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.