, and this time I was not undergunned, fishing with 10kg mono and a short rod with overhead reel. Lots of pulling power! The fight was vigorous but only five minutes or so, and soon I saw a yellowfin tuna with my lure in its mouth sweep past under the yak. The last time I'd seen a yellowfin on my line was several years ago, and the fish spat the lure right at the side of the yak. I played this one carefully, and turned on chest cam for some video.

It tired pretty quickly and before long I had the gaff in the tough skin above the head, and then dragged him aboard. My first yellowfin on the yak! Quite a few of us Noosa Yakkers have achieved this in the last few months.









07:15. Huge pectoral fin, view from starboard side









07:15. View from above

While dealing with this fish there were several bustups nearby; the churning of the water could be plainly heard, sometimes behind us. Knowing that pedro would soon hookup also, I paddled toward him in the hope of getting some more pics. Incidentally, he'd already plucked a striped tuna from one of these bustups and had stowed it as a Noosa Yakkers Record claim (we recently started a Record Fish blog and it has some vacancies at present) and as bait for the future.

Pedro didn't disappoint me. Just as I got to him he chucked a slug into a massive bustup and immediately hooked up. "This is only a littly," he said, then watched in surprise as line was stripped from his new reel in a powerful run. Having now decided that this fish wasn't so small, he played it out and soon had in his lap a second potential Noosa Yakkers Record fish.









07:55. Pedro fights his "littly"









08:01. That's a pretty big mac tuna, well worthy of the Record, and pretty hard to beat, I reckon.

Watching pedro in action I must comment that he has his act together for exploiting bustup situations. The Mirage drive is ideal for this sort of fishing; he can charge toward the fish with his casting rod in hand, firing off a cast while still pedalling vigorously. While taking the above pics there were bustups right nearby, so I thought "Maybe I can beat pedro's new record, and besides my casting outfit hasn't caught a fish today" (but it had been thoroughly worked over with the first cast fish). So I sauntered over to the next bustup and sent the slug on a serious mission. Pow, scream, gurgle (this last the sound made as water passes under the towed hull). Good fish...

Not quite as good as pedro's however, probably 10cm smaller, but my reel's drag system was almost smoking...









08:24. My mac tuna. Released, to swim away strongly after regurgitating much of its recent meals into my fishbox.

About now pedro reported that he also had boated and released another mac tuna. So there was plenty of action, as you can probably tell.

Pedro turned his back on the feeding frenzies to do a bit of drift fishing but I was keen to head back to the beach because I had commitments at home. Having got no action in the 15 minute drift fishing he opted to head back with me. And so we paddled/pedalled back together. The inbound surf transit was easy and when we pulled up on the beach we were met by Noosa Yakker beejay, in his office clothes, and also a wedding party, plus the usual several people curious about the boats and the fish.









Three species of tuna plus a nice snapper

No suitable fish holder volunteer could be found down on the beach but there was some potential among the bridal party (the bride refused!) which had decided that the road up from the beach and the washpoint were ideal places to gather and take photos.

One of the bridesmaids galloped over excitedly exclaiming that she "loves fishing". So she was press-ganged into holding the yellowfin.









bridesmaid, hungry

Pedro took a chunk of yellowfin, with my compliments, from the tail of the fish and immediately he, beejay, I and the bridesmaid tried slices raw, on the spot. They were delicious and hopefully we can get some great meals out of this fish.

Thanks for reading AKFFers. Tight lines.


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

Wow, a dressed up bridesmaid holding the fish, that's got to be some sort of record by itself!
Sounds like a good way to spend a morning.


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## paulsod (Dec 28, 2008)

Great story and photos as usual Kevin.
Hope the fish are at Brays on Saturday. It been a long time since my last fishing trip. (have to cancel my trip this weekend)
Cheers
Paul


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

Great times Kev and Pedro. I am surprised you guys aren't posting mackerel. We have the same bust ups and tuna along with mackerel so i would have thought the macks would be there also. Saw a 10kg long tail leap 3m clean out of the dirty water just outside the breakers this morn, but my rods were packed away, i had an 85cm spotty onboard and it was 6:30am; time to paddle in thru the tiny surf.


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

What a good session Kev, and that has to a first with one of your models eating raw fish on the spot after the picture taking.


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## ant (Aug 28, 2008)

Good story boys rewarded for the effort, got to love the yellowfin   Love your work Carnster
Cheers
Ant


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

Kevin, great report, they always are. Inspiring. OK I'm getting at it this weekend.


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## YakCult (Nov 4, 2008)

It's be hoped the wedding ceremony had finished before the bridesmaid became your model & started on the sushi, Kev!!  
Great day!!


