I was going to head out into St Georges Basin in search of flathead this morning but when I woke up at 4:45 it was calmer than I expected and it looked as if patches of sunshine might prevail. So I switched a heavy trolling rod and medium weight flickstick with the two lightweight sticks I was planning to use and drove towards Murrays beach instead. With no fish in the fridge I was truly intent on catching some food today so I probably should have stuck to my original plan - basin flatties are practically a sure thing. But no... I had to have snapper.
The closest most likely snapper spot close to the boat ramp at is in the strech of water between Bowen island and the Murrays beach point and that's where I made a beeline for. Trolling along the way turned up nothing but upon reaching one of my marks within the white-knuckle bottleneck (as I call that patch of water) I got bites immediately. Casting a squidgy flickbait around looked as if it would yield results for a while there, with several good bites hits early, all from what was obviously snapper. All of which failed to hook up no less.
Oh well... there's dinner
It didn't take long for the water to get pretty rough in these parts and after a couple of waves almost crashed over from the side I decided to get out while I was nearly ahead. Surfing waves on the way out with a trolling line out result in a solid hook up and it was an interesting exercise to play the fish while navigating waves. What was almost certainly a large tailor (my shredded lure was evidence of that) managed to spit the hook while leaping in to the air. I suppose it didn't like the way I was trying to tow it out of the danger area.
The obligatory by-catch, returned to sea
From there I trolled over to middle ground to take a look, heading up alongside the island, about 100 metres out. Things became decidedly slow at this point and it was starting to look like I'd lost my window of opportunity. Losing confidence in the conditions (winds had picked up and rain was drizzling) I wussed out and head back to the ramp. Trolling on route resulted in a medium size tailor (kept for the table) and a modestly sized pike, which I did a good job of returning without letting touch the yak.
Not all that long ago I took the position that as far as I was concerned, the uni knot was the one knot to rule them all. For a while there I'd been using it for pretty much everything: mainline to leader (double uni) and as a terminal knot (including using it as a loop for certain lure types). Not only is it pretty effective, it's also nice and easy to tie and thats a plus when it comes to kayak fishing. However, if I have a criticism of it, it'd be that when heavier leaders are concerned, it's difficult to get a double uni small enough to run through guides smoothly. I have tried working around this by using an albright and improved albright knots, but no matter how much care I take or how nice the knot looks, I've seen them fail too many times to have 100% confidence in them. So when I heard about the qualities of the Slim beauty knot - slim and strong - that sounded like it would be worth a try.
Carl (Astro) Holland showed me how to tie this knot during my recent visit to Mackay and I've been using it ever since. I have to say, so far so good. It's definitely replaced the double uni as my mainline to leader knot of choice. As it's name implies, it does make for a slim knot - certainly boasting a slimer profile than the double uni, and casting through guides a little smoother. It is at least as strong also, although it's difficult for me to determine if it's stronger than the double uni, because I wasn't having any problems with my knots failing anyway. Suffice to say I haven't yet had the Slim beauty fail yet either.
It's slim profile is ideal for several other factors as well, not just it's ability to pass through guides with greater ease. I've decided to start using a longer leader, going from a single rods length (so that the leader knot is positioned just a few inches from the spool) to three rod lengths. I'm doing this to give myself a better chance with reef-diving kingies (a few of which have bust me off recently, mainline vs reef), as well as to improve shock absorbing qualities for larger pelagics like tuna (to prevent hooks being ripped out of their soft mouths. Hopefully this should also help to prevent fish detecting the mainline, which is high-vis yellow (using fluorocarbon leaders).
This means the knot will get laid onto the spool upon retrieve and unless it's presence is nicely discreet, it could otherwise cause tangles while casting. I'm pleased to report that so far at least the slim beauty is yet to have cause a tangle. The only downside to this knot is that although not at all complex, it isn't quite as simple as the double uni and takes a little longer to tie. But now that I've switched to longer leaders I expect to be tying less mainline to leader knots on the water. I'm sill using the uni knot for terminal tackle and no doubt I'll still be tying plenty of these on the yak.
