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A few of us from AKFF recently organised a Snapper session at Depot beach on the NSW South coast. My apprentice at work Steve, was keen to come along on his 1st kayak trip so we loaded up the night before and met at my house and after a nice strong coffee we made our way down to the beach. I live closest to Depot out of everyone there, but still managed to be the last one to arrive. As we pulled into the carpark Greg, Stuart and Mick were all launching and Paffoh and Luke were not far behind them.
I setup the 2 yaks as quick as i could, gave Steve a quick rundown on how to lift/drop the rudder etc. and launched hoping to get some Snapper. The conditions were not great with a bit of wind and fairly choppy but still good enough to work with so we headed over to the usual area a few of us fished last winter and worked it hard with SP's. Not much was happening for the first 30mins or so until Steve hooked 2 Sanpper in 5mins with the biggest going 40cm.
Both of those fish were released as he already had a few Snapper in the freezer from a previous trip out in a boat but was very happy to have landed his first fish from a yak. Another 20-30mins had gone by with not much action for me until i hooked up to my first for the trip on a 5" Gulp jerkshad in blue pepper neon colour and measured in at about 40cm. We stayed in the general area working over everything we could with no more luck.
I noticed Steve had landed back on the beach and thought he must have gotten uncomfortable being out there so i told Paffoh i was heading in since i didnt want Steve waiting on the beach till i was done but by the time i got halfway back i noticed him paddling back out, he had just gone in for a stretch and a short break but was very keen to continue fishing which made me very happy.
From that point, we headed out to a different area i had fished once before and found Snapper, since the usual spot wasnt firing i figured we can do no worse by trying something different and Steve decided to head in a little closer over the sand and try score a few flathead for the table, no legal flatties came to the yak (plenty of small ones though), but did manage 5-6 good Trevally to 40cm. My First cast in the new spot went out and watching the line closely as it dropped i noticed a twitch in the line, then the line started to tighten so i set the hook in and after a short battle in comes a Snapper at 50cm.
The action was really starting to pick up, hooking up every 3-4 casts and got busted 3 times by some really good fish. Most of them taking the light gear (6lb) with the heavier rod rigged with 15lb was hardly getting touched, each fish was getting slightly bigger than the last and eventually landed a 65cm Snapper which is my new pb. By the end of the session i had landed 8 Snapper, and 2 that would have been just on or just under legal size along with the usual rubbish pike, Sgt bakers, wrasse etc.
I usually struggle a bit with the Snapper in the yak so i was very happy to have had a decent result and plan to get out there a lot more this winter than i have in previous years. When we had all landed back on the beach Greg very kindly let myself and Paffoh have a quick spin on the new Hobie Pro Angler!! This is a beast of a yak, i felt like i was pedalling around on a couch its sooo comfortable to be in and super stable!! (Thanks for the opportunity Greg).
I also met up with Marty and Kim This morning and went back to the same spot and didnt land a single Snapper, i dropped a few and got busted off 3 times on the 6lb line but didnt land any. It was a great weekend for being out on the yak, hopefully we get plenty more of that weather!
