Posts
Introduction :
Some AKFF members say ( Hmm, probably just me ) Jason is half Squid, half man, after this weekends adventure I would just call him ‘loony’. His late to bed, early to rise antics have cost me plenty of Nanna naps before but I was determined this would not be the case this time. Organising a trip with Squidder is fairly easy, express your interest and he usually does the rest. This includes pre-tying plenty of live rigs for use on the wild blue yonder ( Maloney’s Beach to be exact ) and offering to clean and fillet your catch.
In exchange for his highly undercharged services, the catch is leaving Canberra around 4am – 5am and driving at excessive high speeds through fog, rain and mountain descents in order to arrive early enough to satisfy his craving of soaking live baits. Life has been made easier lately with the fact Akff member Craig 450 has moved very close to said destination and supplies Blend 43 on tap along with very colourful neighbours and one sook of a dog, the catch with Craig however is to include him in all South Coast trips.
Bateman's Bay ( Maloney's Beach - 7am till 2pm ) :
The fishing has been hot and cold lately around the Bateman’s Bay area mainly due to the slight water temperature drop ( 21 down to 18 ) and murky waters associated with stormy weather fronts pushing through the South Coast region. Maloney’s Beach really turned it on last weekend with Squidder securing a great Snapper and others enjoying enough action to feed their immediate families.
The wind on Saturday the 8th December was expected to be up before 9am ( Around 15 knots ) but abating in the late afternoon.Arriving at the launch site I stood puzzled at the lack of wind but strong range of the swell, pushing off we moved quickly towards the hole associated with Ooglies, Trevally, Snapper, Kingfish ( New find ) and the occasional School Shark / Bronze Whaler.
Maloney’s waters south of Yellow Rock were very confused in close, purging craft to drift one way while wind pushed the other. I deployed an anchor for the first time using nothing but enough rope and a cam cleat, Jason stood firm with his seasoned anchoring procedure while Craig used his Mirage Drive to hold the Revo in comfy fishing positions.
I was hoping this trip would provide me with some much needed new skills, this was the first attempt anchoring off the kayak, first attempt at berleying from a kayak and first attempt fishing with a Sabiki rig for live bait ( Think Yellowtail, Slimey Mackerel ). First drop of the Sabiki and a small Wrasse decided it was hungry enough to jump on the bottom rig and try to reef me ( Easy enough on my 1 – 3kg outfit ).
Second drop and a small Yakka hooked on only to flick free before lifting from the water ( A common occurance ) but on the lucky third drop a Yakka stuck fast and was rapidly deployed on the heavier live bait rod ( 20lb Braid, 20lb leader, 60lb twin rig ).Jason was next to catch some ‘Livies’ and moved on to targeting the big Snapper and anything else willing / able to grab hold of his bait ( Two words come to mind, tail rope ).
He quickly aroused a legal young nubile Pinky amid continuing to sit and wait patiently for his Wilson Live Fibre to come to life. Craig was casting plastics and got heavily involved in a mêlée with the usual suspects, catching his first Pike amongst hordes of Sgt. Baker. He was quickly offered a few Yellowtail once Squidder had enough spare / available, it wasn’t long before we all had one soaking in high anticipation.
My anchor seemed to holding great according to the GPS but after awhile I noticed the horizons features began to change ever so slowly. It was at this time I became aware the rope had gone slack and my anchor was gone, seems I was let down by dodgy knot skills.Drifting fast and dodging Crayfish pots I heard Craig scream out some garbled sentence ( Turns out he had a 1m + Shark on his ‘Livey’ ) just as I managed to score another Yakka on the Sabiki, decided to pin this one through the nose and send down on the other rod with a paternoster rig ( Size 00 Snapper sinker ) to see what would happen.
Starting to wonder if having two live baits out and a Sabiki would be asking for trouble, Mother Nature answered my question. Before I had a chance to react both ‘Livies’ went off simultaneously, having about 4 seconds delay on the first rod ( Weighted Yakka ) saw me reefed swiftly. While still attached to the reef I put the Sol in free spool and grabbed the other rod, I had something on and felt weight until, once again, I was reefed badly.In all the anger and confusion while trying to retrieve my rigs and possible fish, I administered a 1mm 20lb Braid cut to my finger after the line slipped ( Fingerless glove ).
