# Qld. Signs of pelagics. Noosa 12Dec13



## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

Although pedro had announced by email on Wednesday night his intention to pedal today, I didn't make up my mind to go until Thursday morning, although I was all prepped the night before. Glad I went.

With rain threatening, the Middle Groyne car park was understandably near empty. As pedro, the only other parker, had got there first he had my (and his) favourite spot. No problem, the backup was available.









Actually, you can't see pedro, but he's not very far away, out of shot to the left.

Easy launch, turn on new fish finder (more later), works, bewdy! Start paddling after pedro who doesn't know I'm here and hasn't turned his radio on. He's heading for Little Halls Reef and as he goes he keeps catching sharks (so he tells me later) which slows him down so I eventually get close enough to yell out to him in the dead calm and quiet conditions. Radio contact established, we push on together toward Little Halls Reef encountering a brief mac tuna bust up or two along the way.

Pedro thought he'd have a go at picking up a few live baits at Little Halls Reef but I change course for Jew Shoal, snapper on my mind. No action all the way there (trolling HLP) except for one of those largish yellow coloured sharks which we sometimes encounter lounging near the surface. Oh, and a couple of dolphins. No flying fish, though, which is strange as there were plenty last Saturday.

I went straight for the Pinnacles, noting a few patches of bait once I was over the shoal. Once in the shallows, however, there were lots of shows on the sounder.









As you can see, there's something down there.

On one of my oldest T shirts is printed: "The secret to fishing: fish where the fish are" so I generally try to do that. In this case I was pretty sure there should be some predators around so manoeuvered into a drift to fish the general area which had been the source of the image above. Almost no wind, however, but I chose a spot to start, retrieved my HLP and changed rigs on my snapper stick (which doubles as and was rigged as a slug caster) to bring it back into action as my SP stick. In shallow water such as this I always use only the one rod as snagging is a definite hazard. I cast the SP (1/8oz, 100mm Squidgee, 6kg braid) out as far as I can and slow count it down, working on a descent rate of about 1m per long second. So 12m depth, slow count to 12 before interrupting the fall, then gradually hopping the lure back to the yak. First cast; the lure has progressed so it's hanging almost vertical from the rod tip. I give it another jiggle and the strike almost takes my breath away. Snapper can hit like a punch from nowhere and this one follows the initial strike with a screaming deep-down run. At this stage if your drag is set too heavily you'll likely get busted. Mine is set a little lightly but enough to provide some pressure on the fish. This was a typical snapper strike and I was loving the feel of it. A few runs and then I was steadily getting line back on the spool. The water was very clear, although the leaden sky was reducing the amount of light available. Don't you just love that first sight of a beaten snapper as it comes to the yak? I've had a sparse year on the snapper this year and this was clearly my biggest for 2013 so far. Not huge, but bloody nice.

One quick gaff shot and she was in the hatch accompanied by my !YeeHah! which pedro probably heard 2km away, on his way to Jew Shoal. It was deathly quiet out there, with only the distant roar of the surf as deep background.


















The hook was securely lodged in the corner of the jaw. Took quite a while to get it out.

Now I could relax; the pressure was off. It'd be nice to head home with a decent fish for a change.

Pedro, aware of my catch, was by now coming on to the edge of the shoal to the SW, and soon deployed a floating bait which went off pretty quickly, but the fish spat the hook. He and I had the place to ourselves and every now and again there was a brief flurry of terns and fish somewhere within view. I stuck with my drift fishing with SPs and noticed that there was a pretty strong current pushing from NW to SE. Perhaps this strong current was the leading edge of the new water coming from up north and the fish were arriving on the front of it. In any case, things were looking up, especially when pedro reported that a sizable Spaniard had launched itself, missile-like, as they do, three metres into the air nearby. Smaller tuna could be seen from time to time busting up at all points of the compass.

