My Hobie Quest Kayak ( Mary Jane )

Picked her up a few months ago after a quick trip down the bay, dealer installed rudder and once home I actually drilled the Hobie rod mount in myself without hesitating too much ( Was really simple, even after 6 months I still pondered for awhile ), love the granite green so much and she was a pleasure to paddle for the few hours in windy conditions on Lake Tuggeranong ( Unfortunately no fish ).

Long, sleek and potent what a green machine she is after I installed a dedicated in-hull sounder and new fishfinder that is mounted permanently in the tray holder below along with the GPS mount for my Garmin map 76s ( Will keep old Piranha max10 FF for my Outfitter ).

My other kayak ( Hobie Outfitter tandem ) is a pig of a yak and with a J - bar on I can just fit both kayaks on securely, It was a hard decision not to get another Mirage drive Hobie which came down to one major factor, money... Quest was a great buy and the SWMBO gradually was won over on that fact alone but I must say I wanted a paddle craft for the experience and fitness aspect ( Legs have done very well after 6 months of mirage drive training ), I also eventually wish to try beach launching in surf conditions...

Even though a Hobie Outback seems to maintain constant speed easily with the Mirage drive system the Quest absolutely cuts through the water like a knife, so much easier than the Outfitter ( Especially solo ) so was very happy with its maiden voyage, how it compares to other paddle kayaks I don't know but next time I get a chance I will swap paddle craft with someone for awhile and get a comparative view for all.

8" hatches are an optional extra these days ( $$$ ), picked one up for about $80 from Great Outdoors and Funda and I installed it, Still getting use to the paddling aspect but enjoying it heaps, just don't like drifting away and not being able to hold position, might start using the anchor and burying it into the weeds, sand or reef.

The Ram mount for my GPS ( #RAM-HOL-GA6 ) is behind the fishfinder on the slant section towards the end of the tackle tray, very happy and nice feel with the Ram... Because I sit above eye level these seem to line up without getting in the way of each other allowing my line of sight on the GPS to be perfect.

Added the Scotty light mount on top of the rear hatch, mounted with 316 grade stainless steel bolts and sikaflex for a tight finish... Can still use the hatch and open it 90% of the way for a small dry bag stash spot or perhaps something not needed on an hourly basis.

Also bought a 1.5l camelback hydration system and mounted it onto the Quest seat by tightening buckels and threading on through arms of system, Quest seats have nothing behind or attatched to them and I sit nice and forward... I always have the forward seat straps pulled as far as possible to force myself to sit up while paddling so this creates a small ammount of room behind the seat even while sitting in it.

No more drink bottles for me!

Hmmm what else to do, I dont like crates so....

Canberra - Anzac Day 25/4/07

A Public Holiday of historical significance... After a good response in the fishing trip suggestion thread, I woke early this morning ( Well not too early, around 7am ) and packed the car heading off to the Black Mountain ramp on the Peninsula, Red and Adrian were already on the water in the distance working hard for a Native ( Alas no luck so I am told ) so I rigged the yak up quickly, Granpop arrived half way through and rigged his Outfitter on the ramp after politely refusing my assistance to help move it to shore ( Obviously saving him many to and fro trips from the car ).

It was cold, overcast and the gods were dampening my day off with light rain scattered over the first few hours, angled my tracking to take me into Redfin Land and hoped to target some bigger models before the typical Canberra winter sets in basically writing off fishing the local lakes for a good few months ( Yes, even the feral Redfin will hide ) unless you want to target Carp... Nothing wrong with that as long as I don't catch you filleting!

Tacking away from the morning rowing squads was hard for the first hour and the Redfin were scarce, water temperature was at a chilly 16 degrees and even my all time favourite Perch lure ( Silver and red stripped Viking Talisman ) was having trouble finding its mark in the dark murky waters just shy of the 4m mark, eventually once I rounded the Peninsula a 20cm Redfin made it aboard the good ship 'Mary Jane' shortly followed by another once I exited the Perch alley.

Allan and his daughter Amanda rocked up around 9 o'clock, After a few comments regarding kayak issues we passed a departing Adrian and he briefly remarked that Dave ( Granpop ) was on to a horde of Redfin somewhere towards the island's, quick scan of the horizon revealed poor Dave being shadowed by two bath tubs ( Plastic and alloy tinnies with electric's ), news must travel fast round these parts. Dave had about 17 decent Redfin in a keeper bag prompting many words from my mouth which were encouraging but crass to say the least, he was owning these fish left, right and centre... Managed to squeeze the fact he was using a Jackal out of him and before you could say anything else I was jigging the crap out of my Jackal loaded Nitro around the anchor mark he had indicated, after that I just drifted in between the mainland taking a few fish just shy of 30cm but not the huge beast's I was hoping for ( Managed a 34cm model trolling the Talisman before disembarking ).

Quick time check revealed it was almost time to head back to the Peninsula and meet the ladies who had kindly donated all there time and effort into securing a table at a now busy site, Black Mountain is a popular tourist destination and also visited quite often with by the locals on weekends and public holidays, by this stage Victor and partner, Suzi, Kim, Adrian and his family had all arrived for a feed slowly followed by the lake stragglers ( Including myself )... Squidder rocked up after a frantic morning baking with some of the nicest tasting treats I have ever eaten, one delicious Lemon Meringue and a tantalising Key Lime Pie. Master chef Leigh and Suzi were on BBQ duties and produced a lovely mixed grill including a nice size Burley Griffin Bream and some Redfin fillets fit for a king, Claire and Kylie supplied some salad and plenty of fluid as well as most of the meat ( Thanks Kylie! ).

A great day off and a nice turnout by the Canberra connection...

My Easter Long Weekend 2007 ( Archive )

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.

Canberra - Lake Tuggeranong 31/3/07 ( Archive )

Chores, chores, chores... So much work to do.

Going to Tackleworld on a Saturday morning sure is a pain in the neck, waking up early after an unusual extra two hour sleep in was bad enough but to be greeted with a cup of strong coffee and a warm croissant, I swear I was very close to boiling point or was that the kettle? ( Yes I am being a sadistic, sarcastic bastard but what’s new? ).

After some brief one sided arguments Claire offered to drive me to Fyshwick to pick up my new Scotty extender bars ( Like she had a choice mind you ) and of course whatever else I manage to ensnare deep within my grasp as I browse the isles lined with sport fishing goodness, its like a magical supermarket complete with hand baskets but this time I don’t hate shopping, I absolutely love it.

Arriving home with less money than what I left with is no big deal, it is a common occurrence both of us are used to so there was no need to hide the two Scotty bars, 90mm AC Invader, Predatek Boomerang 80, Sx 40, TN60 Jackall, Owner fingerless gloves and Gulp 4" Pumpkinseed Turtleback worms individually scattered over the dining room table. "You better do your chores before you go fishing!" muttered SWMBO, Oh yes chores, what did I have to do again... Watch a fishing DVD and fall asleep on the couch but only after I painstakingly unpack each bought lure, which requires me to rearrange my entire lure collection one by one, All this work is making me thirsty so as the Fishing DVD #5 appears on the television screen I demand lunch followed by a few glasses of coke to wash it down ( Just who do I think I am, Paris Hilton? ).

The quick feed and rest seem to do wonders so the day didn’t seem that lost yet, I log onto MSN and have a chat to Funda who had incidentally just woken up after missing out on the morning fishing trip, he was amped to give lake Tuggeranong a crack in the early afternoon with GracefulLily and I invited myself along considering the car was packed and ready to go. Claire’s back was killing her after loading all the gear and placing the kayak on the roof racks, making sure she had triple checked the packing of the vehicle I decided we were ready to go but only after I drank her sugar free Red Bull and pissed and moaned about what a crap day I was having, arriving 15 minutes early we met Allan and Suzi at the designated departure point on the smelly shores of one of the most coffee coloured bodies of water I have ever seen ( Lake Tuggeranong ).

