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Holidays may be good for some but I hate public holidays...
After cursing the loss of income all week ( To no ones surprise really ) I started warming up around Wednesday for a good old South Coast trip after I got over my moody blues, running a small business is fickle at the best of times but when your entire customer base ( Public Servants ) head for the coast its time to follow suit and be thankful you received any time off at all.
Thursday night saw plenty of small tantrums thrown as I searched the house top to bottom for all my fishing gear that I had been fiddling with all week only to find it had been neatly packed the night before and was sitting in the garage ready to be packed and freighted to Merimbula via Cooma, Nimitabel, Brown Mountain, Bemboka, Candelo and Wilumla... With a family gathering occurring ( All be it a small one including my Nanna ) I decided to test out the new Thule roof rack system and strap the Outfitter and the Quest on the car in anticipation of my first solo offshore excursion.
Good Friday 6/4/07
After the alarm went off at 5am we set off around 6am in search of minimal traffic, the road towards Cooma was very quiet which helped my nervous companion negotiate the slightly overweight / top heavy load on her Mazda Protégé towards the previously mentioned townships, Claire did a wonderful job driving and in no time she had us descending the Brown Mountain ( To the tune of many Anthrax songs ), passing through the smaller communities and arriving at Merimbula just in time for breakfast.
Unpacking and organising myself seemed harder than expected but managed to get the tackle sorted and gear rigged just in time for lunch, it was at this stage I realised I needed a quick nap before I sent the troops to summon some nippers from the flats at low tide, coincidently whilst they worked the muddy structure a paddle was conceived in the adjourning water in the Bottom lake opposite.
Launching at around 3:30pm just down from the ramp I worked the channel against the tidal flow, dodging many seasoned and amateur stink boaters plowing through the shallow weeds in need of a quick escape before they were left high and dry behind the oyster leases... Once I reached the end of the channel I set about looking for sandy patches interspersed through out the weed on the edges, having no luck keeping my soft plastics out of the ever snagging weed I snapped on a Ecogear CK chubby style lure and trolled / drifted with the current slowly enough to maintain decent action on the rod tip.
Giving some sand flat anglers a wide birth and waving at Claire, Dad and my step brother Chris behind them my Caldia Kix 3500 started to scream in the opposite direction bending and stretching my Procaster rod like crazy, wasn’t too sure what I had snagged but with 20lb Fireline I proceeded to drag it towards the yak while amassing a decent amount of onlookers including family members... Grabbing the net when the leader knot went through the top guide ( 2m 12lb Ande mono leader ) I was met with a very angry Skippy that fought like buggery next to the yak, I was pretty stoked to net a 45cm Silver Trevally and quickly pulled onto the sand flat to survey my catch and dispatch of this unlucky fish.
Realising that Trevally school my Dad quickly bled and gutted the Skippy and sent me on my way with orders for more, with only half an hour to go till disembarking it was a tuff call but I plundered on in search of bigger models ( do that get much bigger than that? ), got another huge hit on the way back to the ramp and assumed I lost a decent Flathead due to the immediate headshakes once rod was brought into hands out of the rear rod holder, called it a day and paddled into the beach just down from the ramp excited that my first trip had resulted in a PB.
Saturday 7/4/07
Dad and Chris were keen for a paddle in the same channel the following morning so on the roof racks went both the Outfitter and Quest, after arriving at the launch point some general briefing in how to use the Hobie's controls was met with pure enthusiasm so I set up the sounder and GPS and sent them on there merry way only to realise once underway that the seating arrangement should have been reversed, the two of them had the weight capacity well and truly reaching breeching point with Dad close to swamping the rear end, he is a salty sea dog in every sense of the word and I wasn’t about to forbid him from captaining the vessel so I went out trying to seek out Skippy and his mates.
