Freshwater frolic

A few weeks ago a mate and I ventured up into the hills of the sunshine coast looking for some Australian Bass.  It was only just open season, by a month or so, and we were unsure as to whether any of the bigguns might have made it back upstream yet especially with the lack of rain and a weir between our spot and the breeding area about 50k's downstream.  Regardless we pushed on.  It started off with a 3am rise loading the two yaks onto the BoatHoist folding trailer and stopping at the first servo for an early coffee.  The wind was blowing about 30 bastards by 4am and we contemplated the fishing spot and how deep in the valleys it should be out of the wind or maybe not.  Regardless we pushed on.  We arrived at the launch spot by sun up and although we hadn't launched here before we quietly unstrapped the yaks from the trailer and slipped them into the steamy water.  We were hoping for an early top water cod although we would have been severley undergunned on 1-2kg rods and 4lb braid.  Matt was using a new surface lure he just bought, a walk-the-dog style lure but mixing it up with a propeller doo-da on the bag to make even more noise and movement, it didn't work this morning. 

 

  

After surveying the first long deep pool we realised this pool might see a bit of traffic due to it's closeness to the road so we quickly flicked and paddled to the next pool which opened up into what looked like fish heaven.  Heading upstream, to the right was a sheer cliff face that dropped into the drink, I could only guess how deep it was but further along the water was overshadowed my masses of native trees providing a nice dark hidey-hole for all manner of water dwellers.  On the other side was a nice slow rolling drop off with a sandy bed.  The sun was still slowly rising behind us and the 30knot wind seemed to miss us on the water and only deliver 10knots...  As the wind pushed us up the pool we flicked surface lures and shallow divers into the shadowed rock ledge for a good 30 minutes without a touch.  As we moved along I let a shallow divind sx40 rip right into the cover and hard up against the rocks, I let it sit for a second or two then started a slow twitch retrieve and bam, a little Australian Bass hooked up and gave up a little fight.  Perhaps the first lure this fish had seen?  I like to think so...  A quick snap and off he swam.

We paddled along our merry way passing deep and shallow pools, rapids and rocks and made our way further and further upstream.  My mate got caught up on some fallen timber and said to me just have a flick in here while im snagged I bet you get one.  Sure enough 2 casts and a rat Bass was fighting for his life.  Another quick snap and a lot of laughing and away we went again.

We arrived at the biggest of the mornings pools and what would be our last one till that afternoon.  Matt, my guide for the morning was still 2 bass short.  I went to the right he fished the deeper bank on the left and finally he produced the goods with a little Australian Bass.  At least he wouldn't be going home with a doughnut. 

Intermission for lunch and a beer, quick sleep and 3pm arrives time to have another crack for some top water bass.  We must have spent a good 2 hours paddling up and down this final pool without even a touch.  Local knowledge told us this was the spot for cod and bass and I even threw on the sounder to check it out.  At about 4m deep it looked the goods but we couldn't even get a touch.  We quickly packed up and started the 2hr drive home.  it was good to finally get onto some bass after about a year in exile.  We can rule out that stretch of water for next time and maybe head further downstream past that weir... Or ill just keep to the briney.

I know most freshwater places look the same, comment if you think you know where this spot is.

Hope your getting into a few.

Dan.

Jackson Coosa

As you might have seen in an earlier post I own a Jackson Coosa kayak - these things are fishing machines right out of the box but I have added a few bits and pieces to make things a little more comfortable and more suited to my type of fishing.  I thought I would put up a few pics and run you through it all.

For anyone considering an all round kayak this thing is the go.  I take it out offshore on calm-ish days, paddle my way half way to fraser island, fish some pretty big estuaries and get right up in the skinny water chasing bass and 'toga.

The first thing I noticed about the yak was that there is a place for everything - big, lockable front hatch, middle watertight compartment, foot pegs, large standing platform, horizontal rod holder and paddle holder on either side, removable camp-style chair with 2 positions, rear crate storage area with two flush trolling-angled rod holders and another hatch in the rear which is also lockable.

I have added some flush mount Scotty mounts.  The front one holds the Scotty rod holder - I use this for trolling light lures and generally just holding the rod.  The second mount holds the Lowrance Elite 4 fish finder with GPS.  The two are interchangable so I can have the rod closer etc.

There is a down side with this yak - it is a paddle yak so its a slog over long distances, but that said it can probably go a lot of places those big peddle yaks can't.

Ill let the piictures speak for themselves!

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.