Throwing the car keys at Claire after she unloaded I bid her farewell only to realise once launched she had my key card, why does being such a spoilt, evil bastard always have to backfire on me... I mean Jesus Christ she’s is only going to go to Woolworth’s and do the shopping for the next two weeks while I throw lures around from a five star kayak ( Well three star, it was the paddling 'Quest' after all ). I don’t have much luck with this lake, last time it was no fish and this time I had already decided was going to be no different, things went from bad to worse when I realised SWMBO deliberately bought me an extra packet of smokes for the trip, I had a flat sounder battery ( No not again, why didn’t she charge it? ) and the weather was just brilliant in a 'not too much wind' kind of way... I was kind of glad I had done all those chores though, so that would mean the roast dinner would have to be ready when the king returns home.

Pushing off into the small urban expanse that is Tuggeranong I followed wearily behind the two pedal powered craft headed for the dam wall, cursing the flat sounder battery I was once again fishing blind with absolutely no water visibility at all... Luckily for me Allan was keen to share basic structure information and lure choices, we commenced to churn the water to a pulp with Spinnerbaits drifting slowly backwards with the wind in our face.

Spreading out we covered all bases possible so someone was bound to get lucky sooner or later, beard or no beard Funda once again proved why he is one of the superior Murray Cod fisherman in Canberra and the region landing a very healthy Cod just shy of one hour on the water, paddling over I took some photos whilst listening to Suzi curse in the background only to get her own back when the released fish kicked its tail soaking poor old Allan to the bone, I must say though the pictures gained from this expedition look slightly eerie and amiss due to somebody’s lack of facial hair.

I tried chucking everything I could at these fish, 4x4 Spinnerbait, Smak Spinnerbait with stinger, various Jackalls, Rattlin' spot, Rebel Big Craw, Golden Child, River 2 Sea twin Vibe 60, Pakrat, Storm Hot 'n' Tot, G force but alas came up with nothing... Suzi was getting some big hits over the hours on a Spinnerbait ( Unknown make and brand ) and Allan had some moments but the natives ( And bloody Redfin ) decided the game was over not long after it had begun. "One last troll" I said to myself as I edged along the rocky shore next to the Dam, paddling against the wind slowly I heard my reel scream and noticed my rod arching heavily above the waters girth, finally I had some action or something like that only to find a heavy snag of some sort playing silly buggers with my emotional state...

The sun had set and the wind picked up, beckoning my wench to come pick me up we all paddled / pedaled over to the launch site to call it a day, might not have been the most productive day on the water for some ( Hoping my weekend gets better tomorrow, bloody Claire! ), Allan catching a native in a zone he has been targeting for the last 3 months since the NYE storm made it all worth while in the end... Even if he does look kind of odd these days.

Barlings & Moruya revisited - 3/3/07 & 4/3/07 ( Archive )

Saturday 3rd March - Barlings Beach

This trip seemed plagued with mishaps from the start, first Allan and his spider incident, second my staff member calling in sick on Friday with 1hrs notice meaning Derek had to work his but off all day without a chance to organise replacement member for shift and thirdly Claire taking off to Narooma with my keycard firmly concealed deep within the realms of handbag womanhood... How the hell are we supposed to pull this off with the world against us?.

Luckily the gods had heard my plea with Andrew from Mayfly Tackle's ( Insert quality service here ) Nitro representative offering my doomed 'Undertaker' a second chance at Barlings glory and my shops safe cracking skills producing enough dosh for the trip away, even if I had to go into town at 5am when it was still full of drunken yobbos! I felt a sigh of relief after surviving the night at the pill munching, Wild Turkey swilling, huge crazy dog owning house and after the short stint at the shop and my rank amateur fuel filling skills we were on our way to Barlings Beach for a trip offshore, quick text message to Red advising of arrival time as we left Queanbeyan was greeted with a cheeky reply promising at leaving me some fish or more importantly an 'Ooglie' or two...

Fell asleep to awake halfway down the Clyde mountain close to the river harbouring the protected surrounds of Nelligen and Ultimately Batemans Bay. Quick bypass through Mogo had us arriving at Barlings spot on 8:00am for a slightly delayed launch, we had made it and were suprised by 1 1/2m - 2m swell producing knee high waves from the departure point, us 'Fresho's' don't get much waves round our parts but we managed to nick out the side in between the rocks spying for the familiar yellow yaks of Squidder's Fish 'n' Dive and Leigh's Hobie Adventure, after rounding the first few points and clocking up the first 5km of the day we noticed the distinct outline of Jason's evil milk crate silhouetted between the rising sun and the roll and pitch of the waves, thank god for Travelcalm is all I can say ( Funda doesn't need to have any + im sure he didn't need to take more bloody pills this weekend! ).

Catching up with Jason we dropped lines for some slow results, Jason indicated he had not caught a keeper fish yet and informed me Leigh had caught all my 'Ooglies' which made my blood boil, down went the 130mm Slick rig in Technicolour yawn which I hoped would bring me another decent feed of poor man's Lobster, the drift was fast and nothing like my previous experience at Burrewurra Point... Wind and tide pushing me 100m every few minutes made for some excruciating paddling lengths so clocking up the miles was definitely a must on the agenda schedule, Allan headed over closer to the rocks while I lost what can only be described as a rock solid fish ( A Red Rock Cod of 'Ooglie' stature ).

Looked over in between casts trying to stay well clear of Squidder, I was holding my Nitro rod close to my chest when I saw the man in question hook his first Snapper of the day, it was giving him stick but he hauled it aboard for a decent 30cm model followed by the bigger sized Snapper, schools were around and he was on top so cautiously I paddled over and was met by Funda on the drift and a returning Red with stories of lost fish ( Sure mate, big fish eh? Snapped your Fireline? ),

Having no fish to record as yet no sympathy was dished out for Leigh's substantial loses. Just before Red bailed for the safety of growing Children I copped a decent hit and set the hook on a tiny 'Ooglie' that fought as hard as any Redfin, Sergeant Baker or any other red fish species I had hooked in my life, no size to the fillets so back he went but closely followed on the next drop was a 30cm Sergeant Baker which self released next to the yak to my disappointment, switched lures to a Storm / Tsunami style weighted shad for a few nibbles but nothing worth recording...

Funda was doing slightly better with a few more 'Ooglies' than I and some butchers pricks ( Sergeant Baker to you northern folk ) but it was pretty quiet on the fish front, Jason hooked some Yakka on an Ice Jig before the decision was made to return to shore and depart from Jason to go check in at the Riverview van park at Moruya for a well earned rest.



Sunday 4th March - Moruya River

After waking early to find the weather had turned bad we went to the launch site at 6am for the Moruya outing to find neither Squidder, Red Pheonix or Bart70 had made it out of bed for the proposed trip, a few quick text messages later and we went back to the cabin to figure out our next move, packing plastics all night in anticipation of a headland bash put me in a desperate mood for a fish but the gods aren't going to let me have my way...

Around 6:30 the weather cleared enough for a launch into the Moruya River around the culvert and weir in search of our lizard mates and anything else that wanted to eat Atomic Prawns or smelly Gulp products hauled with effect by Cod whisperer. Another slow start with not many fish till we entered the weir, Allan had some big hits but failed to hook up apart from a small Flathead in the culvert before we moved onto the opening around the weir when my luck changed, throwing the Atomic prawn on a 1/8th jighead towards the mangroves hooked me my first Flathead of around 20cm followed closely by another in the same area about 25cm long...

