ILUKA 16/08-19/08

Well I headed down to Iluka for some work and was hoping to get a few fishes in as well, but as is often the case the work took longer and so I was limited to only a couple of trips in the Kayak.
On the first afternoon I fished a falling tide at Turkeys Nest wall from 3.30pm to 6pm towing lures (red and white Rapala 1m and Halco scorpion silver/black 3m+) up and down the Yamba side of the wall. The water was very clear and there was little or no surface action from bait so I wasnt holding out much hope of any fish and after paddling up and down the wall a few times I was suspecting this to be the case. As I finished one drift on the last section of the wall the rod with the Halco started to lose line so I grabbed the rod from the holder and a few minutes later boated a chopper around 30cm a drift/paddle through the same area again brought in another around the same size, I was bit dirty on myself at this point as I had planned on live baiting with any legal fish for a jew but I had left my traces in the car so the tailor were released.
Back out went the lures and I focused on drift/paddling the last section of the wall a couple of circuits later and the rod with the Halco seriously doubled over and was losing a fair bit of line I think people on the shore heard me go WOO HOO any way a few minutes later after a bit of tussle I had nice schoolie around the 70cm mark after an eternity of trying to remove the hooks without also being hooked the fish was revived and released I am seriously thinking of flattening all my barbs to aid in removal. Well after that I thought its time to head back to shore but I better do one more pass just in case which turned into 5 or 6 more, when the same rod and lure were on again and I brought in another schoolie a little smaller than the first but a solid fish none the less which was also released. After that I paddled back to the house.
My second trip was a late night affair drifting the North Wall using bait (pillies) on a float on the first pass up the inside of the wall I hooked into a fish which spent a bit of time trying to get into the rocks and after a fairly tough fight a cod around the 45cm mark was boated I couldnt believe the fight put up by this fish I thought I had something much larger on, the fish was released and the drift continued as I rounded the end of the wall the reel started screaming and the kayak started to turn as a large fish had taken the bait I grabbed the rod and held on as we headed to the Bluff after a few minutes I was pretty sure it was shark and so didnt mind to much when the line went limp after I had retrieved the line the 80lb leader was neatly cut. After quite a paddle back down the inside of the wall I called it quits and paddled back to the house.
So even though I didnt get out as much as I would've liked it was a good trip, there are so many options there for kayak fishing I think it would take a year to do them all, I am particularly hoping to get down when the longtail tuna go through as catching them off the wall is great fun so off the kayak would be a hoot.