Unique barb point design 

Owner Cutting Point hook

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 The more I look, the more I like

Surfers at Noosa main beach

As hostile as the weather is here in southern Queensland right now, it comes as no deterant to the surfers. If anything, the opposite seems to be true - those waves are whipping up nicely. Not the case for us kayak fishermen though, so today turned out to be a fairly lazy one for me. I did put in some ground work to formulate some plans for when the weather does fine up, which is looking like being the weekend at this stage. As part of that research I popped in to a couple of handy tackle stores, including Tackleworld and Davo's – the latter of which is right around the corner from where I'm staying. Both proved to be well worth the visit and I managed to find a few extra items that I was tracking down.  

I was also fortunate enough to catch up with Bill 'Billybob' Watson, who is somewhat of an angling celebrity in these parts. Bill operates the Fishing Noosa website, has written a book on the very same topic (revised edition coming soon), is an avid kayak fisherman and also a kayak fishing consultant for Perception kayaks. The Perception Swing is a very popular fishing kayak here in Australia and I got the impression that Billybob's contributions to this yak have something to do with that.

The more I research these waters the more it becomes obvious why Bill has gained the kind of experience required to act as a consultant. Noosa is a very diverse fishery and is ideally suited to kayak fishing of various kinds. Indeed, some areas can only be reached by paddle boats and that alone should tell you something. It's that diversity that is keeping me here, waiting out the storm so to speak. When the weather does clear up I'll be hitting the water wholesale. With any luck at least one of those trips will be tour-guided by Billybob himself.

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Big Bream: which lure would you reach for? 

In the most recent poll I asked the hypothetical 'what do you do' question: Paddling back against an outgoing tide, you spot a flock of busy looking birds 1km offshore. Of the two alternatives posed, most voters (72%) suggested that like myself, they'd ignore fatigue and paddle out to investigate. 28% prefered to keep paddling back to shore. I can hardly blame them to because sometimes those circling birds amount to nothing. Most of the time (in my experience), however, they don't.

I've got a new 'What do you do?' for you to ponder. I was faced with this very same dilema just yesterday: You spot a school of bream hanging around. Which lure do you reach for?

- Ecogear sx40 hard body
- Soft plastic worm
- Soft plastic grub
- Soft plastic minnow
- Other

If you choose other, please add a comment here to spill the beans.

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QLD drought... broken yet?

Today Noosa feels more like Mallacouta; not only is the rain coming down with a heavy consistency, there's also strong winds blowing. There's little to no chance of me heading out in the yak in this sort of weather, which gives me a chance to play catch up. I've got quite a few things to get out of the way so this is a good opportunity to do so. With any luck this rain will stir the pot nicely and muddy things up somewhat - I don't think the crystal clear waters helped my chances yesterday. It's a bummer that I can't get out there right now, but it's good to see Queensland getting the water it so badly needs.

Now that I've been on the road for about a month I can speak with a fair degree of conviction on some of the gear I've been using and there's several items I've been meaning to review. I expect to get some of these written up today, followed by a fairly big update to the gear list section.

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Nice river this Maroochy... I might just stick around a bit

Upon waking this morning I was torn between wanting to explore some of the nearby river system or head out into the ocean again, chasing those elusive Mackeral. With conditions calmer than I expected Moffat's Beach was looking rather appetizing. But unlike the other day there were no fishermen here. I'm not if it was because they knew smething I didn't, or whether or not the army of paddling enthusiasts scared them away.

A sea of kayakers at Moffats Beach

I've never seen a gathering of paddlers quite like it, with their numbers being around 40 – 50. There were all kinds of sea-worthy yaks, as well as some cool looking standup paddle surf boards (that looks like fun). I wasn't game to get my Hobie kayak in amongst them because I figured I'd never get out fishing if I did (the questions and comments would never end), so I pushed on to plan B.

That was to get to Maroochy river and fish from several clicks upstream down into the mouth, out past the breakers and into the ocean. The plan fell into place perfectly to, covering a fair distance, getting a good workout and catching a few good fish. I'll write up the report on today's trip in the morning, although a couple of pics of todays catch are in the gallery. One of which was released, partly because I wasn't sure what it was -  can anyone fill me in? It didn't look terribly tasty, nor did it appear to be carrying much meat anyway.

Whats this fish?

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Back to Bribie... kind of

Their's 5 mouths to feed at the house I'm staying at in Calloundra, so I'm going out of my way to do my bit tomorrow by heading out with intent to catch some tasty keepers. I'm thinking big to, so I'll be heading out with my heaviest rods, reels and lures. Having had a couple of days off I'm ready for a good workout again, so I'll be putting in quite a few clicks, trolling all the way. With a quick google map estimation I'm looking at just over 15km. That's as the crow flies of course, so it might not pan out the way... and is likely to turn out being significantly more.

I'll be launching at Moffat's Beach and heading slowly south from there, around Wickham Point and down to the mouth of the Pumicestone Channel, where I'm optimistically hoping for a Mulloway to magically appear.

Fishing trip route for Calloundra

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Failing the test

Thus far most of the equipment I chose to take on this epic journey has performed admirably. I was bound to make a few mistakes, however, and a few of them have already surfaced. A few lessopns have been learned along the way. One fine example being the solar panel I foolishly bought over ebay, knowing that it was coming from Taiwan *gasp*. It wasn't terribly expensive, but now that I've tried to use it I can see why. It's absolute rubbish and is destined to spend the rest of it's life in landfill.

Lesson #1: Don't buy any 'mission critical' items from ebay... especially if they come from an Asian country with less than the very best credentials.

Another highly important item that has really let me down is the Toshiba M100 Satelite notebook computer that I'm using. I spent several years writing about IT as a freelance journalist and as such, have come to know PCs pretty well. This is a mistake that I simply shouldn't have made. I chose the notebook for it's seemingly fair price, size, weight and low-power consumption. Had I known it would quickly prove itself to be the very worst computer that I've ever owned (and there have been many), I wouldn't have touched it with a 10 foot pole. My complaints with this piece of rubbish are numerous, such as:

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Internet Explorer not working - but Firefox does

I probably should have made it more obvious previously, but if you've been having problems running Youtube videos from Yakabout, it's most likely because you are using Internet Explorer, as opposed to the more user-friendly Firefox browser, which is faster, more secure, easily managed and apparently, more compatible with web 2.0. I will continue to try and find a fix for this problem but either way, I highly recommend that you switch over to Firefox for most of your web browsing. It only takes a minute to get used to the new feel and look of it and only a few minutes more before it's advantages become clearly obvious. If you haven't tried out Firefox yet, take my advice and give it a try. You won't go back.

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The fish are biting here... apparently 

It started to get a bit cold at Iluka, so although I was sad to leave the place I was also kind of pleased at the same time. I was going to head over to nearby Shark Bay and then onto Ballina but then I heard a report on the radio – Humpback Whales were hanging around Moreton Bay. A quick bit of research online suggested that the fish around Bribie Island were on the chew, so being well within driving distance I decided to go there instead.

I haven't been to Bribie Island for 20 years and although I did recognize it instantly, a lot like most other places in Queensland, this area has changed a lot. I'm camped at the Bungaree Caravan Park, which has good close beach access and seems relatively secure. Most of my day has been sent getting my bearings, trying to form a plan of attack for the next few days. This will include heading out into Moreton Bay to see what I can find. I did a very brief 2-hour afternoon session today, coming up with a reasonable Flatty and losing another fish that I suspect was a Snapper (just near the bridge). I'll write that up in a report in the morning.

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