Allan produced Flathead after Flathead with none of legal tender so he moved closer to the opening of the water outfall while I changed to a heavier jighead and an Atomic 3" Jerk Minnow, cast after cast had the fish moving in but apart from a small Octopus holding on all the way to the yak ( Just missed a good photo opportunity, Damn! ) I wasn't having the best of luck.

The tide had turned so back to the culvert we went with Flathead travelling round the weed beds avoiding my casts but hammering Funda's offerings, he dropped a few fish but managed a decent Lizard around the 45cm mark before we decided to call it quits and pack up and travel home, Allan's hand was glowing and I was pretty sunburned after paddling a suggested total of 15km - 20km over the past 2 mornings...

Fell asleep again till we made it up the mountain and as we travelled onto and through Bungendore a big Semi Trailer caused horrific wind leverage opening the rear window of the Pathfinder and shaking the yak on the new Thule system ( Quick check showed the system holding up perfectly ).

Wasn't the best weekend fishing but was a great break from the local and im sure we are both pretty keen to hit the coast more and more as we move toward the dreaded Canberra winter, and im sure Funda will be relived when he realises that finally he wont have to waste time stuffing around transporting an extra passenger and yak all over town as by then ( Crossing fingers ) I should have my very own 'P' plates to call my own, thanks to Red & Jason for the company on Saturday and hope to catch up with you all very soon on, god forbid... lake Burley Griffin.

Canberra - Molonglo Reach 10/2/07 ( Archive )

Another short but sweet report...

Slow and late rise this morning as I waited for Jason to arrive with the commander ( Holden Commodore ) to do a dual load of our yaks in preparation for the haulage to Barlings Beach in the next coming weeks, as successful application was made to the roof of the car submitting my fear well beyond the point of retrieval ( In other words yak strapped on like a dream ), with some time to kill I suggested previously that we should head to the Molonglo Reach and launch from the A.C.T Hospice into the beautiful body of water that was well and truely out of the wind and free of dreaded rowers ( And unfortunately no Redfin ).

Great paddle with barely a sole on the water ( Well fishing anyway ) till some power paddlers and a big paddleboat steamed down the middle of the river, made for some spectacular photos but alas no fish were encountered even though it was very fishy looking, but much like others previous attempts nothing was brought on to our yaks, not even a bloody English Perch.

After a few hours we moved out and through the east basin and under Kings Avenue bridge into the west basin that holds the Carillion ( Canberra landmark ) but only one small Redfin was pulled as we trolled under the bridge in water levels topping the 3m mark, decided to head off the water and head to Tackle World where I was bound to get lucky with some new lures and an additional Humminbird Pirahna Max10 sounder to install in and on the Quest ( Just in time for the AKFF Barlings Beach trip in a few weeks time, I am not that keen on going offshore in any conditions without one ).

Not sure how many photos Jason got but with the amount of Wildlife on offer I would say they would be of a high calibre and hope he will get the opportunity between crazy science testing to post some up, especially of the Lizard and the talkative Cows bordering the edges ( Along with some sneaky photos I saw him taking of me and my bad trolling technique ).

Canberra - Lake Burley Griffin 4/2/07 ( Archive )

Cough, splurt, what? Ohhhhhhh

Damn these 5:30am starts are killing me, after loading the car after a strong brew and my morning ciggie I woke Claire for a lift to Black Mountain peninsula to meet up with the rest of the Canberra crew, wasn't too sure who the attendees would be but was pleasantly surprised to see Red Pheonix, Victor, Funda & Ash rigging up ready to get on with another early morning yak fest on a pristine Sunday morning on Lake Burley Griffin ( Most were admiring Leigh's new Hobie Adventure whilst giving me crap about being 7 minutes late, although Red knew that was a stella effort considering my usual 7:30am - 8:00am body clock routine ).

We all headed off right of the ramp ( except Leigh who flew off east at mach 10 in the opposite direction ) in near darkness heading for the now infamous corner near the rowing platform that holds giant Cod and the obese Golden Perch, after struggling to wake I decided to do the obligatory 'Stroll & troll' away from the main group concentrating on keeping my big Boomerang lure ( Upgraded last night to Owner hook setup ) as close to the overhanging tree line as possible, lots of fish gleaming on the surface as I travelled along towards another temporary rowing platform marking the end of my trolling distance.

"Good quality snagzzz, might just hang here and try some spinnerbaits" I whispered to myself, drifting slowly approximately 800m towards the crew, threw my spinnerbaits carefully and covered small amounts of ground eventually stopping to have a smoke and extract any native who dared to cross my path ( Sat at one particular snag for about 25 minutes ), unfortunately the only native encountered was a hairy bushy man named Allan who left the thick and fast Redfin action to also troll a big deep diver down past the willows... "Any luck mate?" said Funda with a perplexed look on his face, I exclaimed that I had been sitting at this particular snag for a while and was about to move on, took about 3 paddle strokes towards the main group before I heard my name called out ( Quite calmly I might add, they dont call him Cod Whisperer for nothing ).

Funda just passed my snag when his Jumbuck Swagman lure in a yellow and black pattern was belted from below, with the fight drawing out we both knew it was a decent Murray Cod or Golden Perch but how big it going to be was another story, the facial expression said it all around the 4 minute mark with Funda grinning from ear to ear after a show of colour confirmed it was a big Cod ( I applauded his efforts but secretly was a little miffed, this was MY snag and that was MY fish! ), after being schooled on the results of spinnerbaits over hard bodied lures by Cod Whisperer the mongrel does the exact opposite of what he has showed me and catches a trophy winning fish...

Only joking mate, what a quality fish and a great entry for yourself and Canberra in the AKFF monthly fishing competition, First stop Lake Burley Griffin, next stop the world.

Left the western side in a huff over towards my favourite trolling ground ( Redfin Land, Perch City ) and bumped into Ash again and Squidder asking Jason if he had seen the Birthday boy Leigh yet, first decent bend in the light gear since embarking on our journey forcing a huge struggle on my new rod setup, my new personal best English Perch at 41cm was landed quickly followed with Ash smashing his former P/B before almost being steam rolled by a rowing squad ( Who also managed to snag poor Ash's lure in the scull, needless to say I was yelling and cursing in there direction ).

Saw some commotion at the boat ramp so decided to head over passing Jimmyak in Allan's Bass SIK moving out for a paddle, said hello and spied the grey Outback of Garrick in the distance moving slowly near the thick willow trees, got to the ramp thinking the main party was leaving but they were all checking out Victors thumper 43cm Redfin ( That is some fish mate, is that your personal best English Perch? ), Red headed home to nurse the bubby while we all headed out again for one more attempt at some bigger fish...

So many bloody rowers made for one busy body of water, some heated words were exchanged between vessels helping the decision to bring the end to one hell of a successful day. Thanks for the company guys and a big cheers to Ash for his work organising us all at such an early hour ( Well done on the fish again mate, hope it tastes as good as it looks ), Nice to meet you Garrick ( Finally, taken a few trips to catch up with you ) and a big thankyou for Jason showing me ( And actually doing it for me ) a top way to fillet Redfin...

Good luck this afternoon guys, may the dedicated few catch some stonker Redfin and perhaps get lucky enough to snare the elusive native fish that seem to keep getting fatter and fatter with there heavy diet of a certain red striped introduced species.

Canberra - Lake Burley Griffin 1/2/07 ( Archive )

Short but sweet, The working week is coming to an end and the fishing competition is about to commence for the month so a pre-fish was in order, not many takers for this evening but only the strong survive so myself, Victor and Cod Whisperer ( known as Funda ) met at Black Mountain peninsula to find a spot out of the wind in search of the perch ( English / Golden ) and any other native available in Lake Burley Griffin...

