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Bowen Isl - Pt Perpendicular |
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Trip reports -
NSW
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Saturday, 12 April 2008 |
Revenge on the leatherjackets Sailing to pt Perpendicular
I've been frequenting Bowen Island by way of Murrays boat ramp a lot lately and if there is anything I've learned to dislike about it, it's the infestation of small leatherjackets that continually savage my soft plastic lures. The problem has gotten so bad that I now refuse to tie on a plastic lure until I reach the northern end of the island - any time before that is asking for trouble. Not so with hard-body lures, however, because the little blighters can't tear them up. That doesn't stop them trying though and as a result I fouled hooked not one, but at least 10 of them today. All of them were returned... the little guy pictured was the largest of them all.
 Leatherjacket infestation
Small leatherjackets weren't the only unwanted by-catch of the day. In the same area I also hooked a spikey little cod, which was of course returned also. I was hoping for a tailor or aussie salmon as I trolled my way to Bowen island, but it just wasn't to be. Upon reaching the northern end (kingy territory) I up-sized the lure in hope of hooking up something more impressive than a rat. To this end I traversed the northern end of the island back and forth a few times for no return. The waters were uncomfortably choppy here, so I decided to sail my way over to Pt Perpendicular for a change. Before setting off I up-sized my lure once more (using an 8" Halco deep-diver) - this time in hope of hooking onto a yellowfin tuna.
 And the odd cod
I'd reached the pt after tacking my way into a northerly wind in what seemed like about an hour. I didn't get a single bite the entire time, which did surprise me. Under the protection of the towering cliff face I decided to stop off and bottom bash a 5" soft plastic squidgy pilchard style flick bait for a while. It was quiet here as well, although I did manage to pull in a smelly pike, which I also put back into the water (not even fit for cat food). I did, however, hook onto something really very big a short while later. I'd like to think it was a kingy, but its more likely that it was a groper, because whatever it was, it was huge. Too big and lackadaisical for a kingy I think. After grabbing the lure it backed it's way under a reef and refused to budge. The harder I pulled, the harder it pulled. Eventually it won the tug of war by snapping the line at the tracer knot - something that hasn't happened to me in a while.
 Pike: skunks of the sea
As the sun made its way toward the horizon line I decided to sail back towards the island, and then back to the boat ramp. I didn't have to do any tacking this time because a tail wind assisted me the entire way back. I sure picked up a lot of speed on the return journey and had a hell of a lot of fun along the way. Truth be told, that's what today's trip was all about. These trimaran/kayaks are a hell of a lot of fun. Fishing was a secondary consideration next to sailing the Adventure Island, which is why I only took out one rod and just a few lures. But it was nice to prove to myself that they can be used for fishing as well.
 Sailing the Adventure Island = fun
Unfortunately, not a single fish I caught today was worth holding onto. Time and weather permitting tomorrow, I'll head out into the basin to make up for that. This time, however, I'll be more focused on the fish (tailor will be my target) and as such, will leave the Island behind and take out the Adventure instead.
 30kms traversed  Comments (2) | E-mail | Read more...
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Kodak moment at Sth West Rocks |
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Josh's Blog -
View from the Basin
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Thursday, 10 April 2008 |
At the hands of the Redpheonix Playful dolphins at Sth West Rocks Comments (3) | E-mail | Read more... |
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Josh's Blog -
View from the Basin
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Thursday, 10 April 2008 |
The nasty kind... oops... my bad
I've spent a fair bit of time on the water so I've encountered a few of them. Unfortunately I had just such an encounter yesterday. Said spankers were fishing from a small powerboat close by the Bowen island. These guys passed nearby my kayak several times, coming as close as 10 metres at least twice. That didn't bother me really - I was just minding my business and them minding theirs. A couple of hours later they had anchored up and looked to be catching the odd fish. Eventually I trolled my way in that general direction, coming as close as about 50 metres. When I did so one of them yelled out 'Hey mate, would you mind moving away?'
