Yakabout - About

Home

About

PDF

| Print |

E-mail

Tuesday, 15 May 2007

Yakabout - Australian Coastal Kayak Fishing

Because I can

My name is Josh Holmes, a thirty-something self-confessed kayak fishing addict. In mid 2007 I departed on a coastal kayak fishing trip that was originally planned to take me around the entire coast of Australia. My intention was to try and uncover as many of the best kayak fishing destinations around our gargantuan coastline and have as much fun as I possibly could in the process, documenting it all on this website as I went along. My journey was cut short well before I was able to complete it, however, due partly to a cash/credit crisis. At the time I was offered a position to work with HobieCat Australasia as a sales and customer service representative. This was an offer too good for me to refuse and not just because of dwindling funds - I've always been a big fan of the Hobie kayaks and by then I was fairly well experienced with them as well. This made me a fairly obvious choice for just such a role, and the job itself a perfect fit for me. Fortunately, the job does involve a great deal of travelling around Australia anyway, so this will afford me the ability to continue exploring numerous kayak fishing hot spots around the country.

As I continue to do now, I learned a hell of a lot about kayak fishing as the journey progressed, with my fishing game moving forward by quantum leaps. This is obviously due to the barrage of experience that I was afforded, as well observing and learning from the many other experienced kayak fishermen I met and fished with along the way. Some of the more notable lessons I learned are listed in the FAQ section (I do get asked about this a lot). I also discovered a great many fantastic kayak fishing destinations - mostly in Queensland - and these can be found in the 'trip reports' section.

The most obvious lesson I learned, however, was that there was no way I was going to be able to accomplish my original ambition, which was to highlight all or most of the best kayak fishing spots in the country. The reason for this is that there are just way too many of them. The Australian coastline is some 125,000 km long and a great deal of it is accessible by kayak. For anyone to find and experience them all they would require at least a decade of spare time on their hands, not to mention a Swiss bank account to facilitate it. Although this disheartened me a little at first, I've come to realise that this is a good thing. No wonder the sport of kayak fishing is experiencing a meteoric rise in Australia.

I'm now based in Jervis Bay and as such, the bulk of my fishing reports lately are coming from that area (most commonly Jervis Bay itself or St Georges Basin). This is a very nice area for the keen kayak angler, with ample areas to explore in the bay, basin and local rivers. I have access to waters that hold everything from bream right through to tuna. I'm hoping to catch my 1st yellowfin in the bay and my 1st mulloway from a kayak in the basin.

Disclaimer: Although I work for Hobie Cat Australia, I am not paid or rewarded in any way for any commentary I might post related to Hobie kayaks, or any other product for that matter. Right or wrong, the views expressed by me in this website are purely my own personal views and are not influenced by any external bodies or organisations.

To contact me click on over to the Contact page