A short paddle to the right of the ramp revealed no rowers ( A first for me I might add ) and the location of a specific snag which has yielded some hefty Golden Perch ( Victors 55cm Yellowbelly & Allan's 65cm Yellowbelly ), we found a small patch that was for the most out of the wind which has cursed the national capitals urban lakes all month. Spinnerbaits and Jackals were thrown for some smaller Redfin around 6:30pm but after 7:30pm the bigger schools moved in with plenty of 30cm Redfin going absolutely bezerk belting our Jackals from up, down and side on and got a decent double hookup with 2 fish on the 1 lure, one which reached 33cm, Funda managed a double too while Victor battled down the ledge with the wind in search of something bigger ( Many branches were maimed with regress from the Prowlers captain ).

Got some good photos and managed to have a great afternoon even if we were only on the water for 2.5 hours, any fishing trip afterwork is a bonus but for me it made the working week worth it with only Friday remaining before the AKFF monthly fishing competition... Beware guys, I can feel some cranky massive English Perch around the 15cm mark ruining your chances but from the skills of the guru lately I would suggest some big fish may be on the cards, the Canberra yak community keeps getting bigger and bigger and its about time we were given a name, dont you think? ( KKK seems a little topical but may work ), what you think it stands for I will leave up to your imagination.

Bring on this weekend...

Canberra - Funda struck 25/1/07 ( Archive )

The time had come for Funda to pick up his new 2007 Hobie Outback and with his friend Wes ( Blacktruck ) in town and new member Caught2 ( Kim ) recently securing a 2006 Hobie Sport we all decided to meet at Black Mountain Peninsula for a late afternoon trip, arriving around 6pm at the ramp I was pleasantly suprised Allan, Wes and Kim were already rigging up with lots of attention being paid to detail on Fundas fishfinder setup ( Which im hoping he posts in the 'Do it yourself' section ).

Wind was blowing hard from the east with white caps prevailing towards the infamous snags and Redfin Land, I had some big transducer issues ( Not sure what, depth was fluctuating hardcore ) so I lagged behind while the others sped off with Wes in tow on the old school Bass SIK, I could hear Allan on the phone enjoying his conversation while drinking Turkey, having a smoke and trolling lures all at the same time ( Talk about multi-tasking, not available on the Bass kayak ), spoke to Kim briefly as she was on her way out of the wind and then I pressed on for a troll slow rolling a Smak Brolga deep diver while juggling steering duties.

The Outback cut through the water like a demon quite easily out performing the other yaks ( The Sport held its own though in windy conditions ) but the wind was getting heavier and my solo Outfitter was copping a flogging all while Wes paddled through it successfully, we all headed over to calmer water sheltered by the point around the spot were Victor - Victor had pulled a Golden Perch the previous weekend ( Along with some bank anglers landing a few Golden Perch on Saturday last week ).

Spinnerbaits were thrown all over the shop with a few hits and misses while I tied on a TN60 Jackal, a few small taps later and my 12lb braid and heavy baitcaster were almost pulled into the water which I ofcourse called for a Yellowbelly but instead found a ruckus 36cm Redfin trying to avoid being brought on board, meanwhile unknown to me the boys had already pulled out there own Jackals ( In various colours and sizes ) for some instant results Including Wes managing a double hookup before Funda replicated the result in a slightly bigger format... Wasn't long after that the BIG Redfin came out to play with Funda christening the Outback hard with 2 massive specimens, I didn't have much luck after that but Wes kept on the school managing plenty of small Redfin ( Which he released to my amazement! ).

Something happened that I couldn't explain, fish went quiet but Allan was on to something playing a slightly different game pulling drag on the Dropshot setup with 30lb braid, a BIG Golden Perch measured at 60cm was handled correctly and brought aboard ( My request was finally granted ) which rounded off the trip quite well, Funda seemed pleased but kept flogging the water in search of more native friends for a few strong hits but no takers...

Kim was holding her own with a few small Redfin a little further down the bank but it was getting dark and we were all due home, I knew this trip would be good ( Apart from Kims pedal coming off the mirage drive ) but never expected a Yellowbelly that big especially on the Outbacks maiden voyage.

Thanks for the great company and well done Allan and Kim ( Nice to chat to you too Wes ), glad you both enjoy your new Hobie's and welcome to the real darkside of kayak fishing, don't let anyone tell you ( Especially Occy and friends ) that fishing from a kayak with pedals isn't the real deal, perhaps we can rub it in down at Barlings Beach and teach the others the advantages of mirage drives, hope to be out on the water soon on my new Quest and look forward to securing my first native of the year.

Canberra - Lake Burley Griffin 20/1/07 & 21/1/07 ( Archive )

Lake Burley Griffin - Saturday 20th January 2007

It was the night before Christmas, no wait wait...

It was the afternoon that felt like Christmas after nicking out earlier in the day to the local tackle store and buying a dedicated Redfin / Trout light rod and reel setup ( Daiwa Procaster z, Daiwa Proshooter 1500 ), avoiding the heat of the day Allan and his partner Susie picked me up around 6pm and we headed to launch from the banks on the eastern side of the peninsula sheltered from the steady wind blowing approximately 30kmh from the north west ( Barometer 1008 hpa falling, no moon & 36 degrees ).

After some fumbling on shore and myself almost taking a tumble into the water we left the safety of the treeline and commenced loitering around the gates of Redfin Land, most fish were congregating at the 12 foot mark in 20 foot of water ( Nothing much around the weed beds except smaller specimens ) and almost immediately Allan hooked onto a smaller fish while I managed to land a 15cm Redfin that had totally engulfed the lure, once released it floated off much to my dismay.

Allan managed loads of hits on his Jackal TN50 with Susie watching proudly, the man is a machine landing tiddler after tiddler ( Including 2 Redfin on the 1 lure ) while I decided a cruise around the 8m mark bordering the weed line would be the order of the day, some bigger Redfin were found schooling around my Viking Talisman and many were over the 30cm mark with a bruiser around 35cm towing me half way towards Yarralumla Bay heavily assisted from the wind.

Paddling back towards Allan and Susie, Squidder turned up yakless for a bank fish, heckling my Photoshop skills and fishing at the same time was too much for me to handle so I moved on down towards the infamous Cod snags of yesteryear were Allan had firmly entrenched camp looking to drop in on a couple of his old mates ( All while Susie enjoyed her first paddle from the now infamous 'Pink' kayak )... Funda didn't seem to have much luck with the natives due to the presence of fishing marauders prowling the peninsula and perhaps other factors so I paddled past trolling a deep Boomerang lure kindly given to me by Cod Whisperer.

About half way round my heavy baitcaster took a battering and after grabbing the rod from the holder the line went slack, after pondering the situation I realised that I had probably dropped a Golden Perch that failed to hookup to the deep diver ( Saying I was gutted was an understatement, Allan has a knack of lending lures successfully ), turned around and pedalled back noticing it was getting dark fairly quickly... Hmmm now where had the two lovebirds gone?

Allan and Susie had nicked off back and entered Redfin land accompanied by an unidentified yak fisho in a SIK, spoke to him about fishing and informed him of AKFF.NET much to his amazement as he told me he has been fishing from a kayak for quite a while and didn't know there was a dedicated site... All that canoodling paid off and my new reel started to scream with a heavy fish, at one stage called it for a Carp as the line hit the surface early but once next to the yak 2 healthy Redfin were hauled into the net, 2 fish on the 1 lure but much bigger than Allan managed.

Paddled over to gloat but I could barely see him as it was close to 9pm, we all headed back eventually after a couple more Redfin each and packed the car to embark for our suburbs homeward bound, another wicked trip to LBG made even more pleasant by the great company and my new fishing pole ( Comet in the sky was pretty cool ), Allan and I both dreamed of the comming week with Funda receiving enough brownie points to pickup the new moss Outback from the Great Outdoors while my secret trip to Batemans Bay next Saturday loomed closer and closer and closer, more details to be announced sooner or later.