Spying another Hobie yak fisherman I paddled over to say gday, whilst striking up conversations on what fish were around my Dad managed to rake in a Flathead that went 40cm on the Fisheries sticker, dodging stinkers they maneuvered up and down the channel plugging Gulp Pumpkinseed 4" Turtleback Worms on 1/4oz Jigheads all over the shop for many, many hits but alas lost the remainder on retrieval to the yak... I wasn’t faring to well on Squidgys after dropping a fish so I tried trolling Sx40's for nada, I switched over to Pumpkinseed worms in hope of some lizard activity managing to find hordes of undersized Flathead that raped my offerings but with no result what so ever, I returned to the ramp a dejected man failing to raise a fish for the session promising to avenge my performance in the afternoon session ( I fell asleep after lunch and woke up before sunset, scratching the chance ).
Checked the weather / swell report and rigged up heavier gear for an early offshore sortie backed by my support boat crew ( Fishing themselves from Dads Quintrex 540 spirit ), the following day was looking picturesque with ideal conditions and no wind which helped settle my nerves, I have only been offshore twice before and never exited / entered a bar before so my mind was going a million miles an hour when I finally went to sleep...
Managed an hour or two before I received a drunken phone call before midnight madly exclaiming about his partners terrific efforts on the fishing front and mumbling something about finding Davey G's mojo.
Easter Sunday 8/4/07
Alarm went off at 5am and immediately I sprang out of bed, something was different about me this morning as early rises aren’t usually my thing but fear and excitement of the unknown had well and truly set in, fueling my body with cigarettes and coffee accompanied with some travelcalm I motioned Claire to wake up and drive me to the launch spot before the support crew hit the ramp, this gave me ample time to paddle the 3km's or so towards the bar before the rest of the family arrived in the Quinny to check the conditions.
Dad made sure I was confident by giving general directions in how to navigate this bar crossing before he flew on ahead and awaited on the other side, just under 1m waves greeted me on my way out but the Quest handled it like a pro punching through and over any chop, swell or wave dished out to me by mother nature, I had managed to get out while maintaining a fairly dry state and commenced another paddle of a few km's out to sea following in the wake of the family stink boat...
Looking constantly at the sounder I noticed plenty of fish hovering at the 10 - 15m mark close to the rocks so after being informed the southerlies were up a bit past the point I decided to drop the paternoster rig full of pilchards over the side and try my luck. First drop and I snagged the bottom, pulling the braid hard I lost my first rig and my 20lb leader as well, having no urge to try and tie a leader in 2m swell my braid connected straight to the three eyed swivel of the next rig and I moved out away from the rocks into the 20-25m mark looking for reef structure, fishing with the next rig brought on plenty of bites and eventually a small Trumpeter came aboard...
Hmmm not what I was after but wasn’t long till I lived up to my reputation as the 'Ooglie Whisperer' hauling aboard plenty of small Rock Cod easily put to shame by my Barlings specimens.
Pulled out the Nitro setup and reef bashed some 130mm Technicolor Slick Rigs in search of the monster 'Ooglies' for no result, Hmmm back to the Pilchards I went and almost immediately started getting huge bites, what were these fish and when was I going to get one?... Drifting towards the support crew I could hear the cries of joy as members started pulling aboard legal and not so legal Snapper, having been spoon fed inspiration I moved away in hope I could secure my first yak Squire / Snapper and low and behold my rod doubled over and prompting a decent fight on my Caldia outfit ( Unlike the brick nature of Red Rock Cod ), I’m sure you could have heard me in West Wylong when I yelled out at the top of my lungs 'Snappppppeeerrrrr!'.
Having secured my first Legal keeper fish for the trip and a new PB ( Well first legal fish of any species is a PB right? ) I plugged away for some more encountering another Snapper just shy of 30cm who was released immediately, encouraging signs pointed to more snapper but my drift had put me onto a school full of 'Ooglie' students wanting to play with this twisted young mans pillie ( Erm, I mean bait ), finally avoiding the half a dozen or so pointy spines from juvenile Rock Cod I snared a Flathead that would have been close to legal only to lose it next to the yak as I reached for the net behind me.
