Paulo does Caloundra, 2012

Paulo has just published a new video clip weighing in at just over 12 minutes long, showing off some hardcore sport-fishing yakstyle with some worthy fish being claimed. There's some great footage here, well worth a watch if you need some inspiration or entertainment. Below is a description and some piccies to go along with the clip.

Well the 2012 longtail season on the Sunshine Coast has come and gone. Last year I got the chance to spend a week there in perfect weather with the fish on almost every day. This year, as luck would have it, my contract finished on April 13, smack bang in the middle of season. Upon hearing this, Lynette booked six weeks holidays and we set about not caring about life for a while. 

Booked into our usual spot on Moffat Beach for two weeks, we ended up staying five and almost became part of the local scenery, permanently. As anyone on the Sunny Coast can attest, the weather up Caloundra way this year has been pretty ordinary to say the least. The mackerel were all but non-existent and it was early April and the longtails hadn't arrived in numbers, as they had done for the past few years. Expecting fine warm days with low winds and small swells, our first two weeks were quite the opposite. They were surfing the shore dump at Moffats. It's usually a millpond. We managed 2-3 trips out a week those first two when the wind and swell let up enough to launch. 

I was hopelessly out-fished by my better half. She couldn't miss everytime she put the lure in the water. Here's a few of the beauties I got to clean and cook for the first two weeks, as I couldn't manage to catch one myself. 

It wasn't until the end of the second week that I managed to land a longtail, when I got four in the one afternoon session. I had to pedal in past them busting up as I didn't have it in me to spend 30-40mins on another one.  An injury to the leading angler and a change in tactics saw the flood gates open for me over the rest of the holidays. 

Lots caught their first longtail this season. I've captured but a few on the video. The season golden day was a Saturday and Grant had flown in from Melbourne the night before. That was a trip worth making. 

They were thick that day. Locals had asked us to bring them back fish so  I had to pedal in at 8:30am to drop off three fish and these three young ladies asked if I could take their picture (pictured top). How could I refuse 

Last season a dead sticked laserpro 120 drifting out the back was the goto lure. This year there were some days they wouldn't go near a hardbody and other days they climbed all over them. By far the most successful technique this year was drifted 3" plastics. Having chased them for five weeks straight I had plenty opportunity to study their feeding patterns and came to a few conclusions.

Though the fish are in the process of migrating north they almost always enter the bay in the north and feed in a southerly direction regardless of the wind. On days when the whitebait is thick and there are fewer fish, plastics close to the whitebait size and profile will prosper. Other offerings will be passed over with indifference.  Why eat anything other than your favourite food when there is acres of it and not much competition. On days when there is little bait and few fish they will take a wider range of plastics but still shied away from hardbodies. On days when there is little bait and lots of fish they hit anything that moves. Laser Pro 120s need their hooks upgraded. 

The fish came a month late but stayed a month as they usually do. The fish grow 1-2kgs every week. Our first fish was 10kg in week 1. The largest was just over 16kg and was caught in week 5. 

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