Akuna Bay Friday 17

I was paddling to catch up to Simon. At about the third pier of the marina I felt a bump on the paddle blade as I brought it up then heard a small splash. Empty rod holder. Panicked when I thought it might be my brand new baitcaster combo, but it was a much cheaper spin combo. As Simon said, it was my first light spin rod (squidgy sfs) and a trusty although rough daiwa caprice - this outfit had landed some of my pbs, definitiely including the bream at Forster, and salmon and EP from the Hacking. Only consolation was the handle bearing was quite rusted so the reel didn't have much life left in it. The water was more like 5m, but on a cool night at dusk I wasn't going to muck around.

My plan had been to drift, dragging a large squid jig on the baitcaster while casting a smaller squid jigon the spin outfit and dragging a gulp squid on my heavy outfit until I had a livey. Then I would slow troll the livey and a gulp jerk shad with casting paddle or curltailed sps to shore. Revised plan was to cast for squid with the baitcaster, while dragging the gulp squid.

This was interesting in the dark as it was only the second time I've used a baitcaster. I started off with a jig that was too big, but I felt more confident casting it. Was conservative with the casts and had only the occasional and very minor overun. Recent link posted here was incredibly useful in helping setup the reel (you guys are tops). Later I moved to a lighter jig and was able to cast without problems. I can see myself using baitcasters a lot more (Daiwa Procaster 103HSD with Redington 5kg rod & 10lb Nitlon PE braid - rod & reel were a remainder special).

Anyhow no sign of squid so I just slow trolled the gulp squid and a gulp jerk shad, staying in around 6-8m. Later tried casting the jerk shad and got up some good casts without a single birdsnest. Don't know how far I was casting in the darkness though.

Cold, fishless and depressed about the rod, I decided to call it quits just after 10. Dragged a heavy jig over the area where I lost the outfit but couldn't snag anything.

BTW, someone asked a few weeks ago about breaking off heavy line when on the yak. I got the gulp squid rig snagged early on with 40lb leader and 20lb braid. It took considerable effort to break, but eventually the braid let go. I can't see any point in going heavier except to cope with abrasion. Was also the last of my 40lb leader and am downsizing to 30lb.

There was a little bit of surface action out there, but mostly small fish fleeing only slightly bigger fish. Did have a hit on the gulp squid that left teeth marks but it missed both hooks. My night efforts todate have been completely fruitless, so I think I'll concentrate on the bream and pelagic fishing during the day. Maybe a night session on a weekend away.

All good learning experience. Looks like I'll have to leash my rods when paddling at speed, even in the estuaries. A small inconvenience to save a lot of money (though in this case it wasn't that bad).

Alright. 'Nuf said. No diving.
:lol:
I take for granted, the lack of croc/bullshark-factor here.

On lost rods:
When I was like 6, my mom and pop were out on a large lake in Minnesota (Central, North USA) fishing for walleye on our 14' tinny. It's a big enough lake that it has some seas in the right wind, so I wasn't along this ride. I was out catching leeches or frogs or salamanders on shore, I'm sure.

So they were drift fishing, and as my pop was helping out mom with her rig, my dad's new, top-of-the-line graphite, ultra-light spinner goes over the rail. Now my dad most likely cursed up a storm and generally threw a fit about it. And I'm certain my mom felt like crap, too. They dragged the bottom for a good hour before finally giving up and going back to fishing.

On a later drift my mom says, "Oh, I've got one", and reels in my dads rig with her small like #2 hook hooked through the smallest end eye of the ultra-light rig. To top it off the fish that pulled the rig over was still there, and it wasn't a walleye. It was an overachieving perch. That little ultra-light fish took the ultra-light rod and reel right over. Just a family fishing story I thought of.

Z