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New years resolution: break yak fishing habits |
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Josh's Blog -
View from the Basin
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Monday, 31 December 2007 |
Sun sets on another year Sunset view from the basin
I've been trolling from the very first day I started kayak fishing. On that very 1st outing it seemed like a good idea to tow a soft plastic lure behind me as I paddled out to the reef I intended to fish from. Although said reef was only a couple of hundred meters off shore, I did indeed manage to hook up to a fish as I trolled my way out there. But because the rod was planted firmly into a PVC tube behind my seat, I didn't even know the modestly sized Flathead was hooked until I started reeling it in. Regardless, I learned a lesson: trolling from a kayak is a very simple and productive means of catching fish.
Since then I've continued to troll on almost every outing, although initially it was usually just while paddling towards my planned anchor or drifting destination. As soon as I hit the road on that coastal kayak fishing tour, however, I started trolling more and more. Only a few days into it I'd pretty much unintentionally adopted a trolling only strategy. I'm not sure why I ended up doing this - a part of me thinks that it has a lot to do with the fact that I was very much in 'exploring' mode almost all of the time and just wanted to keep covering as many kms as possible, be it by road or by water. Whilst taking this route definitely let me see more of the sights, it didn't always help with the catch rate. Sure, there were times and situations where trolling was the only thing worth doing, but there were many other times where I really would have been better off drifting and casting lures, or otherwise using baits of some description. No doubt I would have caught more fish had I been more flexible in my approach.
Upon arriving in the Jervis Bay area I've started trying to ween myself off trolling strategies as an exclusive means of catching fish. Whilst I've learned a lot about it in recent months, I've also slowed my development in a few other areas. So I'm going to address that issue tonight by bathing myself in a slurry of bait, berley and fish blood.
It's new years eve and my plans are to spend the evening fishing from the kayak in the Basin. I'll be anchoring up (either with a drift sock or a Hobie anchor), laying down a thick berley trail, catching some livies and sending them out on unweighted lines in 3 - 6 meters of water. The entire time I'll be accompanied by a bunch of glow sticks, a couple of Nitro rods, my good friend Jack Daniels (who I don't believe I've had the pleasure of fishing with before) and a grim determination to stay planted until I catch the biggest damned fish that lives there. Ideally, I'm hoping for a Jew.
I developed other bad kayak fishing habits due largely to the fact I was in travelling mode and these had more to do with preparation and planning than anything else. This cost me a lot of fish over the past few months as well but now that I live only 300 metres from waters edge I have the luxury of planning trips carefully. All of the sudden I have bandwidth enough to study google earth and read up on fishing and weather reports. I now have time to set up the sounder (actually the Lawrence XD50 is a much easier package to set up and use than my old Garmin, and that is also playing a part), and handpick a selection of lures and tackle for target fish as opposed to trying to carry out the kitchen sink each time. This is reshaping my kayak fishing strategies in more ways than you might expect. Most notably, I now have more time and space with which to move. Of course, now that I'm fishing from a newly and fully fitted kayak with a bunch of accessories that are making life even easier, so I'm adjusting myself around the luxuries this is affording as well. Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more...
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Whats with that orange kayak? |
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Saturday, 29 December 2007 |
All about safety The future's so bright I have to wear shades :-)
I did think about this before even embarking on a coastal kayak fishing trip and really it's a no-brainer. If one spends most of their time fishing in coastal waters, the issue of colour goes beyond cosmetics. I'm fond of the Caribbean blue colour, and chose that initially because there is a theory that a kayak with a blue base can be somewhat camouflaged by the blue sky behind it (to fish underneath). Not only did I figure that it might help on the stealth factor, it may also help to prevent sharks from even noticing me.
But guess what... by far the most dangerous encounters I had on the water were the speed and proximity of other boats - particularly the ones that hadn't noticed me. In a few of these instances I was probably as much to blame - if not more so - than the other boater. During a sunny day and with a choppy swell, a blue kayak can also blend in to the background on top of the water, making it somewhat difficult to notice in certain conditions. This is especially true if the swell is rising any more than a couple of feet, which it often does. It happened to me just last week while kayak fishing off Vincentia in Jervis Bay, almost getting rammed by a yacht that simply didn't notice me until I passed their port side by just a few meters. I think they got more of a fright than I did.