There are two ways to tie the Slim beauty. One is with a single mainline tag, or a double. The latter is nicely represented at Geoff Wilsons fishing knot directory at Fishnet, and the former is demonstrated perfectly in the clip above.
Being that today was the last day of my holidays, I was determined to hit the water no matter what. For a while there I considered just heading out into St Georges Basin for a fish, but with the sun shining and winds moderate the scene was set for some bayside sailing instead. When I launched at Murrays beach just after midday I instantly spotted several large bait balls nearby, which I decided to investigate with a soft plastic lure. Several casts resulted in a hook up onto one of the baitfish - a slimy mackerel. Normally I would have kept this for bait but today all I had was a handfull of lures and a few jigheads (and no hooks - so it was returned to his mates). Surely there must be something bigger underneath, I thought. In an effort to find out I cast several lures out to the edges of the baitballs... all to no avail, save for a few more hook ups on slimys. This went on for a while so I decided to try and get a closer look by pedaling right through it with my waterproofed camera at the ready. I was hoping to catch some footage of large torpedo-like shapes that would inspire me to stick with it. Instead I was rewarded with a short snip of footage that didn't show a whole lot except for slimies panicked by the island. If there were fish underneath, my lures weren't doing it for them, so I decided to move on.
Inspiration came immediately when I saw an explosion of water about a km out into the distance... right where I've been seeing Humpback whales frolicking lately. There they were again and this time I spotted them at an opportune moment. They weren't terribly far and were reasonably active, yet stationary. The sun was shining, I had plenty of time left and there was a mild wind that would assist a cautious approach. So I secured the rods, pulled out my DSLR and set sail in a north-westerly direction towards the humpbacks. It didn't take long to get there and I took my time approaching them, coming in from the side up to what I approximated to be about 100 metres away.
Humpbacks having fun in the sun
There were three of them - a mother, calf and escort. The calf wasn't all that much bigger than my kayak (around 5 metres or so) and probably only a month or so old. The other two were more like 15 metres. From my vantage point I could make out another pod further to the west, closer to Hyams beach. When I got within reasonable range for my camera lens I furled the sail and simply stopped moving, waiting for whales to surface with my camera poised. The last time I got this opportunity I had to shoot with my compact through a waterproof housing. Today was calmer (in the bay at least) so it was a good chance to get some clearer shots with the DSLR.
Nosy bugga aren't ya!
In usual fashion, the whales didn't disappoint. For the most part they were just sort of floating about and sliding through the water with a grace that would make a ballerina proud. There was some acrobatics as well, although these moments were brief. I did, however, manage to catch a few of these instances with stills and video footage.
Mighty tail of a humpback whale
After snapping enough photos to satisfy my near-insatible hunger I decided to revert back to my original plan, which was to catch some fish. To be more precise, my original plan was to troll my way over to the white-knuckle water between Bowen island and the murrays beach point, out into the ocean, around Bowen island and then back towards middle ground reef. I followed this plan to the letter, although now my starting point was about 2km further away. I started out by sailing back towards the beach. Along the way another pod of whales showed up and although I kept moving, I did catch some good video footage of them as I sailed past.
By the time I got back on track wind was blowing in from the east, forcing me to tac my way out through the bottleneck. Funny how water never looks so rough when you're not in it. Today I was reminded of why most people avoid this little patch of water. Some days it's actually pretty calm, but today was more typically rough. Normally I would have stayed clear of it, but sailing the island is a different kettle of fish to just kayaking. I was able to push out through it without incident, but had I been using just the kayak hull alone, anything might have happened. Instead this experience gave me a lot of confidence in the Island's ability to handle overly choppy water.
Rough day in and around the bowen island bottleneck
As I sailed around the face of the island it remained rough, but coming back around the north end it started to chill out a bit. I trolled an X-rap lure throughout most of this stretch (except for the marine park bit) and was actually very surprised that I didn't even raise a bite. Sailing in back through the heads of Jervis bay I made for the middle ground reef, where I thought I'd try bottom bashing some plastics. Admittedly impatient, I gave this up after 30 minutes of zero bites and several seal spottings.
