Hit the water well before first light… couldn't see any of my markers, so was fishing blind for a while.
Thought I'd troll for jew for short period, but that didn't reduce the jew-fish population at all, so had just begun a drift for snapper when a stinkie quietly motored up beside me and much to my amusement (?) literally threw the anchor over, followed by the rattle of chain.
That kind of decided me regards staying in the area… I paddled closer, then banged my paddle about 20 times against the yak, then paddled to places far off! My thoughts process produced this… if noise attracts the fish, then my extra noise would really help the nice fellow in the stinkie, and I'd let him catch all the snapper that it produced… I'll just leave him to it. ;-)
I really am a thoughtful bloke, eh? :lol:
So, some kilometres away, I found another likely spot, and almost immediately the over-head outfit tore off, giving me the definite impression of big fish on!
However… the fight settled down and became quite dogged and extremely strong, and regards to bringing it to the surface, immovable. Big fish, my arse! This is a turtle… and a big one!
Greg, a newbie kayaker I've met a couple of times recently, had come into view and was interested regards my bent rod… I told him what I thought it was, and he reckoned that perhaps I should stop using jelly-fish as bait. I wasn't nearly as amused as Greg seemed to be, but it was funny, really. :lol:
A short while later, it surfaced and yep, big dark-coloured flippered thing, so at the first opportunity, I cut the line and began retying new leader to braid.
Greg moved off to do his own thing, and another kayaker approached… this was BeeJay, I think from Noosa Yakkers… Trev had told me that he probably would be in the area today, and this was our first meeting.
As he approached, I caught a small tailor that didn't appreciate my fumbling attempts at releasing him and bit me on the palm of my left hand. Of course, I very gently slipped him back into the briny, (perhaps not so gently) and went about stopping the bleeding.
Damp hands don't take very well to gauze tape, so had to use a band-aid type to get some adhesion… didn't work all that well either, but parts of it stuck, so better than nothing.
I chatted for a while with BJ, then decided that this spot wasn't really appealing to me anymore, so headed off for places in the region of Redcliffe North. I tarried at another spot on the way, and after an extremely slow drift, hooked a 65cm snapper.
Truly, I really like people… but the two blokes in a tinnie that saw me hook that fish, up-anchored and zoomed over to where I hooked it, and heaved the anchor over… they really didn't endear themselves to me at all.
After I took a photo of the snapper, measured and released it, I paddled closer to them and told them that their action was the epitome of bad taste, plus some other terse comments, then vacated the area.
Paddling past Shield St Reef, I noticed there was a couple in a two man kayak and four in a craft I couldn't describe properly… looked something like a canoe, definitely not a kayak… could have been a dinghy, but I know it had four in it, (with not a lot of free-board) I think one adult and three youngsters. Anyway… they were really close to where I wanted to fish, so I just by-passed them and headed off to Redcliffe Point.
I dropped two fish on the way, (think they were tailor) and trolled on right down to the Lifesavers' Hut and back to where the old marker buoy used to be… attempted a drift there for a while, but the bite was so furious, I almost dozed off. I noted that my drift had taken me absolutely nowhere, so completely enthused, I wound in the two lines and trolled back North, picking up another tiny tailor on the way… I treated this little feller with heaps more respect than I did the first one. ;-)
As I passed the Redcliffe Jetty and Its protective rock wall, I picked up the company of another yakker called Matt. This was his first time at Redcliffe, so he tagged along with me as I trolled North. He told me that although there was no structure showing on his sounder, he was seeing some largish fish.
Normally that would be enough to have me doing a drift over the area, but my enthusiasm had waned terribly and no… it's getting to around mid-day, and I'm going home. Matt decided on tarrying in the area, so we parted company.
Matt called out then that he'd found some interesting bumps and bait-fish as well, so that explained why the bigger fish were in the vicinity. Go for it Matt!
Awa' hame, Jimmy!
Thought I'd troll for jew for short period, but that didn't reduce the jew-fish population at all, so had just begun a drift for snapper when a stinkie quietly motored up beside me and much to my amusement (?) literally threw the anchor over, followed by the rattle of chain.
That kind of decided me regards staying in the area… I paddled closer, then banged my paddle about 20 times against the yak, then paddled to places far off! My thoughts process produced this… if noise attracts the fish, then my extra noise would really help the nice fellow in the stinkie, and I'd let him catch all the snapper that it produced… I'll just leave him to it. ;-)
I really am a thoughtful bloke, eh? :lol:
So, some kilometres away, I found another likely spot, and almost immediately the over-head outfit tore off, giving me the definite impression of big fish on!
However… the fight settled down and became quite dogged and extremely strong, and regards to bringing it to the surface, immovable. Big fish, my arse! This is a turtle… and a big one!
Greg, a newbie kayaker I've met a couple of times recently, had come into view and was interested regards my bent rod… I told him what I thought it was, and he reckoned that perhaps I should stop using jelly-fish as bait. I wasn't nearly as amused as Greg seemed to be, but it was funny, really. :lol:
A short while later, it surfaced and yep, big dark-coloured flippered thing, so at the first opportunity, I cut the line and began retying new leader to braid.
Greg moved off to do his own thing, and another kayaker approached… this was BeeJay, I think from Noosa Yakkers… Trev had told me that he probably would be in the area today, and this was our first meeting.
As he approached, I caught a small tailor that didn't appreciate my fumbling attempts at releasing him and bit me on the palm of my left hand. Of course, I very gently slipped him back into the briny, (perhaps not so gently) and went about stopping the bleeding.
Damp hands don't take very well to gauze tape, so had to use a band-aid type to get some adhesion… didn't work all that well either, but parts of it stuck, so better than nothing.
I chatted for a while with BJ, then decided that this spot wasn't really appealing to me anymore, so headed off for places in the region of Redcliffe North. I tarried at another spot on the way, and after an extremely slow drift, hooked a 65cm snapper.
Truly, I really like people… but the two blokes in a tinnie that saw me hook that fish, up-anchored and zoomed over to where I hooked it, and heaved the anchor over… they really didn't endear themselves to me at all.
After I took a photo of the snapper, measured and released it, I paddled closer to them and told them that their action was the epitome of bad taste, plus some other terse comments, then vacated the area.
Paddling past Shield St Reef, I noticed there was a couple in a two man kayak and four in a craft I couldn't describe properly… looked something like a canoe, definitely not a kayak… could have been a dinghy, but I know it had four in it, (with not a lot of free-board) I think one adult and three youngsters. Anyway… they were really close to where I wanted to fish, so I just by-passed them and headed off to Redcliffe Point.
I dropped two fish on the way, (think they were tailor) and trolled on right down to the Lifesavers' Hut and back to where the old marker buoy used to be… attempted a drift there for a while, but the bite was so furious, I almost dozed off. I noted that my drift had taken me absolutely nowhere, so completely enthused, I wound in the two lines and trolled back North, picking up another tiny tailor on the way… I treated this little feller with heaps more respect than I did the first one. ;-)
As I passed the Redcliffe Jetty and Its protective rock wall, I picked up the company of another yakker called Matt. This was his first time at Redcliffe, so he tagged along with me as I trolled North. He told me that although there was no structure showing on his sounder, he was seeing some largish fish.
Normally that would be enough to have me doing a drift over the area, but my enthusiasm had waned terribly and no… it's getting to around mid-day, and I'm going home. Matt decided on tarrying in the area, so we parted company.
Matt called out then that he'd found some interesting bumps and bait-fish as well, so that explained why the bigger fish were in the vicinity. Go for it Matt!
Awa' hame, Jimmy!
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