Paddling towards Dads boat while avoiding the many aluminum craft leaving the headland I could hear a commotion on the deck of the 540 Spirit, I couldn’t make it out clearly but it sure as hell sounded like a celebration so I paddled swiftly hoping to spot the 'Catch of the day', turns out the prize catch was a bout of seasickness caught deep by Chris who commenced chundering like on cue once I arrived close to the boat.
Dad pointed toward the lakes entrance indicating a return across the bar, having a ball I was a little disappointed in returning but knowing I still had about a 6km return paddle plus a bar entry to negotiate I quickly headed back pondering over all the information I had gained from this site on dealing with any form of surf break and luckily I did as the bar had calmed ever so slightly but waves close to 1m still occupied the position...
Looking behind me I waited for a flat section in between sets and commenced a solid but stable paddle into the bar, almost straight away I felt the yak coast and noticed I was surfing down the face of a wave so I lent back, slightly into the wave and put my paddle ever so gently dragging on the outer edge of the break. The Quest's rails locked in and I managed to surf down and across the front of the wave ( Akin to my Body Boarding days ) for a good 10 - 15 seconds before the wave disappeared into the deeper section, with my family hooting from the safer waters I realised I wasn’t out of trouble yet so a few more solid strokes and a tiny wave later and I was in the surrounds to the entry to the lake, paddled over to the boat and said 'Lucky I have a forum to learn from, I just negotiated my first surf entry without stacking!'...
A long tiresome return journey to the ramp seemed to take forever but with the days accomplishments only just kicking in I was pretty happy to take my time, if I could have given myself a pat on the back I would have ( My arms were getting pretty tired by this stage ). Reached the departure point just as the family retrieved the stink boat from the ramp and loaded up the yak, heading back to my parents house I could tell Claire was pretty happy to have me back in one piece ( So was my Nanna ) but I was lost for words, pretty much fell asleep as soon as we got home around 11am and didn’t wake until my alarm went off at 3pm due to my brothers keenness to get out on the Outfitter and fish with some bait ( Guess he was feeling better by this stage eh? ).
Waking up I sculled a coffee which didn’t touch the sides and discovered the car and Outfitter was packed ready to go, rigging up some lighter leader we headed off to Pambula Lake and arrived around 4pm to be greeted with water-skiers and very shallow oyster leases, paddling off around the channel markers we reached the bends in the lake towards the Ocean entrance in about 20 minutes and commenced trolling Sx40’s .
Chris had a strike early but failed to hookup to a suspected Tailor while I once again failed to raise a fish, switching to Prawns and Pippi’s the bite became fast and furious in between losing rigs to a snaggy bottom… Many small Squire ( Some as small as 5cm ) and some average sized Bream around 15 – 18cm were brought aboard, Chris started throwing his Sx40 towards the rocky shoreline and was rewarded with a slippery little Tailor who decided to maul my Hobie seat before he was returned to the 3m water level that inhabited most of the surrounding body of water, was getting dark quickly so we headed back and made it with perhaps 5 minutes of light to spare…
With no torches, lamps or lights apart from car headlights we threw everything in the boot and loaded the yak motoring home just in time for the Easter Sunday roast Pork dinner.
Easter Monday 9/4/07
Considering the amount of people in town from the National Capital we decided upon an early retreat home instead of opting for another day on the water, bidding my family farewell we left around 11pm and we were glad we did as the roads became chocked with cars and there occupants returning from there long weekend, not long after we passed through Nimitabel a fatal accident occurred rendering the remaining Highway closed.
Poor sole, I really feel for the families of loved ones lost to tragic road accidents especially over holiday periods, this made me reflect on how lucky we were to have such a great safe weekend away… I felt a sigh of relief when we pulled into the driveway, this was one trip I won’t be forgetting in a hurry and enjoyed sharing it with you all.