Lake Burley Griffin - Sunday 21st January 2007

With bugger all rest due to spending my evening polishing reports and recovering from Saturdays adventure, Claire and myself ventured over to the ramp at Black Mountain to meet Mr No show ( Funda was feeling a little crook from chasing wild birds )... Very very windy but commenced launch spying Victor in his Prowler 13 far in the distance to the left while we head towards the bank opposite the ramp avoiding the rowers and north westerly winds.

Claire brained a few Redfin ( As bloody usual, go the 'Stungun' ) pretty much wiping the floor with me early on but my bigger Redfin guesstimated at 37cm took the cake on 1kg gear, props to Funda for convincing me to get a dedicated light tackle combo as this fish fought harder than any I have encountered including the double hookups from the previous day on the same combo... I don't think they enjoy losing the freedom but im sorry I just don't want to lose that lure, it will be a sad, sad day when that happens ( I recommend spending the $12 - $14 dollars and investing in a silver Viking Talisman with red stripes ).

Bumped into Victor finally who exclaimed intensely his encounter with a big Golden Perch, very happy for you mate but you sure know how to make a yak fisho jealous... Im just glad its your first for the year and only your second in LBG ever ( Would those statistics be correct? ), Welcome to the Canberra native club mate as many of us have never caught anything of pure distinction like that man... Just dont get any more massive fat Golden Perch like that mate otherwise I might get a little cranky!

Our Coastal Adventure 24/12/06 – 30/12/06 ( Archive )

Sunday 24th December - Merimbula

Christmas eve marked the first of many trips to ports of call up and down the south coast of NSW, the crew consisted of myself ( Captain Paffoh ) and my partner, first mate Claire ‘The Gun’ Stunden ( The designated driver for the duration of the trips ), after a small hiccup trying to locate and secure the cat inside we managed to depart for my parents place located in the Merimbula / Pambula region approximately three hours away.

After stopping in Cooma briefly to check the straps holding the kayak we continued over and down the Brown Mountain and arrived just in time to watch the AFC Bream series on television for about half an hour before my yakking urges got the better of me, the weather was crap with 30 knot + winds which may have deterred Claire from accompanying me but my sister Sarah ( Who had arrived with her partner the previous day ) was keen so we decided to launch from the old boat ramp located near Robyn’s nest resort in the Merimbula top lake.

Without any bait or knowledge pertaining to saltwater yakking ( apart from information gathered within this site ) we set up for some trolling with various lures but found it extremely difficult due to the fact the previous weeks weather had ripped and blown plenty of weed onto the surface, moving around some small points assisted heavily by the wind we found loads of fish on the sounder but encountered none until Sarah cast along a weed ledge and brought a 20cm Leatherjacket alongside the yak ( The first and only fish of the day ).


Monday 25th December – Christmas Day

With Christmas finally upon us many alcoholic beverages were consumed by all so driving let alone yakking was completely out of the question and the weather was still pretty crap with wind gusts topping 45 knots during the day making for a great day indoors, many top presents were exchanged with myself receiving some awesome native lures ( Golden child, Gold Double Downer ) from my Nan + amongst other things a $50 gift voucher for my local tackle store ( Dedicated to a pair of Ugly Fish polarized sunglasses which I picked up when we got back from Merimbula before our trip to Batemans Bay ).

I prayed for some better weather over the forthcoming days but alas the God of Kayak fishing had other plans...


Tuesday 26th December - Pambula

Awoke to find more crap weather so cursed the Gods and had my usual breakfast consisting of a smoke and a strong instant coffee, we had a good view of both the top and bottom lake at Merimbula and could see the wind was up around the 40 knot mark but maybe the Pambula lake was out of the wind?… A short trip without the kayak to the Merimbula boat ramp confirmed a no go situation so we drove towards Pambula lake in hope of a reprieve from the harsh conditions for an afternoon trip and on the way close to our destination passed over a bridge containing the Yowaka River.

Arriving at Pambula lake the surrounding landscape blanketed the wind well enough for some serious contemplation ( Should we go the lake or would this mysterious tidal river be perfect for a yak? ), on the way back to my parents we turned off to visit the river system and were delighted to find it sheltered enough for some great fishing so we went back to the parents and had some lunch then packed the car.

Arriving at Yowaka River a few hours later we parked at a public campsite by the river and set the yak venturing upstream looking for what Claire had deemed ‘Bream City’ noticing plenty of fish on the sounder whilst watching Mullet jump all around us, we decided on drifting Prawns hoping for a Bream or two and it wasn’t long before my rod tipped with a healthy Bream of around 20cm, Claire ‘The Gun’ was not to be outdone and pulled in another 20cm Bream which put up a great fight around the snags followed closely by an almost identical fish which had taken a liking to Claire’s Prawn presentation.

The following few hours produced 3 more small Bream with one absolutely smashing my prawn as we drifted through the city, the wind picked up and the tide started to fall so we left vowing to return in the near future to look further upstream following the brackish water towards Nethercote Falls in search of Bass... Would they be there?


Wednesday 27th December - Merimbula

The wind finally calmed to around 15 knots which was a pleasant sight to see with the Merimbula boat ramp completely full with boats, cars and trailers everywhere, just down from the ramp was a small beach capable of handling a yak launch so off we headed under the bridge to some moored boats on the edge of a channel ( Which we have inhabited in the past on my Dads stinkboat ) to try our luck drifting some Prawns, Claire’s first cast was nailed in under a minute producing a big run pulling braid with ‘The Gun’ landing a great Flathead of 56cm, I haven’t heard her scream so much over a fish before as I netted the beast and considering we were on a yak made her even more ecstatic.

Things went quiet for awhile after that due to the amount of boat traffic ( And possibly Claire’s Flathead hooting ) but some 20cm Bream ventured away from the oyster leases and nailed my offerings followed by a decent 33cm Silver Trevally which put up less of a fight than the following few 15cm Squire I managed to bring to the yak, we ran out of Prawns and needed to drive home to Canberra after lunch to feed the cat so we departed the lake but neither of us were phased considering the fillets we would get from that lizard and the skippy.


Thursday 28th December – Durras

After a long drive home to Canberra with coastal traffic the previous afternoon we fed and locked up the cat and traveled to Batemans Bay down the Clyde Mountain and into town grid locked with fellow Canberra citizens eager to secure accommodation before the forecasted storms hit, the bay was pleasant enough but after unpacking our gear into the Hotel ( They even let me store my kayak in my room overnight ) we proceeded to head to Durras Lake escaping the hordes and looking for a decent pedal before the weather closed in.

Having spied Durras Lake before hand a few months ago on a LBG trip we arrived at lunchtime to a mostly empty boat ramp and launched into a wind free body of water, I wanted to troll but Claire was keen to boat another Flathead on Prawns so a drifting we went around the corner away from the ramp… It was shallower than I predicted in areas, which made for some steady maneuvering into a 3m deep pool harbouring returns on the fishfinder, landed a few 15cm Squire between us before another forecasted storm decided to blow in from the coast ( That and the amount of beer swilling stinkboaters that arrived after us creating havoc ) forcing us to retreat with swift haste to the Hotel.

Lovely place out of holiday season but during the peak period we decided to avoid the place for the rest of our trip, after reading favourable reports on lizards in the Moruya and Clyde River systems Fridays destination was penciled in and the yak was put to bed on the Hotel floor ( No I didn’t make Claire sleep there, chances are I would have had to sleep down there if I tried! ).


