Woody Head, after the rains

Author: josh

Category: Trip Reports

Created on Sunday, 17 October 2010 20:03

Written by Josh

In the currently featured video - Rapala Munching Snapper - there is a flashback at the end, fast-forward footage of a snapper I caught on a slimey pattern CD magnum lure earlier this year. I included that footage in because it was that moment that I was thinking back to when wondering which lure to tie on while trolling through a school of what I thought was probably (and was) snapper. Sure enough, the very same lure produced the very same species on cue. That was just over 3 weeks ago. What was true last year and true 3 weeks ago turned out to be true enough today as well. Once again the very same lure produced a perfect snapper for me today, making that something like 5 in a row since I last tied it on. 

Today's keeper fish was hooked at Woody Head, where conditions behaved nicely for me to squeeze the maiden open water voyage for my new yak, 'Triple Hex'. I caught 2 fish from her today - the second being some kind of small trevally species (I think), which fell for a blue coloured 3/4oz Evergreen LittleMax blade. Both fish caught while trolling, both times at around 5kph. I spent a small amount of time drifting and casting into baitfish with plastics (trialling a new off-shore version of the Mantis Stinger jighead) but got no touches there. Although I found several patches of interest on the sounder for the most part it was pretty hard to raise a bite today. With the water so murky-green I was barely surprised.

For the most part I was taking advantage of the fresh nor-east winds, testing out the sailing performance of my new AI. I was pretty impressed with the new 2011 AI overall, something I will elaborate on in a separate article later in the week. Todays highlight (apart from the snapper) was spotting an anomoly on the water in the distance - a reddish tinge to the white caps, stretching some 50, maybe 100 metres. With no idea what had tained the water I sailed on over to have a look and just as it occurred to me that I might be looking at krill, a humpback whale burst through the surface with gaping mouth ajar scooping up a bulldozer-sized load of them. 

The very last time I found myself observing that at a close distance I very nearly got knocked out of the yak, so decided to move steadily out of the area. I watched on from a safer distance for a short while but it wasn't long before I started thinking about fish again.