I wasn't waken by my alarm clock this morning - it was the howling winds that stirred me to attention. Aside from trips to Taiwan and Phillipines where typhoons prevailed, it's been a long time since I've seen winds that strong. Jervis Bay was getting ripped up by it this morning and it made for a sharp contrast from the conditions of yesterday. Driving to work this morning was another one of those moments where I wished I had my camera handy, because it was well worth the photo opportunity. I did, however, have my camera handy yesterday and I did actually stop to take a photo of the bay. If there was ever a day to chuck a sicky in the Jervis Bay area, it was yesterday. It made me very hopeful that conditions would hold right through the weekend. After todays weather my confidence has dimmed somewhat. Here's hoping it'll look more like this, because I'm absolutely hanging out to get out there.
I spent the weekend at Coffs Harbour, working with the Maclean Outdoors Hobie dealer at the local 4WD, caravan, camping and boating show. I was pretty busy most of the time so didn't get a chance to get out and play, although we did go for an exploratory walk on Sunday morning and staring out into the harbour and ocean was rather inspiring indeed. I reckon this would be a fantastic place for kayak fishing, with nice protection offered by the harbour in most conditions. We hiked up to the top of a nice hill that overlooks the entire area and once there I was kicking myself for leaving the camera behind. Next time I'll be more prepared. But not just with a camera though. Oh no...
Next time I go to Coffs for work I'm going to try and fit in a day off to back end it and use the time to sample the waters up close and personal. Looks to me like prime pelagic fishing grounds, so I'll be equipped for large, fit and fiesty fish. Peering out into the blue from that height really re-inspired me to get and out and catch something capable of towing me and my kayak.
Soon to be chomped
This is the lure I'm counting on doing the damage the next time I do head out targeting large pelagics. This particular Rapala X-Rap Magnum Divebait is one of the finest lures of it's kind that I've seen. It's this red-headed, white bodied style lure that has accounted for most of the bigger fish I've caught, even having success on in-expensive $5.00 models. Whilst the X-Rap isn't what I'd call a cheap lure, it is a damn good one. I lost one of these to a mackeral at Hervey Bay on only it's second cast and have only recently picked up a couple more. I'm using better leader material now, so hopefully these guys will last a little longer. If so I'm confident they'll account for at least a few good fish.
'Bluewater' Jon Schwartz is a dedicated kayak fisherman based on the US west coast and is particularly keen on hunting large game fish (with an impressive number of marlin under his belt). He's also a pretty good writer, which is a skill he's put to use on an article about big game fishing from a kayak. Although he's writing from a US perspective, it's all applicable to any yak fisho looking to pick up a few worthy tips. The article can be found at Bluewater Jon's kayak fishing website. Here's a snippet:
"The thrill of landing a trophy on a kayak is matched by an increase in risk factors. Conditions can change in an instant, and the lake-like conditions that you paddled out it in can quickly morph into a frothing cauldron. Be cautious, conservative, and curious; anyone can get lucky, but to safely catch fish on a consistent basis, you’ll have to study the sport and the ocean diligently."
It's been longer than usual since my last post due to some horribly miserable weather here at the NSW South coast. Last weekend was a complete write off and this weekend is looking just as bad. This weekend doesn't bother me because I'll be busy shifting house anyway. Tonight is my last night in this humble little cottage in Basin View and tomorrow my first in my next residence, where I plan to stay put for quite some time. Fortunately I won't be going through a real estate agent on this next one which will be refreshing. My new home is in Sanctuary Point, smack bang in the middle of the Basin and Jervis Bay... not such a bad place to be. The backyard is nice and open and should be perfect for an organic vege garden, which will be my next project for weekends when the weather is too crappy for fishing. By this time next year I plan to be a lot more self-sufficient than I've ever been, with fresh organic veges to go with my freshly caught fish. Can't wait.
It's going to be a few days before I get the Internet connected at the new house so I'll be off line until sometime next week. By the time I get connected again I'll be desperate to get out for a fish because there's little to no chance of it happening in the mean time.
That seemingly amazing footage of the killer whale leaping into the air and inadvertently landing on a kayakers head sure is convincing and I have to admit that the first time I saw it, I thought it might be genuine. Somewhere along the lines I learned that it was in fact the product of a korean soft drink commercial... a sort of pepsi to the max kind of thing. Even though it isn't anything more than a krafty con job, it's still pretty cool to look at. Many kayakers have seen this video so a good deal of you know the footage in question. If you haven't seen it, click the 'read more' link below to check it out.
What some more of you might not have seen is the youtube clip that does a pretty good job of demonstrating that it is a fake and how it was done. That to is also available to check out by following the 'read more' link.
