# QLD: A ripper lipper plus whales -- Noosa 10Sep09



## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

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The offshore forecast being perfect, Jaro, Harry, Brian and I fronted again yesterday. It had been arranged that we'd meet at Main Beach to launch by 0600. I arrived at the carpark at 0530-ish to find Jaro and Brian already there. Jaro was dealing with his first launch of his new Viking Profish so needed extra time to get his act together. The rest of us were keen to see how the new yak went and Jaro was heavily engaged with making sure all the hatches were secure etc.

Harry arrived just as I was taking Jaro's pic.









_0553. Jaro and his new fish marauder, a Viking Profish. Brian launching in the background, into a small but easily manageable swell with intermittent small breakers right at the exit from the channel._

*VIDEO:* less than 30 secs -- emerging into Laguna Bay and demonstrating the Profish's ability to internally store rigged rods.





Given such good forecast conditions, Sunshine Reef, an hour's paddle away, was our intended destination and within a few minutes of the above still pic being taken all except Harry were out the back setting up. Harry followed soon after.

The beauty of an early morning launch on Laguna Bay never fails to stir the emotions but the rising sun at this time of the year and on this heading was a bit of a problem in that we were paddling straight into it and potentially getting burnt retinas as a result. Good sunglasses and a hat which can shade the eyes a little are essential when the sun is at so close to the horizon and directly ahead. But at least it was sunny, and the sea was calm, albeit with a decent swell running which brought whoops of delight from the boardriders at Tea Tree and Granite. As we paddled out we had eye-popping views along the tubing waves as they curled around the various headlands and provided that magnificent break for which Noosa is justifiably famous.

All of that was left behind us as we rounded Hells Gates and fanned out to our respective chosen marks in the open ocean. After a quick recce of a close mark I'd registered earlier but had not since revisited I decided to head out to where Jaro was drifting, hoping to get a pictorial record of the first fish into his new Profish. But things were quiet. When no fish had been caught by anyone in 30 minutes (we were all connected by VHF radio), Jaro announced that he was going to head for another favourite spot he knew and paddled off leaving me to my own amusements.

I was fishing in water in excess of 30m deep, and, because of a southerly current, our drift was to the SE despite a SE breeze blowing us toward the NW. Still fishless, I gradually got the notion that perhaps I'd be better off in shallower water, closer inshore. My earlier recce was of just such a spot so after I'd spent the best part of an hour unsuccessfully fishing this deep water I decided to head back to that spot, pinpointed with the invaluable combination of sonar and GPS, which I'd not previously fished. This was a 1.2km paddle away west, toward Alexandria Bay.

About 30 minutes later, having spent a bit of time enroute prospecting another shallow ground which was revealed by my sonar, I was there. It was 26-28m deep and clearly, judging from the sounder display, decent reef. There were also a few fish pings which encouraged me. Very soon after arriving at this spot I caught a grinner. Well, at least something was biting! Soon after, another touch but no hookup, again on the soft plastic, which on examination after retrieval showed evidence that it had been mouthed and dropped. I cast again leaving the jighead and its impaled soft plastic to their own devices until I judged that the rig was near the bottom and directly under the yak. Then I lifted the rod tip a couple of times to impart some "life" to my offering and then felt it gently but firmly taken. I struck and found myself connected to an apparent dead weight. There was no panicked rush but by the same token I could make no headway on the 6kg monofilament. It was a stalemate. Soon I got a couple of wraps back on the spool. This did the trick. My reel howled and the rod tip was submerged to the fifth runner as my fishy opponent went for the bottom, several times. After a dogged fight I gained the upper hand and eventually saw some colour down deep then eventually up popped, mouth wide open, the largest sweetlip I've ever caught.

*VIDEO:* just over 1 minute. The capture of sweetlip -- salt on the lens makes for some interesting effects













_And here's how the fish looked once he'd been secured, and I'd cleaned the salt off the camera lens._

Once the fish was stowed I radioed my companions to tell them. Brian (madcowes) responded that he'd also just caught a sweetlip, somewhat smaller, but Harry and later Jaro opted to join me as they were getting no significant action. A short time after they arrived I had another strike accompanied by a powerful horizontal run down deep, typical of a snapper. I knew I was in trouble when the run continued as the fish was in reefy country. Sure enough, the familiar slack-line feeling signalled the end of that tussle. Sometimes, they are unstoppable before the line grazes on reef or breaks due to drag pressure (water drag plus preset drag).

Then the whales arrived -- a mother and calf, with the mother showing her exuberance by breaching twice not far from Harry, who was a few hundred metres to the north of me. After some time apparently feeding her calf, while Harry looked on, very close, the two submerged and headed south, straight toward me, as Harry let me know by radio. I had the camera ready and had stowed some of my loose gear in case she surfaced so close that I was tossed out. Suddenly an enormous body surged partly above the surface no more than 50m away. She was passing me on the western (shore) side so I turned around as best I could, shooting video straight over the stern and was rewarded with three big slaps of the pectoral fin, as if in greeting as she passed this tiny, insignificant creature so close to her path.

As Brian later said, this was really cool. And it was even cooler when she decided to wallow in our vicinity, playing with her (~5 tonne) calf. Brian and I had a great view. Here are a couple of stills from that session during which I got a fair bit of movie.









_Me, filming the whales, by Brian_









_My pic of Brian and whales._

*VIDEO:* And less than 3min of edited video of this special encounter...





