Kayaking for snaps

The experts say that water temp exceeded 18 deg over the past 10 days, accounting for the snapper 'switching off' the bite as they got into their spawning activities. Add in the huge boat pressure in and around the Ak channels AND the full moon and you've got a challenging set of circumstances. 5.30 yesterday saw me at Narrowneck with a contingent of other yak fishos and small boat owners. Got set up and began paddling. Tide was dead low when I set off and by the trime I made the shipping channel was booming in. Didn't check the tide charts but with big moon I'm picking a good sized tide as well. The wind stayed away - pattern has been calm mornings with breeze speringing up late morning and stiffening in the afternoons. I never time the paddle out, but in the dark its a good place to be. Bait fish sprayed the surface in several places. The new sounder needed some tuning but I got it to where I was satisfied. Stopped by #10 buoy and began to scan the bottom looking for sign. Sporadic mid water (5-7m) schools indicated baitfish, the snaps look more like squiggles on the bottom. I only brought along the softbait outfit, normally I hedge my bets with cut bait as well, maybe its because I'm not all that comfortable fishing lures only. Call it the cutting of the umbilical cord, soft baits only make a lot of sense - no dicking around with cut baits (everything in a kayak is double the finicketiness), no managing 2 rods as well as paddle. So this trip was to cut the smelly bait cord as it were. The tide was scooting and the drogue was useless, with no breesze I just scooted along. Staying on top of schools was impossible, in the course of playing a single fish I would be taken 50 metres. Spent a lot of time repositioning, not so much time catching fish. Got 5 for the morning & kept 2. Bite time was early and 4 of the fish were taken before 7 am. The next 90 minutes coughed one fish, several plucks on the softie and not much else. Dropping the bait intro the bottom hugging schools proved fruitless - those babies had their jaws clamped shut. The pasddle back was harder than it should have been, a NW had sprung up and with even with the tide weakening it was hard going against wind & tide. Home before 10 and cleaned up the gear and fish. Crumbed snapper - yum!