the inaugural kayak fishos gathering at lake windamere has come and gone this past september weekend , with 22 kayak fisherman having attended . among the men to brave the dam were kudu , pescado , headoffatness and ofcourse myself . the nights were chilly , though the temeratures were softened somewhat by consumption of various alchohols and tall stories . the days were glorious with clear blue skies , though windy from all directions at times :? some good goldens were caught ( and lost ) although im not sure of size and numbers caught by pescado and headoffatness as they had headed home by the time i returned from lunch on sunday
things were fairly slow for most of us but the quality of goldens on offer overall made up for the tough fishing with only 2 angler's scoring a donut for the entire trip . i arrived at dawn on saturday morning to find everything frosty and nobody willing to leave their warm beds . not to be deterred by the cold and the shrinking of vital organs i launched into the mist trolling a tn60 along a weed fringed bank but it wasnt unitl the sun was high that i found a willing opponent who burried me in the weed and added my lure to its collection . that was as good as my morning session got and eventually i made my way back to camp to regroup
the camp was abuzz with tales of some goldens caught in the high 50's but no 60's yet . and that was how it was to stay for the rest of the weekend my afternoon session started with a bang . a few casts of the sb saw a small golden around the 40-45 cm mark hit and hookup right at the yak , as i reached for the net the poor thing got engulfed by a big cod right beside me :shock: a couple of head shakes and they were both gone just as quickly ! it was an awesome thing to see and one i'm unlikely to ever forget .
a few casts later , this time burning a tn60 accross the top of the weed , it got crunched and a great tussle ensued . best fighting golden ive caught to date but the 6lb braid /leader was up to the task and my first golden was netted . at 51cm it was enough to put a smile on my dial ( trust me im always smiling in the pics ;-) )
sunday morning proved fruitless for a few of us so we headed into kandos pub for a counter lunches , the sizes of which could have fed everyone at camp . we decided to do some recon on other spots there and headed back to camp mid afternoon at which time the wind hand picked up . it was blowing just right for me to fish the opposite bank so i headed off and found a nice wind lane to fish and a few casts in got a solid hookup on hopping the jackall . this was the result , one of the fattest goldens ive laid eyes on
at 545 mm it was a mere 5mm improvement on my pb but it would have smashed my old mark weight wise 8) that pig was excactly what i was hoping for from this trip and with it i headed back to the camp , only a 20 minute session but a very satisfying one at that . not the biggest caught for the weekend but i couldnt care less a huge gathering and next year promises to be even bigger 8)
things were fairly slow for most of us but the quality of goldens on offer overall made up for the tough fishing with only 2 angler's scoring a donut for the entire trip . i arrived at dawn on saturday morning to find everything frosty and nobody willing to leave their warm beds . not to be deterred by the cold and the shrinking of vital organs i launched into the mist trolling a tn60 along a weed fringed bank but it wasnt unitl the sun was high that i found a willing opponent who burried me in the weed and added my lure to its collection . that was as good as my morning session got and eventually i made my way back to camp to regroup
the camp was abuzz with tales of some goldens caught in the high 50's but no 60's yet . and that was how it was to stay for the rest of the weekend my afternoon session started with a bang . a few casts of the sb saw a small golden around the 40-45 cm mark hit and hookup right at the yak , as i reached for the net the poor thing got engulfed by a big cod right beside me :shock: a couple of head shakes and they were both gone just as quickly ! it was an awesome thing to see and one i'm unlikely to ever forget .
a few casts later , this time burning a tn60 accross the top of the weed , it got crunched and a great tussle ensued . best fighting golden ive caught to date but the 6lb braid /leader was up to the task and my first golden was netted . at 51cm it was enough to put a smile on my dial ( trust me im always smiling in the pics ;-) )
sunday morning proved fruitless for a few of us so we headed into kandos pub for a counter lunches , the sizes of which could have fed everyone at camp . we decided to do some recon on other spots there and headed back to camp mid afternoon at which time the wind hand picked up . it was blowing just right for me to fish the opposite bank so i headed off and found a nice wind lane to fish and a few casts in got a solid hookup on hopping the jackall . this was the result , one of the fattest goldens ive laid eyes on
at 545 mm it was a mere 5mm improvement on my pb but it would have smashed my old mark weight wise 8) that pig was excactly what i was hoping for from this trip and with it i headed back to the camp , only a 20 minute session but a very satisfying one at that . not the biggest caught for the weekend but i couldnt care less a huge gathering and next year promises to be even bigger 8)