Paddling back to beg the sea god for more ‘Livies’ I was greeted by a massive fickle school of them, milling around Jasons yak while he fed them Cat food. Mixed in amongst them were small and medium Garfish which responded well to Squiddly’s float rig, one of these fish ( Kindly donated by Jason ) was sent down deep with another Yakka I procured on the Paternoster dropper.
If you figured I would have learned my lesson the first time you would be wrong, I managed to get one strike away from the reef but pulled the hooks doing so. The Unweighted Garfish decided to go for a swim down deeper than the Yakkas would causing a predictable outcome ( Cue bent rod tip, quick tussle, reef ).I think the Shark kind of spooked Craig but he was hungry anyway and decided to head in, I was growing tired of meeting reef so waited for Jason to call it off ( Not long after ).
We all headed back to Craig’s house ( Via a staple Maloney’s burger with the lot ) and discussed the mornings events, pretty disappointed about the action today so far but was quietly confident that Durras Lake would produce the goods we craved so badly. The boys talked up surface lures and mighty goals, Craig wanted to catch Whiting on Poppers while Jason was aiming mainly for Bream on Poppers.
South Durras ( Durras Lake - 3pm till 9pm ) :
Poppers are a technique and way to fish I seem to find frustrating, perhaps I am an impatient man? ( I would say not given my preference for trolling ). Launching just after 3pm we headed straight for signs of life found on previous journeys, on the way Craig hooked a small Tailor about 20m from the boat ramp… Already things were looking up.
Dodging small tinned vessels traveling to fast I clipped on two Ecogear Ck40’s floating Bream lures ( Number 329 and 331 ) and began casting towards structure and weed beds. I began by dropping a few fish early on with some savage takes that failed to set the hook ( Most probably tiny Bream ). Meanwhile, just down from my location, Craig began landing Whiting after Whiting ( With a few Bream thrown in ) all on his Gold River 2 Sea Bubblepop 35.
Jason has had success on his T Pivot lures here before but quickly moved onto a Black Bubblepop 35 amongst others ( Im sure he was using other lures! ).By now I had moved away, up stream towards the mouth opening trolling the same lures in depth ranging from 2m down to 50cm. The rod tips jerked erratically as the lures scraped the sandy bottom, this was too much for Flathead to resist and braced for impact.
First Flathead was a corker ( Hooked on my 3kg light rod ), it went ballistic each time I brought it near the kayak. Scorching runs and big headshakes reminded me to take it slow and play the fish out, considering I was using 4lb Crystal Fireline and 8lb Vanish leader. Threw my tethered paddle in the water to concentrate on landing the fish, compared the size of the fish ( 70+ cm Flathead ) to my drip ring spacing and reached for the net fast. Cursing hard while casting death stares to onlookers stated the obvious,
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz wobble, gone…
This was the first time I had wept over a fish and would not be the last today ( Please, read on, if you dare ), vowing to redeem my self I moved over to the other side spooking lots of Flathead on the way in very shallow water.
ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz wobble, reaching for the light rod I put as much weight on the fish as I dared and moved it slowly toward an honest playable arrangement. ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz wobble wobble wobble, ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz, man this lizard was pulling, shaking hard like Latham pre election.This time another 70cm + Flathead, think Derek, think… What would other members do?
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz wobble, gone…
While cursing my damn luck after losing two good fish the Sol rod went off, this time I gave the fish plenty of stick and tightened the drag setting ever so slightly. A small undersized Flatchap lay in the net for hook removal, this time well and truly hooked.After releasing my first Durras fish for the day, a wry smile grew across my face, unfortunately my stomach still stirred with the whole ‘What could have been’ feature.This is were things ( As United Kingdom popstar Seal says ) get a little bit crazy!