I didn't respond in any way, other than to veer course slightly to appease their request. A part of me felt flattered that they saw me as a threat to their potential catch. But another part of me just thought 'get over yourselves... tools!' Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Wednesday, 09 April 2008 |
The one that got away (and the one that didn't) You dirty rat!
It was completely unplanned initially, but in having to address some rather nasty issues in the last couple of days I suddenly found myself with 2 days off. Most of that time was spent doing things I'd much rather not be doing, but upon wrapping it all up early this afternoon I looked out the window and realised that the weather was actually pretty good (compared with yesterday especially). I didn't waste any time packing up the car with the kayak and all my heavy fishing gear and took off to catch an afternoon yak fishing trip at Bowen Island. Normally I launch at Murray's boat ramp and slowly troll my way to the island but this time I just paddled directly to the north east end of the island, which is where I landed a couple of kingies last trip out.
I alternated between 2 rods - one of them packing a 5" pilchard style Squidgy flick bait, the other rigged with a Berkley Blade Dancer lure. Just like last time, both rods managed to hook a fish - one of which I reeled in, the other of which I fought with utter futility for about 10 minutes. The first fish was the smaller one, a rat-sized kingy of around 40cm. Only moments after I'd returned it my other rod hooked up, but this was no rat. I'm pretty sure this to was a kingy because it dove for the sea-floor upon taking the lure and for most of the fight that's where it successfully tried to stay. It was a heavier fish than the one I lost on the last trip out, easily in the double figures kilogram wise, and most likely well over a metre. Unfortunately I can't confirm that, however, because I didn't even get it close enough to the yak to have a look. I'm pretty sure it swam into a hole and once inside figured out a way to spit the hook.
Ironically, the small fish took the lure that was on the larger rod (Nitro Godzilla) and the larger fish went for that which was tied to the smaller rod (Nitro Viper). Things may have been different had it been the other way around. Regrettably, that wasn't the case though.
 Nth-east end of Bowen Island
I'm starting to figure out that the closer one gets to the rocky cliffside outcrops of the island, the greater the chance of hook up. This is good in that it makes it easier to find the fish, but bad in that the closer one gets, the more dangerous it is. It does get pretty damn rough there at the heads of Jervis Bay, although so far I haven't had any problems keeping the kayak upright the entire time. *Touch wood*Comments (2) | E-mail | Read more... |
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Wednesday, 09 April 2008 |
 Big old grunter, caught at Hervey Bay
Up until recently the fish category of the gallery was getting a little too big for it's boots, which was causing the page to load slowly. This was partly the result of the way I'd set up the image directories, which was done in such a way that most fish that I caught ended up being there, even if they didn't really deserve to be in there. So recently I trimmed all of the fat and made a new directory for the best catches, which is now where the fish section points to. Not only does the page load faster as a result, it now only displays the fish that I consider worthy. All of the other photos can still be found in their respective trip reports, but now the gallery is a little tidier due to the housekeeping. Click here to check out the refreshed fish gallery page.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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Monday, 07 April 2008 |
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I've really got to keep my sense of humor strong at the moment because I've had to work the past 2 weekends (at the Rosehill caming show in Sydney) and as such haven't been able to get out fishing for longer than I'd like. I'll be making up for that wholesale this weekend but until then I'm using some comedy to keep my spirits high. Some of that which I've stumbled upon lately I thought worth sharing here. The first laugh I've got for you is actually based on true events. This was sent to me from my good friend Paul, who resides in Lorinna, Tasmania. He wrotes:
Major General General Cosgrove was interviewed on the radio recently. The following is a portion of an ABC interview between a female broadcaster and General Cosgrove who was about to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop visiting his military headquarters...
FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
So, General Cosgrove, what things are you going to teach these young boys when they visit your base?