After that we decided to face the ~1 hour paddle home. It was an invigorating trip, initially downwind until we turned the corner at Hells Gates, to be met by a pod of dolphins which entertained us for a while as they cleared the water while playing their games.

Harry had left a little earlier but was waiting for us (Jaro, Brian and I) when we arrived to run the surf zone. All I'll say is that the youngest guy and the oldest guy took an involuntary dunking as they underestimated the trickiness of the small but persistent surf break. Jaro needed to roll his yak anyway, to test its water ingress situation, which it passed with flying colours.

*VIDEO:* short 1:15 clip of the chest cam view of returning to Middle Groyne, Main Beach, in the very small surf working there yesterday













Jaro, Brian and Harry and yaks (mine's in the middle) on the beach at Middle Groyne.









My biggest lipper yet: 57cm of beast from the deep (on tank well deck of my Espri) back on the beach

_Open ocean kayak fishing... how could you not get a kick out of it?_

Hope you enjoyed AKFFers. Tight lines...


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## wongus (Feb 12, 2006)

Wow.. fantastic report yet again. You are indeed blessed to fish such a magnificent part of the world.


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## shiznic (May 14, 2008)

Cheers for sharing that. What a great trip report.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

STOP IT...... ;-)


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Kevin , thanks mate that was great , your reports are much looked forward to now and what a great sweetlip , loved the whales , you must live right mate , you seem to have it all up there


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## action1974 (Sep 3, 2008)

Just in time to get me amped for tomorrow, please don't be windy, please dont be windy. Great report as usual


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## breamfish (May 19, 2009)

Sunshiner you do realise your just teasing us now 

Nar great report as usual and thats a nice sweetlip


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## Windshear (Aug 22, 2009)

Another great report, many thanks for sharing with us.
Andy


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## mustrumr (Feb 27, 2009)

Great trip report - an excellent balance of well-written journalism, top photos, and great videos - all trip reports should be this good! And the sweetlip is a bonus  . The whale video is pretty special too - BTW, what band/musician is that in the whale video? Lovely singer and such an appropriate feel for the subject of your video - the music is gentle but joyous. I'm presuming he's West African, or possibly from a bit further south, but I don't recognise the artist.

Cheers,


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## Swinger (Mar 29, 2009)

hi kev , good report and top pics . its been a week and missing the coast. no net yet so no email!


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## oldandbent (Feb 11, 2008)

Wow... Wowwww but mostly wowww. What a day..... Sensational 8) 8) 8)


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## LoboLoco (Feb 1, 2008)

fantastic report well done!


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## peteryak (Sep 3, 2008)

Great report, excellent footage and pic's, looked like a great day to be on the water.


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## platypus01 (Mar 25, 2008)

Seriously impressed. I'm green with envy! What a great trip. I think you can take that one straight to the pool room!

John


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## forbs (May 20, 2008)

If i was trying to explain to somebody why we love Kayaks and kayak fishing so much, I'd show them your post.

Thanks for the report.


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

Another ripper report! Thanks for taking the time to bring us all some big smiles.


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

mustrumr said:


> Great trip report - an excellent balance of well-written journalism, top photos, and great videos - all trip reports should be this good! And the sweetlip is a bonus  . The whale video is pretty special too - BTW, what band/musician is that in the whale video? Lovely singer and such an appropriate feel for the subject of your video - the music is gentle but joyous. I'm presuming he's West African, or possibly from a bit further south, but I don't recognise the artist. Cheers,


 G'day Alec

You're right, it is African. My daughter-in-law is South African, and a delightful young Afrikaaner lady she is, too. She passed me some African music a couple of years ago and that is one of the tracks. I don't know the artist's identity and just hope he isn't a keen yak fisho who's likely to haunt youtube and find his music being used in video by a peasant in eastern Australia. If it's really important to you I'll ask her...

Thanks for your comments


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

Swinger said:


> hi kev , good report and top pics . its been a week and missing the coast. no net yet so no email!


G'day Ryan

When you get an email facility, please PM the address to me so we can stay in touch. Are you in Brissy yet?


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## ywork (Dec 22, 2008)

Great report and well done on the lipper good one,Jaro new Pro fish 45 I have the same yak and was wondering in your one clip you show him takeing out his rod from the main hatch,can you tell me what modification did he do to be able to do that.

Thanks
WB


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

ywork said:



> Great report and well done on the lipper good one,Jaro new Pro fish 45 I have the same yak and was wondering in your one clip you show him takeing out his rod from the main hatch,can you tell me what modification did he do to be able to do that. Thanks WB


G'day WB. Glad you liked it, Thanks. The rod storage modification is achieved by installing a 4 inch hatch in the lower forward part of the compartment. We reckon it is also important that the well cover be watertight and almost impossible for surf action to dislodge as otherwise you could get water into the hull if (when!) the yak inverts. Jaro tested his a few days ago by rolling it on his first trip back in. No water got into the well. To keep your fishing gear dry it may also be necessary to plug the two scuppers in the well. If you need more info I suggest that you contact Alex at Viking Kayaks, who did the hatch install on Jaro's Profish. Hope this helps.

You may also wish to consult some of the Profish fitouts featured on the forum.


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## GMan (Sep 22, 2008)

Great pics of the whales. That must of been so good to be so close. Such majestic animals


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