The 22nd issue of the online based Kayak Fishing Magazine was released a week or so ago (I missed this initially, busily engaged at Fraser Island) with a variety of yak fishing reading material for you to sink some teeth into. In this months issue there is a write up on catching bluefin tuna from kayaks, a fishing kayak buyers guide as well as a few fishing kayak reviews and a guide on how to demo a kayak, which I think makes for a pretty good read.
The 'how to demo a kayak' article makes the point that demoing a kayak isn't the be all and end all of selecting the right kayak and I agree. This is especially true for those who are completely new to kayaking (often because they are more concerned about stability than they probably should be), though is not so much of an issue for those who have had a few yaks in the past. This guide aims to help inform people of what they should be looking for when demoing a kayak for the 1st time.
We're not all about hard-core kayak camping expeditions here at Yakabout and addmitedly, we're pretty damned fond of base camping to. It's generally a lot more luxurious and a lot less labourious as well. So our next week-long kayak fishing gathering is going to be a base camping adventure at Woody Head, right in the prime time of pelagic season - early Feb. And due to the nature of this particular camping trip we're more than happy for like-minded kayak folk to come and join us.
A quick perusal of the current collection of trip reports for Woody Head from the 1st quarter of 09 this year would give you an idea of what to expect in terms of possible fish. Tuna in various flavours (longtail, mack & stripey), mackerel (spotty & spanyard), marlin & sharks are all a possibility, as are cobia & kingfish. From the protected launching area, paddlers have immediate access into the reasonably calm waters of Shark Bay and quick access to blue water off shore. The Clarence & Esk rivers are nearby to, so in the event that weather shuts down coastal waters, there are always the estuaries. Any sea-worthy kayak will cut the mustard around the Woody Head area, pedal, paddle or sail. It really is a great time of year to be fishing the area and through the course of a full week of kayak fishing, I'm expecting big things. Exhibit A:
So I'm looking for a quick headcount - who might be interested in coming along? The plan is to do this early Feb (will make sure it does not clash with the Sth West Rocks trip), spanning one weekend through to the next. Camping facilities are pretty good at Woody Head, but there are limited spaces, so I'm thinking about pre-booking some sites.
So hands up - who's interested in being a part of it?
Next Sunday there is a social paddle & brunch on the Brunswick river, organised by the Brunswick Heads Visitor Centre. This is obviously not a dedicated kayak – fishing event, but it will be nice to meet other paddlers on the water. Nothing will stop you from trolling a lure,or putting a view casts in anyway. I will be there. Here's the details: Cont.
For quite some time I'd always maintained that I wouldn't start a forum here on Yakabout (for a variety of reasons) but as the sport has evolved, so to has the site and it's now reached a stage where it really probably does deserve it's own forum. So I've gone for a relaitvely simplistic forum package that I'm yet to fully flesh out. I've still to add PM functionality and something is currently broken with avatar functionality, but they're on the ever-growing to-do list. My intention is to keep the forum catagories pretty tight and there's a good chance I'll trim it down even further. I plan to avoid this forum shaping up too much like many other kayak fishing forums, a lot of which have pretty similar layouts and catagories.
I've avoided placing any 'rules' or terms of use on the forums but a certain level of etiquette is expected from anyone who contributes. So be nice! If you've registered to yakabout in the past, there's no need to register to use the forum - just sign in and away you go. For now I've got the forum button on the top menu, where I think it's likely to stay. But if your cursor is any closer to this link right now, click here instead.
I've added a Shout Box into the framework of yakabout, which is a bit like a real-time post-it note message/chatting system, updated every 5 seconds. Whilst it does alter the asthetic of the page somewhat, it's an experiment I'm keen to try for several reasons. For one, it's simple real-time chat facility will mean that people will be able to leave messages or ask questions with the very real possibility it'll be seen and responded to almost immediately. I'm kind of hoping this will reduce the amount of quick questions that I get via email and forum private message systems. I am interested to hear what you guys think of it though and whether or not it turns out to be of any real use. Lets find out.
Update: although this shout box doesn't tell you who's online, I have activated an unrelated who's online function not far below the shout box, so now you can send a shout to people who are on yakabout. Whether or not they'll see it is another question
The 22nd issue of the online based 