GENERAL COSGROVE:
We're going to teach them climbing, canoeing, archery and shooting.
FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible, isn't it?
GENERAL COSGROVE:
I don't see why, they'll be properly supervised on the rifle range.
FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
Don't you admit that this is a terribly dangerous activity to be teaching children?
GENERAL COSGROVE:
I don't see how. We will be teaching them proper rifle discipline before they even touch a firearm.
FEMALE INTERVIEWER:
But you're equipping them to become violent killers.
GENERAL COSGROVE:
Well, Ma'am, you're equipped to be a prostitute, but you're not one, are you?
The radio went silent and the interview ended. Read on for some hillarious tips on management, which was sent in to me by my buddy Darrin from Townsille... Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Monday, 24 March 2008 |
1st kingies from a kayak
 Bowen island, north eastern side
With a gritty determination to head out kayak fishing today, I ignored the ominous rain clouds (and occasional crack of thunder), loaded up the car and took off to Murrays boat ramp with intentions to fish around Bowen Island at the heads of Jervis Bay. My target today was Kingfish, which I've never before caught from a kayak despite several attempts in this location. Something was different about today though, which was a north-easterly wind as opposed to the typical south easterlies we get in these parts. Truth be told, it was actually pretty calm when I launched at midday but at 2PM winds were gusting at around 20 knots. This did make for some interesting moments when I started trolling the north end of Bowen island. With one rod (the Nitro Viper) I was using a Squidgy Pilchard style flick bait and on the other (Nitro Godzilla) I trolled a Rapalla 5" pilchard style hard body lure. I trolled the later whilst casting the former.
It was the flick bait soft plastic that hooked the first fish, which came just as I noticed that the wind was giddying up. When the fight began I was about 40 meters from the north-eastern cliff-face of the island. This made things interesting because not only is that where the hooked fish started trying to swim towards (with enough vigour to tow the yak slowly) it is also where the winds and tide were wanting to push me towards. Thinking on my feet (and figuring it might be a Kingy) I moved quickly to bring in some line to make sure that the fish was no where near the bottom. As soon as I was confident that I had done so, I turned the kayak around, tightened the drag slightly and started pedalling away from the cliff. Now I was towing the fish, instead of it towing me.
 Gotcha! Now to put you back...
When I reached about 60 - 70 meters away I resumed the fight, which lasted another 5 minutes before boating the fish. As I'd hoped, it was indeed a kingy, measuring up somewhere around 60cm. I didn't bother measuring it to find out for sure because I was positive it was undersize (despite being a good solid fish) so after a quick photo I returned it to the water. Ah... my first kingy from a kayak - that was fun! Next...
 Another, slightly larger kingy (also returned)
The wind continued to gather strength, so soon after I decided to rig up the sail and head towards the southern side of the island where it was a lot calmer. I hooked another fish only moments later as the wind pushed me at an impressive speed. At first I thought it might be a snapper but the closer I brought it to the kayak, the harder it fought. When we caught sight of each other it really dug it's heels in and took off like a rocket. Another kingy, quite a bit bigger than the other two. Unfortunately it managed to spit the lure on it's second run but I did get a pretty good look at it. I reckon this one was closer to a meter in size - probably about 90cm. Dammit - that was the fish I came here for. And now it was just too rough and windy to hang around this area, so I continued to sail on to the southern end.That was the end of the bites, although I did chance upon a pod of dolphins soon after. I took a few snaps of these guys as well and then headed back to the boat ramp. I considered staying out a bit longer but there was a big dark rain cloud moving in and I thought it might pay to try and beat it to the punch. It really wasn't a very hospitable day for fishing (story of my easter), but it paid off to head out anyway. My confidence in this area has returned and now I have the kingfish monkey off my back - now it's time to catch a keeper. They really are a great fighting fish and are awesome to catch from a kayak, even if undersized. I can see why they are so popular among NSW yak fishermen.
