[Davey G]

4 yakkers (Ken -Kraley / Dan - Hobiefisherman / Gatesy and myself) met at the launch spot at 5.30am. Fair dinkum it was like a Hobie convention... :shock: :? Luckily there was one paddler there (me) to talk sense into these blokes...

Anyway, we proceeded to rig up and talk crap for 20 minutes and then a leisurely launch and a casual paddle around the corner to outside the heads followed. The wind was up more than we would have liked but it didn't deter us from taking it on!

I stopped to try for liveies for a while and the others trolled various rigs along the shoreline in search of something big and hard pulling. No liveies were caught so I also started trolling.

Birds were working a long way off in the distance and the occasional stinkboat would roar past us to get out to the schools of feeding fish. There was schools of bait showing on my sounder and the occasional bigger fish, but the trolled lures werent getting any hits.

After 45 minutes or so the birds started getting closer and I spotted Ken far off in the distance heading towards them with Gatesy in pursuit. The birds split up into a few flocks and we all went our own ways.

Once the birds and school of fish I'd homed in on was within range I lobbed a 5" stickbait into the deep and let it settle for a while, then ripped it back to the yak as fast as I could. Bang, a hit, then nothing....dropped him. :x

Another cast and same technique - this time producing a solid hookup on a hard fighting fish (got him on my 4kg spin rod) which turned out to be an undersize (54cm) king.

Turned around to see Gatesy hooked up on what turned out to be a fat salmon and I also noticed Ken in the distance still chasing his school. I'll let those guys tell their own stories.

Meanwhile Dan was further away feeding his breakfast to the fish and looking a bit green. Soon after that it turns out he had a double hookup and lost a bit of hardware and a reel of line when something big spooled him completely. Again I'm sure he'll add to the story.

Another few casts and the fish dissapeared. We hung around for another hour or so but the birds had gone, along with the fish.

Paddling back I scored another solid hit and line started tearing off it again. Put some pressure on the fish and snap......gone.

A couple of hundred metres later, same rod goes off again, however I turned around to find that i'd hooked a muslim woman riding what looked to be an oversized log. Oh, hang on it was only Gatesy in his Hobie wearing his fetching headwear... :wink:

We all paddled back into the now strengthening wind and chop., and compared notes back on the beach.

A good morning, off the water at around 8.30.

Cuppla pics attached.

 

[paffoh]

Great report mate, so close to a legal king! ( pretty close to your P/B ).
I know it feels like Hobies are here to take over the world but as you know were all pretty nice guys and enjoy our fishing... Tarpon seems like a great platform to paddle and fish off mate

Great photos, looking forward to the comments from the others!

Well done :twisted:

 

[wongus]

Great report and pics.. nice to see you guys getting in amongst the action..

 

[JT]

Wow what a trip. Sweet report Dave. C'mon Gatesy, Ken and Dan give us your take on the trip. In particular Gatesy what were you trolling to get the Kingies?

JT

 

[Squidder]

Great report and pics Dave, it looks like a great day for it, good to hear that some nice fish were hooked by everyone.

 

[beefs]

great report Dave, looked like a nice day to be out on the water. That first photo of gatesy is just prime for a best caption competition

 

[hoit]

It's always enjoyable reading a post that contains a couple of cheap shots at Gatesy. :lol:

But perhaps I'm just a tad jealous given I went fishless today.

Well done guys.

 

[Scott]

Davey, that Arab woman riding a log call was a classic. Top report, sounds like a sweet day on the water.

Catch ya Scott

 

[Dodge]

An enjoyable session fellas.

Dave sounds like you were a rose amid the thorns mate :lol:

 

[PoddyMullet]

What a top day out ladies and gentleman...a hoot of a session

 

[Crikey]

I am green with envy, work has got the better of things for the last couple of weeks and it doesnt look much better for the rest of the month either.

Looks as if Gatesy was trying to explore the envelope for angle of heel in one of the shots.