Calling it a day there and then, I trolled my way back to the boat ramp, hauled the rig out of the drink and packed up. Upon returning home I faced the reality of cleaning up after a full week of holiday mode, visitors and five or six fishing trips that have left a trail of used fishing kit all over the house :-)
With winds blowing around 10 knots I launched from Murrays beach at 2:30 PM and sailed into the north. My northward trek quickly became a southbound reversal when I realised that I'd left the bungs loose in each of the Islands amas (note to self: never do this again). After beaching the yak, emptying water out of the amas and having a quick lunch I launched back in through mild surf and started over. A pike fell victim to a Rapalla X-Rap trolling lure only moments after I got going.
Big old snapper, caught on the squidplastic wonder lure
I sailed over to the middle ground reef near the Jervis Bay entrance and once there furled the sail, reeled in the trolling line and cast out a squidgy flick bait soft plastic. I got a few nibbles in the first few minutes but it went quiet soon after. Before long I replaced the soft plastic with a piece of fresh squid, which I carefully cut into the vague shape of a fish. This 'squidplastic' strategy (as I've referred to it in the past) definitely seemed to be a good move because bites picked up immediately. It wasn't long before I was rewarded with a solid hook up, followed by a fair fight that lasted for several minutes. I won by technical knockout, however, pulling in a juicy snapper of just under the 60cm mark.
Looks like I'm eating well this weekend
Another good hook up came after an hour had passed, using the same 'squidplastic' strategy, but now using tenticles instead of pieces cut from the hood. This fish fought just as hard as the first and was a similar size, only a cm or so smaller than the first.
Silver trevally, released to fight another day
A little while later I hooked onto a trevally (silver variety I think), which is the first I've caught in Jervis Bay. Also added to the growing list of species I've caught in the bay include this little guy (pictured below), which is a species I'm unfamiliar with. Both it and the trevally were released.
Another victim to the squidplastic
After a while I decided to troll along Bowen island on the way back to the beach and as I was passing the north west shoulder the X-rap was smashed and immediately taken to the bottom, shearing off on reef before I could act. Demonstrating all of the characteristic traits, I can't help but think this was another kingy. Another one lost in similar fashion, no less. Argh! I really liked that lure!
During the trip I saw 2 pods of humpbacks - one several km off shore, the other inside the bay, off Hyams beach. I wasn't any where near close enough to get any photos of them and they were both too far away for me to even think about it.
Part of this squid will be returned to the sea... on a hook :-)
For their last day in the Jervis Bay area I planned to have the boys on the water most of the day. Brian and I crawled out of bed for an early morning assault on the snapper around Bowen island, realising that there didn't seem to be any of our target species around a couple of hours later. Despite our best attempts at trolling and casting, neither of us hooked any worthy fish in the few hours we fished. I did manage to catch a pike soon before we gave up on fish, as well as a good squid a little while later when we decided to throw a few jigs around instead.The highlight of the trip was a parachute show, put on by the navy as part of their training.
RAN performing parachute drills over Jervis Bay
We met Carl and Gavin back at the beach who were futily casting lures from the beach and decided to head back for lunch and then check out St Georges Basin. We hadn't had any luck on the snapper during their visit, so hopefully some nice flathead would save the day.
This is one way to handle a keeper flaty
Its been a while since I've fished the basin so I was interested to see if the flaties were back in numbers. I'm happy to report that they are. Our plan involved launching from the boat ramp at Basin View and trolling over to Smiths Lagoon. We fished outside the weedy flats that blockade the lagoon (from motor boats) and it was here I pulled in the first fish while trolling an ecogear sx60. Gavin hooked up here as well but lost the fish at the side of the yak. Brian and Carl had a double hook up from the Outfitter when we got into the Lagoon, both of them losing the fish at the side as well.