If you're somewhat curious to know what it would be like to have a close encounter with a killer whale from a kayak for real, I've also included a clip taken by some lucky kayakers in the San Juan Islands. Pretty amazing footage. Thankfully killer whales earned their reputation by killing animals such as seals, not humans!
With dark clouds looming low I came very close to shelving today's trip but fortunately the rain held off all day long. Late afternoon I decided to head out regardless, with just a couple of hours daylight left. I had a very clear plan of attack for today, which was to head out to the position where I found the large tailor last weekend. I'd developed the opinion that this is where the bigger ones could be found, unlike just about everywhere else I've been fishing (where bream and flathead are abundant). So today was all about proving that theory.
Caught on Rapalla slash bait, medium diver.
It only took about 10 minutes after reaching the destination to prove my theory correct. Trolling the deadly Rapalla slash bait hardbody lures (one a shallow, the other a medium depth diver), I hooked onto this fish. Taking the medium depth diver, it put up a pretty good fight for it's size, which was just over 50cm. Not quite as large as last week's fish, but big enough to be great fun on light tackle.
10 minutes after that the shallow diver accounted for the next fish, which was a little bigger again. Still not quite as large as last weeks largest fish, but it was getting closer. I'd estimate about 55cm. Both this and the previous fish were returned, both a little shaken, but certainly a little wiser.
Caught on a Rappala shallow diver slash bait
A half hour later I hooked up again, this time onto something with a bit more guts to it. This fish fought more like the 58cm specimen I caught last weekend, shaking it's head vigorously and going on several hard runs. I tamed it fairly quickly though and a few moments later had it netted. This guy was definitely bigger than the last couple and I decided to keep this one for the neighbours. It measured up at 59cm and according to my lip-grip scales, was right on 2kg.
Neighbours dinner, all 59cm worth
So I figure that my supposition was indeed correct. Big tailor are now present in the Basin in numbers and a good deal of them are hanging around directly south of Basin View. Todays trip lasted less than 2 hours, but that's more than I needed to catch some good fish.
I've been paddling around seals a fair bit when I was living in Victoria and I was always pretty keen to get up close to them, but I've never had a seal come this close to my kayak. After getting over the intial shock of having a seal jump abpard the kayak, I reckon I'd find it very amusing. Then again, the seals I'm use to seeing are a lot bigger than this little fella.
Up until last weekend, all of the tailor I have caught from St Georges Basin have been little choppers and very few had been worth keeping. I always knew the bigger ones were there because not only have I seen them jumping, I've been bitten off by a couple. I'm starting to suspect that the bigger ones hang around in a different location from the juveniles (where I caught this one), which is also where I've been bitten off before. I'll be spending this weekend trying to prove that theory to myself.
From this...
As you can imagine I was pretty happy when I caught this fish but for a moment I considered putting it back, simply because my freezer didn't have enough room in it and no way could I eat it all that night. Then I remembered a recipe shown to me by Astro while I passed through Mackay last year. Pickled fish! Here's how I did it:
...to this
Mixed 150ml distilled white vinegar with 150ml apple cider vinegar, added 100ml of olive oil, added 1 finely chopped red hot chilly, added 1 crushed clove of garlic and stirred. Then simply add the fish, place in fridge and wait for at least an hour. So simple.
I found that the taste was slightly better the next day, so I think a bit more fridge time (than 1 hour) is the go. Doing a bit of a look around google, I can expect the fish to be preserved for about four weeks. Not that I expect it to last that long - I finished off one of these jars in just 2 days (the one fish filled 2 old pickle jars).
This recipe is excellent for fish that you would otherwise take or leave. You know... those species that don't make your mouth water at the very thought of them. Astro's example was Mackeral, and trust me, it's nicer pickled. It also works really well for tailor. Trevally is another fish I'd happily do this to, as is Aussie salmon. Oh yes... kingies to. But doing this to say, coral trout, it probably sacrilage.
I met Steve Fields on the water just after midday today and by the time I got there he'd already caught quite a few tailor, so it looked good for a successful afternoon fishing. From Basin View we trolled our way over to the west-end to try the shallows for bream, to no avail. For a while there it looked like we weren't going to find any more fish and ironically it was only 5 minutes after Steve left me out there that I started catching some steady fish - one of them quite the specimen. I caught this greenback with a trolled Rappala shallow-diving slashbait, which is a proven winner on tailor around here. On 4lb line (6lb leader) it made a very strong account of itself, jerking hard at the start of the fight and pulling hard towards the end. For a while there it thought it may even be a jewfish. Weighing in at 2kg and measuring 58cm, it was great fun to catch on light tackle.