Good to read about the downrigger, I still havent progressed too far with mine I have been sidetracked by fish that were willing to go for trolled lures during the last 1/2 dozen trips on the harbour

 

[Hobie_Fisherman]

Well what a day yesterday turned out to be.
I started by trying my new downrigger and trolling a large lure down at 15 feet and my favourite jackall lure on the other rod. I normally take 3 rods with me but only took 2 today as Gatesey pointed out I should try putting the downrigger at the front as its easier to mange than having to reach behind all the time (it fits perfectly in the berkley rod holder).
As soon as I saw bird activity I got rid of the downrigger and put a sluggo lure on as the salmon love these.
As I approached Davey G fighting his kingy my light rod with the jackall goes off. Solid head shakes and 5 min latter he spits the hook - felt like a good salmon.
5 min latter I had a double hook up with both the jackall and sluggo going off - peeling line off at a very fast rate. I grabbed the lighter rod first (6lb leader) as I thought the heavier line would handle being left unattended for a bit (17lb leader). I put as much pressure on the first rod as I possibly could (I was fishing way to light - big mistake) and was trying to pull him in as fast as possible as the second rod was loosing line constantly - wouldn't stop. I put to much pressure on and it busted my line and I lost my fav $25 jackall lure -
I went to then grab the other rod just as I saw the last bit of line peel away and bust off - totally spooled
1 rod left, I rerigged a sluggo and trolled that around for a bit.
I thought I would then help the other guys out by providing free burley (sucking on lemons didn't seem to work for me - next time I will take tablets). My free berley seemed to shut the fish down though.
After hanging around for a bit longer I headed back in. I had another solid hookup on the way back (I think everyone hooked up at the same spot and Ken landed a kingy).
It was good to catch up and meet some new faces. I will fish heavier next time and maybe try some bait on the downrigger.

 

[Rod L]

Excellent report gents.
It's good to see there's a universal way to start the fishing day

we proceeded to rig up and talk crap for 20 minutes and then a leisurely launch and a casual paddle

You guys have a fishing mecca up there, keeps the reports coming

 

[Peril]

Great reports guys and an excellent outing. I'm envious that I keep missing these sessions. And Dave, apologies for the lack of moral support.

(it fits perfectly in the berkley rod holder)

Thanks Dan, just what I wanted to know.

 

[Peril]

Congrats on the king, Ken. Your wife has good taste

 

[MangoX]

top report guys !

loved to hear those downriggers coming good

spewin' that I missed it

maybe next time

 

[Crikey]

Guys,

Reading the rest of the reports from the trip is just making things go from bad to worse.

Ken, what sort of squid lure were you using, I bought some River2Sea HB/SP squid some time ago and other than a bit of a test tow to see what sort of action they had I have not tried them out in earnest. They certainly seemed to have a good action in the water and my intention was to use them off the downrigger. The thinking being they would probably be better than dead squid if live ones were not available. Cost was good also $13 I think with 1 spare skirt.

Dan, looks as if your experience with 2 rods out is starting to mirror mine, I have found it to be more bother than it is worth. I started out with the theory that I would fish one surface and one diving lure, since then I have started to think that the lures irrespective of their intended running depth seem to get hit at the same time if there are fish there. That being said most of this is based on experience in less than 30' of water. It might just be that fish are prepared to swim +/- 15' for a feed if they see or detect a lure. Your jackall and line loss was a bit more significant than my favoraite Rapala loss on my last double hook up.

Read somewhere recently that Kingies are prepared to swim up for a bait / lure so they should always be set to run on the shallow side.

Got to hit the water next weekend. I am currently 900 nautical miles NE of Sydney heading out to New Caledonia, posting on the forum courtesy of the marvels of satellite technology. Attached is a piccie of the nerve centre of this great "steam kayak"

 

[MangoX]

I think these are the squid lures you mean.....

I have 3 of these... :D got one ...t cause they'll pick the skirt off em... :?

 

[Davey G]

it was a good morning out and nice to catch up with dan and gatesy and meet ken for the first time. Congrats Ken on your first king from the yak mate, may it be the first of many. 8)

BTW, my normal technique when landing fish into the yak is to throw my legs out over each side and then lift the fish into the footwells, holding the leader a couple of feet above their mouth. that way they can thrash around and wear themselves out without me (hopefully) getting a stray hook impaled in my leg, hand, pecker...whatever.

it was a funny sight seeing gatesy land the kingfish and then the kingy go absolutely nuts in his lap. :lol: gave me a good laugh anyway! Someone mentioned squealing like a girl earlier in this post, and it definitely wasn't me doing it :wink:

dan, shame about the jackal and the spool of braid - next time youll have to be less greedy and stop getting double hookups! hope that next time we venture out conditions arent so lumpy and that your stomach decides to keep breakfast down.

conditions were pretty lumpy and windy on the way back in and I was constantly getting hammered with waves over the bow and into my lap. at one stage I took 2 waves in a row over the front and the entire cockpit was full. Its at times like that that you hope your centre hatch is closed!

 

[Y-Knot]

great sounding effort lads, some nice fish caught