Paul

G'day Raiders Hit Botany Bay today on the yak with a fellow yakker launching from the beach at Captain Cook's Landing Place (Kurnell). We quickly made our way to Yarra Bay to fish a hole my mate had found. On the way, my mate was trolling a lure and got himself a nice 39cm tailor after missing one earlier. When we got there, there were a few boats around fishing for livies. We did the same but no luck and decided to just fish the hole and got onto several pinkies ranging anywhere between 15 - 25cm on fresh prawns. They were extremely fun on the light gear and gave pretty good accounts of themselves. Unfortunately the blue bottles (PEST #1) were out in swarms today and my mate brought his line in with a long tentacle attached which managed to wrap itself around his arm. Once he realized, he was shaking the thing off frantically and almost capsized the yak. It left a nasty mark on his arm but the pain wore off pretty quickly. After a while, the pinkies stopped biting so we moved further out and had a crack at the bottom of some 20ish meter water near Frenchman's Bay. Again, we got onto some more fun with pinkies for a bit. The bites stopped and we drifted closer to middle of the heads where PEST #2 AKA Leatherjackets showed up. Lost hook, sinker and swivel on my paternoster rig which I didn't mind too much, but when I noticed the line had gone slack on other my rod with a brand new $18 Shimano Lucanus jig, I had that sinking feeling and sure enough the mongrels chewed through that too. That was my first encounter with Leatherjackets and they put a dampener on my day. We moved a few hundred meters up and I was game enough to rig up again and sure enough the mongrels came for that too. The swell was pretty high and I was a little disheartened so decided to chill for a bit while my mate soldiered on with his rig. He survived the jackets as he had wire on his rig and as we were slowly drifting towards the heads of Botany Bay National Park, he got onto a few flounder including two at about 35cm. This gave me some motivation and I quickly set up another rig. This time the bites were more familiar as I got onto a 30cm flatty. As I brought him in, I noticed the patterns on him were quite pretty, including the tail. I looked at my fish guide and I think I matched it up to be a blue spotted flathead. Anyway, that's another first for me . I took some quick snaps and let him go. As we got to the Heads, the water depth was good enough to give my plastics a flick. I decided to use my new goto lure (ZMan 3"MinnowZ in Electric Chicken) with a smear of Dizzy's tournament gel (Aniseed) on a 1-3kg rod. Sure enough, on my second cast with a repeated action of 2 quick flicks and a quick retrieve, I had something on it's tail and after setting the hook, it pulled pretty hard and took a few runs and showed a nice shiny Silver just beneath the surface as it was coming up and I could make it out to be a trevally, my first and a new PB that measured 35cm. Unfortunately he came up with a long blue bottle tentacle attached so, it took a while to get rid of that and unhook him but I was still pretty stoked. We fished for a bit longer but we were both pretty tired and decided to head back in shortly after. Here are some pics of the day: Pinkies like this provided much of the entertainment: Pretty Blue Spotted Flathead ... I think? He just wouldn't stay still for a good shot The keepers and a glimpse of my mate's Kaskazi Dorado kayak Hope you enjoy Cheers Paul

It will be difficult to find something this late. This is probably your best bet: http://www.stayz.com.au/accommodation/nsw/south-coast/jervis-bay?checkin=&numNights=1&minPrice=&maxPrice=&numGuests=1&rating=0&acceptsOnlinePayment=false&searchRef-lastMinDeals=false&searchRef-specialOffers=false&feature=

Hi Pomey_Git Here are some questions you may want to consider: * Pedal or paddle kayak? * Are your sessions always going to be tandem or will be there be solo moments? If so, how often? Maneuvering a tandem kayak by yourself is possible but somewhat difficult and may require re-rigging. * Speed vs stability? Longer vs wider hull? * What features are important to you and what might you sacrifice? How many rod holders available? Cup holders etc? How much storage is available (What type of storage)? Are they conveniently located? If you can go to a store to tryout a few, that would be great. Otherwise research a few models you think would suit you. Get the specs and Youtube them to see how they perform and what other people have to say. There are plenty of good models on the market with pros and cons to each and you could make a good case for any. Just find the one that suits you best. Cheers Paul

Cheers guys Sorry for the short report (done by phone). Weather was absolutely shockers for the majority of the trip so we couldn't really fish the bay or the basin like we planned. The river was the most sheltered place from the wind but not the rain yet still proved to be the most productive for us. Didn't take too many snaps, but here are some of our yaks, the river, the basin and the place we stayed at Callala Bay.

