Great Sandy Straits 1st of June

The weekend just past I ventured up to our holiday house on the Great Sandy Straits to do some little jobs on the renovation, we fitted a fire place for those cool winter nights, oh yeah.

I only got out 1 day the whole weekend due to the tides and work on the house but I managed to fit in 2 sessions - a morning session from about 9.30 to midday up Tuan creek and a later session from about 3pm - 6pm out in the Straits.  I was mainly using the Atomic soft plastics in 3" shad style in a range of colours from clear to pilchard colours on TT headlockz jig heads, seemed a deadly combination for a whole variety of species this weekend.

I took the truck through some back bush and made it to my secret launch spot by 9.30am after a slow start to the morning and a nice sleep in.  The tide was dead low and starting to turn exposing a fair few sand banks and mangroved edges.  I began flicking the plastic and on my first cast I was smashed by what I thought would be a flathead laying low on the banks, missed the hooks and back came my lure unscathed.  Good start I thought to myself.  It wasn't till about another hour and a lure change to a prawn style plastic until I had my next hit which was an unlikely species for this time of year and definately didn't expect to see one till it warmed up a bit more, a tiny little jack hit my plastic and gave off a bit of a burn before the 8lb line was too much for him and he came up for a happy snap.

 
I continued flicking the prawn imitation plastic around and eventually came good on a flathead of about 48cm that put up the fight of a much bigger fish and had me stumped as to what it might be, even performing some aerobatics yakside prior to being scooped up in the Bassaction landing net.  I promised the in-laws a feed so this one went on ice.

I changed over the plastic again to a paddle tail Atomic 3" in a clear pink colour to test it out.  There wasn't too much current running at the time so it was lightly weighted with a TT hidden weight jig head which allowed it to sink naturally and allow a slower retrieve to work that paddle tail.  It ended up getting torn to shreds by something over the next 20 odd casts.  I eventually landed 2 of these non committal fish which ended up to be yellow tail pike which I took for some bait for the next weekend beach fishing.  After this lure copped a flogging I changed over once again to the Atomic in pilchard and set out to round up another flathead for the in-laws.  As I was heading back to the car I flicked along the last sand bank and finally it came as the lure hit the water, another nice flathead about 52cm on ice and that's all the fish I needed.

I packed up a happy fisherman and went home to do some filleting.

My next session came later that same day but as the tide was in I was able to fish out the front of the house in the Straits.  I launched from the front yard and paddled a short distance to a small bunch of mangroves and rocky structure and stared flicking the Atomic plazos.  I had a hit and a short ferocious run but it spat the hook and I came up fruitless at this spot.  I moved north to another small bunch of mangroves and lobbed out the Plazo and before I could hit the bail arm it was picked up by something with some anger management problems and took me for a right ride.

Venturing back to the first snag with more water around I put in a few casts into a massive school of mullet to see what might be hanging around them.  I was hit by a freight train with tight head shakes and a fair bit of power, coming from rocky structure I pegged this for something different to a flathead and sure enough a feisty little bream cam in and posed for the camera.  I pinned him on the clear shad Atomic Plazo, my favourite from the range.  I didn't get a measurement but he was probably the biggest I've caught on lure and sure looked healthy.

I stuck where the action was and kept clicking around and picked up a new species on plastics, a thumper of a whiting.

I stuck with the proven method put targeted a different spot about 20m away from where I got the whiting and bream and ended up getting pestered by tailor.  There must have been thousands of them as I sprayed my casts in a fan pattern they were picking at the lure and they came back in looking a little worse for wear.  I managed to get 2 into the yak for a photo.  I love catching tailor, they put up such a spirited fight and it's always tense wondering if they will chew through the leader or not.  Luckily they were getting pinned in the jaw so only the plastics were suffering.  I'll leave you with a few photo's, untill next time, hope your getting a few.  Stay tuned for some land based action that I have been meaning to upload!  Cheers.

More trevally

Last weekend I got onto another couple of trevally out in my favourite spot.  I launched early in the dark and gave it a short squirt up to my favourite pontoons where I lobbed around some plastics. I got a tail bitten off by something, probably a bream and a few casts later on the same plastic (with no tail) I hooked up a nice bream that put up a great fight.