Brians first flatty from a kayak
I'd neglected to tell them how easily the fish here spit hooks but even worse, I neglected to bring towels for every one to use to handle the fish. It didn't help that the rods I handed them had ultra thin 2 lb line that was under-rated for the task either. Many more hook ups followed, though only 2 keepers were kept, both around the 40cm mark.
Gavin chasing flatties from the Outback
Smiths Lagoon isn't fishing anywhere near as well as it was last summer (yet) but right now, the outer entrance to the lagoon is fishing better. Stealth prawn lures did most of the damage today, with Gavin doing well on white, Brian and myself on black and gold.
Brian and Carl enjoying a relaxed afternoon fishing from the Outfitter
I'm still on holidays for another few days, so I'll definitely be fishing the basin again before going back to work. I'll also be fishing Jervis Bay at least once more as well, possibly using some of that squid as bait for a change.
This photo barely does justice to how big this eagle really is
Tell-tale (or is that tell-tail?) sign of a humpback whale
The weekend just passed was one of poor weather but I probably would have gone out regardless if I was alone. But friends are visiting currently and I thought it would be wiser to make their introductory kayak fishing trip one blessed by good weather, so instead waited until Monday. With calm winds prevailing and a reasonably early start we launched at Murrays beach and made our way towards Bowen island, with a rough plan to fish somewhere close by to it. A small fleet of Hobies (2 Adventures, an Outback and an Outfitter) made their way to the island trolling lures behind, none of us hooking up along the way. When we arrived at the south end of the island I pushed in through small waves to fish in the bottleneck while the others hung back casting lures around small bommies.
No hook ups came quickly (as they often do here), although something large did try to swim away with my lure, which failed to hook up. Apart from that I saw very little action on the fish front... but plenty of action was yet to come on the mammal front. Gavin did catch a modestly sized salmon while trolling back to the boat ramp, heading in early to avert what he thought was impending sea-sickness.
Noobs in yaks
Dolphins soon showed up around the island, treating Brian, Carl and I to a quick hello. This signified a good time to stop fishing to watch the show, and in doing so we noticed how much windier it was starting to get. At that we turned around and headed back to the boat ramp. Along the way my attention was averted to a pod of humpback whales, splashing about some 2km into the distance. Unfortunately, to get anywhere within camera shot of them I had to pedal into a strong headwind. I pushed on with determination though as the other guys wisely headed back to the ramp to call it a day.
Big mumma humpback
It took about 25 mins to reach the pod and for the most part I remained just over 100 metres away, doing my best to stay side on to them. Initially I thought there was only a few whales but it soon became apparent that they were every where and a few times whales appeared where I didn't expect them to - one of them swimming up alongside and taking a look. I never felt as if I was in any danger (nor I a danger to them of course) but admittedly, there were a few tense moments when this happened.
Humpback whales, taken from jervis Bay whale tour boat (day before)
I saw several more whales on the way back and there were even a few more back at the boat ramp breakwall, entertaining by-standers. It really was an incredible experience being so close to such massive animals in a 5 metre kayak. I'd estimate that all up there were at least 20 whales, tail-slapping, fin flapping, rolling around and just cruising around leisurely. Ironically, the day prior we went out on a whale watching tour and although it was quite good, it had nothing on this spectacle.
When my workmate Jamie Fields suggested to me that we'd be better off doing an AM trip instead of Sunday afternoon/evening I probably should have listened... but I knew I'd want to sleep in that day. His reasoning was the weather report, which predicted some fairly strong winds and a sizable swell. Our intended fishing destination (between Bowen island and the point near Murrays beach) gets pretty rough at the best of times. But it also holds good fish at times and it would be, I suggested, protected from the north-easterly winds that were predicted. And I turned out to be right about that - it was actually calmer than usual in this little bottleneck of water. On the other hand, however, anywhere exposed to the wind was actually rather turbulent, and our route back dictated a course side on to both wind and incoming waves. Reaching our intended destination (just shy of 2km from launch) was like a joyride at a theme park; lumpy, but quite a bit of fun. On the other hand, the return trip was more of a white-knuckled adventure, with higher waves and stronger winds. Both of us had to keep our wits about us to keep the yaks upright at times, being slammed from the side by incoming waves... some of them crashing on que.
