[WhipperSnapper]

hey everybody,

Took a friend out on the kayaks yesterday in what was 20+ knots of wind. Luckily we were prepared with drogues to slow our drifts down. We decided to fish an evening session and first cast, flick flick tap nothing. Wait what. pulled in my line to find my loop knot cut as clean as you look. for the second trip in a row I get bitten off as clean as anything. Mackerel tailor? anyway retie plastic of choice was gulp can't remember what the color name was green with cream color. keep casting while waiting for our guest a newbie to kayak fishing he owns a tandem hobie quest? (not sure the model) and AdrianK was fishing in his tandem with him while I fished out of the hobie outback. anyway after 10 minutes or so met them on the water and hooked something small as soon as they arrived before dropping it (hooked on zman minnowz in pearl blue glimmer).

moved along and started another drift picked up small tailor pike and bream and for about half an hour you could not get through them every cast pike pike Pike!. To top it off AdrianK caught what we believe was a barracuda, or the biggest pike EVER.

I headed back to start another drift and finally the pike went off the bite and immediately you could tell the snapper moved in :twisted: . Bang the fun begins! There were small runs every few casts and what felt like barely legal squire, nothing connected and it was beginning to get a tad frustrating. drifted into towards AdrianK and found out he had pulled a 43 cm estuary cod (gold-spot?) Quite a pretty fish and strong. I love their tails .

Anyway stuck with them for a while seems like all the luck was with them. I said before how the fun began... I lied the bite turned on with them. Our guest was using a zman streaks in watermelon and he hooked a big snapper :shock: This fish took line at will and at speed, he eventually stopped him and actually started to get him in and then Poof, its all over fish gone. We told him that's how us kayak fisherman get hooked :lol: considering he had just bought a kayak he was happy to see it going to good use hooking fish like that. It was pretty clear to us what that was, Big mean snapper. We were all using bream gear and 10-12 lb leader so a big snapper can do some damage (big in our terms is 50-60 cm fish and this fish looked bigger then that). We moved on before AdrianK hooked up again and to something strong and had some decent weight. Once again he pulled an estuary cod even bigger this time :shock: whats going on?!?! another incredibly pretty fish this one around 45-46 cm. These are some powerful fish 0.o

Moved another 50 meters and called it the last drift. Then finally success... my reel starts screaming and I'm left holding on as again snapper takes line at will. Eventually the fish turns his head and it becomes a sea-saw. I gain 5 meters he takes 10 i gain 10 meters he takes 15. I start to win some line and it becomes stalemate, nothings happening just angler V snapper after a few anxious minutes I get him on-board not as big as I would have expected but still my biggest for some time and you can't wipe the grin off my face :mrgreen: Put him on the lie detector and he measured 46 cm, That's all ?!?! My smile from ear to ear isn't going anywhere though. Anyway back to the fishing we still had a bit of drift next cast snag, oh well pull in the drift drogue and turned to get the snag when zzzz tang! Quick as that. Before people say no it was definitely snagged before and then we believe either another cod or big sweetlip took it off the snag and went straight back through the reef. it was pitch black by then and i wasn't going to stuff around tying a leader knot in 20+ knot wind in pitch black with just a kayak light and a headlamp. So we called it and headed back.

The tally for the day-
A thousand pike
barracuda
3 easily legal bream (all released)
fingermark
a 34.9999999 cm squire
2 40-50cm cod
mid 40's snapper

Our guest managed to catch everything but a legal snapper, at-least he hooked a big snapper.

 

[BIGKEV]

Sounds like a top sesh WS. Sometimes those squire fight well above their weight, I've often been surprised by some fish thinking they were much bigger.

Kev

 

[kayakone]

Sounds like a top sesh WS. Sometimes those squire fight well above their weight, I've often been surprised by some fish thinking they were much bigger.

Kev

X 2 WS. Even Beekeeper continues to remark that he thought it was a 60, and it comes in at 48 cms. They are always a good fight, but sometimes are phenomenal for the actual size. You did very well in the conditions.

