# Qld. Spotty mac mayhem, Noosa style. 25Jan14



## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

After the build-up of fishing tension over the last couple of days 17 Noosa Yakkers turned up at Middle Groyne this morning to get their mackerel fix. Also we had well known AKFF member paulo (first fishing trip after recuperation) and wife Lynette with friend Steve.

WooHoo! What a morning! Launch wasn't too challenging but the young bucks politely(?) stepped aside and let the two oldest yakkers, jaro and I, show them how to do it in the dark while facing occasional biggies which loomed up out of the blackness.

The whole fleet, I think, headed for Jew Shoal, led by Jaro, stormin and I. About 1000m short of Jew Shoal I found John, a local loner from Kin Kin, playing a fish. Turned out to be a spotty mac. Caught on a trolled HB.









I've invited John to join Noosa Yakkers, but he seems content to fish alone. He's been fishing out there from time to time for years. Launches from Coward's Corner, I think.

Nothing much was happening at Jew Shoal at first, no bustups, a few terns flapping around. A couple of stinkies were there before us and seemed to be just trolling, as were we. Perfect conditions. And then the radio traffic started to tell a tale of fish being sighted and hooked (by Noosa Yakkers or others). Kayaks arriving from Middle Groyne soon outnumbered the few stinkies that were present.

Soren's Spaniard seemed to be the bell ringer.









Taken on a HLP, the fourth Spaniard on the same lure

Shortly after this, the first bustups became visible nearby and the yaks and a couple of stinkies started to jockey for position; the air was full of slugs, whoops and the sound of singing drag clickers. The fish were not at all shy of our yaks.

There were two separate locations where all of this happened, simultaneously, a few hundred metres apart. I was in the group near the Pinnacles, while others were in a group to the SW of mine.









Here I had not even paddled into the bustup; it had happened around me.

Anyway, for at least the next hour the fish were very cooperative. They had the bait schools balled up on the shoal and all we had to do was hang around, maybe paddle 50m or so to bring the latest bustup within range. Bent rods everywhere, cries of triumph and frustration filled the air. Many slugs lost to bite-offs and at least one gaff lost, but the fish was bagged. Mayhem it was. Spotty mac mayhem.









Scater with his first spotty mac from a yak









Pauley and his first









Redwood and his first









Hanging around waiting for the next bustup









My first, for the morning.









This was probably jaro's bag limit fish









Gemini hooked up, again









Anchovy, coughed up by spotty mac









New Noosa Yakkers record spotty mac? Redwood hopes so.









Planting the gaff, Redwood again

Beach pics














































Everyone hooked fish and everyone brought fish home. Many bagged out (limit, five), including clappo who bagged out on Spaniards (limit, three) and aussie-stu who was on his very first trip with us and on his first surf launch. There should be some video available soon as a few yakkers were shooting video out there.

A signature Noosa Yakkers day.

Thanks for reading, AKFFers. Tight lines.


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

What a great day on the water, days like that are few and far between.
Congrats to everyone and as always a great report Kev.


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## scater (Nov 24, 2007)

That was one of the better days of yak fishing I've ever had and not a bad way to end the school holidays! I bagged out pretty early and just floated around after that, watching and filming. I'll try to get stuck into the editing tonight so I can give people an idea of just how special it was out there.


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

That's what you are all talken about!


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## captaincoochin (Nov 11, 2012)

Nice work guys!


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## ben123 (Jan 24, 2012)

Wow that's pretty good not one person going home fish less. Well done all!


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

Awesome Kev, it's been a while since you guys experienced action like that in the bay. Hopefully it won't take as long to repeat next time around.


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## ant (Aug 28, 2008)

Great story and a great day by all well done   
Cheers
Ant


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## Bigdyl (Feb 13, 2012)

Looks like a great day, fun times


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## scater (Nov 24, 2007)

Here we go:


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## mrwalker (Feb 23, 2009)

A day to remember, and one of those days that make the rest of us insanely jealous. Thanks for the report, 
Cheers, Dave.