Medium sized- sambo... fought like a large tailor
At the end of the day neither of us were sure if it had all really been worth the effort. Despite our persistent attempts at casting various soft plastic lures into the fishy zone we failed to catch what we were chasing: snapper. This little patch has produced some nice snapper for me recently so I was rather surprised at our misfortune. We did, however, manage to catch a few fish, though nothing worth shouting out about. Both of us managed to hook up to medium sized tailor on the troll home and I also managed to catch this modestly sized salmon around the bommies close by to the island. It was legal enough but at the time I caught it I was pretty sure we would fair well on the target species, so I let it go. I was actually pretty surprised how well this fish fought, despite the fact that it was probably only 40cm long. Ah salmon... it's good to seem them showing up in Jervis Bay.
We spotted birds working in the distance, about 2km out to sea from our position and both agreed it was probably tuna. It was ever so tempting to head out to find out but in these conditions that would be tempting fate a little too much. By now winds had gained momentum and the water was pretty rough and only seemed to be getting worse. Fighting a massive yellowfin tuna in these circumsances didn't seem so appealing when I stopped to think about it.
Jamie and I turned tail and head back to pack up at about 7:30PM after having fished the area for around 4 hours. I'll be back to seek revenge on this spot within the next week, this time with reinforcements. A few buddies of mine are descending upon Jervis Bay for a holiday and I've taken the opportunity to take some time off to spend some quality time with them. The main ingredient of that quality time will be kayak fishing of course, so look out for a bunch of reports next week.
Recently I blogged on about how I was trimming down the amount of tackle and accessories I take out kayak fishing, especially for off-shore trips. In an effort to reduce weight and on deck clutter I've done a whole lot of re-organising lately and have come up with a slightly adjusted system that allows me to carry out an adequate amount of gear (including 2 cameras and accessories) whilst keeping it all fairly neatly and securely packed. One of my prerequisites has been to keep tackle completely sealed to prevent it from being corroded by salt water. This has been mandatory for fishing from the Island because in high winds and rough waters, a wet ride is guaranteed. Anything that isn't completely waterproof is destined to be exposed.
The trusty environet has served me well
In reducing the amount of gear I carry out I haven't actually had to cross many things off the list. A sounder was one item that I decided to hold off on. The other sizable reduction was the net. Of the two, this is the item I miss the least. My trusty environet has seen a lot of fish and to be sure, I've been thankful for it's presence on most trips in the past. Scooping up a fish with an environet couldn't be easier (providing you have a full mesh version, unlike this large part-mesh one I use to use). Unfortunately, however, they do take up a bit of room on a kayak - in my case, an entire flush mounted rod holder at the rear. Thankfully there are other ways to boat a fish hooked from a kayak and most of the time at least, equally effective.
Some fish are too big for a net... but it didn't stop me trying once or twice
Comfort lift & lip grips combo, performed perfectly by Funda
My favourite technique is the comfort lift technique, which involves gently lifting the fish out of the water by supporting it's belly with a flat open palm. It's not the kind of technique I'd use for a flathead or gurnard, but for most fish it's a pretty good way to go. Of course, if it's a big fish and is being kept for the table, a gaff hook is usually the way to go and I always carry one of those when fishing off shore (but rarely for estuaries). For flatties and other spiky fish (as well as many other fish that I intend to return) I generally use a lightweight hiking/travelling towel often referred to as a Tek Towel . Not only is it a good way to prevent being spiked, I find a wet towel often seems to subdue a fish, making it much easier to de-hook. It also doesn't pel slime of the fish and this is integral to it's survival. For this reason, if using bare hands, I alsways wet them first before handling the fish. Obligatory is the Tek Towel (I use the Sea to Summit brand, available in most good outdoor stores) with me on every trip, regardless of where I go. They come in handy for all sorts of things.