Friday 29th December – Moruya

Alarm went off in the Hotel room at 7am so we could beat the traffic and the weather to the Moruya River, we traveled along the coast the 38kms to Moruya looking for a place to launch on the north side of river ( Passing unnoticed the ideal location which was later marked on the GPS as the ultimate launch site ), after driving towards the bridge we decided to cross it and depart from the town boat ramp… Waiting patiently in-between Departing boats we stole our chance after fitting the transducer, walking down the ramp and pedaling out and away drifting slowly as I set up the sounder and the GPS.

Right ready to go, hang on I know I have forgotten something due to our quick departure… where is the bait?, I had left it on the car floor but told Claire not to worry and opened a packet of Berkley Gulp 4” Sandworm in bloodworm colour and threaded them onto our hooks for a few hits but no real result.

Claire was getting frustrated knowing the Prawns were in the car but I insisted we tried trolling due to the lack of weed + I had been hanging to try some of the SX 40’s I purchased from Lureworld a few months ago so on they went, took about 10 minutes before I got a hit on the baitcaster but failed to hook up to the unknown fish, this lifted our spirits and it wasn’t long after passing a snag that I hooked up a 25cm Leatherjacket which spat the hooks alongside the yak ( Didn’t really care as I wasn’t keen to land this species ) so we trolled further along passing another snag with fish all over the finder resulting in my first Tailor ever, at the 25cm mark he was too small and thrown back.

Continuing on traveling back and forth along the rocky banks Claire finally got a hit when we hit the sandy 1.5m mark with her SX 40 securing a decent Flathead of legal size ( Which I assumed was too small and let go much to Claire’s disgust ), about 5 minutes later in the same approximate location on the trip back up the river I landed a 36cm Dusky lizard that was slightly smaller ( I got out the tape measure this time ) and threw it in the Hobie cooler behind my seat.

Wanting to hit Nelligen in the afternoon we called it a day around lunch and while pedaling back to the busy ramp I caught a 28cm dusky that hooked itself and my net badly breaking a hook from the rear treble as it thrashed around, eventually as I tried to free the lure from the enviro style net it escaped and catapulted over the side to hopefully grow up into a much bigger specimen for me to catch in the future.


Friday 29th December – Nelligen

With one day left before we had to return to Canberra there was only one place left I wanted to fish and that was the Clyde River, having stayed parallel to the river in Batemans Bay for the last few days observing absurd amounts of boats and PWC a quick nip down the road brought us to a muddy mangrove opening that was vacant of water craft next to the Nelligen bridge.
Upstream towards Batemans Bay is considered a no wash zone with all PWC ( Jet skis, water skiers and wake boarders ) banned which made our trip a little easier, the difficult thing was the weed on the surface which once again ruled out a troll session but with some Prawns and Worms to waste we moved away from the bridge and found huge schools of what we assume was either Snapper or Bream ( Came to this conclusion from the amount of 15cm Squire and similar size Bream we brought aboard ).

Interesting to note the few 18cm Squire we landed loved the Prawns fighting hard to avoid Claire’s wrath whilst the Bream loved the worms and found avoiding my tempting offers almost impossible, about half a dozen pinkies and a couple of 15cm Bream later we called it quits as we were getting quite sore after so many mini adventures up and down along the New South Wales southern coast… God I love to yak but this was the first time since I got my Hobie Outfitter that I had actually had enough of a fix to last me a year, luckily for me the year 2006 was almost over…


Friday 30th December - Canberra

After packing the car and checking out of the hotel we departed for Canberra feeling extremely satisfied of our saltwater achievements catching over 30 fish and many different species ( Even if only a few were kept for the table ), arriving home for lunch about 12:30 I edited the levels of the images captured and uploaded them to my photobucket page and started compiling this report ( Minus paddle charts ).

Its at this stage I wish to thank you all at AKFF for the support since I joined in August, I am glad I have found an enjoyable hobby and get to share it with likeminded people based throughout Australia and the world, Claire and I wish you a happy new years and we cant wait to finally meet some of you guys at the NSW annual AKFF convention held at Barlings Beach in 2007.

Canberra - Search for Perch 17/12/06 ( Archive )

Aargghh another bloody Redfin report. ( Sorry guys! )

Claire wanted a yak after reading about yesterdays exploits and im always up for one so an early Sunday rise followed by a quick launch on Lake Burley Griffin seemed like the ultimate way to spend a weekend morning, the car was packed around 8am and off we went to Yarralumla Bay only to run into a triathalon in front of the carpark ( Road closed, grumble grumble ).

A change in tactics involved discussing if Lake Ginninderra or Tuggeranong could be an option but the smell of scummy water lost out over better views and a well worn path, so round past and over the dam we went to depart from the Black Mountain Peninsula boat ramp in pristine conditions ( Compared to yesterday morning it was an amazing day on LBG ).

Arriving at the ramp we both unloaded and rigged up the yak, first inserting the transducer through the left scupper and setting up the FF followed closely by mounting the new Garmin GPS map 76s on a very similar system in the front drink holder, coaching Claire through some instructions we marked our waypoint and deployed the yak in all its glory.

My yellow Craftmaster Merlin was passed back to the person that bought it for me, first time she had held it since she exchanged money at A - mart a few weeks ago and judging by another stella lure performance at LBG it wont be her last... Hmmm maybe I should try the $5 orange Rapala Shadrap bought from Anaconda last month, pretty nice lure for the price so was sure I could put it to good use on LBG and start braining the huge schools of Redfin.

All my reports seem to contain loads of Redfin and this one is no exception in fact Claire and I caught more Redfin over 3 hours than we had managed before, Redfin land was a warm 21 degrees and full of hungry fish that made it in the yak ( First few spat the treble by the yak but I was not phased, perhaps I sensed the frenzy that lay firmly ahead? )

Could this be the day I manage to pull another native from Black Mountain?

Decided to give the BMP ledge a shot with the wind at a very minimal knot strength and the water peaking at 22 degrees making for a lovely pedal, The baitcaster in my Scotty / Hobie holder is equipped with 12lb smoke fireline with a 20lb Penn leader rigged with a Storm Wiggle wart allowing me to get down deep with enough strength to evoke some confidence... If Rob Paxo can pull some Goldens here with this lure on his Hobie then so can I, his report from BMP a few months ago was still fresh in my mind.

Loads of fish and wildlife with those funny birds building more and more nests filled to the brim with large plump white fluffy birds, funnily enough the larger fish sounded were in close proximity to snags next to or below these trees, I dont know if many get kicked out of the nest but with the noise these birds produce safely out of the water I could just imagine that the thrashing and thrilling shriek would surely be enough to entice a silver service feed for any monster BMP native.

Why so much talk about birds? Well because once again no natives were sighted or caught today, I was surely fishing during the wrong time of the day so didn't expect much... Claire was getting bored so we moved back round to Redfin land trailing breadcrumbs all over the shop and marking this weedy town as a waypoint for trouble ( Turns out the swan guards were not on duty so in we strolled pillaging the weak! ), to think before October 7th I had not caught a fish on LBG for about a year.

The English went spastic trying to retain there ground but Claire was on fire braining Perch one after the other including not one but 2 fish on the one lure in 2 consecutive casts in a row, I have never unhooked so many fish but it was good practice and there was plenty of it... On the troll or Claire casting produced many fish with a larger Redfin cruising behind the hooked Redfin sometimes veering off at the very last second when they saw the kayak ( One sighted was guesstimated close to 40cm ).

I was very proud of Claire, so proud I accidently hit her in the head with my rod while trying to free my Shadrap from the weeds only to lose it in a tug of war frenzy... Im sorry baby but I really wanted my $5 lure back so much nothing was getting in my way, guess you will just have to go buy me another one from A - mart huh? ( Sorry once again Claire, do I still get dinner tonight? )

I sure now how to treat a lady... Put her on my yak, hit her in the head and make her catch a feed.