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## wayneedden (May 19, 2012)

Wow awesome stuff, love to have a paddle out noosa one day, bit of a drive from scarby though,
Well done guys, always enjoy reading your reports.
Wayne


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## geminiwraith (Nov 26, 2010)

Another vid from today...


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## Sprocket (Nov 19, 2008)

Great day guys, How'd you go Paulo ?


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## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

Off the bench, back in the game and on the board!
When a four week hiatus turned into 11 weeks on the bench, my fishing was restricted to the internet. Out of the game for so long, I purposely kept things simple yesterday, taking only two rods and a half dozen different dead bait rigs plus a few lures and some wire.

No slugs on board we put the half dozen jigheads and plastics we did take to good use. Clipped on to the end of the wire trolling trace, the rig I used wouldnt have got a look in at Fraser but it got smashed every cast yesterday. Unfortunately there was little sport involved owing to the heavy trolling sticks and 30lb braid. Bagged out by 7:30 I wondered how much fun it would have been if I had taken two casting sticks and a variety of surface lures to throw. 
This is how it was for about two hours and still going when we headed in around 8:30.









I finished the day with eight, managing to release three smaller ones by tail grabbing them. Steve got four and Lynette holstered the rod after one (the biggest of the day of course :roll: :twisted: ) and took photos. The water was silver at the centre of some of the boils and metre long mackerel were flying six feet in the air. When I lost Lynette in the mayhem, without any plastics on board, she fashioned a dead bait trolling skirt over a jighead into a casting lure, cast and got a hookup. The fish got off but how's that for MacGyver?

What a friendly bunch the Noosa Yakkers are, chatty too.  With all the excitement I only got to meet a few on the beach and in the car park. Everyone had a smile on their face. Thanks for a top day out everyone. What a way to come off the bench.








On the way home we traded two fish for six kgs of honey, fresh from a friends hives in Maleny.

Diamond Day indeed!!


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## paulsod (Dec 28, 2008)

Well done to the Sunshiners, top effort and great rewards.
Cheers
Paul


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## scoman (Oct 4, 2010)

This is all very well and good fellas, but now we are confronted with a week or more of high winds and big seas. It's going to be hard to wait till the weather clears!!


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## scater (Nov 24, 2007)

scoman said:


> This is all very well and good fellas, but now we are confronted with a week or more of high winds and big seas. It's going to be hard to wait till the weather clears!!


I think that's one of the reasons so many of us were there yesterday. When are you coming up for a paddle with the Noosa Yakkers Schoey?


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## scater (Nov 24, 2007)

indiedog said:


> What a day! I thought Noosa would be the place to be today. Well done all. And Sam, how was it getting the beast out again?


Sorry Brad, I missed this yesterday. Frankly it was a bastard. When every man and his indiedog is in a stealth it really hits home what a painful bloody barge the tempo is offshore. It doesn't seem to be massively slower than other yaks - I made the trip to and from JS in about the same time as everyone else - but the effort involved is much greater. The paddle back was the big pain. The yak kept trying to broach right as the swell lines overtook me, and occasionally I just ended up pointing 90 degrees from where I wanted to be mid-paddle! I was pretty rooted after we hit the beach and as you know JS isn't a particularly big paddle. Long story short there may be a stealthy change in the very near future.


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## scoman (Oct 4, 2010)

scater said:


> scoman said:
> 
> 
> > This is all very well and good fellas, but now we are confronted with a week or more of high winds and big seas. It's going to be hard to wait till the weather clears!!
> ...


Will aim for a couple weeks. Have done palmy and Moffat now so I think noosa is next, before Adder Rock.


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## geminiwraith (Nov 26, 2010)

scater said:


> The yak kept trying to broach right as the swell lines overtook me, and occasionally I just ended up pointing 90 degrees from where I wanted to be mid-paddle!


This is why i'm glad I have the rudder on mine. It's still a pain to handle at times, but it makes it bearable.


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## scater (Nov 24, 2007)

scoman said:


> scater said:
> 
> 
> > scoman said:
> ...


