Yakabout - Bowen Island, Jervis Bay

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Bowen Island, Jervis Bay

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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 next hook up came about 15 minutes later, this time at the south eastern end (caught on the trolled Rapalla lure). I was well clear of any cliff faces this time so I was able to concentrate on the task at hand without interruption. This fight went on for about 10 minutes as well, with the fish going on several strong runs. The tip of my rod spent a good deal of time submerged this time, as the fish continued to try and make it to the safety of the rocks below. There was no way I was going to let this happen though and the Godzilla did a good job of controlling the fish when I needed to. This fish was a bit bigger than the first, but I thought it was probably undersize as well. When in doubt, put it back, which is what I did after taking a quick photo. For undersize fish, these kingies sure make a good account of themselves.

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.