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Trip Reports Spot X Spot X | Spot X | | Print | |
| Written by Josh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 28 June 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Snapper, tuna, dolphins, whales, turtles, tangles, broken rod and broken heart...  You know how sometimes when you wake up early for a kayak fishing trip the first thing you say to yourself is WTF and I doing? That didn't happen this morning - I bounced out of bed like a kid on Xmas day. Something inside me seemed to know it was going to be a great day on the water. And indeed it was. Today was the the best trip I've had out on the water since the recent floods, thanks to great weather, great company and great fishing. I met up with Albert (AKA Alby to the Oz kayak fishing community) and Allan at the shores of 'Spot X' at 7AM. We weren't in any rush, so while we sipped back on coffee and rigged our kayaks we discussed strategies for fishing as well as surf launching & landing. This was my first time fishing at this particular spot X, so I welcomed the advice being offered by Alby and Allan, both of whom were quite familiar with the area, as well as both being pretty experienced kayakers. Allan was the first to boat a fish, pulling up a perfectly pan-sized squire snapper a few hundred metres out from launch. Our target destination was some 5 - 6km out, though it took longer to get there than planned because we hooked up to a few more along the way. Allan hooked (but lost) another snapper, Alby picked up a couple of his own (the first few of what turned out to be a nice bag for him) and I hooked, you guessed it, another Longtail tuna. This fish gave me a hell of a fight and kept me guessing on it's species for some 28 minutes before I was able to positively identify it. I hooked it on my Nitro Viper rod, rigged with a Diawa Certate reel and 15lb braid, making for much better sport than the Godzilla rod, which is what I usually hook them on. At first I thought it was a snapper but 10 minutes into the fight I started to wonder. Throughout the fight I surmised it to possibly be a jew, maybe an amberjack, possibly even a kingy. When I finally saw colour amberjack was still a possibility I thought and as it came closer I wondered if it was a shark... it not a cobia. I was getting fleeting glimpses of colour, often seeing dark or light shades. Half an hour of fighting revealed it to be a longtail tuna (over a metre long). It was when I got it to the side of the kayak that things went bad. Truth be told, however, despite breaking the tip off my rod and losing the fish in the process, matters could have been oh so much worse. I only have myself to blame for the idiocy that ensued and I really should know better. Time and time again I've witnessed (the hard way) the perils of trolling 2 lines. One would think I'd have learned by now, but no. Whilst fighting the fish I was able to reel in the other line, but instead of reeling it all the way in, I allowed the lure to dangle around the rudder at the stern. It'll be OK there I told myself. But it was not OK. When the tuna surfaced it started circling, as they do. And before I could sink in the gaff it circled right into the dangling line and the lure tangled with the active line. In what was possibly the dumbest thing I've done on a kayak in quite some time (reaffirming my moniker 'Yakass') I grabbed the lure, gripped it tightly and tried to untangle it. Had there not been a 10kg+ tuna pulling on the other line I might have succeeded, but instead somehow managed to snap my rod tip and line in the process. Not only that, but somehow my rudder pin managed to get snapped in the process as well! Fortunately I'm not neglegent enough to head out without spares, so it was a simple matter of getting Alby to paddle alongside and put in a new one for me. I was left holding on to the lure (thankfully it's trebles hadn't buried themselves into my hand) but had lost the fish - what was very probably my biggest longtail yet. It was certainly the longest longtail fight my arms have endured, which I think had part to do with the fact that I was pulling it up on a lighter line than I typically use for these fish. Of course this was extremely heartbreaking - it always hurts to lose a big fish... especially when you have it so close. But in a way I'm glad it happened, because this time I have learned my lesson - and it did make the resulting video clip just as entertaining as it is educational. I'll never troll 2 passive lines off shore ever again. You live... and eventually you learn. The fight was a ripper though so at least I had fun reeling it in. My right bicep still aches as I type. And no doubt some lucky shark is thanking me for screwing it up as well, scoring a free feed of tuna. Now with a sharp ache in my bicep, I wasn't at all sure I wanted to hook another tuna and rigged up lures that I thought more suitable for snapper. Suitable they may have been, but no where near as well suited as the lures used by Alby and Allan, both of whom were using deep-diving hardbody lures (RMG and Predatek) to great success. Especially Alby, who landed 5 or 6 keepers, all ideal pan-sized fish. My lures were trolling much higher in the water column, which I think is why I hooked a tuna, and not a snapper. On the return journey to land but I resolved to stock up on a few of those lures that Alby and Allan were using. Partially inspired by my experience with the tangled lines, as well as a conversation with Alby later on, I also decided to switch back to monofilament mainline for fishing off shore. It would have been much easier to untangle monofilament, and perhaps there might not have been a tangle at all. Going back to mono has merit in other ways as well. No real need for a leader eliminates the leader knot, which is typically the weakest link in the chain - something thats caused grief in the past as well. Sure... it won't cast quite as far, nor will it be as sensitive... but I'm now thinking the pros most definitely outweigh the cons. Especially when it comes to trolling, which is what I do most off shore.
Whilst on the water today we spotted some whale activity (humpbacks) as well as the obligatory dolphins and turtles. One of which was a large loggerhead - perhaps the biggest I've seen on the Clarence coast. Indeed, I've seen hundreds of turtles on the Clarence coast in the past 6 months... so much so that I'm now seriously questioning whether or not they really are endangered. I've seen them right up and down the east coast, from Jervis Bay to Townsville. If they are in fact endangered, their sheer numbers of presence certainly betrays the fact.
When & where~Spot X~ 8:00AM launch,Midday land |
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