Boathoist Folding Kayak Trailer

I recently put a 2 inch lift on my already hard to load Toyota Prado, so trying to lift a heavy piece of plastic onto the roof really made me second think those early morning outings.  The easiest way to solve this problem was to come up with an idea so I didn't have to load my kayak on the roof.  I realised someone had already come up with the idea... BoatHoist.  I got the Folding Kayak Trailer late August/early September shipped up from NSW to QLD and it was all ready to bolt together, the only thing I needed to do was get it registered.  Making up a quick light bar that bolts on was easy enough and finally enough weekends of renovating allowed me the time to finally get out for a fish and utilise the trailer.  It's hard to express how much easier it has made my life, anyone who has to load a heavy yak on the roof of a big 4WD can probably empathise. 

First impressions when the thing arrived was geez its small... that was really only because it was all folded up.  Once I started unfolding and unbolting the trailer it all opened up like some transformer movie.  Unsure of how it all went together I placed parts where I thought they would likely go and jumped on the Boathoist website and checked out the handy instructional video.  A 15mm spanner and about 15 minutes and it was all set up and ready to go.  As this trailer will also double as a travelling trailer on our campertrailer I unbolted it all, folded it up and went about setting it up on the big trailer.  It slotted neatly between the stone deflector and the tool box, I love it when a plan comes together.

So I got it registered for separate use on weekends to haul the yak down the local estuary, about a 15 minute drive in total.  The trailer comes with a manufacturers plate so rego was easy as.  It's really just a matter of sliding it on and strapping it down.

Welding and components are absolutley top notch

I have used it on a number of occasions now to cart my yak, but the real reason we got it was to cart the 2 yaks.  The trailer is 1500mm wide so easy accommodated my Jackson Coosa at 810mm leaving enough room for our smaller Ocean Kayak Frenzy or my mates Malibu Sierra 10.  If I were to carry 2 yaks that were a little larger I would simply just attach some of those J racks for roof racks and just put them on an angle.  The next problem I have is getting my partner out of bed early enough to come with me.

Because it is a trailer it does take up some useful room around the place.  I find that if it's getting in the way at all when it's all set up I just unbolt the two centre bolts and fold it in half.

Hopefully I've done the trailer some justice here and shown how easy it is when compared to car topping.  I wouldn't recommend travelling 1200km's with it, but it easily travels along at 100km's/hr without a worry and without the bearings getting hot.  I'd reccommend this trailer in a heartbeat to anyone looking to tow 2 yaks, or even one big one.

Contact BoatHoist at www.boathoist.com.au

Cheers

Dan.

Fraser Island - October 2012. Part 2

This is the second part to my Fraser Island fishing adventures in October this year.  I kicked off with the farther-in-law to a place called Deep Creek, near Ungowa on Fraser Island's western side.  We departed from his place further South in the Sandy Straits on a 45-50 min trip north past Garry's Anchorage in great conditions.  After navigating the 4.85 Tropic through the beacons and myriad sand bars we got to the camp site in 1 piece, threw the swags out and quickly set up camp.  We were only staying for 2 nights so we needed to get as much fishing in as possible.  We were the only people at Deep Creek when we arrived on Wednesday morning and it stayed that way for the first night but another party turned up the next day for the night.  Anyway, so we set up camp, rigged the rods and tried our luck targeting some Grunter (Javelin).  I'd never caught one before mainly because they are more of a northern fish but as I said before the straits get a mixed bag of tropical species and Southern species.  The fact that I've never caught a Grunter remains, we must have bobbed around over some gravel bottom for a good hour using baits and plastics without even a touch so we decided to give up on that and try our luck fishing the white cliffs.  The sounder showed up some very interesting bottom with trees and boulders lining the bottom of the 20ft deep water.  It really looked like this would produce some quality fish, maybe even a Barra or Mangrove Jack.  As the tide dropped we thought we better get back to camp before it got too low.  We slowly trolled our way back however we quickly gave that up when we saw how low the water had gotten and realised we would be in for a stroll through the mud to get to shore.  The scrape of the hull on the mud confirmed my thoughts but it seemed the stroll was now a hike.  We took out all the important gear, bait and rods and like an army trooper with his gun over his head slogged our way through the muck.  15 minutes later we could finally walk without sinking waist deep which signalled dry land, lunch and a cold beer.  Upon arrival to camp something looked a little off - maybe it was the food bin that was sprawled across the camp, maybe it was the open chip packets.  A furry little friend had visited our camp and thought it would be a good idea to treat herself to our supplies.  Great.  Luckily the real food in the esky didn't get attacked and we still had dinner to eat!  We had a quick lunch and a lay down and waited for the tide to come back in.  It seemed while we were asleep our little mate decided to have a look in the boat for some scraps too...

