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Sunday, 04 May 2008

Sailing Scene Kayak Fishing-Island Regatta big day out

I made the journey north to Cremorne on Saturday so I could get off to an early start in participating in Sailing Scene's big day out on the water at Balmoral beach today. Up at 4AM and at the beach by 5AM, AKFF member SBD played the role of tourist guide and led me directly to us patch of hungry tailor. We were amongst the first out there but before long the area was canvassed by kayak fishermen, all of them getting amongst the choppers. There were no big greenbacks being caught, but plenty of legal sized fish. SBD was really hooking into them and just as soon as I switched to a lure more like the one he was using I was getting a share of the action to. I saw so many guys catching fish that I decided to put all of mine back into the water. I figured that there'd be plenty on the BBQ later on regardless.

Marty75 with a chopper fairly typical of today's common catch

The action lated for just under an hour in this patch, at which point the group dispersed somewhat, spreading out around the bay to see what could be found. I spent most of the rest of the time talking instead of fishing, as I hadn't met many of the Sydney-siders before so I was busily putting faces to names. The turn out for the fishing party was great - somewhere in the vicinity of 20 kayak fishoes. Unfortunately the fish went off the bite somewhat after about 7:30, although a few guys were getting onto slimey mackeral. It was SBD who pulled what I'd call the fish of the day: a flounder that measured up just under 40cm. Not bad for that neck of the woods I'm told.

SBD with the catch of the day

I headed back for the beach at around 8AM to see if I could help out with the BBQ, but Sailing Scene's staffer Barnsey had that under control, so the only help I needed to provide was to tuck into a bacon and egg roll breaky. With a full stomach is was then time to load up the Adventure and pack away my fishing gear and then pull out the Adventure Island. There were about 10 of us preparing our trimarans for some sailing action and for a while there it looked like the wind would play nice. But in an unusual turn of events, the relatively breezy early morning inverted and calmed down by the time we were trying to fill sails with wind. Undeterred, we set off for a race (pedals and all) that I performed surprisingly well in, coming a close second to the winner, Ben. But as Pauly fittingly reminded me, there is no second place... only the 1st loser!

island's aplenty

After that it was suggested we race without using pedals and I didn't fare quite so well this time. Indeed, the wind was being terribly uncooperative by now, so the race fizzled out somewhat. That was fine by everyone though because it was precariously close to lunch time, so BBQ was on everyone's mind again. Some of the group remained on the water in the hope of catching more fish (or wind) while the rest of us fed our faces and mingled on the beach. Despite the lack of winds it was a great day out and fun was had by all. The fleet of Hobie kayaks attracted a lot of attention from casual observers and I know the boys at Sailing Scene were still handing out catalgues while I was packing up to leave.

Barnsey laying down the law for the sailing race

Curly, Pauly, Barnsey and co did a great job of organising the big day out and I can highly recommend attending if they decide to do it again some time (I'm sure they will). Thanks for the invite guys - much appreciated.