Mooloolaba
| Date: | 13th January 2007 |
| Time: | 5:00am - 10:30am |
| Tide: | Low at 9:46am (Mooloolaba) |
| Launch site: | Mooloolaba Beach |
| Water temperature: | n/a |
| Lures/baits used: | Bait and Hard Bodied Lures |
| Report: | The spot off Point Cartwright where we have had most success is around 8 metres deep so I was towing a 125mm Scorpion that dives to 5-6 metres and keeping a close eye on my sounder. A few arches showed and as my lure passed through the zone I picked up a 42cm Squire. I continued trolling around the area, and further out as well, but despite seeing the occasional fish on the sounder couldn't get another one. |
| Meanwhile, Ross was drifting unweighted Pilchards at around the same depth and by the time we decided we'd had enough had released a small Sweetlip and kept a 40cm Squire and 41cm Sweetlip. I tried the same thing using Pike for bait with no success. | |
| I decided to troll the Scorpion on the way back to the beach and as I went past the surf beach my line went off. Ross was some distance ahead of me and hadn't seen me hook-up so I tried calling him on the VHF radio but he didn't hear, so I stowed my gear and settled in to work on this fish. | |
| At this stage the fish had over 100 metres of line out so I tightened up on the drag and got it towing the kayak. | |
| In the early phase of the fight the biggest problem was line stretch making it difficult to regain line. After half an hour I began making some gains, however I had now been towed about 3km offshore. | |
| I felt I was beginning to get the upper-hand as it was easier to regain line. I got the fish to within six metres and just beneath the surface. This was enough to confirm my suspicion that I'd hooked a shark at least two metres long. It started heading back to shore and I thought "beauty! I can hitch a ride before I cut it free". However the shark had other ideas and swung around my bow and headed back out to sea. Line was peeling off the reel as the kayak picked up speed and I realised the fish still had plenty in reserve. A quick flick of my knife against the taut line and the shark and I went our seperate ways. | |
| It took another 35 minutes to paddle back to the beach where Ross was wondering what had become of me. | |
| Submitted by: | Tony |
| Date: | 14th October 2006 |
| Time: | 6:15am - 9:30am |
| Tide: | Low at 7:05am (Mooloolaba) |
| Launch site: | Mooloolaba Beach |
| Water temperature: | n/a |
| Lures/baits used: | Pilchards, Garfish, and Hard Bodied Lures |
| Report: | Launch was a bit later than we would have liked owing to having had a couple of late shifts at work. Although no birds could be seen working the area I trolled a F-18 while my Gars thawed then switched to trolling a Gar on ganged hooks with a pink squid skirt over the top. I trolled an area one to two kilometres off Point Cartwright to no avail. |
| Schools of fish occassionally "boiled" the surface although none jumped to give us a good look at them. One school surfaced close to Ross and he later commented that they may have been juvenile Queenfish, but couldn't be certain. I paddled over one school just after they dived and the sounder showed a solid mass of fish from the sea floor (13 metres) to 5 below the surface. Unfortunately, there were no larger arches showing. | |
| While I was doing this, Ross had a plan! He had stayed in closer - about one kilometre off the point - and drifted unweigted Pilchards. This resulted in several good runs and three Squire landed. | |
| I tried the same with my Garfish, but couldn't get any lookers. Ross also tried one of my Gars after he'd used his last Pillie, but it was also ignored. It appears that on this day they only wanted Pillies. | |
| I'm glad to say the day didn't go all Ross's way. He landed before me and was waiting with camera poised to capture my tumble in the surf. I felt a larger wave building and tried to get it to pass under me but it picked me up. When I felt the first hint that I was about to go sideways, I leant back and was able to ride the wave in to shore without mishap. Better luck next time Ross! | |
| Submitted by: | Tony |
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| Date: | 19th November 2005 |
| Time: | 4:45am - 7:00am |
| Tide: | Low at 3:08am (Mooloolaba) |
| Launch site: | Mooloolaba Beach |
| Water temperature: | 24°C |
| Lures/baits used: | Skirted Pilchards, Live Baits, and Hard Bodied Lures |
| Report: | When I arrived at the launch site at 4:45am, Ross was already set up at the water's edge but helped me carry my kayak down before he headed out trolling a skirted pillie. I quickly rigged up and paddled over to the rock wall at the river mouth to jig some livebait. Thirty seconds later I had a Herring which soon found itself being slow trolled on a two-hook snelled rig. |