 This poor guy had been mauled by something toothy :-/ Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Saturday, 22 March 2008 |
Fishy frustrations
 48cm flathead, fell for a small popper
It wasn't my intention to fish with a popper all day long, but in preparing for an afternoon fishing the basin I grabbed 2 of my Hobie 'gear bucket' tackle tubs that were in fact filled with tackle suitable for larger off shore fish. They look exactly the same as my other 2 (that are obviously set aside for bread and butter fish) but I really should have known by the weight of them. At least I had a small popper already tied onto one of my rods, so rather than heading back to grab the right gear buckets, I paddled out with what I had. There are plenty of popper-worthy spots in the basin, so I headed straight out to an area I hadn't tried before. Popping my way around the 1st spot I tried did result in several hits, one of them from something with some size to it. Pickings were slim, however, so after a short while I decided to try another spot. It was a few km away from my current position, however, and decided to try trolling for a Tailor on the way. Despite grabbing the wrong tackle tubs, I did have something there well worth trying.
 It's called a Blade Dancer from Berkley and for all intents and purposes, it's a lot like a chatter bait. The jig has a nice long spoon-style blade protruding from it, which as you might imagine, imparts a rather vigorous action that makes that plastic tail wobble like soft jelly. I got to see one of these in action at the 'travelling fishing show' at both of the caravan and camping shows I attended recently and was impressed at how much more interested the fish seemed to be in that than any other lure demonstrated. Upon seeing it move through the water I figured that an Aussie Salmon or Tailor simply wouldn't be able to resist it. I proved myself right today when I used it for the first time.
I had trolled about 500 metres to no avail, noticing that the blade was making it fly out of the water a fair bit. So I grabbed the rod and wound it in at a slower pace to see what it would do. I'd only cranked the reel a few winds before I saw the biggest damned greenback I have ever seen leap out of the water. I didn't feel anything in the rod at first, but I knew it was focused on the lure. Then it leaped out again and this time I knew it was on. I started swimming away and line began peeling off... and then everything just stopped. There was always going to be a fair chance that a Tailor of that size (almost a meter long I'd say) would chew straight through 8lb tracer line and thats exactly what it did. Bugger... that was a good... no, great fish. Oh well... now that I know there are Tailor like that in the basin, I'll start targeting them more.
Unfortunately, Blade Dancer lures come in a pack of 3 - but with only one jighead (as far as I'm aware, the jigheads aren't sold separately either). So that was about as much blade dancing that I could do for one day. It was far too early to pull stumps though, so I continued on with my popping ways and did manage to boat 3 more fish. One of which was a small bream, another a tiny tailor and last but not least, a nice plump flatty (my first on a popper) that measured up at 48cm.
 Dinner! Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Thursday, 20 March 2008 |
How much toothy danger faces the coastal kayaker
 Oh...
Certainly, I agree that there is far more danger for any fishermen (kayak or otherwise) who drives to his intended fishing destination because the chances of experiencing an accident are greater than experiencing a shark attack. However, I do believe that most coastal kayak fishermen have a greater chance of seeing a shark than they do having a car accident to or from the fishing spot. There are plenty of sharks out there and for sure (not all of them dangerous and even less of them agressive), they become more and more prevalent and thus more visible further north (travelling north, from Hervey Bay onwards I sighted sharks frequently, all the way to Townsville... with the greatest presence of them in the Townsville area itself).
It's really not at all fair to simply compare car accident deaths to shark attack deaths without being able to get accurate per-capita percentage comparisons on the amount of people who drive vs the amount of people who fish from a kayak with relation to the total population. Obviously, that's data that is pretty difficult to obtain and thus quantify. What is a safe thing to say is that by kayak fishing off-shore (or even in bays) we are certainly putting ourselves in a position where a shark encounter is much more likely. A shark attack is another thing altogether though and all of the evidence suggests that these occur quite rarely. Think about how many people surf, think about the way they might look to a shark and then think about how few of them are actually attacked and killed.