The orange coloured Hobie kayaks is rather bright and can be spotted easily from quite a distance. And so far it hasn't seemed to have impacted my catch rate either. Although it's probably not as photogenic as the Caribbean blue, nor as 'earthy' as the popular moss colour, I think that next to the yellow papaya colour, it's the easiest Hobie kayak colour to detect in rough open water. If I continued to use the blue colour I'd be fitting a safety flag for sure. Indeed, I fitted a Firestick flag to the orange adventure just for good measure, although I'm unsure if this colour needs it or not. Comments (1) | E-mail | Read more... |
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Saturday, 29 December 2007 |
Too many places to choose from I've had a fair bit of time to reflect on various aspects of my recent coastal kayak fishing trip, thinking about what went right for me, what went wrong and what I'd do differently next time. I get asked a lot about this so I'll be writing about a lot of this here in more depth over time. Perhaps the most common question I've been asked, however, is what was the best kayak fishing destination that I found. Thats not an easy question to answer because I happened to land in some of those places at precisely the wrong time of year. I was washed out of Noosa and Tin Can Bay by flooding rains, for examples, and in other areas certain target species just weren't on the chew (I'm looking at you Mackay). It happens.
I definitely had it good in a couple of other areas and of course these have left the fondest memories. One of these was the entire wide bay area around Hervey Bay (despite the flooding at Tin Can Bay). From the Mary to Burrum River Heads it's all good. Great fishing, fantastic sight seeing and generally well protected waters. The weather is also spectacular and there is no need to worry about crocs or stingers. The entire area just has kayak fishing written all over it.
 Wrestling a 11kg tuna from the Hobie Revolution
Further north I managed to get amongst some really good fish at a couple of spots off Yeppoon and I'd have to say that this is where I had the most fun yak fishing. I'd been hooking onto big pelagic fish further south but it wasn't until I reached this point that my tackle were able to manage them. The Nitro rods arrived while I had a quick stopover at Rockhampton. Introducing new rods, a new reel and new line seemed to make a big difference because a couple of days later I caught one of those Longtail tuna (13.5kg) and followed it up the following day with another that weighed in at around 11kg. I also caught my first ever cobia this day, though that particular fish was caught from a powerboat (acting as my ferry and support boat while fishing Findlay's reef). When it comes to big fish, Yeppoon has got it going on. There's some big tiger sharks out there as well, but that just adds to the adventure. Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Josh's Blog -
View from the Basin
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Friday, 28 December 2007 |
See me now Bream of Basin View
Its been at least a couple of weeks since I've made an update of any kind, which is largely a result of me canning my wireless connection and then establishing a landline connection - a process slowed dramatically by a delay in finding a suitable place to live. Said delay was hosed even more when after the modem arrived... it was established that there was no dial tone in my new home. Westnet support were right on it though, continually sending me messages and phoning me for updates on an ETA of connection. Although I've had to wait longer than I would have liked, I'm back online... and kind of wondering where the hell to start. I have a lot of catching up to do.
I do have a web connection at work, but in recent instance, only a short window of opportunity (all of it consumed by email) to use it during peak periods such as most of December. As such my access has been limited at best for the past couple of weeks. As of today, however, I'm back online. Relax... your goats are safe!
A few things I should mention before getting back into the rhythm; I sold my kayak to a good friend (who also owns an Outfitter, my original Sport and soon also an Outback apparently). That would leave me without buoyancy if not for my new job, which pretty much gives me access to all of the Hobie kayak range - a fringe benefit I will take advantage of over the course of time.
Only days after parting with the dearly beloved I was given enough rope to select a kayak and choose from a variety of parts and accessories with which to fit it with - for (now) my own use. Oh boy, did I go to town. Based on a few recent experiences I figured that the 'safety' orange Adventure was a good way to go. Add a couple of RAM mount tubes, one of those RAM mount fly rod holders (which work very nicely for most bream/flatty outfits), a molded flush mount rod holder extension tube, 2 rod leashes, a paddle leash, 2 gear keepers, Lawrance sounder installation and Lawrance IFinder GPS... oh yeah, and RAM mounts for the sounder and GPS as well. That lot, with all of the other bells and whistles that come with these kayaks (gear buckets, etc) makes it a fairly well sorted kayak-fishing beast 'o lovin. I haven't yet fitted it with a larger rudder blade (an upgrade that I think is well advised for the Adventure for fishing), nor have I opted for ST or Turbo fins either. I'm torn between the two and given the geography of my new home, you might understand why. One thing I didn't have to think about was the certain inclusion of the safety flag... too many close calls wih other boats recently (a fact that influenced me towards the orange kayak when given a choice).
