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Late Friday evening I made a firm decision that I would go paddling/fishing at the beach early Saturday - or I may not, depending on the weather. 'Freckles' from this forum had pm'd me about going for a paddle but I left it too late to get in contact with him. Next time!
By 7 am I was paddling from the launch site near Tanby Point heading north in a light wind and slight chop. High tide was 8:15 and it was quite a high one, the water was murky. Once I got out from behind the protected point, the sea was very choppy with waves coming from all angles. I noticed something about my yak. Because it is quite short (3 m), with the chop opening up holes then having sudden peaks, I was up and down and rolling quite a bit. No concerns about safety, except for my breakfast which started to churn a bit. The yak could handle heaps worse but I realised in those conditions, a longer yak would probably smooth out some of those sudden ups and downs.
With the tide so high, the shoals were totally underwater, so hard to know exactly where they were with no fish finder. No boats so probably no mackeral about. Water didn't look right anyway for mackeral.
I trolled an old blue Nilsmaster Invincible on 8 kg mono. Practically every outing I catch something on this lure. After an hour of nothing, with trolling over the shoals and around an almost submerged little rocky island, I changed my tactics.
I had my second rod, longer and with softer tip, rigged with 4 kg fireline, a swivel, 1 metre of 4 kg mono and a SX40 look-a-like. This lure had given me problems in the past with not trolling straight but it had improved with a little bending of the eyelet. This time, with the touch of extra weight from the swivel, it trolled perfectly.
With the SE wind, there was a large calm area behind Ritamada Point and on other occasions I had seen bait fish hole up there when the conditions were rough. Had not caught anything there though. This time with the little lure, I had some fun.
Fairly rapidly, I caught and released 3 estuary cod, all undersized and two Moses Perch. One time, I had just released a fish, cast, started to paddle then bang, another one.
On the way back the water was becoming much calmer and I thought of staying all day. Saw 6 or more turtles, most of them only 1 m or so long. Then a huge head as big as my ugly boof broke the surface quite close to my yak, giving me a start. Turtle about 2 m long. I turned my yak away, then sssszzzz on my rod. I reckon it was the turtle since it was like a snag but there was no snags around. And it was moving slowly. When I released pressure from the line and let it go slack, it come off and I quickly reeled my lure in.
Overall, it was a top coupla hours. I am always learning something new and it is just fun.
By 7 am I was paddling from the launch site near Tanby Point heading north in a light wind and slight chop. High tide was 8:15 and it was quite a high one, the water was murky. Once I got out from behind the protected point, the sea was very choppy with waves coming from all angles. I noticed something about my yak. Because it is quite short (3 m), with the chop opening up holes then having sudden peaks, I was up and down and rolling quite a bit. No concerns about safety, except for my breakfast which started to churn a bit. The yak could handle heaps worse but I realised in those conditions, a longer yak would probably smooth out some of those sudden ups and downs.
With the tide so high, the shoals were totally underwater, so hard to know exactly where they were with no fish finder. No boats so probably no mackeral about. Water didn't look right anyway for mackeral.
I trolled an old blue Nilsmaster Invincible on 8 kg mono. Practically every outing I catch something on this lure. After an hour of nothing, with trolling over the shoals and around an almost submerged little rocky island, I changed my tactics.
I had my second rod, longer and with softer tip, rigged with 4 kg fireline, a swivel, 1 metre of 4 kg mono and a SX40 look-a-like. This lure had given me problems in the past with not trolling straight but it had improved with a little bending of the eyelet. This time, with the touch of extra weight from the swivel, it trolled perfectly.
With the SE wind, there was a large calm area behind Ritamada Point and on other occasions I had seen bait fish hole up there when the conditions were rough. Had not caught anything there though. This time with the little lure, I had some fun.
Fairly rapidly, I caught and released 3 estuary cod, all undersized and two Moses Perch. One time, I had just released a fish, cast, started to paddle then bang, another one.
On the way back the water was becoming much calmer and I thought of staying all day. Saw 6 or more turtles, most of them only 1 m or so long. Then a huge head as big as my ugly boof broke the surface quite close to my yak, giving me a start. Turtle about 2 m long. I turned my yak away, then sssszzzz on my rod. I reckon it was the turtle since it was like a snag but there was no snags around. And it was moving slowly. When I released pressure from the line and let it go slack, it come off and I quickly reeled my lure in.
Overall, it was a top coupla hours. I am always learning something new and it is just fun.
