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Thread: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

  1. #1

    Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    Hey Gents,

    Just spent a magic week up at Fraser Island staying in Waddy Lodge with a group of like minded nutcases like me who paddle their kayaks out into open waters chasing pelagics. We had a great trip and scored near perfect weather with fishing opportunities every day and got out before it all blew up this week. There were 13 of us in the house and everybody caught fish at some point with a few getting cricket scores for the week. My best from the yak was a 13kg Spanish, but this was toped by another that went 15kg by one of the other blokes. The best fish for the week was 1.3m kingfish (no weight recorded). This fish had to be freespooled a number of times during the fight as it had 3 sharks hot on its heels and free spooling allowed it to get away briefly enough to be landed.

    Sharks were prevalent and there were plenty of sightings but generally they aren't interested in 5m+ kayaks but a few guys carry shark shield devices for piece of mind. We would paddle baits out each night to tangle with sharks off the beach and one night a Spanish mackerel launched inside the gutter less than 10ft from the paddler and was promptly set upon by 2 bullies leaving him out there with a massive cloud of blood in the water, but as I said, the sharks aren't interested in biting a 5m piece of fibreglass so we were pretty safe really

    Most launches were from the Marloo bay area including straight out in front of Orchid to fish the wreck of the Marloo, down at Ngkala rocks or simply from the boat gutter and fish the area between Waddy and Indian which probably ended up the most productive.

    Highlight of the trip for me was landing a Spanish from the beach whilst targeting sharks in the afternoons. It was a cracking fish that went 16kg on the scales.

    I've attached a vid my mate took with a gopro as he was running down the beach to where the fish had come in through the gutter. It's a classic, hope you enjoy.



    Kev

  2. #2

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    Thats a seriously excitable cameraman you have there!!

  3. #3

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    That commentary is gold.
    Mind you, I am know to get a big excited too...

  4. #4

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    Couple of stats for those interested:

    15 anglers for the first 3 days and then 13 anglers for the remainder of the week caught:

    30 x Longtail Tuna
    1 x Yellowfin Tuna
    15 x Spanish Mackerel
    14 x Spotted Mackerel
    7 x School Mackerel
    5 x Shark Mackerel
    14 x Mac Tuna
    2 x Yellow Tail Kingfish
    3 x Sharks
    2 x Cod
    2 x Goat Fish
    1 x Giant Herring
    1 x MILF (Mother In Law Fish) aka painted sweetlip

    Many of these released, but enough kept so that everybody took home a good feed.

    All except one Spanish and one shark caught from kayaks fishing within 4klm of beach.

    On arrival at the lodge we were told the fishing had been shithouse and not to expect to catch much. The problem there was they were either talking about beach fishermen or boaties who took off for the horizon. The yaks fished the near shore zone or what most boaties would class as bait reefs, but if there is bait, predators won't be far away and we were capitalising on this.

    Kev

  5. #5

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    OMG what a week !

    Selling my boat

  6. #6

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    Nice one mate! I dodged a few of you lads bringing the boat in last Friday! Looks like you were all having a great time. I like to target the close in reefs too just off Indian and Waddy, never know what you will pull up!

  7. #7

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    Quote Originally Posted by GM-Bluewater View Post
    Nice one mate! I dodged a few of you lads bringing the boat in last Friday! Looks like you were all having a great time. I like to target the close in reefs too just off Indian and Waddy, never know what you will pull up!
    Yep we really lucked it with the weather.

    Have a look at the screen shots of Seabreeze from the day we arrived (excellent forecast) to the day we left, (oh shit I didn't bring enough beer forecast)

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Will be back up to Footsteps again for Sept school holidays again this year too.

  8. #8

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    I have a mate who has dragged his boat up there this week.
    Poor bugger will probably bring it home without it going in the water.

  9. #9
    Ausfish Silver Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    ALBANY CREEK

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    Hey JC,

    Great report- loved it. Thank you.

    What type of yaks generally prevail for that type of stuff?

    kind regards,

    Lew

  10. #10

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    Gold!!!!!!! Gold tank! :-)

  11. #11

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    Quote Originally Posted by pegasus View Post
    Hey JC,

    Great report- loved it. Thank you.

    What type of yaks generally prevail for that type of stuff?

    kind regards,

    Lew
    Nearly all of us were using Stealth kayaks. These are imported from South Africa, the only exception was a Clarkski, but these are also a South African Import. Australian Kayak Specialists down at Yatala are the only local importer but I think he distributes to a couple of other shops around the place too. These yaks are fibreglass rather than rotomouled plastic and in the vicinity of 5m in length and custom built for this type of scenario. I would not recommend on the cheap chinese ebay plastic yaks that a lot of punters are jumping on board nowadays.

  12. #12
    Ausfish Silver Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    ALBANY CREEK

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    Thanks JC, I have seen those stealths - look awesome. Think I ll have to start saving or sell the big boat

  13. #13

    Re: Spanish Mackerel with sand between the toes

    My video of the trip.


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