According to the Ichthyology Florida Museum of Natural History, the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) records only one death during 2007. Thats across the world. And how many people were snorkelling, diving, kayaking, swimming, surfing? Food for thought. Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Wednesday, 19 March 2008 |
18 long days. Come this Good Friday, that will be how many days it has been since I've been kayak fishing - working that entire time, spending weekends at trade shows. It's actually gone pretty quickly, but oh man, am I getting antsy. I miss the yak dearly. The Easter break allows for 4 consecutive days off and I'm going to head out fishing on every single one of them. My targets will be varied, but most notably I'll be aiming for tailor, bream & flatties in the Basin and squid, kingfish & snapper off Bowen Island. I might even head off shore with a sail and try my luck for some tuna, whatever flavour that might come along.
Sadly it looks like the weather is going to be pretty crappy on the Friday and Saturday, though I remain optimistic because they get it wrong here all the time. Reports sound better for Sunday and Monday. If they do turn out to be accurate then I'll likely hit the Basin during the poor weather and Jervis Bay & beyond during the nicer weather. Looks like some of my wet-weather gear will be getting used for the 1st time in a long time.
I've got some new lures to try this weekend and I'm looking forward to giving them a shot. I've added some Rapalla hard body lures to the collection, along with some Storm SPs that look the goods for some bream. All my reels are lubricated and spooled to the lip. All hooks finely sharpened. Rods waiting patiently to come out of their protective cloth bags and matched with their reels. The Miragedrive, also home in it's protective bag, is fully lubbed and ready to bust out and perform. The kayak is buffed up with Armor-all, a double helping applied on the hatch gaskets (I expect to hit some rough water when I head out to Bowen island). Batteries charged for camera, GPS and sounder. I'm good to go. Bring on the long weekend!
 It sits there in my lounge room, begging me to take it fishing, day in, day out! Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
The bastard stench of a thousand bachelors
Being the consummate bachelor shack, my home often has a tell-tale odour that greets you like a punch in the face when you first walk into the door. Left over remnants of last nights dinner - usually sticking to pans, plate and cutlery - are the usual culprits. So the first thing I do when I walk in the door after work each night is the dishes from the night before. Lazy, I know 
There was a different smell waiting for me when I returned home from a weekend in Victoria last week. Wait... did I say smell? I mean stench. The kind that even left over dishes could never produce. It didn't take me long to ping that odour as the bile-inducing smell of rotting fish. Thats when I discovered that I had inadvertently turned off power to the fridge just before leaving (thinking I had turned off my mobile charger). So instead of cleaning dishes on this return I was gutting the fridge and giving it a good thorough disinfecting. There were about 8 sizable flatty fillets and a whole bream in the freezer. Every single one of them had thawed and then over 4 warm days, leaked their rotting juices out of the freezer and into the fridge. The biggest shame of it wasn't the fact that I had to clean up the mess, more so that I had to throw out the fillets. What a waste.
I haven't had a chance to get out for a fish since, as I've been working pretty much non-stop since returning. Hobie kayaks were represented at the Caravan & Camping show at Kembla Grange last weekend and I manned the stands there pretty much the entire time. This weekend its on at the Gold Coast, Parklands showground, Southport (March 14 - 16). I'm looking forward to the Easter weekend, where I plan to make up for this hiatus from fishing. Weather permitting I'll be heading off shore to try and catch something big. Like many of my yak fishing comrades, Paulo has inspired me.Comments (1) | E-mail | Read more... |
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Long time followers of this site would know that in times past I've obsessed somewhat to figure out my ideal leader joining knot for kayak fishing. A while back I turned away from the improved Albright knot (for anything other than insanely thick leader lines) simply because I've seen it fail too many times under less than highly stressfull situations. That's a shame because it is a nice slim knot, making it perfect for casting. 