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

Kev, you never cease to amaze or entertain.
Bridesmaid is a gamer! With zeal like that (not to mention bite radius ), she'll be a bride, soon.

I am so ready for warmer weather/water.


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## bushwoodboy (Oct 5, 2006)

Great fish, great report as usual Kev.
That bridesmaid's shot is a classic, your best yet.
Cheers Mal


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

'Stradic'? Kev, are you getting all upmarket on us. What happened to the lower end gear? Or is this how you get paid for your modern fishing articles?

Hope to get up there with you guys again soon and I'll show off my new ride ;-), I've got a couple of hectic weeks ahead and then I might just be able to swing a day off, which surprisingly enough should coincide with good weather and a Noosa Yakkers excursion..... :twisted:

Did you edit and youtube any of the vid footage? If so where can we find your stuff?

Kev....the bigger one


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## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

Top shelf stuff Kev. Sounds like an awesome day.


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWf9M278AAAzfgAAQQKEAEACIEAA37d+AIABUZptGU9TanoI0009CKfkSB6IBk9QKxQRRHGhhWsU7E/ZcUeZAYBJYKHW0V81CVyONvbSZSDdYvCDwTvH7G4CLIismRDcdYN19EdC7kinChIf6Zt34


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## kiltedyaksman (Jan 4, 2012)

Nice report  I was just up in Noosaville with the wife for some well-overdue time off from the kids. Took the yak out wednesday morning for some excercise, couldn't get out the river mouth though as by 0800 it was just too rough for me. Did get some practice catching & riding a few little waves though. The weather was ace on thursday, shoulda taken the yak again but we were too busy hiking and whatnot.


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

carnster said:


> Great times Kev and Pedro. I am surprised you guys aren't posting mackerel. We have the same bust ups and tuna along with mackerel so i would have thought the macks would be there also...


G'day carnster

The mackerel hadn't put in an appearance close inshore this year by Thursday, when I posted this TR, but I'm pleased to say that we now have evidence that they're here. Up until Friday our close-inshore bait schools had been hammered by one or all of four tuna species only. But one of our guys nailed a spotty mac yesterday (Saturday) and others of us had losing encounters with other fish, some of which were almost certainly Spaniards, or wahoo. Others were likely unstoppable tuna. We're now hoping that the winds will abate as we're looking at a forecast of a week of winds which are completely unsuitable for offshore fishing in small craft.

Kev


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

BIGKEV said:


> 'Stradic'? Kev, are you getting all upmarket on us. What happened to the lower end gear? Or is this how you get paid for your modern fishing articles?


Well, they reckon "You can't take it with you" so I reckoned I'd treat myself to a more expensive reel and had been really enjoying it until the drag started to judder. But it has had a workout over the last few months and I reckon it's only a flatspot on a drag washer. As for Modern Fishing, nah, they paid me money, and besides I've switched away from them to Fishing World because MF's new owners wanted to take liberties which I considered unacceptable.



BIGKEV said:


> Hope to get up there with you guys again soon and I'll show off my new ride ;-), I've got a couple of hectic weeks ahead and then I might just be able to swing a day off, which surprisingly enough should coincide with good weather and a Noosa Yakkers excursion..... :twisted:
> 
> Kev....the bigger one


Yes, I noted your new ride. As you're aware, we've had a challenging wet season/summer again. Things are on the up, though. Hope you can paddle with us again soon, and we can provide suitable red-coloured adornment for your new ride.



BIGKEV said:


> Did you edit and youtube any of the vid footage? If so where can we find your stuff?
> Kev....the bigger one


Honestly, I haven't even had a chance to look at the footage yet. If it's worthwhile I'll post a tube video in the next week or so.

Regards

small Kev


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

kiltedyaksman said:


> Nice report  I was just up in Noosaville ... Took the yak out wednesday morning for some excercise, couldn't get out the river mouth though as by 0800 it was just too rough for me. Did get some practice catching & riding a few little waves though. The weather was ace on thursday, shoulda taken the yak again but we were too busy hiking and whatnot.


G'day kilty

I'd strongly recommend you avoid the river mouth particularly as there are better alternatives nearby. The river mouth has power boats and jet skis coming through and they could easily run you down. The currents there are also very strong. Check our blog for map of our favoured launch point for offshore fishing, Middle Groyne, on Main Beach.

Kev


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

sunshiner said:


> carnster said:
> 
> 
> > Great times Kev and Pedro. I am surprised you guys aren't posting mackerel. We have the same bust ups and tuna along with mackerel so i would have thought the macks would be there also...
> ...


Good luck with the razor gang guys.


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## Drewboy (Mar 18, 2008)

Kev, you never cease to impress.
Great fishing and a great post.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

Good to see you guys are still having fun up there! Great session


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