All this Redfin was making me thirsty so we called it a day, pedaling back to the ramp proved near impossible with fish schooling and holding all the way back to the ramp... I lost count ages ago but given the 3hrs+ on the water and the smell on my fingers a count of almost 40 English Perch wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration, was a great fun day with Claire using the Outfitter as it was intended ( Plus all the new whiz bang gadgetry ) but I cant wait for next weekend when the yak finally gets some salt on it when I visit my parents down the coast, cruise the Clyde river at Batemans Bay and hopefully hit Moruya.

Some practice in the salt would be a good lead up to the AKFF NSW convention at Barlings beach next year, perhaps I will even locate my own bait and try and become one with nature... Well I havent shaved for 2 weeks so I sure as hell look like I do, the flathead are calling so some slow drifting in the Merimbula lakes should be a blast ( Wish me luck! ).

Stay tuned for these coastal reports early in the new year...

Canberra - Native nomads 16/12/06 ( Archive )

Beepbeep, beep beep beepbeep.... 6:30am, urghhh

'The evil that men do' I mutter as I stagger for the shower, blurred eyes from the previous nights beer antics and B grade movies ( Think 'Deep blue sea', the movie about killer Mako sharks ) make for a grumpy Paffoh until the first cuppa of the day and a lit smoke are safely in my hands and purged ever so slowly into my blood stream.

I had worked my ass off this week somewhat made easier with a trip to Lake Burley Griffin firmly etched in my mind ( Even if it was in the rear of it ), I packed the car on Friday night so I could get out to meet Polar early on Saturday morning before the launch from Yarralumla Bay, im not sure what I like so much about launching here but I could put it down to transportation ease and hassle free rigging... Its a damn beautiful spot and closer to my house than the ramp at BMP.

After a quick chat with Polar ( Nice to meet you, hope you can make it to the AKFF gathering mate ) I spotted Victor and Funda ( Allan ) on the edge of Black Mountain so wandered on over to say hello, It was at this stage I noticed that the weather was not of its usual calibre and the wind was belting my yak around... White caps on LBG made it quite difficult to hold position and after some discussions and advice from Allan we decided to head around to the rock wall east of the boat ramp.

On the way round I ventured into Redfin land only to discover a severe wind knot had ensnared my lure to my rod tip on my braid outfit resulting in a snip which left about 1 inch of 6lb leader, without extra leader I tied my snap on to the remainder and attached my new favourite Redfin lure ( No not a Pakrat, a Craftmaster Merlin straight from Wodonga! ).

Rushing round towards Allan as I exited Redfin land with Victor 100m behind I managed to get a solid hit and reeled in steadily a 30cm Redfin only to lose him next to the yak, bahhhh but never mind, I haven't lost many yak side over the past few trips and LBG was looking dirtier than usual so a feed had already been decided against and was not an option...

The rocks were out of the wind and the rowers heavily present creating for some amusing jostling, towards the rocks was a weed patch offering loads of surface carp and a huge school of juvenile Redfin one of which got foul hooked through its own anus... Even at 10cm it was a great looking specimen and in huge abundance, a guy in a tinnie next to me extracted one on a surface popper ( He was pretty suprised as he was sight casting for carp ).

Anyway enough of this Redfin crap, this day was dedicated to natives and with spinnerbaits the order of the day the willows and snags of the rock wall urged us over, Allan told me about a huge floating deceased Cod he had seen here a few weeks ago and with the fishfinder showing fish around the trees I was hopeful one of us could pull a Golden or even manage a Murray Cod.

After about an hour I noticed a floating blubbery mass entangled in some branches, I moved as close as I could and zoomed in with the camera to identify what I believe was the dead Cod Funda had mentioned before ( given that Cod season was only into its 16th day it was a sad sight to see )... Many people shore based, yak or boat are targeting the natives all over Australia with intent to mame and reduce stocks, These people do not intend to keep there catch but claim they only target the BIG COD but with what success? ( Getting a photo and handling inappropriately, then releasing fish before it swims off then dies? ).

Im just interested in debating the practice of catch and release...

With zero native action Funda and I discussed why they had shut down and headed around the points near the boat ramp to play with some Redfin while Victor hung around back at the wall, Funda and myself hit a school and trolled in some hungry Redfin ( Biggest about 20cm with Allan getting a fish a cast and even 2 fish on the one lure! )... All three of us pulled some fish whilst dodging rowers and even swimmers.

11:00am hit and my belly and dodgy knee told me it was time to leave so I thanked Funda for the fisheries sticker and said goodbye to the boys, one last troll through Redfin land and then a pedal over to the Bay to meet Claire... Couple more small Redfin and a 30cm fish half way back made my morning, even if no natives were caught I met some top Canberra AKFF blokes and took some English Perch on my favourite lake.

Doesn't get much better than that...

Canberra - Sibling rivalry 9/12/06 ( Archive )

A weekend of heat and harsh U.V rays was and has been forecast for Canberra but nothing stops me getting out for a fish especially when my sister Sarah has been asking for a go on the yak, after some calculations regarding time she arrived at my house approximately 7am and we loaded and headed for Lake Burley Griffin's Yarralumla Bay.

Sarah has her full licence so I was able to drive for the first time ( Legally anyway! ) with the yak on the roof, kind of forget its there considering the size of the vessel and the fact it is out of our vision... Felt good being able to have a bit of travel independence so i was in a good mood ( Bit grumpy in the mornings yaking due to lack of sleep ).

Rigged up the yak, plugged in the transducer and carefully aquainted Sarah with the do's & dont's of fishing from a kayak and the Hobie mirage drive system, as a fairly active girl Sarah was in her element even before the lures went in... now to get her into the fish, pakrats in black and green went out for the initial paddle from the Bay towards the peninsula of Black Mountain and a slow troll of no longer than a minute produced my first Redfin of the day, not a bad size Redfin of around 36cm and a healthy specimen to boot.

Sarah was impressed but knew a bit of sibling rivalry would help make a day of it, she took in my advice and interpreted my comments relating to the fishfinder, kept her eye on the rod tip and pulled her first Redfin along the deep ledge of the Peninsula, Sarah was happy even though it was foul hooked ( A fish is a fish, especially from a kayak! ).

Didn't take her long to hook up again with huge schools of small Redfin showing on the sounder, similar fish of about 15cm which completely caned the Killalure engulfing both sets of trebles... Released fish and set off again only to last 60 seconds before Sarah caught another 15cm Redfin ( Could this be the same fish? ), started thinking about asking for my lure back but i could see she was having a ball and enjoying the experience.

I switched over to my red Oargee Plow and the water hit a warm 22 degrees as we trolled close to the bank, Had a conversation with a guy on a tinny about natives who informed me he had extracted a 1.3m Murray Cod a few weeks ago from LBG, pointing yonder we moved on and focused on some structure in about 9m holding a school deep along the bottom... Zzzzzzz, must be a snag... .

Rigging up AGAIN this time with a larger Pakrat we headed back along the Peninsula down towards mine and everyone's favourite place Redfin land, the city was in ruins with swan plagues spreading weed and debris making it difficult to get any action on the lures, abandoning the town we troll towards one of the islands sighting boiling Carp schlurping bugs on the surface and many fish on the FF display, water had crept up to 23 degrees and we trolled the perimeter.

Sarah managed a couple more Redfin with her last topping 20cm while i was getting frustrated with the lack of action of my lure and the abundance of weed on my trebles, many a dead retrieve resulted in the clearing of gunk... It was almost time to head in ( Just give me 10 more minutes! ) when i landed my second fish of about 15cm.

