queensland The Adventures of YoYo : Yak Mack Attack

[yoyo]

Well boys & girls, after one attempt at a Mackeral in the Hobie at Palm Reef and one aborted attempt at hitting up Cook Island down in NSW, the stars aligned on saturday for good conditions up on the Sunshine Coast for a beach launch.

After reading up over on AKFF about there still being some good Macks around in Laguna Bay, i decided to launch at the rock wall on Main Beach, Noosa.

After 30mins sleep in I hit the water at about 0630 alongside some other local Yak fishos who just happened to be launching at the same time.

They were most likely heading out to sunshine reef or around the head to A Bay, but I could see a heap of birds working not far to the left of my launch spot and several boats descending in on the action, so decided to head over there first and see what the deal was.

Trolled an X-Rap and a gold deep Killalure while on the way over but didn't get any interest. As I approached some boats that looked to have lost a school (judging by the standing around and scratching of heads :laugh: ), there was a huge bust-up about 15m to my left so I quickly retrieved the X-Rap and flung it into the fray, as i hadnt rigged up my casting rod with a slug yet !

No interest in the larger HB so quickly rigged up a slug on the Lemax Blue Mountain coupled with a Tierra 3000 and 10lb Nitlon and let it rip....

First cast...wind wind wind thump...ZZzZZZZZZZZZZZ....nothing...bite off! Sh*t i was dirty...

Wind in and looks like one of his mates has had a swipe at the leader knot after I had his buddy hooked up, as the bite-off was right up there ! :dry:

Thought 'Puck this', put on a wire trace and sent out a new slug into a boil-up about 30m away...wind wind..thock..ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Bit of a strange fight and figured I had foul-hooked something, which turned out to be the case. Technically my first Mack in the Yak, but i disqualify myself on the spot due to it being undersize AND foul-hooked!

After this things got quiet, there were still massive bust-ups all over the place, huge schools of hardy heads getting working over by some pretty solid sized mackeral, but the Macks were being super picky. Chatted to a couple of boaties and they were finding the same thing...

Fortunately i had packed some bait with me and one thing, purely by chance, were some fresh hardy heads !

Re-rigged a rod with a 5/0 O'Shaunessey and popped on a Hardy Head, then stalked a few small boils that looked promising... then right in front of me and another small boat the HH's went nuts and these big macks started towelling them up something shocking, it was like a warzone all around me...! :woohoo:

Quickly flicked the HH into the fray, counted to 3..then flick flick with the rod tip and whack :ohmy: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzzzz...the Abu Cardinal lit-up and started howling away :woohoo:

The first run was an absolute ball-tearer, i was getting owned...

Applied a bit more pressure and he didnt like that at all and took off again, i was doing circles iin the yak trying to keep the rod & line angles good for leverage and pressure and the adrenaline was really pumping!

The water was so clear i got a look at the fish earlier than you normally would and could see it was a pretty solid Mack, then the fish saw the yak and took off again at a rapid rate of knots.

I knew i needed the fish to be a bit tired as i was netting it and not gaffing it (no gaff), and a green Mackeral in a net in a kayak is probably not covered by MBF!

Got the fish Yakside and it was a ripper, had the net ready but he saw it and flicked away at the last second, missed! ffaaaaaarrrrrrkkk!

Popped the rod in the Scotty, loosened the drag a bit and grabbed the 60lb leader with spare hand and pulled the head back around to the net....IN !

Official first Mack in the Yak ! Coulda heard the Whoots down at the MBC i reckon, i was pumped!

Went 75cms on the lie detector

On a Berkley Dropshot IM7, Abu Cardinal 604ALB, Suffix 20lb braid, Jinkai 60lb leader.

The action went on for another few hours, with things getting quiet for 10mins, then going nuts for 15mins. The fish were super picky all morning, probably because there were so many huge schools of baitfish around.

I ran out of hardy heads so switch to spinning small slugs around with good results.

I had to ditch the wire trace though because the water was so clear and the Macks so picky, they just wouldnt touch it, so went with a 60lb leader which did they job.

Ended up landing about 10 more macks, all in the 45-50cm range, there were some much bigger ones around, you could see them almost launch out of the water and also cruising around underneath you :silly:

So as the morning panned out, i probably only ever got 1km down the beach from my launch site and no more than 500m off the beach at any time, but LOT'S of pedalling chasing down schools !

It had been a big day already, but on the way home I decided to pop in to Boggy Creek for a little speculator around the low tide.

Picked up a few small flatties on HB's and also got molested and bitten off by something with substance on a gold Daiwa SC Shiner.

Could see some panicky baitfish about 60m away from where i was in slightly deeper water so decided to troll over an SX48 and take a look.

I wouldn't have gone more then 10m, had only just finished feeding out the SX48 and still had the rod in my hand when i felt this heavy thud like i had caught a loose snag or a big clump of weed.....stopped pedalling and turned back on it while lifting the rod tip up to apply pressure and the fish has realised it's hooked and done a bolt!

This thing had a motor on it and was really giving me some stick with fast strong runs and some head shaking, then it launches out of the water ! BIG flathead ! :ohmy: :woohoo:

Took another 5 or so very nervous minutes to get it to the net on the 6lb fireline with 10lb leader

Finally in the yak and she must have REALLY liked the look of that SX48 !

I could tell this was an easy PB and prob not far off from being oversize, but there was no way i could control the fish well enough to extracate the lure from down that deep while in the yak, so i pedalled over to the bank and went to work trying to save the fish for a release.

There was a bit of gill bleeding but not too bad and after a couple of tries i thought i was going to have to turn the lights out on this big girl, but gave it the good ol' "just one more try.." and got the lure out !

A quick snap on the In-Field lie detector and 70cms she went...

