# Qld Scarby 22Mar13 My five encounters…



## Beekeeper (Aug 20, 2011)

I hit the water just after Daniel&#8230; or you could say the water hit me! You would think by that, the sea was rough, but quite the opposite&#8230; the sea was quite flat with tiny waves to the shore.

When I enter the SIK, my right leg goes in, then my bum, and I leave the left leg sticking out to drain excess water before slipping it inside the yak&#8230; bad mistake this time&#8230;

This tiny little wavelet snuck in and redirected itself inside the Acadia, all over my lower half, then deposited itself all over the seat&#8230; in other words, I was sitting in it!

SHEEEEIIITTTT!!!

Great way to begin the day! Normal for those using SOT's, but I mostly stay dry. Oh well&#8230; It certainly woke me up!! :lol:

This could be termed my first encounter of the day with not-so-good happenings.

I head out to yarn with Daniel (Bruus), chat for a while, then off to meet up with some snapper.

My next encounter came when passing Flag Reef&#8230; a fellow who poses as a recreational fisherman was sitting near Flag with a rod sticking out of the tinnie&#8230; nearby, almost unseen, was his net. To most casual passers-by, he was just another fisho, but all the time, his net was filling, and later he'd rip in the lot and bugger off.

I reckon that one day I should cast a lure inside his net to see what he'd do! :twisted:

With a bad taste in my mouth I trolled away, and eventuated at a spot from which I frequently fish. I'd noticed a few tinnies nowhere near where I wanted to fish, so was quite happy knowing I'd have the place to myself for a drift.

I'd only just retrieved my trolling lure, cast out the over-head soft-plastic, when encounter three arrived&#8230; I heard an approaching tinnie&#8230; looked around, and this fellow stopped his tinnie within casting distance of me and began fishing. :shock: Minutes ago, this place was devoid of fishos of all types!

I thought about that, and came to the conclusion that if I stayed there, I would slowly burn and have several words with the bludger, and decided that, instead, I would head off to another productive spot miles away.

I told him as I went that I thought he was a bad man (not exactly what I said) and shot through to other places, burning as I went.

As I trolled, I noticed all the crab-pots&#8230; they were everywhere! The penny should have dropped, but sometimes I'm a slow learner. I reached the desired spot, chucked out the lines, and then the area turned into tinnie paradise! Guess you could call this encounter four! 

The pro-crabbers turned up and I seemed to be right in amongst them. Roaring up to their pots, pulling them in, banging them to re-locate the crabs, rebaiting and chucking the pots back in&#8230; repeat for every other pot around, and if you think that kayak fishing is quiet and sneaky, then I guess I wasn't in the right area, eh?

As I drifted Northwards, I seemed to keep time with one of them, and I reckon I was lucky to get the one bite that I did receive, but couldn't turn into a hook-up.

Finally I drifted out of their reach, and back into the area I'd vacated before, noticing that my friend in the tinnie had vacated also. So&#8230; I paddled over to my spot, and not long after, got the first hit of the day&#8230;

I noticed the over-head outfit give a couple of little nudges, so I reached over, picked up the line (braid) and gave it a couple of rips&#8230; Zap! Off tore the line, ripping my finger as it went! I quickly dropped it, and grabbed the rod while line screamed off, noticing immediately that blood was dripping all over the place!

I gave a couple of jerks to ensure hook-up, but that didn't work!

Nothing!!! 

I wound in and inspected the lure&#8230; all OK&#8230; you wouldn't think it had ever been touched!

My guess is that a big jewie hit it, was holding it in his mouth, and when I belted it, the hooks just came out! I've even added a stinger hook to these lures, thinking that the second hook would do the trick if the fish strike below the first hook.

That didn't work either, apparently!

Next move is to stop the blood, inspect the wound, and do some first-aid tricks. The blood stopped very quickly after I pressed the cut onto a heavy-duty sponge that was handy (bought it on the weekend at the tinnie and tackle show) and then I could see that it was fairly deep but manageable.

Out with the first-aid kit, taped it up (didn't apply disinfectant as it would only open up again and bleed) and got on with the job at hand&#8230; fishing.

All was quiet for some time, and that was when I came across Daniel again&#8230; he informed me he'd had a bottler of a day&#8230; caught something that, when he described it, sounded like a Moses Perch, four snapper one of which he kept, and also a grunter.

I chided him on keeping the snapper, and releasing the grunter which is far superior to eat compared to snapper, but he was happy with what he kept, and would have it for tea that night.

Around then we went our own ways again, and the next time I saw him he was heading home. I told him that now he was gone, I could start fishing&#8230; bullshit of course, and we both knew it.

He had hardly gone out of sight when the over-head outfit blasted off, just after I'd cast the thread-line outfit&#8230; luckily, the fish took me in the opposite direction to the second line, so that was OK.