Good stuff, I'll let the VMR know ;-)


geminiwraith said:


> scater said:
> 
> 
> > The yak kept trying to broach right as the swell lines overtook me, and occasionally I just ended up pointing 90 degrees from where I wanted to be mid-paddle!
> ...


I swear I used twice as many right hand paddles as left. I'll look like a reverse Rafa Nadal if I keep it up. Might be relegated to camping yak soon.


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

BIGKEV said:


> Awesome Kev, it's been a while since you guys experienced action like that in the bay. Hopefully it won't take as long to repeat next time around.


Yeah, Kev. It seems we get at least one spotty mac day per season, in my experience, and according to our trip reports archive. The water needs to be clean it seems, and it often isn't in the wet season. One of our best days was 05May10 when the spotties were blasting out around the shark nets and closer in, too. This latest day was better. It was interesting to note that the terns were hanging around the bustup area in the SW, as on Paulo's pic, but not in our location, only a few hundred metres distant. Also, it was possible to simply blind cast and get hookups, which I and others demonstrated on several occasions.

I paddled in without trolling and paddled past a school of yft which were blasting out about 2k out from Middle Groyne. Great day!


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

scater said:


> Here we go:





>


Bah!
Incredible day. Everyone just bobbing around slaying. Talk about an embarrassment of riches.
Bah to you all I say!

BTW sunshiner thanks for the bait pic. Always nice to see what they puke up.
Anchovy imitation plastics are a go-to for me. Also Anchovy Point Wilson Darts have withstood the test of time. Days like in this report finally make all that surplus tackle worth it. Make it work!

Thanks for the reports guys, now suck up that weather for a while, geez.


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

Zed said:


> Bah!
> Incredible day. Everyone just bobbing around slaying. Talk about an embarrassment of riches.
> Bah to you all I say!
> 
> ...


g'day Troy










Although slugs such as the one above were the lures preferred by most, mainly because you can cast all the way to california with 'em, yakkers were taking fish on many lure types, usually as long as a flat-out retrieve was used. And yes, good day to clean out some of that old tackle, as line bite throughs were common. I made the mistake of letting a lure sink a second or two after splashdown, just to see what the reaction was, retrieved quickly only to suddenly find the line completely slack. Reeled in to find the braid cut, above a two metre mono leader. Hardly a bump on the line. The fish were charging through with their scissor-like jaws wide open, I think, not necessarily intentionally chopping on the braid.


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## scater (Nov 24, 2007)

Don't ask me how, but I caught six macks without wire with zero bite offs. I was going absolutely flat out with the ci4 which has a pretty fast retrieve ratio, and all of the fish had the slug outside their mouths with only the treble inside. It seemed like a lot of blokes, turtleboy especially, were getting bitten off at the swivel connection to the leader which may have been creating a bubble trail. It was just such a feeding frenzy I imagine the spotties were snapping at anything that moved.


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

scater said:


> It seemed like a lot of blokes, turtleboy especially, were getting bitten off at the swivel connection to the leader which may have been creating a bubble trail. It was just such a feeding frenzy I imagine the spotties were snapping at anything that moved.


Yep that will do it. Although if you switch to a dull black swivel you can reduce the bite offs, and definitely need a fast retrieve or the fish will take the whole lure and not just nip the tail (hooks).

I fish 40pd mono to my slugs and rarely get bitten off. Always run wire to my trolled rigs and lures though as it moves much slower.

Kev


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## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

scater said:


> Don't ask me how, but I caught six macks without wire with zero bite offs. I was going absolutely flat out with the ci4 which has a pretty fast retrieve ratio, and all of the fish had the slug outside their mouths with only the treble inside.


This has always been my experience too. I have never used wire before and the flat out retrieve on a high speed reel seems to be the key to them just nipping the treble on the end of a slug.
It wasnt until I slowed the retrieve of the plastic down on Saturday that I got consistent hookups. High speed left me with tail-less plastics I then had to change.
As Kev said, I also had to shorten my leader twice due to fraying from unintentional bites but never got any bites on the black swivel at the end of the wire.


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