The Tek Towel is great for handling fish (and handy for wiping sand and salt water off the kayak before car-topping it
As far as nets go, the environet is the best I've used and I'd recommend it to anyone. But for others who would rather not carry a net on their kayak, I would suggest to them to get a good gaff hook, pick up a tek towel and learn how to do the comfort lift. I reckon it's good practice to have a good pair of lip grippers handy as well, which I often use to control a fish that I intend to keep. I've found it very useful to have the lip grips attached to a gear keeper device, which serves two purposes. For one it will prevent you from dropping the lip grips off the side of the yak - most of them don't float. Secondly, it will probably save the day if the fish manages to leap out of the cockpit and back into the water. This has happened to me twice and both times the fish hasn't been able to escape because the gear keeper has done it's job perfectly.
Lip grips can be worth their weight in gold. A gear keeper will ensure that weight doesn't become it's undoing
Salmon, snapper, tailor and (almost) kingfish (I think)
When I hit the water at about 3 PM today I wasn't terribly confident of catching many fish. The water was green and relatively cold, no doubt influenced by the cold snap earlier this week. Despite this the sun was shining and winds were blowing from the north east at about 10 knots at the time. Water was somewhat choppy near the shore line and a noticeable swell of over 2 metres was rolling further out in the bay. My plan today was to sail over to the tubes over at Pt Perpendicular, where I've heard of good captures of snapper recently. Along the way my intention was to tac directly over the middle ground reef, and later pass over it again on the way back. On the return journey I would aim for Bowen island to fish either the north or south end of it, depending on which felt more fishable at the time.
Tough guy sambo
Sailing into an on coming wind I had to take some fairly sharp tacs to get good speeds going but because of this it took longer than usual to reach the middle grounds. When I got there I noticed birds working the surface about a km to the east, so I sailed in that direction to see what was up. Soon after arriving I cast a 5" squidgy flick bait into the action and was rewarded with a solid hook up first cast. It was obvious from the get go that I was onto something worthy immediately as line peeled off the spool freely. The force was strong in this one, so after a while of allowing the fish to run I tightend the drag a little and then started lift and winding it toward the kayak.
It first jumped out of the water from about 10 metres from the yak and at that point I knew I was onto either an aussie salmon or a tailor. 2 leaps later and I was able to identify it as a sambo... one of the biggest I'd ever caught. Taking another couple of runs before succumbing to my winding, the salmon was beside the kayak a few minutes later. I gave it a gentle comfort lift to get it into the boat. Figuring I'd be able to catch another pretty quickly I slid it back into the water, replaced the squidgy with a fresh one and cast out again. Once again the lure was struck soon after hitting the water.
Man I love catching aussie salmon
This fish was even more spirited, fighting hard and veering left and right. There was a tussle between man and fish as the salmon continued to change his mind about which side of the kayak it wanted to be reeled in from. Just like it's mate, this guy was fairly acrobatic and became airborne several times, shaking it's head violently like a barra. It took me five minutes to tame this one, which I also let go after taking a few photos. It was still early in the day and I was pretty sure I'd get onto at least one snapper, which was what I came for. The action here slowed down soon after and although I did manage to hook up one more time, the third fish managed to get away.
Small snapper (pinky, squire, whatever you like)
I sailed on to the tubes, where I furled the sail close by the marine park boundary, and then peddled east towards point perpendicular. As I cruised forward slowly at about 2 knots I trolled a small silver metal slug lure from one rod as I cast and retrieved the squidgy flick bait. I was soon rewarded with a barely legal snapper by doing the latter and a barely legal tailor on the trolling line. Both fish were returned safely. I was determined to catch something with a bit more size. But the action was fairly slow here, so before long I set sail for the island, where I liked my chances of hooking a larger snapper.