| At around 5:30am I heard a guy in a passing boat say "looks like that bloke's into something" and looked over my shoulder to see Ross, with a bent rod, being towed one way, then another, then round and round in circles. I paddled over to witness the action. The fish was circling down deep, and it was several more minutes before Ross finally landed a 90cm, 6.5kg Mack Tuna. | |
| After the photos and congratulations I wound in to check my own bait before continuing trolling. Just after 6:00am my bait went off with a solid run. I pumped and wound as the fish went for several more runs before settling in to a deep circling pattern. At this stage I thought it was most likely another Tuna, but when I got my first glimpse I called it as a Mackerel. A couple of minutes later I landed a nice 77cm Spotted Mackerel. | |
| Ross continued trolling a pilchard while I switched over to a 9cm Scorpion as I'd only kept the one live bait. However, we had no more takers so headed back in, satisfied with the fish we had. | |
| There had been the occasional splash of fish on the surface throughout the morning and there were flocks of Terns about but they seemed more interested in hanging around the couple of trawlers that were in the area. | |
| Back on shore we created quite a bit of interest among the early morning beach-goers who were full of questions about what we'd caught, how far out did we go. The classic was one woman who asked "Are those REAL fish?"!!! | |
| Submitted by: | Tony |
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| Date: | 24th October 2005 |
| Time: | 5:30am - 8:30am |
| Tide: | Low at 5:48am (Mooloolaba) |
| Launch site: | Mooloolaba Beach |
| Water temperature: | 23°C |
| Lures/baits used: | Hard Bodied Lures and Skirted Pilchards |
| Report: | Conditions were quite flat as we launched. Ross headed straight out while I went out around Point Cartwright. It wasn't long before I saw small Tuna leaping and busting up on the surface. As I got in the general area I found myself in the middle of a couple of acres of jellyfish. Many of the jellyfish were acting like miniature FADs for schools of small baitfish from 2 to 4cm long. I suspect that these baitfish were what the Tuna were feeding on and I couldn't interest them in my larger lures. |
| I headed back over to where Ross was fishing to learn that he had caught and released a Squire. As we were talking, Ross hooked up again. After several spirited runs, Ross finally gaffed an 80cm Spotted Mackerel. | |
| Small Tuna continued to taunt us as they smashed the surface all around us but refused all our offerings. | |
| We finally decided to head in and it looked as if I was going to end the session fishless when the gold 9cm RMG Scorpion I was trolling was hit. A short fight saw a small School Mackerel (estimated 40cm) being released to do some more growing. | |
| Submitted by: | Tony |
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| Date: | 24th September 2005 |
| Time: | 6:00am - 8:00am |
| Tide: | Low at 5:36am (Mooloolaba) |
| Launch site: | Mooloolaba Beach |
| Water temperature: | 20°C |
| Lures/baits used: | Hard Bodied Lures and Skirted Pilchards |
| Report: | Ross was already on the water when I arrived at the beach but it wasn't long before I was paddling through the small shore break to join him. Being our first time at Mooloolaba, this was largely an exploratory trip and a "shake-down" voyage for Ross to get some of his new gear settled in. |
| After seeing a few small splashes of baitfish near the rockwall we trolled the area but had no result. Next plan was to head across the river mouth and troll around the front of Point Cartwright. I trolled in closer to the rocks, while Ross paddled out wider. | |
| I soon had a strike that turned ot to be a Pike. It was quite a solid little fish and, at about 38cm long by 4cm thick, was larger than the Pike I usually get. After a quick release it was back to paddling again. | |
| Although there was only a small swell, it was getting quite confused with the wakes of passing charter boats, so we headed back to troll around the shark nets. Still no action so I headed over towards the rocks at the western end of the beach, where I'd seen a boat working earlier. The bottom here is rock interspersed with sand patches and I was hoping to find a Flathead in one of the sand patches but my plan didn't work. | |
| Ross was happy with the way his gear was working, we'd had a look at the area in preparation for the coming Summer, and decided to head home. It was while paddling back to the launch site, in about 4m of water over a sandy bottom, that I had a strike on my gold 9cm RMG Scorpion. A spirited fight resulted in a nice 38cm Squire, and I now had the evening meal. | |
| Submitted by: | Tony |
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