What follows next is a spate of double hookups, my jaw was dropping in amazement as I proceeded to zig zag across the river mouth side to side, hooking up twice on every tac.‘You just have to grab the rod you see go off first, bugger the other’ I kept telling myself. Here is the correct captured and landed roll call ( In order of their initial appearance ), 42cm Flathead, 49cm flathead, 30cm Flathead, 53cm Flathead and a 45cm Flathead.
Tried to ring Jason to gloat ( Really to check our departure time ) but no reception, might try moving down the other end towards the ramp… Was that a bump?
ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz...
First thoughts were of a Stingray but those tell tale headshakes eventually had me convinced otherwise. Unlike the other Flathead this one decided to swim at the yak, probably trying to suss out what the hell was going on. She actually swam past the yak and stopped close by ( Probably savouring my drool leaking through the scuppers ). Poor poor me, she was hooked on my light rod again which didn’t leave me with high hopes ( Considering the days track record ).
As I sighted her at 80cm + I did the drag up a setting and reached for the net early , hoping to get myself some HOF digital proof.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz wobble, gone…
The fish would have been released anyway but I was still upset, drifted into reception range and spoke to Jason who passed on news of Craig’s amazing Whiting on poppers haul ( 7 Whiting and 2 Bream guys? ). It was close to 9pm and some of us had still to drive home to Canberra ( Yeah Craig, without a Nanna Nap even ), I was one legal fish away from bagging out so opted for a very slow troll back to the cars. Bait fish were spooking everywhere ( And not by me this time ) as the Bream moved in for the kill, thought I had secured my bag limit but two 29cm Bream were caught in quick succession.
Met the others at the ramp along with the evenings Prawning crew, armed with there high powered lights and float boats. Jason did what he does best and cleaned up our catch while we loaded our gear into the cars. Redemption, revenga, call it what you will, even though I had lost BIG personal best fish I managed to turn a reel or 10 ( And a feed for Sunday dinner as requested by SWMBO ).
Jason’s fortune was down today but he mentioned ( While we had a quick coffee at Craig’s ) before departing back for Canberra he was ‘Pretty sure’ he had used up all his luck last weekend.
Some AKFF members say ( Hmm, probably just me ) Jason is half Squid, half man, after this weekends adventure I would just call him ‘loony’. His late to bed, early to rise antics have cost me plenty of Nanna naps before but I was determined this would not be the case this time. Organising a trip with Squidder is fairly easy, express your interest and he usually does the rest. This includes pre-tying plenty of live rigs for use on the wild blue yonder ( Maloney’s Beach to be exact ) and offering to clean and fillet your catch.
In exchange for his highly undercharged services, the catch is leaving Canberra around 4am – 5am and driving at excessive high speeds through fog, rain and mountain descents in order to arrive early enough to satisfy his craving of soaking live baits. Life has been made easier lately with the fact Akff member Craig 450 has moved very close to said destination and supplies Blend 43 on tap along with very colourful neighbours and one sook of a dog, the catch with Craig however is to include him in all South Coast trips.
Bateman's Bay ( Maloney's Beach - 7am till 2pm ) :
The fishing has been hot and cold lately around the Bateman’s Bay area mainly due to the slight water temperature drop ( 21 down to 18 ) and murky waters associated with stormy weather fronts pushing through the South Coast region. Maloney’s Beach really turned it on last weekend with Squidder securing a great Snapper and others enjoying enough action to feed their immediate families.
The wind on Saturday the 8th December was expected to be up before 9am ( Around 15 knots ) but abating in the late afternoon.Arriving at the launch site I stood puzzled at the lack of wind but strong range of the swell, pushing off we moved quickly towards the hole associated with Ooglies, Trevally, Snapper, Kingfish ( New find ) and the occasional School Shark / Bronze Whaler.
Maloney’s waters south of Yellow Rock were very confused in close, purging craft to drift one way while wind pushed the other. I deployed an anchor for the first time using nothing but enough rope and a cam cleat, Jason stood firm with his seasoned anchoring procedure while Craig used his Mirage Drive to hold the Revo in comfy fishing positions.
