Yakking report... again

[krause]

Hi all,

Thought I’d continue my narration of my kayak fishing adventures. Once again I hit Port Kembla yesterday, with nice wind and swell predictions. Got down there and on the water first light and made my way out for some bait. 20 minutes and I had a bucket full smallish yakka, all about 150-200mm long. With some nice fish showing on the sounder I was hopefully for a few kingies, and about 3 minutes after the bait got to the bottom it got smacked. No hook up. Balls I say, so the next bait goes out but survived without incident. Lost a few more livies, finally landing a small 45cm salmon. Murmuring under my breath I put him back and moved elsewhere in hopes of a jewfish…..

Fast forward to about 12.00pm. Nothing but a few flathead and a thousand-and-one damn little tailor that have demolished my plastic and livie stocks. It had been a slow trip but I had my eye on the low tide and with the evening wind staying low, I decided to make the best of it.

I moved back to where I chase jewfish, and tentatively lowered a livie to the bottom… after all this spot was crawling with tailor earlier. Nothing, the livie survived, finally a break I think, so I start to drift with the live yakka out whilst flicking a plastic around. A few flatties here and there, then the livie starts to walk. Few minutes later I have a little jew on board and a smile on my face. Next fish is on the plastic, nice fight, big head shakes, and I’m still smiling. It takes off for another run and pop! The 10lb leader is done. The smile is still there but diminishes a little.

Next it’s the livies turn. The yakka starts to panic so I pay attention. Next thing I know it’s ever so subtly being walked off, so I let the circle hook do its thing. A few shakes and then nothing, it spat the yakka… so I just, let it sit. Bang it came back for seconds. This time I think I’ve got it, 40lb leader and a big 8/0 hook. It felt like a really nice fish until a nice big run and pop! Gone, the smile is now pretty much gone.

2 livies left, first one out gets hit, but again is spat out, gets hit, spat again, so I retrieve it. Safe to say it wasn’t so alive and very, err… not good, so off it came and the last one goes out and simply disappears. Balls I think, so I get the chewed up dead yakka, butterfly it and find somewhere to pin it that isn’t… broken? And down it goes. I set up my drift to take me through what I’m now calling a hot spot and sure enough it works. Ok, attempt 3 I think, again it felt like a nice fish, I backed the drag down and played it easy, letting the fish tow me about 100m. I get it up so I have leader, a little more and I can see that silver fish hanging about 2m under me. I’m happy, the smile is back. And just like that it shakes its head once, pulls the hook and just… swims off. There was no extra force, no teeth, no slack line, it was just like ‘ok bye’.

The smile is now dead and words of profanity are yelled loud enough that I hear them echo twice. I paddle back and cry a lot. The last fish, that I got to about 2m under the yak, would have been high 80’s, maybe 90. It was a really nice fish and like nothing I’ve seen before… and it’ll be there next trip. Sigh, so that was my day, pretty miserable, but a damn good day in hind sight.

Now that ive typed this I realise its mamoth length, sorry guys.

Cheers for the read.

[Jocler]

You underestimate yourself. It is a good read and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Sad about the fish but then again, it is what brings us back for another go and I am sure you will be back.

J

[fragmeister]

Don't apologize! that was a good read.

Cheers

Jim

[codymanly]

Great read mate. I was laughing as read it and crushed for you when the big boy bailed on you.

[fiveflies]

Nice work krause! As we said in the other forum, that's a good day out!!

[krause]

Cheers guys

[Adsy91]

Cheers guys

Nice report mate, do you fish with a reasonably stiff tip? (get your head out of the gutter folks) On my stiffer rods I used to drop head shakers at the yak all the time but now I just back the drag way way off and it may take a bit longer to land but saves you the disappointment in most cases.

[Yowie]

Bad luck. I have used livies on circle hooks, and missed most of the hook-ups (up river in Port Hacking) whereas the suicide style hooks have had a better hook-up (for me).

Check your line for abrasions, nicks, small cuts. I check the line and sometimes remove a few metres until I see clear line with no obvious damage.

[krause]

Cheers fellas, on topic...

I wouldn't say the rod is that stiff, but it's a heavier set up. I was so soft on that last fish though...

What i did notice with the jew i did land, was the circle hook was in the flesh of the roof of its mouth as apposed to the corner of the jaw. This combined with allot of spat baits and the last fish, im questioning if circles plus jews are a no go? Or maybe i need bigger hooks? I stopped using straight hook as i was killing (by accident) to many rat kings. The circles have been slaying on the salmon and kings, so maybe it's a jew only thing. I want to persist as i don't want to be killing these guys.

And good pointer with checking lines, always do it when the flaties are about