Gday Raiders, Launched out at Grey’s Beach Boat Ramp at Nowra and fished up and down the bridge for a bit. Got onto a quite a few including a new lure PB at 63cm for me. The gun SP was Z-Man 3" MinnowZ in Electric Chicken. Kept a few for a BBQ tonight. Cheers Paul

I am not sure that I would be advocating taking any leccie yak offshore tho, particularly if the owner is new to kayaking. The article spoke of one bloke who's leg was broken when a wave caught his yak as he prepared to launch & it smashed into him, breaking his leg ....... the added weight of the leccie & battery could well have contributed to the injury, or at least, made it worse than if not with leccie & battery included. Agreed. I wouldn't be starting out offshore with a kayak to begin with let alone kayak + leccy. Estuaries and bays are much safer places to learn. I'm no expert on offshore kayak fishing, but I'd want to be getting past the waves ASAP and not fiddling with anything else til then. A painful lesson for that guy but a good one for the rest of us. There are plenty of people out there who are getting in to fishing from leccie yaks, due to surgery, illness or other physical incapacity ......... there will always be a place for yaks with leccies! Let's not forget moments of pure laziness.

I'm sure the bass hunter is a great boat.. . But the article discusses electric motors on kayaks...not specific to Hobie PAs.

There'll be the purists that say what's the point, defeats the purpose of a yak etc etc. Heard it all before, but this is an interesting article should anyone consider an electric motorized kayak. The one great thing about Kayak Fishing is all the different options available to enjoy it. http://www.kayakfishingmagazine.net/articles/102-current-issue-featured-articles-on-kayak-fishing/1424-electric-kayaks-an-in-depth-look-.html

To add to this, I joined the site years ago but only in the past few months, I started absorbing as much info as I could from the site and started actively fishing more regularly. In my early fishing days, all my sessions were landbased with the one fibreglass rod and the same old rig sending out stinking prawns or pillies for either undersized fish or the dreaded donut. Now my trips are out on the water on the yak with some fellow raiders, with several rods and rigs for different occasions and I rarely encounter donuts unless I'm experimenting with something new. There are other great sources of information out there but you have to go and look for it, where as with FishRaider, it's all collectively here and if it isn't, you can just ask and normally get positive responses.

Well done Luke I too am a fan of the GULP shrimps ... except when the tailor are around and take chunks out of them without giving anything in return There's also a New Kayak Fishing Section that's recently been added. You could also fish around the bridge, I've caught a few good sized flatties, some pinkies, tailor, bream, octopus and stingrays there in recent weeks but the current can get quite strong so you may need something to steady the yak. Cheers Paul

IMO, expensive fishing gear isn't required but it can add to and enhance the experience depending on what experience you're actually after. I think the following are more important: 1) Going to the right places or going at the right time. No point fishing if the fish aren't about. You can try berleying but that's as far as you can go really without changing places which could take up alot of time. 2) Having the right gear for the right conditions, eg no point using a deep diver if the water is very shallow or the hooks and sinkers are too big/heavy for the required location or species. 3) Knowing the correct techniques, retrieves, rigs & knots, jigging, trolling etc 4) Preparation - having a few rods with different rigs/lures already setup saves alot of time especially when the fish are on the bite. Having one rod and switching different lures at a time sucks. Much like having a golf set available. Expensive gear comes in to play when you want more casts per session, you need to cover more distance per cast, you're after something more comfortable or guarantee of quality/durability. I've caught just as many fish on cheap gear as I have expensive gear. It's just that the gear used was right for the conditions at the time.