Flighty little tailor, returned to fight another day
The return sail was much faster, with a tailwind assisting the island all the way there. There were no strikes along the way, although I did hook onto another tailor as soon as I arrived (also returned). It took about an hour before the next fish came, but it really was worth the wait. Once again the deadly flick bait did the trick, hooking up to a great table sized snapper (measuring up at 46cm) that fought admirably.
There's dinner right there
Even more admirable was the effort put up by whatever fish smashed my lure next because whatever it was, it put up a mighty account of itself. If I was a betting man I'd have to call this one a kingy, demonstrating more power than the salmon and more desperation than the snapper. It dove directly for the reefy bottom of course and partly because I was fishing with only 4kg line, it eventually won that tug of war. I made up for this calamity by hooking another snapper a short while later, also putting up a pretty good fight and also being kept for the table (my neighbours eat as well as me tonight).
And there's one for the family over the road
I didn't get time to try for squid this evening as I was having too much fun catching fish, calling it a night at around 8PM. I'm heading back tomorrow, this time without sail or amas, focusing on Bowen island and middle ground only. Might try for some calamari then, if only I can pull myself away from the snapper :-)
Sailing back to murrays beach boat ramp after a great days fishing
I've just returned from a work trip up north, which turned out to be rather busy with fairly full schedules each day. Now that I'm back I'm equally busy, if not more so and do have a lot to catch up on. I did manage to hook up with a few mates along the way, stopping off at Caloundra, Hervey Bay and Mackay to say g'day. Many thanks to Carl (Astro) Holland for putting me for a couple of nights at his hilltop abode in Mt Ossa. He always strikes me as a particularly jovial person, but now that he is the proud owner of an Adventure Island he's wearing a perrenial grin from ear to ear. With those trade winds blowing up there as they do, now he can hit the ocean on those rougher days whereas otherwise he would have had to sit it out.
Astro's neighbours posing for the camera
I wasn't able to take my own Island up there so we weren't able to head out sailing together, but we have started cooking plans for a Fraser Island sailing/kayak fishing trip for March next year. 5 days at sea, sailing around the island and camping on beaches at night (hopefully feasting on coral trout and the like). Man, I cannot wait for that.
I was able to click off some interesting photos during the trip, which are fairly typical of the Australiana photos I like to take. Some of the best Aussie-themed photos I've taken have come from the Mackay area. Here's a few more to add to the collection:
Sometimes, catching fish is a secondary objective. Sometimes it's really just about getting onto the water and having fun. Today was one of those days. I'd arranged to spend the day sailing off shore with a few other local happy Hobie Island owners and was greatful to be invited along. The plan was to launch from Murrays beach, make our way through the heads, into the ocean and head south. With sth westerlies predicted we figured this would make for an easy sail home.
There was virtually no wind when we launched at about 9AM, so we made our way out to sea under pedal power. Eventually a very light breeze kicked up behind us, though it wasn't enough to stop pedalling. We travelled about 10km south down to (what I think is) St Georges Head, where we found a large colony of seals. Many of them were in the water, but almost as many were perched precariously on ledges jutting out from a steep cliff face. That they got up there to begin with was quite amazing. Watching them get back down was also as amazing as it was amusing. I was fortunate enough to catch this on video, although it barely does the event justice.
You wouldn't believe how high these seals manage to climb... somehow
It was here that we realised that our party of 4 had turned to 3, so we moved back out to sea to figure out where the missing sailor was. He was busily sailing away nearby Bowen island and given that there was still very little wind, we figured it might be best if we head back and join him (rather than continue south, which is what we'd planned originally). That was a good move really, because conditions deteriated significantly a short while later and it was good to be close to the bay when that happened.
As we turned north the wind picked up a bit, blowing in from the nth west. This dictated that we tack our way back, which was smooth sailing all the way. We'd timed our arrival into the bay to perfection I think because by the time I'd made it back to the relative safety of the bay rain clouds were threatening. And soon after that the wind went from a moderate blow to gale force winds in record time. I'd been hoping for stronger winds all day, but 45kmph winds were pushing the friendship. So I decided to head back in before things got hairy. All 3 of the other guys had already landed and were busily packing.