BTW, apart from pike being excellent bait, maybe you can eat them. They are closely related to the 'snook' of southern states, which are highly prized for their flavour. You can also eat longtoms, but CAUTION, as they are full of fine bones down to the anus. I keep only from the anus to the tail, this section having a regular bony structure, and can be filleted without risk of fine bones. That is delicious flesh.

 

[GlenelgKiller]

Great report. Well done!

 

[spork]

Sounds like a great little sesh.
Your mate will be keen to get back out.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Squidley]

Sounds like you had a blast with a nice variety of species. Ruggers/squire on bream gear is really fun.

Solatree posted a good thread about snook (short finned pike) and (long finned) pike here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=51671

I have heard from Ado and Mingle (I think) that long finned pike can be OK to eat if you skin the fillets. I'd be surprised if you found snook in Queensland.

 

[kayakone]

Sounds like you had a blast with a nice variety of species. Ruggers/squire on bream gear is really fun.

Solatree posted a good thread about snook (short finned pike) and (long finned) pike here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=51671

I have heard from Ado and Mingle (I think) that long finned pike can be OK to eat if you skin the fillets. I'd be surprised if you found snook in Queensland.

No snook here Squidley, but they are closely related to the pike here. Here they are called called yellowfin, yellowfin pike, or striped sea pike, but are not big (though they can reach 55 cms). They are frequently around 25 - 30 cms, so little risk of ciguatera (their much bigger cousins, the barracuda, are at risk of carrying this in temperate to tropical waters).

They are supposedly fabulous bait for anything... quoting Grants "Sea Pike are an unmatched trolled bait for really large mackerel." Also Snapper and tailor I have heard, in fact almost anything.

Next one I get I'll try eating it.

 

[Thegaff]

I rather like pike smoked, still warm straight out of the smoker is amazing.

 

[kayakone]

WS

I forgot to say that the Estuary Cod are excellent eating.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Sounds like a top sesh WS. Sometimes those squire fight well above their weight, I've often been surprised by some fish thinking they were much bigger.

Kev

X 2 WS. Even Beekeeper continues to remark that he thought it was a 60, and it comes in at 48 cms. They are always a good fight, but sometimes are phenomenal for the actual size. You did very well in the conditions.

BTW, apart from pike being excellent bait, maybe you can eat them. They are closely related to the 'snook' of southern states, which are highly prized for their flavour. You can also eat longtoms, but CAUTION, as they are full of fine bones down to the anus. I keep only from the anus to the tail, this section having a regular bony structure, and can be filleted without risk of fine bones. That is delicious flesh.

firstly, I agree 100% about the snapper fighting well above their weight. Something else interesting I've noticed is that some schools of snapper fight harder then others. I don't know if you'll agree. The story is when fishing one session I caught a few just legal snapper that didn't do that much damage didn't take any line just a bit of weight and some head-shakes (released). Then the next day at a different location we found an identical school of snapper same size same gear, but these fish fought much harder taking line using their body in the current and fought like seemingly much larger fish. My theory is that the different location, depth, structure, current, had an effect on the snapper. Thoughts?

With the pike we have never kept pike unless we wanted crab pot bait, Interesting thought about keeping pike, probably to smelly and stinky for my liking

 

[kayakone]

BTW, apart from pike being excellent bait, maybe you can eat them. They are closely related to the 'snook' of southern states, which are highly prized for their flavour. You can also eat longtoms, but CAUTION, as they are full of fine bones down to the anus. I keep only from the anus to the tail, this section having a regular bony structure, and can be filleted without risk of fine bones. That is delicious flesh.

With the pike we have never kept pike unless we wanted crab pot bait, Interesting thought about keeping pike, probably too smelly and stinky for my liking

Estuary (mud) flathead are very slimy, but they cook fine after a rinse. Similarly blue catfish (but flatties are superior). I've spoken to a yachtie who was sheltering from howling Northerlies for three days near Rooney's Point, Fraser Island. He and his lady couldn't catch anything but grinners, which are very slimy, so they tried one. He said they were (surprisingly) good.

You might be surprised about the pike WS . Give one a go...I certainly will with the next one I catch.

 

[AJD]

Well done Josh. I'm having fishing withdrawals down south. Will have to come up and fish with you guys soon. Al