# QLD: Live somewhere you can yak fish



## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

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One afternoon 15 years ago, just after my wife and I had relocated to Sunshine Beach from Brisbane I grabbed my light beach outfit and some tackle and took the 30 minute walk through the forest to the 1km-long beach fringing Alexandria Bay. Rain soaked me but the wild and windy conditions meant I had the whole beach to myself, in the middle of a National Park. Finding a slightly sheltered corner I had a ball catching and releasing various surf and reef species (well, OK I kept a couple) and distinctly remember thinking, as water streamed off my nose late on that summer afternoon "How good is this!" A more satisfied person could not have been found and the main source of that satisfaction was that at last, after an itinerant 50 years, I'd found a home where I could fish with minimal fuss.

Fifteen years later, I still can't believe my good fortune. And to make the situation even better I've adopted a kayak as my main means of closing with my quarry.

Yesterday morning the wind forecast was ideal for yak fishing and the swell on Sunshine Beach, normally daunting for yak fishers, had been knocked down by several days of offshore winds.I was out of bed at 8am and wandered down to the shop and the beach lookout just down the road. Perfect -- a rare day! Only a tiny wave stood between me and Sunshine Reef, a mere 1.5 km from the strolling beachgoers.









_Don't assume you can safely launch here. Most of the time it's very nasty._

After sending a quick email to my mates and then a leisurely breakfast I and my yak were in the carpark, two minutes from home, at 10am ready to meet the three other local guys who'd responded to my email.









_1018am. Tough conditions!_

From Sunshine Beach it takes only about 20 minutes paddle time to reach one of our favourite marks on this section of Sunshine Reef. Stu immediately boated a keeper tusk fish, first drop, using bait. Then all was quiet for a short while. The area I was fishing had numerous 2-3m "bumps" on the 22-26m bottom which clearly displayed on my sonar. I was recording a drift to the south, despite the light breeze from the SW so clearly there was a current working N to S. I'd been having a relatively lean fishing time lately and was hopeful that today would see a change in that so I was delighted when my soft plastic bait was slammed, exactly one hour after the above pic was taken. After a short tussle, a nice snapper came aboard.









_1123am. Snapper taken on soft plastic, 1/2oz jighead with wire trace, in 26m._

I radioed Jaro that I was on the board, secured and stowed the fish and then checked my tackle and recast, putting the rod down temporarily while I dealt with a small tackle bugger-up on the other rod, my trailing outfit. This task was interrupted when the casting rod went off again, with the jig head still swimming on its way to the ocean floor. Another brief tussle resulted in snapper #2 being invited aboard for tea.









_1128hrs. Snapper #2. Same rig as the other_

I'd marked on the GPS a couple of interesting pieces of reef on this drift so now had some information on where the fish were likely to be but they still weren't showing on my sonar. Nevertheless I told Jaro by radio and soon he could be seen heading my way, accompanied by Stu. On arrival I showed them my drift and a couple of the key places and left them to it. The next strike I took was only a few minutes later. I worked the hard fighting fish gently and before long a beautiful red-throat emperor popped up next to the yak. Its colours were striking and I was just imagining how good this fish would be on the plate when it rolled and splashed on the surface and the hook dislodged, allowing it to return to the depths. Bummer!









_Steve drifting off Sunshine Beach, over a kilometre away in the background_

Conditions continued to be near perfect. The sun was warm, not hot, and the breeze was just strong enough to slow the drift down to a perfect speed. Out to the east was the stark horizon between sea and sky while to the west the village of Sunshine Beach lay basking in the sun. I wondered what other people were doing this Monday morning.









_There were quite a few small but sharp toothed critters down there today._

Some time later I could see Stu's rod bent impressively. With my two fish I was happy with my lot so took the opportunity to pull in my gear and paddle over with the camera to see what Stu had caught.









_1244hrs. A very nice grass sweetlip taken on bait. That's Stu's version of a smile._

Just as I was photographing this fish Jaro's familiar yell of triumph reached us from his yak a couple of hundred metres away. In search of more photos I started paddling toward him as he pulled in a decent snapper, then immediately yelled out that his other rod had gone off also. I kept paddling and reached him just before he boated the second fish.