I paddled around for another hr or 2 flicking my light 2kg STX rod with a 1/8 oz. jig head and got smashed hard by what felt like a big trevally.  I didn't have the grunt on 4lb line and so it took me around a pylon and off she went.  Casting in the same spot I bounced the same weight and colour plastic off the bottom and it got picked up by another Trev which put up some stink on the light gear.  I got him in for a photo and off he went to terrorise some bait fish.  Hopefully with this cooler water coming along there might be some bigger bream, tailor and Jew floating around!

Here's a pic, yep I'm growing my beard.

Leslie Dam - April 2013

Hello hello, welcome back to more reading about fishing... well not really this time as I didn't raise a single fish for 3 days out on the dam.  To be fair when it comes to impoundment fishing I have no idea what I'm doing or what I should be looking for.  Regardless, the blog post shall continue.  I thought I would just share with you all some photo's from the trip and my experience freshwater fishing.

We all had Thursday off for ANZAC day, like most of the country we also took the friday off and made a nice long weekend out of it.  After a dawn service at sparrow fart we were off from our place on the sunshine coast to meet my mum and her partner at woodford.  We stopped for a coffee and about 5 hrs later we arrived at the Lake Leslie Tourist park.  We settled in thursday afternoon with some sherberts around the campfire watching the moon rise over the hills.

I tried to wake up early to get on the water to chase down my first Murry Cod.  It turned out this would be my first opportunity to have a nice sleep in so I took it and woke up at gentleman's hours, 7am.  I sat around reading a magazine and chatting with my partner over coffee while throwing a ball to the dog.  What a lovely morning but there was some feeling in me that said I was missing something...  The parents were heading into Warwick for the morning so we thought we would go and have a look around.  We arrived back at camp about lunch time so we packed some gear and kayaks and set off to the dam for some lunch and fishing.  I finally got the yak in the water, slipping through the film of blue green algae that had bloomed and flicked around some spinner baits at what I thought migh be likely structure.

I didn't have any luck the first day but I persisted scouting out the area and identifying structure and setting GPS marks for tomorrow's early morning foray.

The next morning I woke to a crisp foggy morning with the moon still peering over the western hills through the fog.  I was on the water before sunrsie heading to my marks.  As the sun rose behind me the light revealed some amazing sights with mist on the still water bordered by boulders and standing timber, it was quite a sight.  I was focussing some attention on what looked likely cod structure at 4m deep with a lone dead tree rising from the depths and snaggy country below.  As I was taking in the scenery I noticed out the corner of my eye something jumping out of the water into the tree... that cant be right I thought.  But it happened again and a green and yellow monster of a fish launched itself into the tree snapping branches on it's way to reach a bug that mush have been perched in the tree.  Bloody hell.  Naturally I launched a full asault with the spinners, top water and sub furface lures but nadda.  I moved around a few banks and was greeted with this sight.

I flicked a spinner around every boulder that was in the lake when finally I saw a smallish cod following the spinner back to the yak... he saw me and swam off without even having a touch.  Bloody hell.

We sat around the fire again drinking and carrying on.  I took a few more snaps to share...

We woke up early the next morning to pack up and head off on the long journey home.  It was another nice morning up in the hilly country

It was an awesome place to visit, I don't know if I would be back in a hurry, I need my fix of salt water where I at least have a clue about what I'm doing.

Autumn fishing

Howdy all.

My camera is still getting fixed if you can believe it... Olympus by the way, so if your considering getting one just know that if you ever need to claim warranty it might take a while...  rant over.

So Saturday morning broke and I find myself launching the yak into a meesly 1ft of surf at the Kings Beach boat ramp.  Even though i have a Hobie Pro Angler, not exactly the best ocean going vessel but I punched out over, not through the waves and made it out with nothing but wet feet.  Beautiful.  I lobbed out a Halco 120 lure in Quantas colours and an Atomic Plazo's soft plastic.  I paddled out around Brays rock and headed towards Moffat Beach when I saw a floatilla of kayak coming towards me.  I thought they might have the hot tip so I turned and took up position in the line.  Tuna was the hunt of the day and after a few reports of other kayak blokes getting into some during the previous weeks I thought it was my turn.  Turns out it was not my turn and after 3 or so hours tracking something like 6k's I thought I would give up and paddle home.  On the way back my Halco went off and I landed a nice little 40cm squire.  Dinner sorted.