Things were really looking up a little later. I had repositioned myself back at the Pinnacles, ready to do one more drift. Having trolled back to this position, I started to retrieve the HLP in order to get it out of the way while drift fishing. Part way through the retrieve it was slammed. Didn't feel like a snapper; perhaps a jewie (the water was quite shallow)? Then deep down I could see the unmistakeable stripes; a Spaniard, not big but probably a keeper.

My gaff is 75cm long so is an aid to judging the length of fish while they're still in the water. I could see that this fish was over 75cm so very soon he was in the hatch. My first Spaniard of the season and the smallest keeper I have ever boated!









The vertical bars became less distinct very soon after boating the fish, but came back later.

By now pedro was really fired up and then panno arrived in his stinky, pointing to the horizon to the NW. I just pointed to my hatch with a thumbs-up. Where panno was pointing a large flock of terns was wheeling around with lots of splashing underneath them. This was a fair way from where pedro and I were fishing and after a while the action dissipated, as it often does. Then, very quickly, large splashes appeared around pedro and I could see him firing off casts at the fish which were large and clearly visible and confirmed by pedro to be longtails. He hooked up twice but again the hooks pulled.

It was raining gently by now with just a very light breeze. With two fish in the hatch I decided to head in, leaving pedro behind, determined to not go in "until I catch a fish". Unusually for him he failed, as he told me subsequently.

Some pics on the beach (no fish holders, due to rain and no sun).


















79 and 59. Very pleased!

Thanks for reading AKFFers. Tight lines.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Disqualified Kev, due to no bikini clad models. :lol:

Good signs.......



CAV said:


> well done kev,
> they are definitely here too, I got 2 this morning, one about the same size as yours and a throwback.


Good signs too Chris.


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## fisherjayse (Jan 30, 2013)

Nice mornings work there


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

Fun times Kev, congrats. Yeah the baby flying fish were certainly everywhere last week, maybe that's why the slimeys were the go. Back in the day when i used to troll lures for mackeral, i actually used the wind in as a technique and that was when i got the most fish, especially when the retrieve was eratic. I found myself winding in often hoping for a strike. The water was dirty and a cold 19 deg at palmy this morn-crazy. But i think the bomb will go off very very soon.


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## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

Top shelf Kev. I thought you had been quiet of late. You captured the essence of a snapper hit to a T. It does sound like you found a lick of warm water from the north. So many species. Living vicariously through others exploits at the moment. It was the hit I needed. Thanks for the report.


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## Marty75 (Oct 23, 2007)

Great report there Kev and you got a tasty feed!

Your sounder display is very clear. Is that an internal or externally mounted transducer setup?

Marty


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

Lazybugger said:


> carnster said:
> 
> 
> > Fun times Kev, congrats. Yeah the baby flying fish were certainly everywhere last week, maybe that's why the slimeys were the go. Back in the day when i used to troll lures for mackeral, i actually used the wind in as a technique and that was when i got the most fish, especially when the retrieve was eratic. I found myself winding in often hoping for a strike. The water was dirty and a cold 19 deg at palmy this morn-crazy. But i think the bomb will go off very very soon.
> ...


24 deg versus 19 deg i know which way i would be going. Good luck u have a good chance at raper imho.


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## kayakone (Dec 7, 2010)

Rumours of more and bigger. Suffer Palmy Army. :lol:


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

Marty75 said:


> Great report there Kev and you got a tasty feed! Your sounder display is very clear. Is that an internal or externally mounted transducer setup? Marty


Hi Marty

I apologize for being a little late in responding but fishing takes priority.

The transducer is mounted internally and fires and listens through a water-filled rubber balloon which is a wrap-around cushion for the transducer and is in direct contact with the fibreglass hull. The transducer is set up in the port side flotation chamber of the Stealth, accessed from the storage space via a hatch with a screw down lid. This arrangement has worked successfully for me for several years and several sounders.

Kev


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## Marty75 (Oct 23, 2007)

Thanks for that Kev. I saw your install thread a while back, just surprised how clear the image is. Do you think the Elite 4 is a better unit than your older x67c as far as screen image goes? I have a feeling the transducer is the same. Also how accurate do you think the temperature readings are?