Currently I'm living within the small community known as Basin View, which is a short drive away from Huskisson and other parts of Jervis Bay. 300 meters from my doorstep is a waterway known as The Basin, which is a protected estuary system. Being the closest and most convenient kayak fishing location, I'll be experimenting here a lot, diversing away from some of the habits I got into while travelling. There's a lot of Bream here, as well as sizable Flathead, Tailor and I've seen a lot of Sting Rays and Snook as well... not to mention loads of baitfish, from minnows to gars. Lots of prawns in the creeks branching from this patch of the Basin as well. It reminds me a lot of Port Phillip Bay... but kinda nicer 
No need for the Nitro Godzilla in the estuary (unless you want to target rays of course), but the Viper and Ultra Bream rods do make for a lethal combo in this stretch. By no means have I explored it all yet either but so far the Nitro UB rod has accounted for several fish, being rigged with an SX40 lure (although a 4" Gulp Power Minnow took some names from the Viper as well). Indeed, I've only hit the Basin twice since arriving so far (managing Bream and Flathead on both sessions) so there is much for me to explore, including numerous creeks that fork out from the estuary, as well as the artificial reefs. It doesn't look that exciting at 1st glance, but it grows on you fast. Only 15 minutes drive away is Jervis Bay itself, which certainly does present the need for the trusty Godzilla. It is here I'm hoping to bring in my 1st Kingie from a kayak as well as reel in a Marlin (for release of course) and get some smokin photos of Humpback whales. I'm not holding breath on any count, but it's all possible. Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Friday, 07 December 2007 |
Mad propsNow that my coastal fishing adventure is over as it were, I really shoiuld pause to say thank you to a few people (and companies) who helped make it possible to begin with. First and foremost I have to nod in appreciation towards Scott Lovig, the Victorian Hobie distributor. He got behind me from the very start and helped out with numerous bits and pieces that I might not have been able to afford otherwise. Whilst I'm thanking Victorian Hobie dealers, I shoiuld also include Neil May from WestVic Kayaks and Kampers who helped me out with the Tent Cot that I found so well suited to a great many camping locations I stopped at. He also sells some pretty mean camper trailers as well and should I attempt such a trip again, I'll be sure to get myself one of these. Yet another Hobie dealer I have to thank is Mal Gray from Sunstate Hobie, who is the Queensland dealer. He came to the party by helping me out with a Thule gear pod for my roof rack (this really helped me to get more organised and keep unwanted salt and mud out of the car). He was also good enough to put me up for a couple of nights during the recently held Bass bash. Vaughn Dixon from DMH Australia has known me for many years, so he didn't hesitate to assist with a bunch of camping equipment that I used along the way. Everything from tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, solar shower and more came to me by way of DMH and all of it served me well. Bryan Burke and the team at Innovator (the very same guys that build those highly impressive Nitro rods) are also due for a mention here, for getting behind me and supplying 3 fantastic rods, all of which I highly recommend. They've had a lot of use (especially the Godzilla and Viper) and no doubt with get a lot more. I'll be writing reviews on each of these rods, starting with the Godzilla, which has accounted for the most fish thus far. Last but not least I really have to thank a lot of individuals who met up with me along the way. Quite a few of them were AKFF members and most of them I had the pleasure of fishing with. To be honest I met so many of them that I can't recall everyone's names, but I really liked everyone I met. And for those who were good enough to put me up for a few nights, an extra special thanks to you guys - especially Carl and Darrin, both who let me hang around for over a week.
Without all of those mentioned about, my trip wouldn't have been as enjoyable as it was. Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Everything that has a beginning has an end |
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Wednesday, 05 December 2007 |
And when one door closes, another one opens
Over the next few days I'll be making some major changes to some of the content in this website - especially in the 'about' and 'FAQ' sections. This is because the coastal kayak fishing journey I set off on several months ago is now officially at an end. There are a few reasons for this, not least of all the fact that I have just recently accepted an offer to take on a position at Hobie Cat Australasia as a customer service and sales representative. It's a job I was more than happy to take on, mainly because I really do have a hell of a lot of faith in the way Hobie kayaks perform (especially as kayak fishing platforms). I don't think this fact has been lost on Hobie Cat (who have obviously been paying some attention) and I guess it makes sense for a company to hire an experienced sales person who truly believes in the product he is selling.