After cursing the loss of income all week ( To no ones surprise really ) I started warming up around Wednesday for a good old South Coast trip after I got over my moody blues, running a small business is fickle at the best of times but when your entire customer base ( Public Servants ) head for the coast its time to follow suit and be thankful you received any time off at all.
Thursday night saw plenty of small tantrums thrown as I searched the house top to bottom for all my fishing gear that I had been fiddling with all week only to find it had been neatly packed the night before and was sitting in the garage ready to be packed and freighted to Merimbula via Cooma, Nimitabel, Brown Mountain, Bemboka, Candelo and Wilumla... With a family gathering occurring ( All be it a small one including my Nanna ) I decided to test out the new Thule roof rack system and strap the Outfitter and the Quest on the car in anticipation of my first solo offshore excursion.
Good Friday 6/4/07
After the alarm went off at 5am we set off around 6am in search of minimal traffic, the road towards Cooma was very quiet which helped my nervous companion negotiate the slightly overweight / top heavy load on her Mazda Protégé towards the previously mentioned townships, Claire did a wonderful job driving and in no time she had us descending the Brown Mountain ( To the tune of many Anthrax songs ), passing through the smaller communities and arriving at Merimbula just in time for breakfast.
Unpacking and organising myself seemed harder than expected but managed to get the tackle sorted and gear rigged just in time for lunch, it was at this stage I realised I needed a quick nap before I sent the troops to summon some nippers from the flats at low tide, coincidently whilst they worked the muddy structure a paddle was conceived in the adjourning water in the Bottom lake opposite.
Launching at around 3:30pm just down from the ramp I worked the channel against the tidal flow, dodging many seasoned and amateur stink boaters plowing through the shallow weeds in need of a quick escape before they were left high and dry behind the oyster leases... Once I reached the end of the channel I set about looking for sandy patches interspersed through out the weed on the edges, having no luck keeping my soft plastics out of the ever snagging weed I snapped on a Ecogear CK chubby style lure and trolled / drifted with the current slowly enough to maintain decent action on the rod tip.
Giving some sand flat anglers a wide birth and waving at Claire, Dad and my step brother Chris behind them my Caldia Kix 3500 started to scream in the opposite direction bending and stretching my Procaster rod like crazy, wasn’t too sure what I had snagged but with 20lb Fireline I proceeded to drag it towards the yak while amassing a decent amount of onlookers including family members... Grabbing the net when the leader knot went through the top guide ( 2m 12lb Ande mono leader ) I was met with a very angry Skippy that fought like buggery next to the yak, I was pretty stoked to net a 45cm Silver Trevally and quickly pulled onto the sand flat to survey my catch and dispatch of this unlucky fish.
Realising that Trevally school my Dad quickly bled and gutted the Skippy and sent me on my way with orders for more, with only half an hour to go till disembarking it was a tuff call but I plundered on in search of bigger models ( do that get much bigger than that? ), got another huge hit on the way back to the ramp and assumed I lost a decent Flathead due to the immediate headshakes once rod was brought into hands out of the rear rod holder, called it a day and paddled into the beach just down from the ramp excited that my first trip had resulted in a PB.
Saturday 7/4/07
Dad and Chris were keen for a paddle in the same channel the following morning so on the roof racks went both the Outfitter and Quest, after arriving at the launch point some general briefing in how to use the Hobie's controls was met with pure enthusiasm so I set up the sounder and GPS and sent them on there merry way only to realise once underway that the seating arrangement should have been reversed, the two of them had the weight capacity well and truly reaching breeching point with Dad close to swamping the rear end, he is a salty sea dog in every sense of the word and I wasn’t about to forbid him from captaining the vessel so I went out trying to seek out Skippy and his mates.
