Went for a late night spottie session and did pretty well, despite murky waters and brisk NE wind.
The gars were out and about, as were quite a few large sand-crabs. Also snagged a modest yank flattie,
horse mackerel and a nice trevally. The trev was the most golden-coloured silver trevally I've ever seen,
the photos don't really do it justice.
A nice mixed bag...
The next day the wind had abated, but the water was still murky and weedy. I was planning on heading
out around the end of Cape Woolamai, but the swell was still a bit on the large side. As I was passing
Red Point I noticed a pod of dolphins in the distance, so headed over for a look.
It took some damn determined pedalling to catch up to them, even though they were heading away at
a fairly leisurely pace. I was about 70m behind them and fast running out of steam, when I decided to
see if I could attract their attention by lightly tapping on the hull of the yak - I was amazed that they
actually turned around and came over to investigate.
There were about 25-30 in total and they seemed to be fascinated by the flapping pedals of the mirage
drive as they passed under the yak, turning on their sides so they could get a good look. They didn't
seem troubled as I pedalled along and it was an amazing experience to be escorted by them. There
were also 3 or 4 fur seals tagging along. Not sure what they were chasing - I didn't have any lures in
the water and was having too much fun to be bothered with fishing. I took a few shaky photos and
some very wobbly video too...
Nice fins...
Surrounded!
It was also very satisfying when a stink boat passed by (about 100m away) and as soon as the dolphins
heard the motor, they turned away and headed back over to escort my kayak...
After the excitement of the dolphins I settled down and did a bit of bait-fishing. I tried a few spots,
in water up to 8m deep. Had plenty of big wrasse, a few decent leatherjackets and the odd fat toadie.
I also picked up a 60cm pike as I trolled my way back to the beach.
Setting sun on Saturday...
Sunday morning came around and the wind was howling from the NW. I made a half-hearted trip out
to see if it was possible to make a sojourn around the end of the Cape, but it was far too lumpy. The
water had also been whipped up into another massive cauldron of sea-grass soup, so trolling was next
to impossible.
Not the fishiest session, but the chance of pedalling with the dolphins more than made up for it.
Cheers,
Mike.
