Week of yakfishing Brays

Author: dunebuggy

Category: Trip Reports

Created on Sunday, 06 June 2010 14:31

Written by Stuart Whitehouse

It's not often that the weather gods give you a week of good weather to play in but more or less that's what we've had here at Caloundra, allowing me to get out kayak fishing five of seven days!. With the swell staying at about a metre or less all week the only thing left to worry about was the wind. For the past week the wind has been blowing from various versions of west which made for fairly flat conditions to fish on. Starting with last Sunday, May 30th, I launched from the Kings beach boat ramp onto an almost mill pond sea and made my way toward the Brays Rock and Blinker area with lures out.

There was very little surface action and, what little there was, was little indeed. By little, I mean that they were small fish of an unknown variety. I could not entice them to bite anything I threw at them. I chased these fish all over the place in the vain hope that something bigger may have been lurking beneath but I soon tired of it at resolved to fish the bottom with soft plastics. The 1st thing hooked was, not surprisingly, a sweetlip of more than legal size which went straight on ice.

This was to be the only take home fish of the day but the fun was not over. The surface action I had chased all morning erupted close by but not quite in casting range so, with my 10lb outfit still on the bottom with a 7' gulp jerkshad attached I charged toward the school while reaching for the 20lb outfit with a slug at the ready. I never got a cast in. My 10lb outfit suddenly bent backwards and line began to peel off the spool at an alarming rate, although it never got down to the backing.

To cut a long story short it turned out to be a spanish mackeral of a metre or more and I was attached to it for 30 minutes or more. I got the fish to the surface 3 times and each time more quickly that the time before. The 3rd time I had it on the surface I thought it had done it's dash and so, impatience set in. I started to palm the spool to bring him to the yak quicker. Stupid stupid stupid! For starters, I should have pedaled closer. Anyway, one savage headshake while I was palming the spool and hauling him in and......SNAP! I have been kicking myself ever since. This would have been my 1st ever Spaniard had I landed it. Soon after that the wind increased to 20 plus knots so I made my way back to the ramp and called it a day.

Monday, May 31st, rest day. Too windy anyway. Tuesday, June 1st I set out from Moffats beach in mill pond conditions and made my way toward the same general area that I had fished on Sunday. With the swell still under a metre it was fairly comfortable apart from the sloppy chop that picked up as the wind increased. This day was a donut. Fish were caught but no keepers. Wednesday came along and again I set out from Moffats Beach but this time with company. Brian (aka paddleparra) and yakass member Bailz joined me and again we fished the same general area.

With lures out on the way and nothing caught on them we proceeded to bottom fish. Brian and Bailz were fairly close together and were fishing between Brays and the blinker. I headed a bit further south toward the yellow marker near Bribie Island. This was to be the most successful day of the week with 5 legal sweetlip caught with 4 of them being over 40cms and kept. The biggest was a nice fat specimen at 50cms. I don't think Bailz was blessed with a catch before we headed for home but Brian, who stayed behind and fished longer, ended up with 2 nice snapper to show for his extra time.

Thursday was much the same story as Tuesday and I was rewarded with a donut once more. Saturday, June 5th saw 5 kayakers set forth from Moffat Beach  and, to cut a long story short, we were all back on the beach by about 9.30ish as the wind began to be a bother. I am not sure who got what if anything but yours truly got another donut. All in all I fished 5 out of 7 days of the week and of those 5, 3 produced donuts. The longtail seem to have disappeared.