After Saturday's dismal efforts I gave up on the offshore front and headed back to my secret spot once again.  I loaded up the Boathoist trailer with the PA and set out to be on the water by 5am.  It wasn't till about 7am when I finally hooked up a little, 40cm, Jewie.  I have been getting a fair few of these little guys around here and they definately are fun on light gear.  Anyway he went back to get bigger.  I turned a corner and lobbed my plastic at a pontoon and on the drop it was snaffled by something with some go.  The fish darted straight out into the middle of the channel and I thought this familiar behaviour would lead to me bringing up a trevally.  Sure enough about a 40cm trevor pops in to say hello.  He went back after a few snaps on the phone.  I turned to go home and tried the last pontoon and hooked up to another, much bigger trevor that gave me some grief for 5 mins on my 2kg rod.  Eventually he spat the hook and won his freedom so no pic!  I leave you now with some shots of the day on my phone, I might have to start taking out my SLR to get some quality shots while my waterproof camera is getting fixed...

Spot x turns it on again

Good afternoon all.

I have been out fishing a fair few times in the last few weeks but unfortunately my camera is off getting repaired so good pics are hard to come by.  Anyway, I braved the rains and wind on Sarturday morning and ventured out to my secret spot to find some fish.  I chose a different launch spot this time that gave me less distance to travel and a shorter drive.  I slipped the yak into the water at gentleman's hours with a slow 6.30am start.  The sky was still dark from the rain clouds but they were holding off dumping their fury on me just now.  I paddled past the first few pontoons flicking an Atomic Plazos prawn look a like on a fairly weighty jig head as it was a 5m drop and the run in tide was picking up quickly.  I slowly hopped the prawn off the bottom for 15 minutes gliding past the pontoons.  I sighted a pontoon located on the corner of the main chanel and the entrance to some canals and thought that looked like a prime spot to sit and wait if I was a jack.  Surely enough on the first drop the lure was smashed and my rod buckled but 1 second later the lure was spat out.  That's a good start I thought as I loaded up the second cast.  A bit further this time and I was hopping back directly under the pontoon when I could feel nibbles, like something was just having a bash at the lure.  Cast again and more bashing then bang off he went, I could feel the line rubbing on the oysters on the pontoon so I dipped my rod tip way into the drink to create more angle and pulled the sucker out.  After a short fight on 12lb gear this little guy came up to say hello.  I took some photos just as the rain started pelting down and chucked him back as I went to find some shelter under the nearest overhanging deck.

When the rain let up I was back in the same spot looking for more action.  There were another 4-5 big hits but the hooks kept pulling or they only had the tail of the plastic in their mouths so I only wound up with the 1.  Still very happy with that anyway!

On sunday my mate left a note for his wife saying "gone fishing - back at 10" and drove from Brisbane to my place for a 5am start.  He was a bit nervous the whole time as he knew the wife would blast him when he got back.  The sun rose early and the day was completely opposite to the one before without wind or rain.  This was my mates first time out fishing in a yak so I was pretty stocked to show him some spots, give him some plastics and eventually put him onto a fish.  The same pontoon I got the jack from he pulled out a nice little Jewie.  Later after flicking for a few hours he pulled a horse of a bream out from another pontoon.  It was an awesome morning hanging out and fishing with my mate.  Ill leave you with a few pics of the day.

Hooked Up Magazine Issue 15

Howdy all.  My fishing has been quiet sporadic lately but all the times I have been out I have landed some quality fish for a change.  Seems I have tapped into something here...  The camera I use has carked it and is back at the manufacturers getting repaired/replaced and will be about 2 weeks off.  I have taken out the video camera however so I might pull some frames from the videos and post up some puctures.

In the meantime - check out www.hookedupmagazine.com.au.  There is some ugly mug on the cover with his PB jewie.

Hope you are getting a few - and able to get some pictures of em!

3rd ever Jew and still not a keeper. DUO lures!

Saturday morning last week marked the only clear patch from both wind and rain for the last 2 or so weeks.  It was also the first time I got to give those magical DUO lures a swim.  I started out as early as I usually do, watching the sunrise as I paddle around flicking some gear.  I started out the morning with dropping a few lures under the motorway bridge in the Mooloola River without a touch.  I changed up between everything I had with me and not even a touch.  I paddled further down the river towards Minyama Island and to the little stretch where I had been lucky a few weeks prior with the trevally.  I snapped on the DUO Spearhead Ryuki 80s and gave it a few swims to determine the action and sink rate etc.  I gave it a real flick for a few times at some pontoons without any luck.  I drifted with the tide back upstream a short distance and flicked into a bridge pylon, after sounding some interesting structure and fish returns I let the DUO sink and gave it a few hops accross the bottom until it was graciously gulped by what I initially thought to be a bream.  After a short battle I called it for a Jew because of the sustained fight but I knew it wouldn't be huge.  Up came this little fella for a few photo's.  Unfortunately my camera let me down yet again so I had to fish out my phone and get snappy with that.  It swam off happily spraying me with a tail flick to say thanks.