I'll be picking up a Stealth shortly and want to do the internal install as well.

Thanks again

Marty


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## jbonez (Jul 9, 2013)

Great read Kev.

I think everyone's excited for the weeks to come.


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

mmmm Noosa is the place to be !


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

Marty75 said:


> Thanks for that Kev. I saw your install thread a while back, just surprised how clear the image is. Do you think the Elite 4 is a better unit than your older x67c as far as screen image goes? I have a feeling the transducer is the same. Also how accurate do you think the temperature readings are?
> 
> I'll be picking up a Stealth shortly and want to do the internal install as well.
> 
> ...


Probably the Elite 4 is better overall due to gradually improving technology and is certainly good value at $149 on special at BCF until 24Dec13. The transducer and cabling are the same as all of those budget Lowrance and Eagle units. As for the temperature readings, my first impressions are that they seem pretty good, based on comparison with the data being fed from the automatic station in the ocean off Mooloolaba. Mind you, as kayakers we are probably largely stuck with the temperatures we find and do not have the luxury of charging all over the ocean to find temperatures which we presume more suitable for our fishing needs. However, knowledge of the effects of water temperature on fishing results will certainly be useful. I'm uncertain yet as to whether the internal mount can accurately detect water temperature, but my unit certainly shows small local changes which may reflect actual water temp changes.

Dennis would probably cut a hole and make it into a hatch for you for transducer install but you can probably also do it yourself, as I did once.

Kev


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

sunshiner said:


> Marty75 said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks for that Kev. I saw your install thread a while back, just surprised how clear the image is. Do you think the Elite 4 is a better unit than your older x67c as far as screen image goes? I have a feeling the transducer is the same. Also how accurate do you think the temperature readings are?
> ...


Rodpac has the internal mount on his elite 4 and his temp reading is accurate.


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

Here we are, three days later and we have the water temp data over that period. On 12Dec we were fishing probably 30-40 km north of the floating temperature sensor, and we noticed a solid N-S current at about the same time as the first Spaniard was caught and longtails were seen blasting out. The next day CAV gets two small Spaniards at Coolum and on the 14th jaro and I get one each at Noosa. Exactly one week earlier (07Dec), at Noosa, only one small Spaniard was weighed in despite the best efforts of an armada of Stealth fishos who were specifically targetting them!

I have several photos from my sonar display on the two days I was out. The photos clearly show temperatures as per my sonar sensor rising steadily on both days, with all of the temps from day two (14Dec) being higher by at least 0.5°C than those from 12Dec.

I'm thinking I'll save daily an image of the Mooloolaba temp chart for the next couple of weeks.


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

21 deg at palmy this morn and the snaps were on big time on our mack rigs. I brought 3 home in the mid 40's along with a 70cm kingy and Ant scored a few as well. 8km out it nudged 22 deg and a boat went 20km offshore to find the warm water but no fish. Warm water to the north and to the south but not here, frustrating for the mack fever tick tick tick....


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

hay kev,

beautiful as always.
just a question/challenge.

have you caught a wahoo up there at noosa. i ask because my mate catches a few and he has to get the boat going at a much faster trolling speed then for the macks. just interested. i have read most of your reports and i may have missed one with you catching one.

cheers pete


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

grinner said:


> hay kev,
> 
> beautiful as always.
> just a question/challenge.
> ...


Hi Pete

Wahoo? If only! In the time I've been yak fishing I can't recall any wahoo being taken in this area from a kayak. My feeling is that it will happen eventually as wahoo and dolphin fish are relatively common among power boat catches further out and all it takes, I think, is that tongue of warm blue water to come a little closer to shore. Our Noosa Yakkers Record list (http://nyrecordfish.blogspot.com.au) contains a veritable species list of local captures in the last two years only. You may find it interesting.

I'll let you know, and everyone else too, if I get a wahoo from my yak here.

Kev


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