Spent the next 5 mins swimming the fish around in the shallows and she started to get a bit of movement, then let her loose and she swam a little bit but then was content to just rest in the shallows. Left her there and leaded back to the car to complete a pretty good days fishing in my books !

Thanks for reading

YoYo

[Old Scaley]

Great report, Yo Yo. Should win a prize for diversity. Not too many could say they caught macks off Noosa and flatty in Boggy Creek on the same day. Great photos too.

[Keen-as-fisho]

Good to see your change in luck mate. I am looking forward to getting my first speed demon on the yak. Good going on the flatty too, thats gotta be the biggest caught outta boggy, generally see them at around 60ish, congrats.

[Davo_Dinkum]

Old Scaley wrote:

Great report, Yo Yo. Should win a prize for diversity. Not too many could say they caught macks off Noosa and flatty in Boggy Creek on the same day. Great photos too.

i second that .

nice 1

a big day out and some nice fish to boot .

good report and a top read .

i was think of heading over to boggy after the mbc .

just so we could actually get a few fish and a feed ,but i was to knackered and headed straight home instead .

[Davo_Dinkum]

Keen-as-fisho wrote:

Good to see your change in luck mate. I am looking forward to getting my first speed demon on the yak. Good going on the flatty too, thats gotta be the biggest caught outta boggy, generally see them at around 60ish, congrats.

nah

i reckon there a few 70's getting about boggy .

bro got 1 70 a few weeks ago .

it looks 69 ish in the pic i took at home ,but by then it was dead ,curled .

but it was 71 when i put it on the mat while we where out there.

when i took dagz out there one time he got a 70 flatty and have heard seen a few out peeps get 70's from there .

no 70 for me yet ,only the 50's to 60's.

[nadders]

great fishin yoyo, would have been a good tow on the yak

cheers

Dan

[rosstralia46]

top work mate great days fishin :laugh:

[Keen-as-fisho]

Davo_Dinkum wrote:

Keen-as-fisho wrote:

Good to see your change in luck mate. I am looking forward to getting my first speed demon on the yak. Good going on the flatty too, thats gotta be the biggest caught outta boggy, generally see them at around 60ish, congrats.

nah

i reckon there a few 70's getting about boggy .

bro got 1 70 a few weeks ago .

it looks 69 ish in the pic i took at home ,but by then it was dead ,curled .

but it was 71 when i put it on the mat while we where out there.

when i took dagz out there one time he got a 70 flatty and have heard seen a few out peeps get 70's from there .

no 70 for me yet ,only the 50's to 60's.

I ment to say was his was the first I'd seen out of boggy ck at 70cm. I bet theres some bigger flatties in there but they'd be switched on to our tactics

[Davo_Dinkum]

hehe

true that

them the sneaky flathead

[Angus]

Well done mate!

Some great fish there!

Thanks for the text today as well

Angus

[yoyo]

Thanks guys. It was my last chance for a Mack this season as I am outta here on holidays and over to the cayman islands for a week as part of it.

Bring on the sailfish and assorted madness !

[dan25]

Awesome stuff mate, what an awesome days fishin, Congratz on the pb flatty

[Scope]

Well done mate, great report and great fish as well. Congrats on the first and p.b(s)

[tugger]

well done yoyo on your first mack on a yak just a tip if your not using wire while throwing slugs or towing lures you don't have to use a heavy leader because if the teeth get to any line other than wire it will be snipped off. i normally tie slugs straight to the main line and most times they come up behind it and grab the hooks from behind while spinning and get more hits rather than use heavy fluro and the fish seeing it. another if keeping a mack cut the throat and bleed it then wet bag it if you don't have the esky or kill tank to make a slurry and fit them in, alot of yak guys take a old potato sack or large pillow case and dunk it then throw the fish and some frozen water in milk bottles after bleeding this will dramatically improve the flesh of the fish rather than let them dry out and kepp it wet till you get back to fillet them

mark

[Terry H]

tugger wrote:

well done yoyo on your first mack on a yak just a tip if your not using wire while throwing slugs or towing lures you don't have to use a heavy leader because if the teeth get to any line other than wire it will be snipped off. i normally tie slugs straight to the main line and most times they come up behind it and grab the hooks from behind while spinning and get more hits rather than use heavy fluro and the fish seeing it. another if keeping a mack cut the throat and bleed it then wet bag it if you don't have the esky or kill tank to make a slurry and fit them in, alot of yak guys take a old potato sack or large pillow case and dunk it then throw the fish and some frozen water in milk bottles after bleeding this will dramatically improve the flesh of the fish rather than let them dry out and kepp it wet till you get back to fillet them

mark

I normally just use 30lbs leader for 20lbs mainline...

I hooked a metre plus tuna over the weekend, and it must have taken my slug down pretty deep - it wore through the leader, and after a 20minute fight getting a big metre plus tuna almost into the boat, the leader wore through.

So while for Mackeral you might not want it, but for Tuna it certainly doesn't hurt to have some slightly heavier leader. Although normally the majority of hook ups will be ok and have the slug/lure in the mouth, and nto the line.

[mick fillet]

congrates on your mackie yoyo.man thats a stonker flatty..... NICE :woohoo:

mick

[Bluevien]

That is a stella days fishing congrats on your firsts.

[yoyo]

Thanks Tugger.

I know it doesnt look like it in the bragmat pic, but i did actually slit & bleed the fish straight away, he went for a nap in some ice and a wet towel in the back of the yak...

There was blood everywhere in the yak ! better than no blood & no fish though !

I think the leader might have helped on a couple of occasions as i had to trim it a few times due to knicks and wear. But yeh i did lose a couple of slugs, casting into a big school and they were just swiping at it non-stop on the retrieve through the school...