After a fairly busy weekend today was the day to celebrate the Queens birthday, yakfishing style. Cape Byron was our destination. Jay wanted to go offshore for a while, and with low swell and acceptable wind this was a good day for his maiden offshore trip. I picked him up around 10am, and by 10.30 we where ready to go at Watagos Beach... at least sort of. As it turned out my rudder pin broke while transporting the Adventure down the stairs to the beach. I had to come up with something to save the day. Until a couple of weeks ago I always had a spare pin with me - but then my kids played with it and it disappeared. After a short trip back to the car I came up with an emergency surrogate - a tent peg!
It actually worked a treat, freeing me to focus attention on what we came here for - catching fish. We fished the area around the Matterhorn, always staying close to the rocks. A big area of Cape Byron is actually a no-go Marine Park, so it's important to understand where you are and are not allowed to fish. The fishable zone around the Matterhorn stretches only 100 meters out to sea, so staying close was important. We tried but failed to raise a fish. Soon winds became a bit fresh so we decided to pull the lures in and cross though the no fishing zone over to the 'Cosy Corner' where fishing is permitted. Here we were well protected from the wind. Despite putting in a fair effort here, we still couldn't hook a fish. Ironically, there were heaps of tailor around but they didn't want to cooperate. Same pattern on the way back; schools of tailor swimming through under us, jumping out of the water or surfing a wave - but no bites. After two and a half hours we were back on the beach. After unloaded the kayaks we then spent another 30 minutes playing & surfing the waves. We where a bit disappointed that we didn't have anything for the dinner plate but the beautiful weather and the stunning view made it all absolutely worthwhile. I think Jay had a blast and from now on we will see him more often out on the blue stuff.
Trip Reports 