Thanks for reading.  Hope your all getting a few.

Little bit of DUO lure porn

Hello everyone.  I've been flat out trying to find a gap in the weather to cast a lure over the last few weeks so I don't have any fishy photo's to share.  I recently picked up some new lures called DUO lures so I thought I would post up a few pics of what they look like.  They are a bit different to every other lure I have used from big name companies.  DUO lures are what you might call the slimfit or skinny jeans of the lure world.  Across the shouldures most of the diving lures are much slimmer, I'm not sure if this adds or subtracts from the action as I havn't had much of an opportunity to swim them.  I can say that they are definatley a quality build and the ones that are painted should remain painted for a long time to come.  So the lures turned up to the door without split rings or trebles - I like putting on my own gear.  I put single lure hooks on most of them as I find I'm getting less snags and tangles using these without jeapordising my hook-up rate, yet.  I ran out of the smaller sized singles so some of the lures did end up with old fashioned trebles.  I took a few snaps of the smaller TOTO bream lures, the Realis popper and the larger bullet.  I will post up some more in the next few days once I have been able to get them to pose properly for the camera and hopefully with some bloody fish!

The DC9 bullet

Realis popper 64

Realis popper 64



Tetra Works - TOTO and Spearhead Ryuku



Tetra Works - TOTO and Sperahead Ryuki

PB GT

Well, my only GT.

I went for a short paddle in the Mooloola River in between the heavy rain periods we have been having here on the Sunshine Coast.  I launched under the motorway bridges and paddled my way up the canals past million dollar houses and yachts, poor suckers were probably at work.  It was a perfect day on the water with zero wind and a nice dirty water line forming as the fresh water pushed against the salt on its way out to sea.  I followed this line for about 1km watching the sounder picking up lots of activity under me.  I couldn't pin anything!  About an hour into the session I saw some action next to the canal revetment wall and flicked my Atomic surface walker right where the boil was and started the retrieve.  Two twitches into the retrieve it was smashed in an explosion of water and it took off like a freight train.  I called it for a Jack but it didn't dive for cover like I would have expected.  Line was peeling from my small reel and my 1kg rod had the biggest bend I had ever seen in it before.  I built the rod on a Samurai blank which had plenty of stick in the butt so I tightened the drag and gave him some curry and up swam a fish I had never cought before.

going to 41cm it was my PB and broke a month long drought I have been experiencing.  My camera battery was flat from the day before and I wasn't too fussed about getting any photos so I leave you with the few I got of the fish on my phone.



I was initially concerned about swapping over trebbles for single hook but I am completey sold after how they performed and my snag up rate has dropped significantly.  Hook up rate hasn't declined, but that might be only because I have not been getting any lately!

Cheers

Dan.

DIY Hobie kayak sail kit

Hello readers!  As you may know I recently bought a Hobie Pro Angler 12.  They are pretty good fishing machines especially when travelling long distances.  I recently came up with the idea that I would really like to be able to sail the kayak when the wind is up.  I visit the Great Sandy Straits a lot and this body of water is perfect for both the PA12 and for sailing - why not add water and mix well...?  Enquiring with the Hobie dealer I was shocked (well not really I know Hobie like to charge a lot) to find it was in excess of $400.  This was something I would only be using in the Straits for maybe once a month.  I couldn't really justify the money.  So I thought now I have nothing to lose by making one myself.  I did a bit of interwebs research on DIY sails and discovered that most young budding DIY sailers use something called Tyvek - a DuPont product used for waterproofing houses.  So I bit the bullet and ordered the 10' X 9' sheet off ebay for about $30 delivered.  Once it turned up I could see why it's used for sails, it's tough as and light as a feather.  So the next weekend I got a sail-making.  First I doubled over the sheet, making about 9' in sail height and 5' in length.  Going off the sizes of the hobie sails, it was about 100mm shorter but about 200mm longer.  Negligible difference I though.

Next I marked up the shape, like the hobie version leaving a shape at the top where the batton would slip in filling out the sail.  I left 50mm around the edges to double fold and stitch.  The mast is a piece of aluminium tube that was once used as a rock fishing gaff handle.  The tube was about 20mm so I sleeved it top and bottom with some ag pipe which brought it out to about 25mm and made a better fit in the hobie mast hole.  the top sleeve was to give the sail some protection when it's slid in so the ali isn't rubbing on the paper directly.

