Sandringham Yacht Club Breakwall, Port Phillip Bay 

Although nice and close to Black Rock and Ricketts Point, you don't often hear about Sandringham as a worthy kayak fishing destination. This surprises me a bit, because it really is a pretty convenient location, both for some land based fishing from the breakwall, or otherwise from boat or kayak within or beyond it. I share a connection with this place, as it lies within a stones throw distance from where I lived in Sandringham for near a decade, and is where I cut my teeth with kayak fishing. In fact, my main inspiration for taking up kayak fishing came after many hours fishing from the breakwall, all the while  wishing that I had some way of getting just a bit further out to the patches of reef that are scattered arund the area - many of which play home to resident and seasonal pinky Snapper.

Limited to a motorbike for transport, I picked up a light inflatable kayak and began exploring the area every opportunity that I got. The Sandringham breakwall turned out to be an excellent place to start experimenting with the sport of kayak fishing for several reasons. First of all, it was usually pretty easy to get a park near the cafe, which offers close and easy access to the beach. Secondly, because the breakwall offers excellent protection from strong winds from various directions, it's quite possible to head out and fish during times where it would be exceedingly challenging elsewhere. In instances where strong winds are coming from the north it's easily possible to find refuge either directly behind the breakwall, or even among the moored yachts.

I've had a great deal of success fishing for Aussie Salmon here, many times hooking onto fish with each and every cast. With a little finesse Bream can be caught here as well, along with the obligatory Flathead. AFL personality Sam Newman has a gargantuan boat moored here and much to his disgust (I think he always thought I was paparazzi), I often found a school of sambos directly under his boat! On a side note, I typically heard loud expletives being roared (not at me... I think) from within his cabin - usually when I was pretty sure he was alone. Maybe he was betting on the horses and losing races - I du't know. I do know that the personality you see on TV isn't made up - he really is an angry, angry man. But I digress...

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Keeping the feet warm on the yak 

Merino lined Seal Skinz

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High winds + inflatable kayak = disaster  

There's a fair chance I'll refer to this incident more than once throughout my coastal kayak fishing journals, so rather than try to explain it each time, I thought I'd recount the incident in full. It was the Bay Disaster of 2004 that inspired me to look towards pedal-powered kayaking, eventually leading me to the Hobie Mirage Drive kayaks.

It was early 2004 in the heat of February that I decided to paddle out to Fawlkner Beacon, which rests about 5km west of the Sandringham breakwall in the northern end of Port Phillip Bay. My target species was of course, the late season Snapper. In particular I was chasing the larger variety and was thus armed with no shortage of minced fish frame berley and fresh Squid for bait, which I'd had success here with in the past. I'd paddled out to the mark at about 6PM, about an hour before high tide.

The kayak I was paddling was not what most of us would call an ideal fishing yak. Despite this, I'd een out on numerous trips to this location before in the same yak, and even worse. This particular model was a Sevylor inflatable Sit-on-top, which is significantly stronger than you might expect an inflatable to be. It's greatest downfall as a fishing platform was the fact hat it was a bit of a pig to move through the water and it was adversely affected by high winds. Restricted to a motorbike for transport, this was the best thing I had available to me at the time.

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Google Map powered Kayak Fishing Diary 

Australian Kayak Fishing Forum moderator and all-round technical wizz, Redpheonix has developed a fantastic new feature for the AKFF in the form of a googlemap-powered online fishing diary. I can't wait to see how this fleshes out over time and I'll be using it for reference as much as possible. No doubt I'll also be adding to it frequently as well.

Currently it's in beta form with various features yet to be added as well as a few obligatory bugs to be ironed out. As a result, it's currently only open for AKFF members for testing. I'm not sure it'll stay that way or not, but if you ever needed a great reason to sign up at the AKFF , this is it.

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Is that a pair of clippers in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

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Top quality fish-friendly net - but longer than it needs to be for kayak fishing 

The concept of the (some would say) revolutionary Environet is one I can get behind because it's fish-friendly design is instantly recognizable. Instead of using the time-honoured string netting, Environets use a fine PVC coated mesh - often combined with even friendlier PVC coated fabric. The coated mesh is so fine that fish do not get tangle or caught up in the netting in any way, whilst still allowing water to pass through. I'm a big fan of the concept, which is why I didn't hesitate picking one up when I found it on special (still not cheap at around $40.00)

Big thick net = big wind sock

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Reliable waterproof storage for valuables

Although I'm yet to put the pictured waterproof Pelican Micro cases to the real-world test (in a dumped kayak, for example), I can speak with conviction on the reliability of this series of waterproof cases. The reason for that is that I used to sell them, as well as the fact that I used to own one, before losing it to the ether while shifting house. And the Pelican Micro cases weren't the only ones we sold, but they were the only ones we never got back with complaints - something that I always take as a good sign.

Pelican Micro Case series

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Talking sustainability in the face of global warming... kayak style

You have to hand it to man-on-a-mission Steve Posselt, who embarked on his quest to raise awareness for global warming by paddling from Brisbane to Adelaide via the inland river system. That's a fairly ambitious project for someone getting precariously close to retirement age, which is almost as inspiring as his motivation for the trip. The Kayak4Earth adventure is now underway and I'll be watching Steve's progress closely - I'll be giving him a donation in due course as well (when I determine how much I can spare). Lets just hope he doesn't run out of water to paddle in along the way!

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Best fishing kayak 4U: depends who you ask... but ultimately, only U can answer

This is a question that is slaved upon over and over again, both my would-be kayak fishermen as well as more experienced guys looking into upgrades or alternatives. It's a really good question to, because the fact of the matter is that just like no one pair of boots is going to be the 'best boot for everyone' the same is true of kayaks. When it comes to fishing from kayaks, even more varaiables come into consideration. I think that before even asking that question, other questions need to be asked first. When the answers to the initial questions come, deciding which kayak to go for becomes much easier to answer. But before going any further, I will offer that there are some universal truths to ideal fishing kayaks. One of them being that sit-on top (SOT) designs are generally considered the most suitable and for this reason, regardless of what you do investigate, start your search among the SOT catagory.

The first question to ask yourself is where do you plan to be using it most of the time. Will you be heading out into rougher offshore waters? If so, how far do you intend to go and how important will speed be to you? And how important is stability? Or will you be spending most of your time in rivers, estuaries, lakes or protected bays? Storage space is another question you need to ask - will you carry a lot of gear or will you take the minimalist approach? Will you go on extended kayak camping trips perhaps? And of course issues of transport need to be considered. How will it be transported and what requisites will your kayak need to have to accomodate that. Finally, some attention has to paid to the details: which kayaks have features that facilitate your fishing style. Think about storage, rod holding solutions and sounder installation compatiability (if you're thinking of going there).

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Inspriation from afar 

There's an inspiring forum post over at Kayak Fishing Stuff.com where Hobie kayak owner members are posting pics of some of their memorable kayak fishing catches. Most of these piccies have been contributed by US kayak fishoes, so there's a few great looking fish we don't get to see here down under.

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New hybrid fin for Hobie Kayak Mirage Drive

I actually spotted these new fins the other day while poking around at Scott Lovig's new domain in Mornington, and I thought they looked liked a worthy surrogate for the standard Mirage drive fins for someone who wants a bit more kick from their drive but aren't so keen on the turbio fins. While poking around the web I just stumbled upon a post by Hobie Community forum member, Roadrunner, who offers a very informative rundown on the new ST fins. If you're in the market for some new fins but are unsure if turbo model is for you, take a closer look at Hobie's new ST fins.

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