I did tow a lure the entire time, although I failed to raise a bite. I wasn't expecting to hook up, but I trolled the lure in the off chance that a tuna might show up and take it. It's still a bit early for the yellowfin to move in though, so I was surprised to come up with a duck. I wasn't at all disappointed, however, because I still had a nice thick snapper fillet in the fridge (now on the fry pan as I type). It won't be long before those tuna show up and when they do, I'm certain to find them with the Island. Watch this space.
What was supposed to be a 6AM start this morning turned out to be a 7AM start, thanks to the daylight saving switch over that I failed to prepare for. Usually such an error wouldn't be too much of a problem but today I had arranged to pick up a work mate and take him out kayak fishing. We were still able to get out on the water fairly quickly though, launching from Murrays beach and paddling over to the south end of Bowen Island, which is a very fishy area. With oceanic waters rushing in through a bottle-neck entrance, it's usually also a fairly rough area to, so I was a little hesitant to take Jamie into it at first. Despite being fairly new to kayak fishing (and his first outing on an Adventure) he told me that he'd paddled surf skis in the surf without problem, so using that as a benchmark we paddled forth into the chop.
Turbulent water on the sth side of Bowen Island
There is also a marine park sanctuary zone in this area so we had to be careful about drifting into it, so in lieu of any marker buoys we drew imaginary lines where we thought the boundary lies and proceeded to fish on the safe side of it. I hooked up to a worthy fish on my second cast, falling for a 6" white flickbait style soft plastic. The snapper gave a good fight as I brought in to the side of the yak, although it spat the hook right at the last moment as I tried to comfort lift it aboard. I wasn't terribly pleased about losing the fish (which would have been about 50cm) but I felt confident that I'd get another shot at it.
56cm snapper. This guy fought a bit like a rat kingy
Sure enough I'd hooked up again moments later, this time to an even bigger fish. For a few minutes into this fight I was positive I'd hooked a kingy, as it peeled off a fair amount of line in a bid for the relative safety of the reefy bottom. It was winning the fight at first, towing me rather close to the rocky edges of the island. Eventually this became too close for comfort so I tightened the drag a little and peddled back out of harms way, persuading the fish to come along with me. A few minutes later I had this fish boat side as well, this time executing the comfort lift with more caution. The 56cm snapper came aboard without fuss and was instantly bled, gutted and even beheaded so I could fit it into the ice box. There's dinner for tonight and tomorrow night.
Jamie with a nice estuary cod
A little while after Jamie pulled a few small pike and then this nice estuary cod, we decided to get out of the rough stuff and troll over to the north side of the island in search of the elusive king, which we were unable to locate. From there we made our way to the middle ground reef and then back towards murrays beach, and then to a spot known as 'the hole in the wall' where we tried our luck for salmon and tailor. On the way back to the area I quickly diverted course back to the spot where I'd pulled out the snapper earlier and had a few ore quick casts - one of which resulted in this ideally pan-sized snapper. There's dinner for the neighbours (whom I'm starting to become rather popular with).
Although we were unable to catch any other fish, we certainly did see signs of them a few more times, with several schools of baitfish being rounded up by unseen predators. We persisted by following these baitballs for a while, casting in a variety of lures in hope of hooking up, all to no avail. By 1PM we were both pretty much done and decided to head back in. The action hadn't been terribly hot, but it was good enough to provide inspiration though and clearly Jamie had a great time fishing from the Adventure.
Tomorrow I'm heading out again, this time on a sailing/fishing trip, so I'll be packing the island sail and amas. The plan is to cover a fair few km, so instead of flicking soft plastics around I'll be trolling a metal slug of some description. There's a fair chance of hooking up onto salmon or tailor and given the area we'll be sailing in, am always a chance for a kingy or even a tuna as well. Keep an eye out for a follow up report tomorrow night.