I'm keen to see the results if it's a PA as they're in a weight class of their own. I could imagine the winch system working well loading a PA onto the roof, but curious how to control the weight coming down to unload it.

Great stuff Trung Do you ever have off days in the Bay?

3 day kayak fishing trip @ Lake Conjola & St Georges Basin

Damn I hope they're ok. Hope they were somewhat experienced, though going out on a windy day like this makes you wonder.

Hey Novice Got to test some more plastics on Friday & Saturday night. Landed a mixture of flatties, pike, tailor and an octopus Plastics used were Z-Man 2.5" GrubZ (pumpkinseed) & 3" MinnowZ (Electric Chicken) with a bit of S-Factor. Picture of some of the fish. I released the pike shortly after. Cheers Paul

Good stuff mate! Inspiration for the weekend

I think Alan is talking about the back hatch where the safety kit goes. For the PAs you can set up the trolley kit on either side and go full length or half length (mid to back or mid to front) depending on your preference. This is for the most part a permanent fixture you'd set up once in your garage/shed/workshop unless you have a good reason to change it. The anchorage options available to attach to the rings of the trolley kit are either drift chute, stake-out pole or anchor itself. I find the PAs have sufficient room for all 3 but I avoid an anchor like the plague if I can unless I feel like pulling up some more tyres . I will normally keep it in the case that it comes in and store it in one of the hatches until required.

Don't have a dedicated GPS system, I just use one of the apps on my phone which does the trick. Besides the turn by turn benefits, it's also a great way of planning the trip(s) ahead by punching in Point A to Point B. The estimated times are calculated and it can also tell you if you need to pay a toll or even to avoid routes with tolls or motorways all together. There are many things that have revolutionized fishing over the years and I think GPS is definitely one of them as they add to make the overall experience more pleasant. No more frustration with Gregorys, UBD or the paper maps that fold out to the size of your wind screen. The only time you're in strife is when the signal drops .... like one time I was in down town San Francisco at peak hour coming back from Fisherman's Wharf

Hey Fishon You're looking around the $3100-$3600 just for the kayak itself brand new. That's the old PA14, the PA12 and the new 2013 PA14. They use the MirageDrive which is a pedalled fin propulsion system. The PA12 is 45kg unrigged and the PA14s are about 5-10kg heavier. The costs can easily blow out of proportion once you factor in the accessories for logistics and other things like fishfinding kit, anchor systems, beach carts, safety flags, livewells etc. Work out exactly what it is that you NEED and set yourself a budget. If you have the cash upfront, it could work out to buy cheaper second hand from Gumtree or E-Bay. Buying from the shops might give you finance options though. You'll be lucky to find the new PA14s second hand just yet as they've though only entered the market. If you have the space and the cash, then a trailer would be the easiest for logistics. Alternatively roof racks are the more common and popular option and can be a bit of a mission depending on circumstances. I find it easier going with other yakkers, but sometimes that's not always viable as Tom can attest to. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the sport as much I am Cheers Paul

Tom I have it on roof racks as well as I'm limited with storage living in an apartment complex. I have been placing an exercise/yoga mat or towel on the back of the car, putting the front of the yak on it and then pushing it up to the roof rack. Admittedly, my car is quite old and therefore I'm not too concerned about small scratches and stuff. The problem I have is the back of the car has a small spoiler on it which isn't very strong and won't last very long so I have ordered a Rack n Roll bar as well. A.Dawg does the same for his PA 14. The other option if you have a tow bar/ball is to get one of those T-loaders by Rhino (or similar product). They are a bit pricier but should be less effort. Cheers Paul

I'm in

Thanks Dolmo That looks spot on with what I was catching that day. I landed about 3 of them.

ohhhh my bad mate. I thought that was A.Dawg on the phone who I was also lining up an outing with. I thought he changed his mind and decided to go to Chipping Norton instead. I didn't think anything of it. Sincerest apologies mate. I stuffed up.