Was that you Polar in your jaffa Hobie? Around the side on the Peninsula and close to the Island? ( About 8:30am - 9:00am ), If that was you sorry we didnt get to catch up or meet on the water but im sure we will bump into each other very soon... I have included a paddle chart for the first time so check the location and let me know mate!
A great day on the water with many fish, was a top way to catch up with my little Sister and get some retrospective in life... Turning 30 next week and not looking forward to it, is it all down hill from here guys?

Canberra - Lake Burley Griffin 10/12/06 ( Archive )

Sunday, bloody Sunday...

After such a fun day yesterday with my Sister on LBG and not much else scheduled this weekend ( Apart from an afternoon BBQ ) I decided mid morning to have a solo crack at some natives along the edge of Black Mountain peninsula and play with some Redfin on the way over... They are so cute im sure they just want to come and play with the yak!

End of a triathalon around the Bay side with crap loads of cars, not sure what event it was but plenty of swimmers still in the water with angry men in their 2 stroke tinnys on patrol for wayward souls... The race finish was next to the launch site and luckily as I entered the waters edge the population migrated away from LBG to recover at home.

Very similar route to yesterday, departing Yarralumla Bay around 10am and heading towards BMP I was very interested in how long my batteries would last in the FF ( AA Energizer x 8 on about there 5th hour ) so wasn't paying attention when my Pakrat went bezerk after about 60 seconds on the troll... A 30cm Redfin was released unharmed beside the yak.

Tried to push over towards BMP when I got a double hook up about 10 strokes out from previous fish, noticed a huge school on the sounder so chucked the baitcaster out with a small Viking Talisman to float around while I retrieved the other 2 rods... oh no, for the first time in my life i have managed to get a TRIPLE HOOKUP!

These 3 fish ( 2 spat the hook at the edge of yak due to urgency of retrieval ) were all fairly small about 20cm in size, having a ball I decided before I hit the natives I would transfer to Redfin land and try my luck in my favourite spot... Bit cleaner today with no Swan golems guarding the entrance, managed to extract 4 Redfin in about 5 minutes ( Biggest about 25cm ), they may have been small but they would engulf both sets of trebles or foul hook the second set with there constant headshakes.

Ok so the Redfin were on fire, water temperature was a whopping 24 degrees and BMP was in my sights, absolutely no wind but a fair bit of surface weed around the edge accompanied by a million Carp cruising around about 1m below the surface ( Where is Red and his hand spear when you need him / it? ).

Talisman was deployed along with a larger Pakrat and a Craftmaster Deep Merlin to get down towards the bottom ( Yes I managed to troll 3 rods without incident ), pulled about 4 tiny Redfin in very quick succession even though no fish showed on the FF.. the Redfin really seemed to like the merlin, Girlfriend bought it from A Mart yesterday after I cried about losing the red Plow on Saturday ( What a lovely future wife she will make! ).

The talisman took a huge hit so I grabbed the rod from the holder, felt the weight and commenced retrieve only to have pulled the hooks ( Due to trolling with 12lb braid / 20lb leader? )... Damn so close to a native, im guessing a Golden but only because im not sure what a Cod will hit like and only god would enjoy teasing me... That and I would sell my soul for another Golden Perch.

Taking photos of some wildlife i moved down towards Redfin land for a few more English Perch, little buggers were everywhere and i had already clocked up over 15 before I had even thought of going home... Water temp hit 25 Degrees near the smaller island and the heat was taking its toll, luckily I decided to bite Red Pheonix's style ( Who bit Gatesy's style ) and wear my new 'Sheik' Columbia PFG hat along with tons of sunscreen.

Left knee was clicking and getting sore so a slow drift from Redfin land to the Bay was in order, Pakrat went out along with the Merlin to catch me a feed before I left... ZZzzzt ZZzzzzt DOUBLE HOOKUP, First fish fought hard and even wrapped himself in weed to try and get away before he was placed in net and lure removed ( Lure was chucked over the side with bail arm over ), next fish was exactly the same size and fought hard so I decided to lift him in without net seeing as though it was already occupied, 2 larger Redfin just shy of 30cm...

A glance to the left and I noticed braid peeling from my Daiwa, the bail arm wasnt clicked over and the lure had been smashed on the surface ( Bastard fish went deep once pressure was applied ) before spitting the hook sighted next to the yak, no other fish has tested my drag setting's in LBG like that one did... Estimated Redfin size of 45cm!
What to eat for pre - dinner tonight? Hmmm...

Called it a day and kept the 2 larger Redfin for a feed, packed up the yak and went home a happy camper... After missing out on a yak for the last 2 weeks due to work and travel commitments i feel satisfied but im pretty sore after so much pedaling solo ( Have now explained to the Girlfriend that i must go on the Yak twice a week and at least once a weekend ), maybe this way I can have my 21 or so English Perch over the weekend and eat it too!

From now on I will supply a paddle chart with every report, LBG may be my favourite domain but only due to other people showing me where to go and teaching me the ways of the wascally wedfin... Its a massive body of man made water with some real soul to it and deserves to be enjoyed by all, yak or no yak ( Many familys on the waters edge today, people swimming, fishing, paddling, crying, yelling and generally having fun made me feel proud to live in Canberra ).

May have sucked 20 years of my life away but im working on repairing old grudges in the future...

Canberra - Family Fun Day 4/11/06 ( Archive )

After having to cancel my planned trip to Googong with Red & company i was hanging for a yak and convinced some family members that a few hours at Lake Burley Griffin over lunch on saturday would be a good idea, it was slightly overcast and cloudy keeping my fair-skinned Step Mother and Brother fairly safe from the otherwise high U.V readings.

Small winds of about 6 knots were present with the lake in full swing rendering the main basins a hazardous affair with water craft a plenty, I launched with dad and paddled from Yarralumla Bay over towards the Mountain Peninsula to be greeted with 6 teams of rowers ( Young stundents ) accompanied by 6 tinnies all over my fave spot... i jockeyed, tacked, hung close to the shore but was not given much room and felt pressured to accept defeat.

The water was the brownest i had seen it in a long time as we had two quick severe storms over Canberra last week with reports of boats tossed into trees at the Yacht club, debris and colour didnt seem to effect lure colour selection as the route taken was of similar outings before so i knew what to do, Small pakrats were distributed in effective patterns!

Soon after rounding the point were Claire and I were succesfull a few days previous i trolled up a Redfin just shy of 30cms, Dad seemed impressed and took some photos whilst casting my newly spooled 4lb crystal Fireline a decent distance... but his body was aching with some minor issues so after about 1hr we went into shore to drop him off and pick up my Step Brother Chris ( On his way to Albury for another promotional course ).

Leaving the safety of the bay i was on again, Lure had been in the water no longer than 30 seconds and Chris realised i was using his favourite lure but i assured him that the black Pakrat was a great pattern ( Little did he know i wasnt joking! ), Turning round near the smaller Island we could see my Dad had waded out a few steps from the bank round near the bay with the spare rod and reel desperate for a fish!

As we approached after another 1/2 hour he yelled out at us ' Get any more? ' and almost like clockwork on daylight savings time Chris's rod went off and the braid actually peeled from his drag setting, I was sure he had a native but another bully Redfin of about 32cm was dragged aboard the yak by my pussy Brother and his fear of handling fish... he would die for you, Go to war for you, but touch a fish... uh uh.

All this time my dad was watching whilst casting out his red Celta along the banks, he had a few hits over the hour and landed this nice Redfin for his first since the early 1960's at the Torrens river in Adelaide, every one had caught a fish so my mission was complete and the girls had lunch ready at the launch site... Sunburned and stoked we departed the lake to the feast prepared by my Step Mother and wonderfull Girlfriend Claire.