[Blaen]

Well it happened I finally got the girl into the water.

Arrived at Conningham Beach about 11:00am, another wonderful Hobart day, sunshine and calm conditions, one of the 7 days a year we have like that :lol:

Got the wetsuit on, moved the Hobie down to the water after kitting her up at the car, love the fact it comes with a cart included. My wife and son wanted to just watch from the shore so I decided not to go too far out, she has a tendancy to worry a bit :roll:

So for the first trip I only ventured out about 300m from shore into the bay. Trolled around a bit with no action, probably only 30 minutes then decided to drift about for some Flatchaps.

Got a bite with in a minute and hauled up a small Flattie, about 25cm, took a happy snap and threw the little fella back. Floated about for another 45 minutes or so and decided that the family was looking bored on the sand, so headed back in.

All in all a nice little first trip, blooded the Yak and about the only criticism I have about the Hobie is that the water bottles that come with it are crap :lol:

 

[RedPhoenix]

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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[sam60]

good to see you had a fine day to christen the yak. hope you get some biggger flatties soon.

 

[Peril]

Top start John

 

[Scott]

Sweet mate, I can only remember a couple of days when the channel has been glassy like that in the three and a half years I have lived on its foreshore. In one of those photos you were right out the front of my shack. Its a bit of a novelty seeing it in someone elses posts. I was thinking of you today and when I got the 7am ferry off the island i noted the glassy conditions and though, what an awesome day for a maiden voyage.

I am hanging to get out, haven't even had a paddle for days. Been working for almost all of my end of semester holidays. That flatchap will be the first of many fish from your yak I think. Had a suss at Browns on the way home from Hobart this afternoon, the clarity is perfect, need to give it a lash for some bream very shortly. Hopefully the rain predicted over the next couple of days won't affect it too much.

Catch ya Scott

 

[Blaen]

Thanks all, much appreciated,

The only problem is now your son will want one :twisted: .

Yep he already gave me a guilt trip over not getting the tandem Outfitter model

Bloody beautiful John, any fish is a good fish on the first trip!

Looks like the hobie performed well.

Thanks red, absolutely love the way she handles, just need a few more trips to get my sea legs :lol:

That water looks spectacular.. the calm conditions are a bit of a contrast to my last weekend down the coast, where I occasionally couldn't see the beach from the bottom of the wave troughs! Are those conditions normal for that region?

Nah not all that normal at all usually a bit of a wind blowing through the Channell, so she does chop up a bit and can be subject to a bit of swell.

How do you find getting the yak down off the car? A bloke I ran into on the weekend (with a outback) was talking about swapping to a 'sport' because it was a bit tough to manhandle down from the roofrack.

Red.

I am driving a Honda CRV so lifting her on and off is pretty much just a straight lift for me, I carry her over my head and lift her on from the side of the car in one motion, I could imagine lifting her off of a sedan would be more challenging. I am using the Hobie Soft Racks I got from Dallas, have to say they are quite easy to use, have them rigged and the Yak on top with in 10 minutes

Had a suss at Browns on the way home from Hobart this afternoon, the clarity is perfect, need to give it a lash for some bream very shortly. .

Browns sounds good mate, may even head there this weekend or maybe early one morning this week depending on the tides, some massive Bream in those waters. A mate caught a 1.5 KG Breamski in there 2 weeks ago, released of course :wink:

 

[PoddyMullet]

Great report Blaen, I'm envious of what you Tassie blokes have on offer fish/countryside wise. Congrats on her maiden voyage and flattie. I'm also a bit jealous of that massive can of Boag's ya got in ya tankwell :wink:

 

[Cid]

Well done on christening the yak on the first outing, Blaen. May many more varied and bigger beasties be lifted over her sides for a visit!

I have a Hobie Sport and I agree whole-heartedly on the water bottles. :? I only use mine for topping up my live-well...

cheers,
Cid

 

[Scott]

Blaen, I heard yesterday when Sam sent me a pm and again today from the horses mouth that the Atlantic Salmon farm adjacent to where you were paddling has been having issues with the Bruny Island resident white shark. They estimated it at around 14 foot which is the same size as the one which is often sighted by the locals. It has been hanging around the salmon ponds getting up to mischief. When I went for a paddle past there this morning I made certain I had my shield with me after Sam’s warning. Might be worth avoiding the area for a while although as I have previously said, this fish obviously isn't interested in humans.

While it is well known to eat the odd whale, heaps of seals and hassle dudes pulling in their cray pots, given the amount of sea kayakers, recreational scallop/cray divers and pro ab divers it obviously isn't interested in eating humans. I hope the guys at the salmon farm leave it alone as I often hear them shooting seals of a night and there is always shotgun shells washed up on the beach when I take my dog for a walk.

Catch ya Scott

 

[Blaen]

Blaen, I heard yesterday when Sam sent me a pm and again today from the horses mouth that the Atlantic Salmon farm adjacent to where you were paddling has been having issues with the Bruny Island resident white shark. They estimated it at around 14 foot which is the same size as the one which is often sighted by the locals. It has been hanging around the salmon ponds getting up to mischief. When I went for a paddle past there this morning I made certain I had my shield with me after Sam’s warning. Might be worth avoiding the area for a while although as I have previously said, this fish obviously isn't interested in humans.

While it is well known to eat the odd whale, heaps of seals and hassle dudes pulling in their cray pots, given the amount of sea kayakers, recreational scallop/cray divers and pro ab divers it obviously isn't interested in eating humans. I hope the guys at the salmon farm leave it alone as I often hear them shooting seals of a night and there is always shotgun shells washed up on the beach when I take my dog for a walk.

Catch ya Scott

Thanks for the warning Scott,

I saw the post on Sports Fish Tasmania and decided next time I will eitehr head to the Huon River or Brown's River for my next paddle, but with the current rain it might not be till next week now.

Might steer clear of the Cahnnell till I get my Shark Shield.

 

[PoddyMullet]

Geez Blaen, a 14 ft white working ya area. That's gotta be a first crack to remember. :shock: :shock: