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Thursday, 24 January 2008

I spy with my little Lanai...

It was too nice an evening to not go kayak fishing tonight and I wasn't the only one thinking that. When I paddled my way over to nearby (to home) Smith's Lagoon I found Steve Fields (managing director of Hobiecat Australasia) and his wife paddling around and casting at surfacing fish. Steve was working an Outback, Sue a Sport and there I was in the humble, yet rather capable Lanai. Steve and I stuck close by for a short while and I watched him pull in a small bream and I followed this with a keeper Flathead of around 35cm soon after. They took off in another direction before long, but I decided to hang around for a bit to do some more exploring. I was encouraged by a great bite, which (although I didn't see it) I am pretty sure was a large Flatty that felt like it would have gone at least 50cm. I fought this fish for about 30 seconds before it let go and it managed to peel some line from the reel, which is rare for most of the fish I've hooked here.

I'm really very glad I did keep fishing because although I was unable to attract the attention of the same fish again, I continued to explore and in doing so, found a great little spot. I'm usually pretty open about exactly where I happen to catch fish but this is going to be one of those rare occasions where (for now) I'm going to keep one relatively secret. Because tonight I found a really productive little patch that produced a bite on almost every cast. it's pretty close to my home as well, so I'd really like it to stay that way. I spotted the area from about 200 meters away after seeing what I was sure to be a Tailor leap into the air. This particular chopper was clearly much bigger than what I have become use to seeing in the Basin, so I paddled over to investigate. I saw a few more leaps, all of them from promising sized fish. When I came close to the spot I cast in a small Gulp prawn and was rewarded with a hook up immediately.

Ironically, it wasn't the Tailor I was hoping for. Rather, it was a small Flathead that was instantly returned. Second cast hooked another, slightly larger Flatty (it to was also put back). The third cast produced several bites, but no hook up. Forth cast, another few bites. Next cast also resulted in a fish. And so it continued like this for the next 10 - 15 minutes or so, catching at least 10 fish in the process. I put them all back, however, because I felt confident one of them would be worth holding on to. Eventually I did get another big bite (not quite as large as the earlier one) and it to managed to spit the hook (the Flathead at the Basin seem to be very skilled at doing this - I've lost more keepers than I have boated). usually I'm good humored about such occurances but it pissed me off this time, so with the sun sinking over the treetops I shook my fist in anger and vowed to return. Before doing so, however, I threw on a 3" minnow - intended for one of those Tailor) and paddled away at high speed.
I did hook up on a Tailor on the way out, but it was also well undersized. As I neared my landing destination my pace slowed somewhat (my shoulders were feeling the pinch) and moments after my pace slowed I felt another hook up. Another hungry Flathead again, which had swallowed the lure whole. I did a pretty poor job of removing the hook this time and didn't like its chances of survival, so even though it was barely legal (perhaps even slightly under - I didn't check) I kept it for the pan.

I did get a couple of photos but they both turned out pretty horrible, so rather than waste your bandwidth and mine, I won't bother uploading them. I'm heading out again tomorrow night with one of the guys from work, so I'll make up for it then. We weren't too sure about where we'd go fishing, but now I know where we are going for sure. Spot X I tells ya!