Spying another Hobie yak fisherman I paddled over to say gday, whilst striking up conversations on what fish were around my Dad managed to rake in a Flathead that went 40cm on the Fisheries sticker, dodging stinkers they maneuvered up and down the channel plugging Gulp Pumpkinseed 4" Turtleback Worms on 1/4oz Jigheads all over the shop for many, many hits but alas lost the remainder on retrieval to the yak... I wasn’t faring to well on Squidgys after dropping a fish so I tried trolling Sx40's for nada, I switched over to Pumpkinseed worms in hope of some lizard activity managing to find hordes of undersized Flathead that raped my offerings but with no result what so ever, I returned to the ramp a dejected man failing to raise a fish for the session promising to avenge my performance in the afternoon session ( I fell asleep after lunch and woke up before sunset, scratching the chance ).
Checked the weather / swell report and rigged up heavier gear for an early offshore sortie backed by my support boat crew ( Fishing themselves from Dads Quintrex 540 spirit ), the following day was looking picturesque with ideal conditions and no wind which helped settle my nerves, I have only been offshore twice before and never exited / entered a bar before so my mind was going a million miles an hour when I finally went to sleep...
Managed an hour or two before I received a drunken phone call before midnight madly exclaiming about his partners terrific efforts on the fishing front and mumbling something about finding Davey G's mojo.
Easter Sunday 8/4/07
Alarm went off at 5am and immediately I sprang out of bed, something was different about me this morning as early rises aren’t usually my thing but fear and excitement of the unknown had well and truly set in, fueling my body with cigarettes and coffee accompanied with some travelcalm I motioned Claire to wake up and drive me to the launch spot before the support crew hit the ramp, this gave me ample time to paddle the 3km's or so towards the bar before the rest of the family arrived in the Quinny to check the conditions.
Dad made sure I was confident by giving general directions in how to navigate this bar crossing before he flew on ahead and awaited on the other side, just under 1m waves greeted me on my way out but the Quest handled it like a pro punching through and over any chop, swell or wave dished out to me by mother nature, I had managed to get out while maintaining a fairly dry state and commenced another paddle of a few km's out to sea following in the wake of the family stink boat...
Looking constantly at the sounder I noticed plenty of fish hovering at the 10 - 15m mark close to the rocks so after being informed the southerlies were up a bit past the point I decided to drop the paternoster rig full of pilchards over the side and try my luck. First drop and I snagged the bottom, pulling the braid hard I lost my first rig and my 20lb leader as well, having no urge to try and tie a leader in 2m swell my braid connected straight to the three eyed swivel of the next rig and I moved out away from the rocks into the 20-25m mark looking for reef structure, fishing with the next rig brought on plenty of bites and eventually a small Trumpeter came aboard...
Hmmm not what I was after but wasn’t long till I lived up to my reputation as the 'Ooglie Whisperer' hauling aboard plenty of small Rock Cod easily put to shame by my Barlings specimens.
Pulled out the Nitro setup and reef bashed some 130mm Technicolor Slick Rigs in search of the monster 'Ooglies' for no result, Hmmm back to the Pilchards I went and almost immediately started getting huge bites, what were these fish and when was I going to get one?... Drifting towards the support crew I could hear the cries of joy as members started pulling aboard legal and not so legal Snapper, having been spoon fed inspiration I moved away in hope I could secure my first yak Squire / Snapper and low and behold my rod doubled over and prompting a decent fight on my Caldia outfit ( Unlike the brick nature of Red Rock Cod ), I’m sure you could have heard me in West Wylong when I yelled out at the top of my lungs 'Snappppppeeerrrrr!'.
Having secured my first Legal keeper fish for the trip and a new PB ( Well first legal fish of any species is a PB right? ) I plugged away for some more encountering another Snapper just shy of 30cm who was released immediately, encouraging signs pointed to more snapper but my drift had put me onto a school full of 'Ooglie' students wanting to play with this twisted young mans pillie ( Erm, I mean bait ), finally avoiding the half a dozen or so pointy spines from juvenile Rock Cod I snared a Flathead that would have been close to legal only to lose it next to the yak as I reached for the net behind me.
