Although I had trouble making up my mind on where and how to go about kayak fishing for the weekend, sunny-sky calm weather helped make a decision for me. With conditions so suitable at least one off shore trip was on the cards. Brisbane based yak fishoes Terry and Sam were visiting the area for the weekend so I offered to show them around at Woody Head. So we met up at the camping grounds before dawn and were sliding our yaks into the water before sunlight broke the horizon. I've been catching snapper in these parts during the middle of the day, so I figured we'd do well by launching nice and early. For the most part, however, the fish were notable in their absence. Very few fish were appearing on the sounder, even less surface activity could be detected and for the next few hours, only a good few bites were had. Sam had at least one solid bite but lost the fish. I had a couple of good bites - one that spat the hook, another than bent the hook (both fish escaped). We all caught a few pike... unfortunately.
Sam & Terry weren't mucking about either
We were all feeling a little deflated upon return. When one puts in so much effort - and a 5AM start is a lot of effort - one expects rewards. But apart from spending a fantastic sunrise in the best possible place to watch it from, paddling on calm seas on a brisk sunny morning surrounded by turtles and dolphins, rewards weren't big today. That's OK I told myself... there's always tomorrow.
Last I heard Terry and Sam were planning to join me for the Sunday session, but while visiting the area they were well and truly on a fish-catching mission, and were very probably distracted chasing jewfish in the river somewhere. They'd spent that morning fishing the Clarence for bass, coming up only with bream. So it turned out to be a solo session for me out in Shark Bay, which turned out to be a very similar effort to the day before, both in terms of how I approached it and the end result. Once again I trolled out into Shark bay, then swung back around over to the headlands where I zig-zagged for a while. A few pike showed up but otherwise it was generally pretty quiet.
Sun rises over Woody Head
I did get a good hit from a cracker of a fish, however, most certainly a snapper and probably would have been my personal best had I landed it. In only 6 metres of water it managed to find some reef, or otherwise had swallowed the Predatek Hyper Viper lure whole and bit it off. Whatever the cause, I lost the fish and the lure - the very same one that had caught snapper both weekends prior to this. This fish was supposed to be dinner, so now with dusk looming, empty cupboards at home and supermarket closing within an hour I had to make a decision. Stay and try to catch dinner and possibly go without, or otherwise take the safe route and go get some groceries. Somewhat reluctantly I head back in.
I have a confession to make... I sometimes use my AI for sailing with secondary intentions of actually catching anything. Yes I take the fishing gear: 1 tackle box, 1 gaff, 2 rods and my Leatherman, but I approach this with a very minimalist view. I do this to go out in rather rough weather to whoop it up and have fun and today was to be one of those days. Today was forecast for 20+ knot winds and seas to 2m - bring it on.
Usual launch at Victor Creek boat ramp on the last hour of the outgoing tide, stiff and a consistent 13 – 15 knot wind SSW. Getting out was easy I was drifting fast enough to give the CD11 I was trolling a decent action and sailing took me to good speeds skimming through the short chop. Leaving the channels I weaved my way through several trawlers anchored up, what wind too strong for you guys? Hehe...
I had fun playing with the camera and as I was passing Aciacia island the rod went off big time, bouncing around in the holder with line started to peel off at a rate of knots. I kept cool and used the momentum of the AI to keep pressure on the line whilst I adjusted the camera and furled the sail. Grabbing the rod and applying pressure saw a big Queenfish leap out of the water about 100 metres away. I wish I caught the acrobatics on film... it was awesome. The fish kept on the surface, leaping and tail walking several times before it went down to try and use the incoming tide as leverage. It took several minutes of steady lift and wind to finally turn it's head then it came to the surface easily.
The next one hit 10 minutes when I was checking the lure for weed, I had the sail furled and was retrieving the lure when I got a soft bite, then another, 3rd time I hooked in and the rod felt like it exploded. Line was being stripped off against a firm drag and I was glad I had the sail in cause this fish took a heap of line in half the time the previous fish did. I had no idea what it was, the fight was completely different, down low and dirty, swimming towards me and under the AI turning me around, lots of big heavy heads shakes. Here I am thinking big jew? Massive barra? GT? When after a shorter but highly tense battle another queenie pops up, twin brother or sister of the first. One hook in the corner of the mouth was the only thing connecting me to this fish. Sliding the gaff in, removing the hook went like clockwork, quick ride in Astro's lap and off it goes.
Had I kept trolling this area I probably would have caught more, but the wind was calling and the white caps proved too tempting plus, there's fish out there too. The next 2.5 hours is a blurr of green water and blue sky, needless to say I got soaked by waves coming over the bow and the relentless spray. Heading downwind like the end of the video was the calmest, but I mostly played, err trolled out the front of Outer Newry. I got one massive strike that peeled a ton of line in a couple of seconds and actually warmed up my reel a little on a tight drag setting. But other then that nothing else was forth coming. Sailed past fish rock and in between the 2 Newry Islands then on to the head land where I hooked that last big barra all for nothing. Somewhere along the line that Cd11 got it's rear smashed and will need some woodwork to fix it.
