Spotty fever hits Nth Coast

Author: josh

Category: Trip Reports

Created on Monday, 09 January 2012 07:42

Written by Josh

With word spreading that mackerel were now showing up on the NSW Nth Coast I took to the waters of Woody Head yesterday to get amongst the action. Word has also spread of a high prevalance of sharks as well, so I was truly surprised that I didn't hook one while trolling my way over to Middle reef, where I found myself out-numered by and competing against powerboat anglers. Birds were working patches of baitfish, which true to word, were also prey to larger fish - spotty mackerel to be precise. As is often the case - especially when being harassed by pelagics like this - the schools of baitfish weren't staying still and it wasn't at all easy keeping up with them. Also often being the case, the movement was typically windward and in this instance, winds averaged about 12 - 15 knots. Winds pushed in from the north, so the fish continued to push in that direction, meaning that the only I way I could keep up was to tack the entire time, zig-zagging my way forward from Middle reef right through (eventually) to Black Rock.

Along the way I was finding that my trolled lures just weren't moving fast enough to attract attention, so it became all about getting in close to the action and casting in lures. Anticipating pint-sized baitfish I opted for Williamson Gyro jigs, which after a well-timed cast into a prime position hooked up first go, bringing in one of 2 keepers for the day. Both nice and fat by spotty mackerel standards, as were the other 2 I caught and released. I'd worked hard for those fish mind you, much harder than the guys in power boats (a couple of which mentioned how impressed they were how I'd managed to keep relative pace with them and the fish), all of whom would have outfished me today. There's no doubt about it - when conditions are like this, kayak fishing for spotty mackerel is hard work to say the least... but rewarding nonetheless.

If my trolled lures were moving too slowly while heading to the north, with the winds coming from directly behind - and picking up gradually - it was altogether possible that they were moving too fast on the return journey. What took me about 4 hours reaching the Black Rock area seemed like less than 40 minutes coming back, reaching and maintaining speeds of over 15kmph. I might have fared better had I furled some of the sail and reduced speed, but I was having way too much fun for that!