Not OK was the fact that this fish took me straight down to some underwater structure, and I could feel the leader rasping against it&#8230; I'd lost fish recently by pulling too hard when in amongst curly stuff, so I eased up on the strain&#8230; just then the other rod gave a lunge, and I'm into another fish!

I could feel straight away that it was not the equal to the first fish, and hauled it in pretty quickly, just letting the other rod do its thing hooked under the bungy-cord. That was a snapper, and with it lying on the spray-skirt, I went about sorting out the first fish.

Still hooked-up, so I gave it a reasonably firm lift, and damn me, it came free! Up to the surface it came, and lovely snapper! Out with the net, and into it went the fish&#8230;

There I was&#8230; haven't caught a fish all day, and when I do, it's double hook-up! I had some sorting out to do then&#8230; everything seemed to be in the way&#8230; I don't really have lots of room on the spray-skirt&#8230; add two snapper to that, toss in a landing net and a couple of lip-grips, and it gets rather untidy to say the least.

First things first&#8230; photo of the two&#8230; lip-grips on the little one, out with the hook, measure, (42cm) slip back into the briny.

Next, lip grips on the big one&#8230; get rid of the net&#8230; (that sounds simple, but part of the net was lodged in the fish's mouth, and if you don't want crushed fingers, when getting the net out, you've got to be mighty careful where you put said fingers. This done, and lip-grips in place, net back in position, time to measure&#8230; (62cm) photo, then slip back into water after "will I or won't I" moments.

Nice fish!

Then I had a complete re-rig to do... the leader was shredded... bits off it everywhere... even the main-line looked a bit tatty!

There's my case for using 30lb leader... 20lb would have lost the fish!

That, of course took some time to do, and I was then fearfully close to reefs, (had kept an eye on the danger during all this) and had to get out of there, and of course do a drift through the same spot where the fish were "on!"

Oh yeah? In the mean-time, a tinnie with two fishos in it had just anchored right where I'd caught those two fish! What is it with these blokes&#8230; can't they find their own spots to fish? I finally get onto today's hot-spot and some bugger rips in and takes over! I guess you could call this&#8230; Encounter number five!

Instead of trying to muscle back in, I head back to where I ripped my finger, (found out when handling the last two fish, that I had another cut on the index finger as well), and cast out the two lines again.

Wham! The over-head's off again! This time, not as big as my first hit here, the hook holds, and after quite a tussle, (which seemed to be mostly under the kayak, rod out the star-board side, fish on the port-side) up comes a Grunter!!! Measured it on the truth scale... 58cm.

Love them Grunter!

AND Daniel&#8230; this is what you do with Grunter!

You don't put them back&#8230; you slip them in an ice-slurry, and take them home&#8230; they eat much better than any snapper, any day! ;-)

I fished on for an hour, and when the two that muscled in on me took off, I moseyed down to give it another go there, but all was quiet there now, so I ambled off home, catching a couple of yellow-tail pike on the way&#8230; quietly happy with my day&#8230; although I'd had five encounters that threatened my opportunities to call it a happy day.

I've added piccies of the stinger-hook rig, plus the mess made of one snap-back, and after the re-glue job.

Cheers all&#8230; Jimbo


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

I'm glad there was some compensation to be had by way of excellent fish on the skirt Jimbo, otherwise that'd be a day I'd want to forget. That bastard with the net makes me angriest though.


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## submdi (Feb 1, 2013)

Nice report and nice from fish.


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## bruus (Aug 27, 2010)

Nice work Jim. If only the water police turned up earlier to catch the netter. I paddled past them on my way in. I had a good feeling you would get onto a few fish. They were definately around. That grunter looks very close to the size I got. When I first saw it I didn't think it was very big but after looking at the length it was a good fish. I was decieved by the lower profile shape. I bet you were stoked to get onto one after hearing I got one.


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Nice to read you got a result after losing a bit of claret Jim.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Jimbo's back in form! But no turtles?? :lol:


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## Beekeeper (Aug 20, 2011)

Wrassemagnet said:


> That bastard with the net makes me angriest though.


Trouble is, Jim... the bugger's legal! But it certainly gets up the nose, legal or not!


salticrak said:


> Good onya Jim, mate what about those monster gar, you git any? I would imagine keeping dry at your advanced age must be a challenge especially in a clean skin.


Still havin' a crak salty, eh? Gar wif teef? not the ones I get! I might be old and lost some of my smarts, but I can still lift heavy fings! Keeping dry shouldn't be a problem with the last name Rainey, should it? Clean-skin? I doubt that!


submdi said:


> Nice report and nice from fish.


