Big fish, sharks, whales & Hairy Mick

Fire breathing shark!

I've been looking forward to arriving at Hervey Bay for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, I've been hearing lots of good things about the fishing here and those stories were confirmed for me tonight after taking a stroll on the rather long Urangan pier. I spent 30 minutes watching a young angler do battle with a really big fish that was giving him quite the fight. I didn't hang around long enough to see what it is (the fight looked like it would go all night) because I had to go and find somewhere to stay before it was too late.

As I walked the length of the pier I couldn't keep my eyes off the water, which is absolutely brimming with bait fish (mullet) in what appears to be plague proportions. More than once I saw big, dark torpedo shaped objects moving underneath them to. Oh yeah... there's sizable fish in them there waters and I'm not leaving until I've bagged a few of them.

Another reason I was so attracted to Hervey Bay is the presence of Humpback whales and I do intend to paddle out to them tomorrow to get some photos and video footage. Based upon their current location that'll mean a 10km paddle/pedal (as the crow flies) to reach them. It's going to be a long day on the water, as I'm expecting to cover at least 30km all up.

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*phew* 

I very nearly purchased one of these Thule gear boxes for my roof racks before I left Victoria but now I'm actually relieved that I hadn't. The reason I stalled was that I really wasn't that keen on parting with the money, and figured that I may not need it. I could, after all, fit everything into my car... just. As it turned out 'just' was just too tight, making it tough to get to certain things without unpacking half the car. It also started to bug me loading salt/sand coated gear back into it, which as you would know, has potential to cause all sorts of problems.

Roof rack coffin

Sometimes it really pays to hold out and this was one of those occasions because like a few other Hobie dealers, Mal Gray from Sunstate Hobie wheels and deals in Thule equipment and he was good enough to quote me a really sharp price that I couldn't go past (and no one else could or would beat). So I doubled back from Tin Can Bay to Cooroy to take him up on that offer today and now I've got a lot more space inside the car. That's a big relief, let me tell you. I nearly decided to pull up at the Urangan pier at Hervey Bay today and sleep in the back of it in celebration. Nearly.

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Bream, Flathead and Whiting highly accessible for kayak fishermen

Bucket-mouth bird

Famous for it's resident population of dolphins (including the rare Indo-pacific humpback variety) Tin Can Bay isn't backward in coming forward about it's affinity to anything remotely fishy. Just take a look at the following street names, which a keen eye will note while driving into town: Anchovy st, Barramundi st, Bass st, Bonito Cr, Bream st, Cod st, Coral trout dr, Dart st, Dolphin av, Dory st, Drummer st, Dugong st, Emperor st, Gaff ln, Gar st, Groper st, Herring st, Jew st, King st, Kingfisher ct, Luderick ln, Mackeral st, Marlin way, Oyster pd, Perch st, Sailfish st, Salmon st, Saratoga ct, Snapper creek rd, Sole st, Squire st, Sweetlip circle, Tailor st, Threadfin st, Trevally st, Tuna way and Whiting st... welcome to the end of this sentence.

Does anyone else think this town was built by keen fishermen? By the time you've driven in from the start to end you'll be so keen to wet a line you be thinking of anything else. Kayak fishermen will observe the water with enthusiasm due to the highly accessable nature of the water. There are literally hundreds of spots where one could launch a kayak, although perhaps the most accomodating is the boat ramp close by to the coast guard at Snapper Creek (right where the dolphins come to feed). Being a concrete ramp, this allows for a sand-less entry and exit from the water. It's also nice and close to a nearby commercial fishing company jetty, which the Bream seem to be rather fond of.

I happened to come into Tin Can Bay right in the middle of flooding rains, which came in two parts - both of which lasted for days on end. As has been the case with the entire south coast of Queensland, this has resulted in a lot of muck being washed into the bay with gushing fresh H2O and thus muddying the water. Tin Can Bay is severely effected by this, however, due to the nature of it's geographical make up. Although the dirty water is washed out somewhat by outgoing tides, incoming tides tends to bring a lot of straight back in. Ergo, it takes longer for Tin Can Bay to clear up whenever floods occur.

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I feel dirty 

Stupid, but it might have worked

There were 2 things that brought me to Tin Can Bay: the resident dolphin population (and the hope of getting a few photos of the rare Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphin that are found here) as well as the Bream and Whiting, both of which are usually on the chomp this time of year. Of course as soon as I arrived rain started belting down and my hopes of having any level of success with either were pretty much dashed. It rained pretty hard over the course of two days and in the process very nearly flooded me out of my camp. Fortuntately the rain was held at bay today and the winds died down a bit as well. The very moment that a sliver of sunlight broke through the thick layer of overhanging clouds I packed the car and took off to Snapper Creek hoping to find some Bream.

Acting on some first hand information from the friendly proprietors of the Tin Can Bay Motel (where I decided to stay for a night due to the very reasonable prices), my target destination was right out the front of the local commercial fishing jetty. Positioned no more than 200 meters from the handy boat ramp next to the coast guard it was probably the easiest paddle I've had since embarking on the Yakabout journey. The inside word was that large Bream had come in to feed while the commercial boat was dumping crushed mud crab shells into the drink.

Until I heard that I probably wouldn't have believed that fish would be anywhere in sight because due to the heavy rains, the water was as discoloured as it gets. When I arrived, however, there was indeed a couple of guys fishing the jetty so my spirits lifted immediately. I just hoped that by then the fish hadn't already stuffed themselves stupid. Sadly, apparently they had. Only 15 minutes after I turned up the other guys left, although I did observe them bring one Bream (of about 500 grams) to land.