From that point on the fish came on strong almost wherever I went, all of them (that I know of) being tailor - some of them legal, some of them not. In just a brief 4-hour session I caught at least 20 fish today, releasing most of them unharmed, keeping 3 for the table (including the big one). There were a couple of early double hook ups and before long I started fishing with just one rod. Most of the smaller ones were encountered closer to basin view itself and there seemed to be more larger ones further over to the west.
Double hook up!
The basin was alive with fish activity this afternoon, which was really very promising to see. Tailor are out in prolific numbers , all of them protected from commercial fishing. If that hadn't been banned several years ago, I'm sure it wouldn't be fishing as well as it is now. Today was the perfect day to take advantage of it, which although reasonably chilly, was for the most part sunny and calm. By the end of the day I'd covered a fair distance, forming a big triangle in the process. I used a variety of lures, including bibbed hardbodies, several soft plastics as well as poppers. Apart from the silver Finn-S minnow flick bait, every single fish fell for the Rappala slash bait. I'm really starting to appreciate this lure because I know that tailor sure do. I've seen kingies fall for them just as easily and I reckon Aussie salmon would do so as well.
Having spent almost a decade working in outdoor retail stores in my younger days, I've surely developed an eye and appreciation for quality over the years. But when I started kayak fishing, however, initially my attitude was to use mid-range equipment. The reason for this was that I might just lose it all over the side anyway. Admittedly, thats precisely what happened several times in my first couple of years fishing. Eventually I got smart (well, smarter) and started leashing just about everything down to prevent this from happening. Since developing that strategy there is very little I've lost to Davey Jones locker. And because of that I started to replace my 'good enough' gear for higher quality counterparts. My fibreglass rods were eventually replaced with graphite you-beauts, my aged Leatherman tool replaced with a new Charge TI, my folding net replaced by an Environet and my heavily chromed dive knife replaced with an Al Mar Sere sheath knife.
Unfortunately, I never did get much use out of that knife because it was one of the few things I didn't leash down and sure enough, I simply dropped it over the side one day. Even in 11 metres of water I considered diving in after it. Alas, I was too gutless to do so, which was probably a good thing because the wind probably would have blown my kayak out of reach anyway.
I didn't lose the sheath, however, so I've had that stored for the past 6 months doing very little. One day I'd replace that hallowed knife I kept telling myself, so much did I admire it. That one day came yesterday when a package arrived from the states, complete with my new Sere that I've been pining over all this time. Joy... it's enough to make me want to start using bait more often (just so I have more reason to use it).
Why am I so fond of the Al Mar Sere? For one, I'm highly familiar with the Al Mar brand. In almost a decade of selling them, never once did we get one back with a complaint. I'm also familiar with the steel that is used in the Sere, which is CPM S30V stainless steel. It cuts really well, sharpens easily (far easier than a typical dive-knife) and with 14% chromium, is relatively rust resistant. The same steel is used in the main blade of my Leatherman Charge and has served me very well in that knife. Its also a full-tang construction, with one piece of steel from the tip to the butt (making it as string as possible by design). And finally, I'm really very fond of the sheath, which can be attached in various ways.
Snug as a bug in a rug
The main reason I like this knife, however, isn't so much the quality. I've used other high quality blades on the kayak before that were equally good at cutting and sharpening. But that first Sere wasn't the only expensive knife I've lost to the ocean. I've also lost a Fallkniven blade which costs almost $400. I lost that knife simply because it didn't sit in the sheath securely enough. The Sere, on the other hand, is secured better than any almost any other knife I've ever seen (which is saying something). Not only does it clip into it's Zytel sheath like a well-fitted glove, it also has the rubber retaining ring that is common with dive knives. So there is zero chance of it coming out of the sheath of it's own accord.
Truth be told, it's likely that the Leatherman will continue to get used more often than the Sere (until I start diving again, which will likely be this coming summer). But one thing I have learned in my years of coastal kayak fishing, it's better to have a big knife and not need it than to need a big knife and not have it.
After observing such glorious weather throughout each day of the working week, I was dismayed to see some rather sketchy weather reports leading into the weekend. I didn't like the look of Saturday's weather, which threatened rain throughout the day, not to mention gusty conditions that really picked up in the afternoon. By all accounts, Sunday was supposed to be worse so I didn't start the day with plans to go fishing. But as the day wore on it looked less likely to rain and winds were moderately low as well. Right when I was sitting around wondering if I should go fishing or not, I got the call from Steve Fields (MD of Hobie Cat Australasia) who was wondering the same thing. With a final glance out the window to check for dark clouds or swaying tree-tops I decided it looked good enough, so within the hour both of us were on the water.