It wasn't terribly long ago that I published an article on various lightweight stove & cooking solutions that were well suited for kayak camping adventures. I did so at the time because ultra-light stoves were on my mind while planning for various up-coming kayak fishing/camping trips. I already have an excellent MSR Dragonfly liquid fuel stove that is a highly capable single burner, the same I've trusted for over a decade of hiking and camping. It's great, but being single burner, doesn't allow me to get terribly creative with my back-country culinary skills. So when I chanced upon the Primus EtaPower MF stove & cookset I liked what I saw... not only in the quality, but also in the price. There's a few things about this set that took my interest immediately. One of them being that the burner itself is good quality (Primus have always had a good reputation in liquid fuel stoves), and is capable of operating on both liquid fuels (such as Shellite) and also LPG, which is something my Dragonfly can't do - its nice to have options. It also comes with a really good cookset, incorporating a 2lt pot with built-in heat exchanger, pan (that doubles as a pot lid), pot-lifter and windscreen. The heart exchanger system on the pot is said to make it 40% more efficient, which would be very helpful on longer expeditions. Here'spart of the official blurb from Primus:
This stove is based on the award-winning EtaPower EF, but it has been refined with a perfectly adjusted preheating coil, an improved burner, and a number of smaller changes from its predecessor. This allows the stove to be used with both LP gas and liquid fuels, such as white gas, gasoline/petrol, kerosene/paraffin, and if necessary even diesel. This in turn leads to even lower fuel consumption and a lower overall weight during hikes, paddling tours and expeditions.
Part of the reason I'm mentioning this stove now (aside from the fact that I've added one to my kayak camping kit) is that they have very recently been taken out of production, meaning there aren't many left. Primus are currently running a special price on them to clear their stocks. We decided to take advantage of this at the shop (Maclean Outdoors) and bought a few of their last remaining units, passing on the special price to our customers. At $275 they probably sound expensive to some, though previously they were closer to $400 at retail. I haven't listed them at the Maclean Outdoors website (as I doubt they will last long) but I have listed them on the shop's ebay store.
While mentioning our ebay store, I should probably also mention that we're running an auction on a pair of 4mm bungee rod leashes at the moment (ending Sunday) so someone might be able to score a bargain with those as well.
Caught in 8 metres, directly north of Woody Head boat ramp
As has been my way lately, I had both tuna and snapper on the mind today. Deciding where to go fishing today was easy, as I had to do a service call in Iluka in the morning, so Woody Head launch it was. Equipped with the full Island my plans were to take advantage of the predicted nth east winds and sail in that general direction and later drift back. There was a light northerly blowing when I hit the water, so I first tacked easterly for almost 10km, then swung around to the north west as the wind swung around from the nth east.
I'd sailed 20km before I even had a strike today, and that bite came on the way in at Shark Bay. Trolling an 8m diving Predatek Viper (in exactly that depth of water) drew a solid strike from what felt much like snapper. This fish gave me a spirited fight, pulling as hard as it's weight would allow. I netted the fish with a deep stretch out from the tramp, trying my best not to get wet in the process.
I switched to a flickstick to work the shallows on the way in and was 'rewarded' with a pike that I quickly returned to the water. That, I figure, is what one is supposed to do with small fish, but the sight I saw upon landing suggested otherwise. One teenage clan (I hope you're reading this mate) caught a bream of what must have been all of 15cm off the rocks right near the ramp. And oh my did he look supremely proud of himself when he snapped the fishes neck and threw it in a bucket. Then he looks over at me and smiles as if to say look how good I am. I could only respond by looking away in disgust. My mood now dampened by this sight, I wasn't feeling terribly chatty when surrounded by the obligatory fishing-kayak ooglers
Since the big storms 6 weeks or so ago, fishing in the Brunswick river was fishing relatively slow, with only a couple of good fish far in between. That changed last week, with a confidence bossting bass fishing session earlier this week boosted my confidence. So off I went today, trying to repeat that success. I started close to Mullumbimby and worked my way down river until I reached my favourite stretch. I spent some time working the area around the rocks which proved so successful earlier this week, but I didn't do any good there.
When I continued my way downstream I noticed some bust ups. I did a long cast and placed my lure right next to the action. Bang - and I was on. But I had no idea what I was connected to. I took quite a bit of line and really worked my little 2-4 kg bream rod, so I thought 'Sweet, a bass'. But then it started to give me lots of big head shakes. Must be a big and angry flathead, I thought. Next I saw some colour in the murky water. Silver? “That can't be a bream ,unless it's huge” I thought. And then I saw it- a jewfish- you beauty! My first Jew. That was one of my fishing goals I wanted to archive this year. It measured 49cm. Not huge, but a jew.
They are stunningly beautiful fish - flashing silver with a purple shine on top of their heads, just magnificent. I took a quick picture and released it. Just then there was another burst up about 10 meters to my left. On my second cast next to it I was on again, and yes- another jew. This one 51 cm.
I kept casting around in that pool and worked along the bank & edges there and ZZZZZ! On again! But for this jew I was clearly under gunned. It snapped my 10 pound leader like it wasn't there. I continued to work that area, and sure enough, I landed another jew. My biggest to date which measured 57 cm.
After I released this one I decided that I would keep the next one. Somehow it seems the Jews knew that. Number five busted me off again. But I had fun, believe me! The 6th one pulled stronger and took more line than any of the others. I backed my drag of- remember I was fishing very light here. After about 5 minutes I had him next to the Kayak. He must have been around 90-100cm long. When he saw the Yak he made another strong & fast run when my hook broke clean of the jighead. Lesson learned... never bring a flickstick to a jew-fight!