_1249hrs. That's a nice Venus tuskfish taken on a drifted bait. Mount Coolum is on the horizon._

I wanted to take a pic of the snapper too, but had to forage for it myself in Jaro's capacious fishbox as the fish was out of his reach.









_Here's his snapper, taken on SP with wire trace._

Things went quiet for a while and the wind started to go around to the NE, a typical seabreeze locally. This of course, speeded up our drift so fishing conditions weren't as good as earlier. I was intrigued by a boat anchored near our drift line. It had arrived after we had and was now displaying a "diver below" flag. I could also see two safety floats down current of the vessel, whose sole crewmember appeared to be a small dog, anxiously scanning the surrounding waters. The two human crew were in the water, without scuba gear, free diving in 25m.










I drifted close enough to the divers to ask how they were going. They hadn't taken any fish but had seen some large yellowtail kingfish cruising around. These are possibly the unstoppable bruisers we sometimes hook up with.

Stu had one more surprise up his sleeve. I could see that he was fighting a decent fish so I pulled in my gear to see if a photo might be needed. I got there just in time to see him boat a beautifully-marked 45cm red emperor. He casually returned this beautiful and prized fish to the ocean -- its minimum legal size is 55cm!

With the strengthening NE breeze I opted to turn for the beach around 1430hrs and soon after came the others. It's always exciting coming back in at Sunshine Beach as you have to choose an entry point and then hope you've timed it well enough to avoid large following waves. But the quite small sets were coming in regularly. Stu cruised in in his inimitable style, while I, Steve and Jaro bided our time and each followed in the last of a three wave set. Easy!









_Our four yaks on the beach._

Once more -- How good is all this! But remember, it took me 50 years to get here!

Thanks for reading, AKFFers. Tight lines


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

Nice one Kev, and hopefully it wont take me 50 years...


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## spooled1 (Sep 16, 2005)

How interesting Kev... Yesterday I struggled for 3 hours to hook one snapper between 7 and 10am. For my (smarter) local mate who launched at 10am, he got onto a big hungry school that started striking from 11-2 and had a cracker session like you did. Then, some gun snapper fishos I know launched thier boat at 2pm and pushed sh*t uphill for the next 6 hours for 3 squire.
Looks like you hit the sweet spot Kev ;-)


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Good to hear. We must get to a certain age where the scales tip the other way away from employment, providing for family & future etc and place a higher valueon what we LIKE to do.

I'm not there yet and not sure I'll ever be but I consider where I live and what I do is sort of a halfway compromise anyway. Don't work too hard all the time, can puruse my leisure activities, usually don't have to deal with too many d1ckhe4ds...just have to take a pay cut to do it. 

I love it when I come across the grey nomads who've worked hard for years and are now cruising around wherever they want.....the younger ones join the Ulysees MC and go for their swinging breakfasts around the place! :shock:


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## DougOut (Dec 31, 2006)

Sunshine, snapper, mild winter days and yak-fish'n with Buddies ..... makes that 50 year wait all the more enjoyable, thanks for sharing Kev.


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## paulo (Nov 1, 2007)

Im 50 this year and that sure as hell aint going to happen to me this year. :twisted: :lol: 
They will be digging me up after Im dead each morning so I can go to work to pay off other people's bills I will still be responsible for.

Its little surprise that the most consistently successful yak fishos in this country live by the ocean and dont have to go to work every day. :shock:

Way to go Kev. You certainly have me envious of your life style... as usual. :twisted: :lol: :lol:


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## andybear (Jan 15, 2006)

Love mate, Just love it......

Must get out for a fish this week....

cheers Andybear


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## danthman74 (Jun 4, 2010)

What a great report, and great photos. Looks and sounds like a fantastic day. Colour me green with envy.


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

spooled1 said:


> How interesting Kev... Yesterday I struggled for 3 hours to hook one snapper between 7 and 10am. For my (smarter) local mate who launched at 10am, he got onto a big hungry school that started striking from 11-2 and had a cracker session like you did. Then, some gun snapper fishos I know launched thier boat at 2pm and pushed sh*t uphill for the next 6 hours for 3 squire.
> Looks like you hit the sweet spot Kev ;-)


Hey Dan, so you have that stuff happen down there, too? It is truly amazing how often the fish seem to come on simultaneously, all over a reef, then shut down. I might have to start an experiment :twisted:


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## gcfisho (Oct 31, 2009)

Thanks for another detailed and exciting report , and as ever some great snaps to go with it . It is in seeing your lifestyle that reminds me what im striving for eventually in retirement .