I was hoping this trip would provide me with some much needed new skills, this was the first attempt anchoring off the kayak, first attempt at berleying from a kayak and first attempt fishing with a Sabiki rig for live bait ( Think Yellowtail, Slimey Mackerel ). First drop of the Sabiki and a small Wrasse decided it was hungry enough to jump on the bottom rig and try to reef me ( Easy enough on my 1 – 3kg outfit ).
Second drop and a small Yakka hooked on only to flick free before lifting from the water ( A common occurance ) but on the lucky third drop a Yakka stuck fast and was rapidly deployed on the heavier live bait rod ( 20lb Braid, 20lb leader, 60lb twin rig ).Jason was next to catch some ‘Livies’ and moved on to targeting the big Snapper and anything else willing / able to grab hold of his bait ( Two words come to mind, tail rope ).
He quickly aroused a legal young nubile Pinky amid continuing to sit and wait patiently for his Wilson Live Fibre to come to life. Craig was casting plastics and got heavily involved in a mêlée with the usual suspects, catching his first Pike amongst hordes of Sgt. Baker. He was quickly offered a few Yellowtail once Squidder had enough spare / available, it wasn’t long before we all had one soaking in high anticipation.
My anchor seemed to holding great according to the GPS but after awhile I noticed the horizons features began to change ever so slowly. It was at this time I became aware the rope had gone slack and my anchor was gone, seems I was let down by dodgy knot skills.Drifting fast and dodging Crayfish pots I heard Craig scream out some garbled sentence ( Turns out he had a 1m + Shark on his ‘Livey’ ) just as I managed to score another Yakka on the Sabiki, decided to pin this one through the nose and send down on the other rod with a paternoster rig ( Size 00 Snapper sinker ) to see what would happen.
Starting to wonder if having two live baits out and a Sabiki would be asking for trouble, Mother Nature answered my question. Before I had a chance to react both ‘Livies’ went off simultaneously, having about 4 seconds delay on the first rod ( Weighted Yakka ) saw me reefed swiftly. While still attached to the reef I put the Sol in free spool and grabbed the other rod, I had something on and felt weight until, once again, I was reefed badly.In all the anger and confusion while trying to retrieve my rigs and possible fish, I administered a 1mm 20lb Braid cut to my finger after the line slipped ( Fingerless glove ).
Paddling back to beg the sea god for more ‘Livies’ I was greeted by a massive fickle school of them, milling around Jasons yak while he fed them Cat food. Mixed in amongst them were small and medium Garfish which responded well to Squiddly’s float rig, one of these fish ( Kindly donated by Jason ) was sent down deep with another Yakka I procured on the Paternoster dropper.
If you figured I would have learned my lesson the first time you would be wrong, I managed to get one strike away from the reef but pulled the hooks doing so. The Unweighted Garfish decided to go for a swim down deeper than the Yakkas would causing a predictable outcome ( Cue bent rod tip, quick tussle, reef ).I think the Shark kind of spooked Craig but he was hungry anyway and decided to head in, I was growing tired of meeting reef so waited for Jason to call it off ( Not long after ).
We all headed back to Craig’s house ( Via a staple Maloney’s burger with the lot ) and discussed the mornings events, pretty disappointed about the action today so far but was quietly confident that Durras Lake would produce the goods we craved so badly. The boys talked up surface lures and mighty goals, Craig wanted to catch Whiting on Poppers while Jason was aiming mainly for Bream on Poppers.
South Durras ( Durras Lake - 3pm till 9pm ) :
Poppers are a technique and way to fish I seem to find frustrating, perhaps I am an impatient man? ( I would say not given my preference for trolling ). Launching just after 3pm we headed straight for signs of life found on previous journeys, on the way Craig hooked a small Tailor about 20m from the boat ramp… Already things were looking up.
Dodging small tinned vessels traveling to fast I clipped on two Ecogear Ck40’s floating Bream lures ( Number 329 and 331 ) and began casting towards structure and weed beds. I began by dropping a few fish early on with some savage takes that failed to set the hook ( Most probably tiny Bream ). Meanwhile, just down from my location, Craig began landing Whiting after Whiting ( With a few Bream thrown in ) all on his Gold River 2 Sea Bubblepop 35.