Deep creek at high tide

Deep creek at low tide

A dingo took my boat

We made our way back to the deep drop off area again for the afternoon session and tried a combination of baits and lures all afternoon with the setting sun making a great backdrop to the picture.  Finally we thought it was getting a bit ridiculous with no fish all day so we kicked back with a beer when a school of Jew passed under the boat and we were both on at the same time.  My leader rubbed through but the outlaw got his in the boat after a healthy battle in the strong current.  It went to 65cm and went back to grow a little.  I re-rigged and threw in another bait but in the meantime the outlaw had landed another one of the same length.  A few minutes passed when I finally set the hook on a similar 65cm model and boated him for a quick snap.  Enough was enough, we went back to camp for dinner and bed.

Day two saw similar conditions to the previous and instead we ventured a little further north this time to Wangoolba creek.  This place has Barra and Threadfin Salmon written all over it.  It was postcard perfect fishing country in which I donated a lure on the troll and not a touch otherwise.  We soon wound in and took a few hours to explore around and suss out some spots for next time.  The tide was dropping and similarly to the day before we made our way back to camp trolling.  The outlaw picked up a small school Mackerel on a Classic lure by Rob Gaden meant for something much bigger, another photo and another fish thrown back to get bigger.  That would turn out to be the theme for the whole trip and everybody we spoke to was encountering the same thing.  A trawler had been through a few weeks before and obviously cleaned out the place... Professional fishermen - there's nothing professional about that.

So with nothing in the esky for 2 days of solid fishing we packed up and went home.  At least we managed to hook up to a few anyway.  I just hope this new Government will do something about buying out those commercial licenses and they wake up to how much recreational fishing can really boost the economy of the area... but there has to be fish for that...

Thanks for reading, next time ill be posting about a review on a folding kayak trailer I have been using for a short while, the new Daiwa Aird bait caster reel and hopefully be showing some great pictures of some fish I have been getting stuck into.

Cheers

Dan.

Fraser Island - October 2012. Part 1

I thought I would throw up some freshness in between fishing trips to keep the reading material up.  Me and my partner went to Fraser Island on what is now our annual week long pilgrimage.  We go up chasing the big Tailor that travel right up the east coast from down in our neighbouring Southern waters of Victoria and N.S.W to spawn.  There is a closure on their main spawning grounds for a period of 2 or so months so this offers them at least a little reprieve.  The good news is we did get onto a few Tailor from the beach but the majority were on the smaller side of being legal and as they were mainly caught on our first and second nights we threw them back as they don't keep well for long periods.

We spent a few days on the Eastern side fishing and swimming in the surf while looking out for the man in the grey suit and eventually ventured over to the Western side at Awinya creek.  Awinya was an awesome spot and not a person around for miles.  It did take a few hours to get there from our camp just South of Indian head so that might explain that.  It's a relatively featureless beach so I sought out some features that might hold fish.  I tied on a 5" squidgy plastic on a TT jig head and flicked a few times into the creek mouth which was now flowing with fresh, tea tree stained water.  After a few flicks of what I thought might have been an over sized plastic a nice little lizard took a liking to it and put up a nice fight on my light tackle.  60cm and so close to breeding season, I removed the hook and made her pose for a photo before she gingerly swam off looking for a real meal.

The scenery was pretty awesome, crystal white beaches, blue water and a pretty clear sky it was hard to leave but I wasn't too keen on travelling the beaches on a high tide so off we trundled.

The final day we were there it was our mission to take back some fish to the folks for lunch and to say thanks for minding the mutt while we were off adventuring.  As the sun was setting on the final day we put the last of the pilchards into my bait belt and walked down the beach.  The bait was getting very old by this stage and was nearly falling apart before I could get it on the hooks.  After a few hits and only one just legal Tailor I was down to the last pilchard and feeling lowsy I couldn't even supply lunch!  I fired it into the gutter and prayed it stayed on the hooks and as soon as it hit the water, bang it was on.  The fish darted for the open water and I played it hoping that all my knots would hold and I could get it in to redeem myself.  Sure enough after a little tussle I got him on the sand and wiped my brow, thank god for that!

All in all it was an awesome trip and at least we got stuck into a few fish!  Stay tuned for part 2, a follow up from the week after camping out of a boat on the western side near Ungowa.

Welcome to the blog.

Hello and welcome to The Ordinary Angler blog.  I like fishing a lot but I would consider myself an ordinary angler... I don't catch massive fish or many small ones for that matter but I give it a red hot crack. 

My name's Dan and I live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia - a real mixed bag of fish species from bread and butter varieties of Bream, Flathead and Whiting to tropical varieties of Mangrove Jack and Barra with a bucket load in between.

I started this blog to hopefully improve my fishing and start getting onto some bigger fish and up my catch rate.  Maybe writing about it and communicating with like minded people would help me with that.  So here goes.  Ill be out fishing this Saturday morning before a mate's party and hopefully I will have something to post here about my great successes!  Stay tuned.