My first tailor for the day, (caught on an Ecogear SX60)
With only a couple of hours sunlight left time was against us, so we'd both tied on some sleek hardbody lures that have been proven tailor-takers of late. Steve has located a nice patch of water that the tailor seem to absolutely love (which I'll be keeping hush, so don't ask) and this has become his recent 'go-to' tailor fishery. It didn't take long after arriving before we were both catching fish. After we had both caught 4 or 5 fish each we decided to paddle over to the shallows and try our luck for bream, using poppers. Sadly, the luck didn't follow us to the shallow water and with only a half-hour of sunlight left we didn't have much time to change our fortunes. So as we paddled away the bream let out a collective sigh of relief (because if we had just 5 minutes more, look out!)
Last tailor of the day (caught on a Rapalla shallow-diving slash bait lure)
I'm moving away from the basin in a few weeks, so I'll probably try to make the most of my proximity in that time (weather, be nice). Chances are good that my next few trips out will be chasing basin bream... and that croc-like flatty that I haven't been able to boat yet. I'm going to miss this neck of the woods for sure. The upside, however, that is my new place will be closer to Jervis Bay itself. There's a whole lot of water out there (and thankfully some of it is still legal to fish in) so the frequency of my trips out into the bay will increase.
I first met Carl Holland (AKA Astro) on my travels north, passing through Mackay. Well, passing through was my intention, although I soon realised that there were too many goldern opportunities for kayak fishing in the area to just 'pass' through. That, coupled with my meeting of Astro, inspired me to hand around for about a week. I also stopped back in on my way back south a month or so later. Unfortunately the barra weren't showing any interest during either of my visits, but we did have planty of other fishing opportunities, which we took. Astro's yak-fishing mojo was suffering a depression of sorts at the time as it turned out, although he's certainly turned that around recently.
Carl 'Astro' Holland
Carl is a fairly experienced kayak fisho, but outweighing even that is his irrepressible enthusiasm for the sport and I found him to be great company because of it. He's also a pretty good cook (another reason I hung around for a while) and overall a very interesting guy, which is why I decided to ask him to take a moment to answer a few interview-style questions. He agreed to respond. Behold...
Q: G'day Astro and thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. When did you realise that you are a kayak fishing addict, and how did the addiction develop from it's early stages?
A: My addiction started early learning kayaking and fishing…but not together around the same time. Over the last 30 odd years has waxed and waned but since moving to mackay (1996)it has greatly improved.
The previous kayak I had before the outback was a fibreglass sik which was a real effort to get out and about in especially with the tides and wind we get. This made yak fishing not so attractive, with the best type of fishing was to work the flats for whiting, flathead, trevally and queen fish mainly occasionally you get blessed with a barra.
Since the outback, the addiction is in full swing and have a lot of flexibility to be able to go for a fish. I like to get out 3 times a week if possible and have yak fished 8 days in a row as a personal record. Basically it’s one to the best addictions to be inflicted with…its: fun, healthy, gets you out, is a challenge, you see some great sights, you get to eat fish…..well mostly anyway. The only downside is the $$$$ for tackle this…lure that…..bling…
Q: You live close to Mackay and are blessed by quite a variety of fishing options, both fresh and salt water. Tell us a bit about the area you live in, your favourite places to fish and why.
A: Heaven on a stick….to me at least. Within a 1 hour drive of home I can get to Teemburra dam, Kinchant dam, Eungella dam, Peter faust dam - all loaded with barra - at least a dozen estuary systems, Whitsunday islands & Airlie beach/shute harbour. Tropical paradise….what can I say…
For favourites I like Teemburra, (NO JET SKIS OR WATER SKIERS)... lots of barra, very scenic, lots of barra, heaps of wildlife, lots of barra, fishing variety, lots of barra. Salt based, at the moment Victor creek, Seaforth…scene of some recent memorable catches.
Would love to do more around the islands… hence my saving program to get an Adventure Island. The tropical waters of the whitsundays and the ability to reach further sees the AI as the ideal craft for me up here.
Q: You spend a fair bit of time chasing the elusive Barramundi. What other species are high on your priority list, and why?
A: Yeah love to catch barra…but would really love to get some big pelagic fish on board…Spanish mackerel for one. When and if this winds goes then there will be more chances to get out wide around the islands. Also a coral trout…they are my favourite fish to eat
It only took about 10 minutes after reaching the destination to prove my theory correct. Trolling the deadly Rapalla slash bait hardbody lures (one a shallow, the other a medium depth diver), I hooked onto this fish. Taking the medium depth diver, it put up a pretty good fight for it's size, which was just over 50cm. Not quite as large as last week's fish, but big enough to be great fun on light tackle. 