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## perk (Jul 29, 2010)

Top report mate.


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## boydglin (Aug 12, 2010)

at 27 i sure have a bit of a wait ahead of me lucky i have weekends and in my industry the odd day off here and there to get me by in the meantime 

definitely agree on the live somewhere u can yak fish call though i am lucky enough to live within easy reach of a few good launch sites.

however i have a dream. and that dream is to find that nice quiet waterway in the sticks somewhere that no one has heard of and is loaded with fish get a nice little hut right on the water and fish it for the rest of my life.

until that time comes im going to devote my weekends to packing up my camping gear into the yak and disappearing up remote rivers and creeks in search of the perfect retirement location.

what a wonderful life we live. enjoy it

boyd


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## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

Ahh so thats where all the Snapper have gone. Redcliffe not good enough for them any more  . Bweautiful spot up there, where a bit more down market here, but we do get to go out in anything but the worst conditions  .

If you ever work out the Snapper, let me Know, buggered if can :? .......sometimes there there and sometime they ain't.

Nice fishies


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

Barrabundy said:


> Good to hear. We must get to a certain age where the scales tip the other way away from employment, providing for family & future etc and place a higher valueon what we LIKE to do.
> 
> I'm not there yet and not sure I'll ever be but I consider where I live and what I do is sort of a halfway compromise anyway. Don't work too hard all the time, can puruse my leisure activities, usually don't have to deal with too many d1ckhe4ds...just have to take a pay cut to do it.
> 
> I love it when I come across the grey nomads who've worked hard for years and are now cruising around wherever they want.....the younger ones join the Ulysees MC and go for their swinging breakfasts around the place! :shock:


Sure Barrabundy, we believe you. 
Every one knows cane farmers only have to work about 6 weeks a year during the harvest and that's only if they don't get contractors in


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Junglefisher said:


> Barrabundy said:
> 
> 
> > Good to hear. We must get to a certain age where the scales tip the other way away from employment, providing for family & future etc and place a higher valueon what we LIKE to do.
> ...


Sshhhh!


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## Wired (Mar 19, 2010)

sunshiner said:


> Hey Dan, so you have that stuff happen down there, too? It is truly amazing how often the fish seem to come on simultaneously, all over a reef, then shut down. I might have to start an experiment :twisted:


Moonrise/moonset?


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## Dak (Jul 16, 2010)

Great report, good to see you get a feed,


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

Wired said:


> sunshiner said:
> 
> 
> > Hey Dan, so you have that stuff happen down there, too? It is truly amazing how often the fish seem to come on simultaneously, all over a reef, then shut down. I might have to start an experiment :twisted:
> ...


Hi Wired (and Dan who told us of his experience on the same day, further south)

You might be onto something. I checked both Byron Bay (probably close to Dan's location) and Noosa. Guess what? Moonrise times were 1002hrs and 1009hrs respectively :shock:. By 11am the near first quarter moon would have been well clear of the horizon.

Thanks for mentioning that possibility. I'm very sceptical about all of these alleged influences on fish but I'm going to take more notice of this particular one in future.


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## bomberjames (Dec 5, 2007)

great report.
Nice pics.
I"m hanging for Snapper season in Melbourne only 2-3 months away.
Its a bonus when you can find a place like heaven.

Cheers


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## actionsurf (Jul 8, 2010)

Great report and pics. That's a nice spot you get to fish there.


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## nexy (Dec 25, 2009)

Gees i am glad i took a time out during my footy team getting smashed to read that great report, 
thanks for great photos and a great read


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## garyp (May 30, 2008)

Great read. Thanks for sharing.

How good is Australia?


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## fongss (Aug 15, 2010)

well a heap fun out there today 8)

learn't heaps and felt a lot safer in numbers :lol:

i now own a good life jacket i can wear

plus a seat ( i'm excited about the seat :lol: :lol: )

i'll let the domestic dust settle b4 i go after a transciver ;-)

caught two fish, one a keeper

broke my rod on a snag 

just really enjoyed a dawn session out on the water, thanku sunshiner for the invite

look forward too yaking again, you learn so much more going along with people who know what there doing, shortens the learning curve hughly


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