Here is what it looks like on the inside.

Next I cut it out and got it ready for sewing.

Once sewn with a cross stitch along all the seams and eyes attached to the bottom and longest edges - where the rope is attached I made up a furling device out of some PVC pipe.  This allows you to furl the sail by simply pulling on the rope around the mast.  To unfurl you just pull the rope attached to the back and out she rips.  It worked really well especially considering it was my first attempt at both sail making and sailing.  I got up a good speed and didn't even need to use the pedals to tack.  I look forward to some better weather next time and maybe a few more hours on the water.  I might push my luck and see if I can make it to Fraser Island, some 8k's.  Ill leave you with some piccies below to show you how it looks full of wind.

  



Blade Issue 9

Hi everyone.  I hope you are all recovering from whatever natural event has made its way to you over the last few weeks, fires down south, cyclone in FNQ and flooding in my neck of the woods - Sunshine Coast/Brisbane.  There are plenty of folk up Bundy way who are copping a right soaking!  Anyway I thought I'd just push this along - get your latest issue of Blade Kayak Fishing Journal now - issue 9 is out and chock a block full of all things kayak fishing.  Nothing from me this issue but I have been writing furiously over the last few weeks and will have plenty to submit next issue.

Cheers
Dan.

Great Sandy Straits on the BoatHoist folding trailer

I hope everyone has had a great weekend getting out catching fish, cause I have been!

This weekend saw another pilgrimage to the in-laws beach house in a small town between Maryborough and Tincan Bay on the Fraser Coast.  These trips are becoming more frequent and we seem to be getting away once a month which is awesome.  I thought I would give the BoatHoist folding kayak trailer a thorough test out and tow it up from the sunshine coast (about 2hr drive) with the Pro Angler on top.  Long story short the trailer made it up without a single hassle.  I ended up having 3 fishing sessions in between some reno work that we are currently in the middle of so.

Session 1 - I started off slowly this morning as the beach we are on only allows water access at high tide.  The high tide was 10am so I was out and paddling by about 7.  I swung around a few bays peppering the banks and mangroves with a little Pontoon 21 Greedy Guts 55 in Carared.  It did a fair amount of damage on the resident flathead pulling out about 6.  I snagged a little bream on the same lure - I love this lure.  Because the PA can carry a few rods laying down I like to take a few out so I swapped over to something a little bigger and was flicking around a BCF Kato lure in white and green - I love this lure.  This lure saw heaps of action on its first use straight out of the box and swims incredibly well for a $10 jobbie. 

I managed a baby cod that I didn't even measure and on a cast into the mangroves the lure was smashed and line was peeling of the 2500FA Shimano Aernos straight into the mangroves.  I called it for a jack until I saw a silver streak flash which had me thinking barra!  Shortly after my questions were answered when a chunky catfish that looked about 45cm came up grunting. 

I was tempted to keep the catty as I've never tasted them before but couldn't be bothered cleaning it so off he went.  I paddled back out wide towards Fraser for a troll home without any success.

Session 2 - I was joined by my partner on a late afternoon fish up Tuan Creek.  We both had yaks, so out came the BoatHoist trailer and knocked over that job without a worry in the world, even travelling along those logging tracks the trailer didn't even miss a beat.  The PA is a bit fat so I just strapped the little blue Ocean Kayak Frenzy on its side.

The whole mission proved fruitless for both of us it was still pretty cool to take my lady out on the water for the afternoon.  She can even cast a lure without me having to keep checking up on her that everything is alright and she hasn't jagged herself!  So after about 2 hrs of her siding up to my yak and holding on while I did the peddling for the both of us, yes against the tide... we packed it in and headed home.



Session 3 - We made a quick morning trip again in the Straits where my partner hooked up to my yak and we made our way around the 2 points to the day before's spot.  I tried about every lure in my tackle box without raising even a scale.  I think it was getting a little late in the day and the action slowed right down unfortunately.  Bummer.  Still, it was a sensation morning on the water getting a little sun.  We came back right on high tide and took the dog out for a swim for an hour or so before we had lunch and headed home.  I had to take a trailer home so i folded up the BoatHoist trailer and chucked it in the back, this little sucker goes anywhere!

Here's some pics ill leave you with till next time.