It's early days right now and admittedly, the Hobie factory is a bigger operation than I would have guessed. So for that reason there's a lot for me to get my head around and right now I'm busily learning the ropes in the factory. I figure it'll stay that way until new year at least. Obviously, December is a busy month, so this means I'm helping to load and unload kayaks from containers and trucks quite a bit at the moment. So in some ways, my new favourite Hobie kayaks are actually the smallest and lightest ones. <jedi mind trick>Buy a Lanai, Maui or Sport!</jedi mind trick>
Despite the fact that my journey has come to an end, the yakabout website has not. Things will continue as they have been in some ways. Trip reports will continue to be uploaded frequently, although for the time being at least, will mainly be focused on the NSW south coast region. Of course, I'll still be expressing my views on the subject of the day as well. What will change (aside from the frequency of destination reports and blogs on my travels) will be Hobie product reviews. Although I will still talk about my opinions on Hobie products from time to time, I won't be writing any more reviews on Hobie products. It's just too easy for them to be perceived as being overly biased now and having my integrity questioned is a situation I'd rather avoid.
In the role as a sales rep, I will undoubtedly be traveling around the country from time to time in the future and this will give me the chance to write trip reports on various areas. But for the near future at least, they will be predominantly focused on the NSW south coast region. That's not such a bad thing because it looks oh so fishy around here. And early recon suggests that not only are prize species such as Snapper, Kingies and Tuna well within reach, so to are those illustrious Marlin. And hooking one of those from a kayak has been a fantasy of mine for a year or so. Now it's looking more and more like turning into reality. Marlin by march - yeah baby! Comments (4) | E-mail | Read more... |
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Bass bash 2007 - from the horses mouth |
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Tuesday, 04 December 2007 |
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Sunstate Hobie honcho and Bass Bash host with the most, Mal Gray, has just uploaded a report on the recent Bass Bash event held at Lake McDonald, which conveniently sits just opposite the Sunstate showroom. His report his heavy on photos (with captions), so if we go along with the notion that a picture tells a 1000 words, this is actually a 24,000 word report! You'll be amazed how quickly you read it! The photo linked below is actually one I snapped off myself, which I took out of both amusement and admiration. Lambs wool comfort, anyone? Speaking of the 2007 Bass bash, I've just updated my previous write up with a rewritten report (my first, longer and more comprehensive draft was lost to a harddrive crash). Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Monday, 03 December 2007 |
Stand up to be countedAs kayakers, there's not a hell of a lot we can do to help save whales from Japanese harpoons. Ramming whaling ships with our humble little kayaks simply isn't an option I guess. But I think I can speak for all kayakers when I say that these glorious creatures deserve a much different fate than out blubber-hungry japanese counterparts seem to be aiming for. No, sadly it seems there isn't a lot that we can do about it, but signing this petition at Whalesrevenge.com is a start.
At the time of writing there are just over 590,000 signatures and the aim is to obtain at least a million. So get on board and add your name to the list. If you ever get a chance to get close enough to one of these magnificent creatures, you'll be glad that you did.
 Tail of a humpback whale Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Thursday, 29 November 2007 |
More like a bass tickle actually... but you get that
After some persistently patchy rain on the Saturday it was a pleasant surprise to wake up to more accommodating sunny skies on the Sunday for the Bass Bash 2007 main events. It's likely that the weather deterred a few people from turning up on Sunday, although there was at least forty participants in attendance. Most of them were there primarily for the fishing competition, others for the afternoon's sailing races and some who participated in both.
Following an early morning briefing session in which tournament rules were explained, a deluge of enthusiastic Hobie kayak fishermen took to the water, peddling in all directions in search of those elusive bass. The tournament rules were designed in such a way to give everyone a chance of winning any one of the available prizes, though in ideal circumstances, anyone who performed well in catching legal sized fish would have a greater chance. Unfortunately circumstances weren't really ideal to facilitate that because unlike the previous year, it appeared as if whatever fish were left in the lake (as in those who didn't swim over the top of the spillway during the recent floods) weren't terribly interested in chomping on lures. In fact, most anglers who participated in last years bass bash managed to catch more fish than everyone put together in the 2007 event.
Intuition told me that this might be the case - I just didn't get that fishy feeling (that I'm learning to put more and more faith in) while I was on the water. Indeed, my intuition served me well because I also got the feeling that if any (2-person) team was going to catch some worthy fish, it would be the dedicated guys Paul and Lee (AKA Nodds and PCsolutionman). Prepared with a suitable assortment of lures and determination to catch fish, they were both among the first to hit the water and were also the last to return. Nodds was actually the only participant to land a legal fish in the form of a 34cm bass, and also caught and released 2 other fish (all fish caught for the day were returned). That being the case, Nodds had twice as much chance in the prize draw. Unfortunately it seemed that his luck had ran out by the time he returned to land because despite the fact that numerous prize winners were drawn, his numbers didn't come up at all.