Jason has had success on his T Pivot lures here before but quickly moved onto a Black Bubblepop 35 amongst others ( Im sure he was using other lures! ).By now I had moved away, up stream towards the mouth opening trolling the same lures in depth ranging from 2m down to 50cm. The rod tips jerked erratically as the lures scraped the sandy bottom, this was too much for Flathead to resist and braced for impact.
First Flathead was a corker ( Hooked on my 3kg light rod ), it went ballistic each time I brought it near the kayak. Scorching runs and big headshakes reminded me to take it slow and play the fish out, considering I was using 4lb Crystal Fireline and 8lb Vanish leader. Threw my tethered paddle in the water to concentrate on landing the fish, compared the size of the fish ( 70+ cm Flathead ) to my drip ring spacing and reached for the net fast. Cursing hard while casting death stares to onlookers stated the obvious,
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz wobble, gone…
This was the first time I had wept over a fish and would not be the last today ( Please, read on, if you dare ), vowing to redeem my self I moved over to the other side spooking lots of Flathead on the way in very shallow water.
ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz wobble, reaching for the light rod I put as much weight on the fish as I dared and moved it slowly toward an honest playable arrangement. ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz wobble wobble wobble, ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz, man this lizard was pulling, shaking hard like Latham pre election.This time another 70cm + Flathead, think Derek, think… What would other members do?
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz wobble, gone…
While cursing my damn luck after losing two good fish the Sol rod went off, this time I gave the fish plenty of stick and tightened the drag setting ever so slightly. A small undersized Flatchap lay in the net for hook removal, this time well and truly hooked.After releasing my first Durras fish for the day, a wry smile grew across my face, unfortunately my stomach still stirred with the whole ‘What could have been’ feature.This is were things ( As United Kingdom popstar Seal says ) get a little bit crazy!
What follows next is a spate of double hookups, my jaw was dropping in amazement as I proceeded to zig zag across the river mouth side to side, hooking up twice on every tac.‘You just have to grab the rod you see go off first, bugger the other’ I kept telling myself. Here is the correct captured and landed roll call ( In order of their initial appearance ), 42cm Flathead, 49cm flathead, 30cm Flathead, 53cm Flathead and a 45cm Flathead.
Tried to ring Jason to gloat ( Really to check our departure time ) but no reception, might try moving down the other end towards the ramp… Was that a bump?
ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz...
First thoughts were of a Stingray but those tell tale headshakes eventually had me convinced otherwise. Unlike the other Flathead this one decided to swim at the yak, probably trying to suss out what the hell was going on. She actually swam past the yak and stopped close by ( Probably savouring my drool leaking through the scuppers ). Poor poor me, she was hooked on my light rod again which didn’t leave me with high hopes ( Considering the days track record ).
As I sighted her at 80cm + I did the drag up a setting and reached for the net early , hoping to get myself some HOF digital proof.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz wobble, gone…
The fish would have been released anyway but I was still upset, drifted into reception range and spoke to Jason who passed on news of Craig’s amazing Whiting on poppers haul ( 7 Whiting and 2 Bream guys? ). It was close to 9pm and some of us had still to drive home to Canberra ( Yeah Craig, without a Nanna Nap even ), I was one legal fish away from bagging out so opted for a very slow troll back to the cars. Bait fish were spooking everywhere ( And not by me this time ) as the Bream moved in for the kill, thought I had secured my bag limit but two 29cm Bream were caught in quick succession.
Met the others at the ramp along with the evenings Prawning crew, armed with there high powered lights and float boats. Jason did what he does best and cleaned up our catch while we loaded our gear into the cars. Redemption, revenga, call it what you will, even though I had lost BIG personal best fish I managed to turn a reel or 10 ( And a feed for Sunday dinner as requested by SWMBO ).
Jason’s fortune was down today but he mentioned ( While we had a quick coffee at Craig’s ) before departing back for Canberra he was ‘Pretty sure’ he had used up all his luck last weekend.
