Mitchell river, Eagle Point, Paynesville - quiet but serene

How's the serenity?

With nothing better to do I decided to take off to Lakes Entrance to find some prospective kayak fishing opportunities. Sadly I got out of town rather late and arrived in the darkness, which made it tricky to find a good place for an early morning launch - I was making it up as I went. Eagle Point looked good on Google Earth. I did well to find a car park with boat ramp and public jetty with no one around right on the Mitchell river, about 5km from the river mouth. A perfect home for the night, where I could have done some land based fishing if I wanted. I was too tired and lazy though, so I cracked a cold one, rigged my gear and prepared for an AM launch.

Rewarded at Ricketts

I was expecting to see Team Squidder and Poddymullet out at Ricketts Point this afternoon, although the area was kayak-free when I got there and myself aside, it stayed that way until sundown. I figure the southerly wind acted as a bit of a deterent. There was no way I was staying off the water, however, as I had a few new toys I was dying to try out. One being a new extra-large rudder blade for the Hobie Outback and the other being a brand new (limited edition) black powder coated Leatherman Charge XTi, which I believe is the finest of all multitools.

I have to sneak in a quick word about the new rudder: awesome... better than expected even. The extra size of the new rudder really makes a huge difference in tracking and turning capability and I'd be willing to bet that the Outback isn't the only Hobie kayak that would perform better with this appendage. As for the Leatherman Charge, well I knew it was going to be good because I use to have a stock silver model. The black one is even better for it's purpose, however, simply because the powder coating adds even more rust resistance.

Sunnyside beach - Another dissapointing afternoon that could have been so much more

While I sit here at my PC at 3:25AM waiting to head out again at 5:30 AM, I thought I'd fill some time by reporting on a relatively eventless trip at Sunnyside Beach on Sunday the 26th. I met up with Steve at 3PM that afternoon who had his part-time tandem buddy, Jeremy along for the ride.

Sunnyside Beach allnighter attempt: Sometimes things just go bad

Steve and Kylie, hunting pinkies

Everything looked perfect for an all-night fishing trip at Sunnyside today. A bit too perfect even. Little to no wind, nice and warm but with storm front moving in precariously close. All signs were good for feeding frenzies, and indeed, that turned out to be the case. Sadly, storm clouds moved in behind me at about 8:30 PM and threatened to settle in for a few hours. I thought about it for a while, watched what it was doing and decided it would be safer to head back ASAP. So I packed up my rods, strapped them down and paddled into the storm, which was hanging directly over Mornington. So that was that trip screwed.

I launched from Mornington, as per (AKFF member) Tim's suggestions, and he was right - the car park there is pretty safe. Well lit at night and coppers cruising through regularly. Two cop cars paused to check me out as I was loading up. One of them - a female copper (another chicky-babe!) stopped to ask if I was coming in or going out and whether or not I'd caught anything. I think she asked the first question because if I was planning to head out, they would have advised me against it. There was lightening everywhere, after all, which is why I was loading up and not still on the water fishing.