Paddling towards Dads boat while avoiding the many aluminum craft leaving the headland I could hear a commotion on the deck of the 540 Spirit, I couldn’t make it out clearly but it sure as hell sounded like a celebration so I paddled swiftly hoping to spot the 'Catch of the day', turns out the prize catch was a bout of seasickness caught deep by Chris who commenced chundering like on cue once I arrived close to the boat.
Dad pointed toward the lakes entrance indicating a return across the bar, having a ball I was a little disappointed in returning but knowing I still had about a 6km return paddle plus a bar entry to negotiate I quickly headed back pondering over all the information I had gained from this site on dealing with any form of surf break and luckily I did as the bar had calmed ever so slightly but waves close to 1m still occupied the position...
Looking behind me I waited for a flat section in between sets and commenced a solid but stable paddle into the bar, almost straight away I felt the yak coast and noticed I was surfing down the face of a wave so I lent back, slightly into the wave and put my paddle ever so gently dragging on the outer edge of the break. The Quest's rails locked in and I managed to surf down and across the front of the wave ( Akin to my Body Boarding days ) for a good 10 - 15 seconds before the wave disappeared into the deeper section, with my family hooting from the safer waters I realised I wasn’t out of trouble yet so a few more solid strokes and a tiny wave later and I was in the surrounds to the entry to the lake, paddled over to the boat and said 'Lucky I have a forum to learn from, I just negotiated my first surf entry without stacking!'...
A long tiresome return journey to the ramp seemed to take forever but with the days accomplishments only just kicking in I was pretty happy to take my time, if I could have given myself a pat on the back I would have ( My arms were getting pretty tired by this stage ). Reached the departure point just as the family retrieved the stink boat from the ramp and loaded up the yak, heading back to my parents house I could tell Claire was pretty happy to have me back in one piece ( So was my Nanna ) but I was lost for words, pretty much fell asleep as soon as we got home around 11am and didn’t wake until my alarm went off at 3pm due to my brothers keenness to get out on the Outfitter and fish with some bait ( Guess he was feeling better by this stage eh? ).
Waking up I sculled a coffee which didn’t touch the sides and discovered the car and Outfitter was packed ready to go, rigging up some lighter leader we headed off to Pambula Lake and arrived around 4pm to be greeted with water-skiers and very shallow oyster leases, paddling off around the channel markers we reached the bends in the lake towards the Ocean entrance in about 20 minutes and commenced trolling Sx40’s .
Chris had a strike early but failed to hookup to a suspected Tailor while I once again failed to raise a fish, switching to Prawns and Pippi’s the bite became fast and furious in between losing rigs to a snaggy bottom… Many small Squire ( Some as small as 5cm ) and some average sized Bream around 15 – 18cm were brought aboard, Chris started throwing his Sx40 towards the rocky shoreline and was rewarded with a slippery little Tailor who decided to maul my Hobie seat before he was returned to the 3m water level that inhabited most of the surrounding body of water, was getting dark quickly so we headed back and made it with perhaps 5 minutes of light to spare…
With no torches, lamps or lights apart from car headlights we threw everything in the boot and loaded the yak motoring home just in time for the Easter Sunday roast Pork dinner.
Easter Monday 9/4/07
Considering the amount of people in town from the National Capital we decided upon an early retreat home instead of opting for another day on the water, bidding my family farewell we left around 11pm and we were glad we did as the roads became chocked with cars and there occupants returning from there long weekend, not long after we passed through Nimitabel a fatal accident occurred rendering the remaining Highway closed.
Poor sole, I really feel for the families of loved ones lost to tragic road accidents especially over holiday periods, this made me reflect on how lucky we were to have such a great safe weekend away… I felt a sigh of relief when we pulled into the driveway, this was one trip I won’t be forgetting in a hurry and enjoyed sharing it with you all.