Despite that ironic turn of events as well as the lack of hungry fish, it's safe to say that fun was had by all. And the lack of hunger presented by fish was made up for the hunger displayed by fishermen. This ravenous appetite was subdued thanks to a BBQ grill courtesy of Trish Gray, who cooked up a storm to greet anglers returning to land. Once the hamburgers were devoured it was then time for the sailing races.
There were two divisions for the sailing events - one for sail equipped kayaks and another for the viagra enhanced Island kayak/catamaran combos. As luck would have it the wind started blowing up just before the races kicked off, although it was fairly erratic in it's direction. This resulted in quite a few laughs for the rest of us spectators, partly because we got to witness a capsize near one of the marker buoys and also because of the method in which the 2nd place getter (Trish) in the Island division managed to cross the finish line, which was backwards. She could have corrected her position to make a more graceful finish although perhaps inspired by the encouragement of the crowd, she instead allowed the wind to push her across the line going backwards. As one of the spectators commented, if not anything else, this proved once and for all that women do indeed know how to go in reverse.
Although it was a little disappointing that the fish didn't come out to play, the frequent cheering and laughing was testimony to the fact that there is a whole lot more to fishing than just catching fish. For me (and for most I suspect) the real highlight of the weekend was just getting together with a bunch of like minded kayak fishermen, sharing stories, strategies and, of course, beers. It was also interesting to note how other anglers had set up their kayaks, which despite all being of the Hobie flavour, demonstrated a lot of unique configurations.
Finally, it also provided me (and any one else curious or adventurous enough) to play around with kayaks they hadn't yet sampled. For me, that was a chance to get busy on the Adventure Island, which proved to be every bit as exhilarating as I anticipated.
This was the first bass bash event that I've had the pleasure of attending and I'll certainly be making every effort to get back for the 2008 event. Hosts Mal and Trish Gray of Sunstate Hobie did a fantastic job of putting this event together and I'm sure everyone who attended would agree. Speaking of the devil (that would be Mal) he's just posted his own brief report on the event, including numerous photos that tell a story all their own. (Click read more to see more images).Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Technology will be the death of me |
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Wednesday, 28 November 2007 |
This looks bad...Just as I was about to click 'save' after completing a full report on the Sunstate Hobie Bass Bash last night the cursor froze momentarily and then the dreaded blue screen 'o death appeared, giving me some uncomprehensible error message that sounded scary. It turned out to be every bit as scary as the message suggested. The computer was unable to reboot and after digging around in the bios I discovered that the hard drive was totally and utterly corrupted. Repairing it is going to be tricky, if not impossible and there's every chance I've lost every piece of data that was stored on it. Fortunately I do back up most of my data regularly, although I did lose the full report and now I have to rewrite it again. Thankfully I uploaded the images first, so they are stored in the database, so I didn't lose any of those.
Currently I'm typing this from an Internet cafe and won't get much chance to do any updates until this notebook is repaired. When I do come back online, however, I will have some interesting news to report, followed by some faily significant changes to both the layout and content of the Yakabout website. Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Sunday, 25 November 2007 |
Ready?
I've made the effort to put in the miles to get back down south to Cooroy for the invitational annual Hobie Bass Bash kayak fishing tournament, which is hosted by Sunstate Hobie. Although I have never caught a bass before and am a little out of practice on my fresh water kayak fishing prowess, I'm hopeful of landing my 1st bass tomorrow. By all accounts they give a mighty account for themselves, so I'm looking forward to it. So to are the particpants that have already rocked up - many of which are currently camping on the other side of the lake.
There's some impressive prizes on offer this year, not least of which is a brand spanking Hobie Adventure kayak. Other prizes include a Navman sounder, a trip for 2 at Teakettle Cottage on tiny Karragarra Island, a bunch of Hobie accessories and more. Aside from the fishing competion there is also going to be a kayak sailing competition, which I reckon will be lots of fun for all who particpate. I think I'll probably sit that one out so I can get a chance to film it (look for that footage tomorrow). Hopefully someone will find a way to tip their yak to give the rest of us a belly full 'o laughs. If the wind tomorrow acts anything like it did today I wont be at all surprised. Especially after a 4 hour fishing session!Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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