Thanks submdi... they are around, just gotta catch 'em!


bruus said:


> Nice work Jim. If only the water police turned up earlier to catch the netter. I bet you were stoked to get onto one after hearing I got one.


As I told Jim (above) trouble is he was legal, only just, tho'... fifty metres to the North and he was fair game! and yes, I was stoked!


Dodge said:


> Nice to read you got a result after losing a bit of claret Jim.


Yes Richo, it seems a long time since I achieved a result, so losing a touch of claret seems insignificant, eh?


kayakone said:


> Jimbo's back in form! But no turtles?? :lol:


Yes Trev, comin' good again and happy about none of the flippy things (but don't tell anyone, I hooked one on Wednesday). ;-) 
Cheers all
Jimbo


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

A mate of mine gave me a call this morning to tell me of a successful trip in the scarby area, he filled his bag today with quality fish between 55cm & 77cm. He also noted that a yakker in a green kayak gave him a serve when he fished a mark that he has been fishing for years. We call this one Beaties spot after the guy that put us onto it. He said he knew the yakker was there but about 50 odd metres off the exact mark but wasn't drifting towards it so he thought he'd sneak a quick drift in. Sounds like he cut in on you Jimbo? Nothing out there is a secret anymore mate, I head straight to a couple of my 'secret' spots when I get the chance to get out and often find randoms right on top of them, and have been told by K1 that you fish one of them too. Just for the record, because I fish out here in both yak and boat, the yakkers are just as bad at trying to sneak in on spots as the boaties are. They will zigzag from boat to boat trolling as they go or set a drift toward a boat mostly because many of them have no idea or spots of their own either.

My mate has been fishing scarby with plastics well before it came into vogue and his list of captures is amazing in both quantity and quality. He would have racked up 20 years out there easily and has a comprehensive list of marks that he switches between very regularly constantly searching for fish with only a drift or two at each spot, he's always on the move. If it was my mate that caused one of you're encounters, and I'm pretty sure it was, I'll apologise on his behalf as he honestly thought you were not fishing the spot he wanted to get to, and chances are if you're using landmarks that you could easily have been 50m off as he said when I spoke with him on Friday.

Kev


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## Beekeeper (Aug 20, 2011)

Yeah Kev, I guess it was him...

If you remember the day you were out there, I noticed that you were drifting a line very close to where I wanted to drift, but I kept away from you... I don't like to crowd people, so give them plenty of berth... even though I wanted to fish where you were!

When your mate rocked up, I could have hit him with a cast, and I reckon that's crowding!

I usually gauge the wind, hopefully guess the correct current line, and again hopefully drift over the desired spot. Sometimes with the crazy currents just there, I miss the spot altogether.

I wasn't yet over the spot, just lining it up, had one line in and about to cast the other, when he rolled in and readied up to fish.

There was nobody within cooee when I lined up my marks, and I wrongly assumed that again somebody was (as it often happens) sweating on me. I accept your apology on his behalf, and thanks for telling me.

I realise that lots of fishos know that spot... at one stage, for several trips, I couldn't get near the place... one bloke in particular used to anchor there regularly, so I'd paddle close enough to see that indeed the spot was taken, and bugger off to other spots known to me.

When there are lots of tinnies out there, I don't even go out for a look... just head off for less crowded areas... and there are plenty of them, eh?

I find my spots by noting where I catch fish... if it becomes regular at one place, that becomes a "spot" for me.

Cheers Kev...

Jimbo


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## Thegaff (Apr 19, 2011)

I was out there yesterday till about 10:30 and I noticed two arguments between boaties, one was with a guy that had his daughter on board and had a crabber fly in right next to him to gather up his pot. The guy who i had herd not ten mins before hand call her a stupid [email protected]%t told the crabber to slow down because his little girl was on board in wich the crabber replied with rather colourfull words and i watched anouther guy anchor up not 15 m away from anouther tinnie and of course words were exchanged.

I have nothing to report fish wise I was bitten off twice and I cought a ton of weed.

Was planning on trying to find a few "new" spots to fish rather that up around the same as every one else but my sounder decided it didnt want to work so i couldnt do that.

Is there much about out wider? say distance wise past the blinker thats there?


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## Beekeeper (Aug 20, 2011)

Thegaff said:


> Was planning on trying to find a few "new" spots to fish rather that up around the same as every one else but my sounder decided it didnt want to work so i couldnt do that.


Thegaff... you can catch fish in close to the beach, way out wide, even out wide of the green zone at Woody Point... all the way down past the blinker at scarby.

I very seldom ever use a sounder... and it doesn't stop me from catching fish. When you catch fish, remember the location for going over again... if it produces again, it could become a favourite spot.

Don't let a failed sounder deter you from having a go.

Cheers Jimbo


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