"It's gone quiet mate," one of them called out to me as he packed his gear, then adding, "you should have been here 2 hours ago".

Indeed.

This crab wasn't hiding well enough - but I let him live anyway

I persisted though, going so far as to fish with bait for only the second time since hitting the road. There was no need to buy any of course - there was plenty of tasty looking (to fish) morsels floating about the surface, which is exactly what the other guys had been fishing with. Casting them out with an unweighted line (with flurocarbon trace) I did get a couple of touches, but nothing commited. I considered plucking this little crab from his perch to use as a live bait instead, but figured there was every chance that would fail as well, so I let him live instead.

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A dilema no more

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Too murky, even for the locals

A couple more inches and this would have gone under

That's a real shame because it's pretty simple to see that any other time the fishing would be excellent here, especially for Bream and Whiting affectionardoes. And not just because of that either - I like it here and if the conditions were different, I'd definately hang around for a while. The people of Tin Can Bay seems to be living proof that people really are a product of their environment. Nice place, nice people (unlike *cough* Gympie *cough*). Everyone seems to have a smile for you here, more than happy to engage in conversation and answer all of your stupid questions.

There's loads of accomodation options here although the drenching has made pitching a tent pretty much impossible. Not quite ready to leave today, this influenced me to look around to find the best value for money roof over my head for a night. I seem to have found it at the Tin Can Bay Motel, which is hidden from the main road, but within a relaxed walking distance to the beaches of Tin Can Inlet. The price here is pretty reasonable and actually a bit cheaper than the cabins I inspected at other caravan parks. The managers (Aaron and Kelly Rice) are a fine example of the friendly nature of the people here, which makes for a pleasant place to stay. If you ever head into Tin Can Bay and need a place to stay, be sure to take a look.

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Servicing the Miragedrive

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Couta1 braining monster fish from his kayak

Couta1 means business

Upon watching this, the Gold Coast just went to the top of my list of places I absolutely, positively must return to when I pass through Queensland again. I'll be sure to be armed with some good strong tackle when I do. Click the read more link to check it out.

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A better way to attempt paddling back through the surf 

A couple of weeks ago I performed a surf re-entry across the bar that connects Noosa river to Laguna Bay and those of you who watched the resulting video would know that it got a little messy. As much of a thrill as it was, I'd rather avoid having that happen again. I've had a fair bit of advice on how to go about doing it better from several people now, not just on how to avoid getting dumped, but also on what measures to take to avoid getting hooked or skewered. In hind sight, the sheer amount of mistakes I made there was pretty significant and with that in mind, I've been paying attention to the advice that's been coming in.

Obviously opinions will differ on the subject because as with all other aspects of kayak fishing, there seems to be several ways to skin that cat. I think the best summary of advice I've been given to date has come from KayakFishingStuff.com member Jesse Johnston, who responded to a post I made there in the 'mistakes I've made' section titled 'surf re-entry gone bad'. I've copied what he had to say below. This is advice I'm taking on board. Just as soon as this weather clears up I'll be out there doing a bunch of practice runs in an attempt to master the manuever.    

Moving forward will drop the nose of the board/yak and help slip the vehicle into the wave, but once you start to drop in, you need to shift your weight back to avoid a pearl (digging the nose of the board/yak into the bottom of the trough and getting pitched off the board/yak.)
to avoid getting broached, (which is what happened to you by the way, you nearly pearled twice but you would have been fine had you kept the bow pointed straight in.) you will need to forget about the rudder when surfing in a kayak - in fact you should stow it before you get into the surf zone. it'll just screw you up if there is enough water on it to steer - and like as not there won't be enough water on it to steer anyway. you will need to use your paddle to steer. drag your paddle on the side you want your bow to turn to, but be careful a little bit of drag can go a long way when it comes to tweaking the bow around a little. also be aware that the mount of force on the paddle will require quite a good grip to avoid having the paddle getting ripped from your hands.

just in case you start to get picked up by a wave and don't want to surf it, you almost always abort the pickup by dragging your paddle deep "snap snap" right and left while simultainously leaning as far back and as quickly (to the point of almost laying down and banging your head on the crate) as possible.

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Type III PFD 

There was really nothing wrong with the Ultra Gorge PFD that I parted with recently, other than the fact that it was looking really very grubby with blood stains all over it. That's not why I switched over to the Hobie High Back Vest PFD (Personal Floatation Device) though. What attracted me to the it's design was the very feature that has inspired it's name: the high back. While mooching around the Melbourne boat show I got curious, tried one on and then parked my backside in one of the display kayaks. Instantly I noticed that it was significantly more comfortable than my other PFD. Given that I was planning to be wearing a PFD for hours on end day after day (over the period of at least a year) I figured that extra comfort would be a really good idea.

Despite being an upgrade that I really didn't have to make, I'm glad that I did. The high back design means that the lumbar region of the back sits more neatly into the backrest of the seat. The difference it makes is more noticeable in the new (2007) seat design that all Hobie kayaks are supplied with, due to the extra padding that has been incorporated. I suspect larger framed paddlers would notice even more of a difference than I do. Instead of thick floatation padding in the lumbar area, the High back vest has thin but tough air mesh sewn into nylon webbing. I was surprised how comfortable this feels, especially with all of the compression straps pulled neatly into place.

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Ideal family fishing holiday destination

Big fish live here

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