mottyman

Roberta it was really great and the best part very unexpected. I fished from North Richmond on Tuesday with very high expectations of some big fish and left very disappointing - got heaps of fish but the biggest was only 20cm or so. Don't know what I was doing wrong but couldn't find a decent fish, just loads of little ones. Today, no expectations at all, didn't even take my landing net (which was obviously a huge mistake and cost me a very good fish at the side of the yak) and cleaned up on nice fish. Fishing's a funny business sometimes. Cheers David.

Hi guys and girls, Headed up to Yarramundi today well before sun up to beat the heat and get back home to the air con before it got too bad. Had an awesome day flicking a little floating crank bait as well as a spinner bait for some great bass - probably the best session I've had this season so far. Biggest fish went 36cm and towed me around for a little while which was great. I'm only fishing 4lb mono on a 1-3kg 6 foot stick which makes for singing drags and bent rods :-) A few pics follow and very happy to be in the air con now.... :-)

Goodness gracious that's an awesome session. If I get one fish like that in a session I'm stoked. Amazing stuff. What's the cicada lure - looks like a Kokoda Bat but I'm guess not.... does it have a soft body or is it hard? Well done again. Awesome effort. David

Hi Scratchie, I'd be very keen and if at all possible I'll be there. Looking forward to a proposed date and location. Cheers David

Yep, the Basscada is the one I have. I should have given it a run this week but forgot about it... next time :-)

Yep, I have the x4 and works a treat. Sounded up some Bass in a hole yesterday so the fish finder part certainly works! :-)

Hey Scratchie, We actually started at Yarramundi bridge and worked our way all the way down to close to the Nth Richmond Bridge. Fished a lot of spots all the way down and then just paddled back home around midday. The pic of the yak's on the bank when we were having a cuppa is the last shallow and narrow section before the river opens up before Nth Richmond bridge. It was a decent paddle back in the heat!!! :-)

Hi Grant, thanks mate.... I'm really enjoying my fishing at present - With half a clue each fish feels like less of a fluke! :-) lol Dave - the little ones are thick as under the trees, it was almost one cast one fish out of the same place for Chris there for a while. Didn't pull a decent fish from the shadows today, they appear to be in deeper holes. Hopefully they'll come to the surface at some point for some big smashes. Its amazing how many of the little buggers there are. Thanks again.

Hi everyone, Ok, I didn't catch the Platypus thank god, but did see one which stayed with us for ages and kept surfacing to have a look at us. The little guy popped up right near the bridge at Yarramundi and followed us down stream while we fished, keeping a safe distance but tagging along for the ride. Was lovely to see and the river is obviously in good nic - heaps of flow today which made paddling back a bit of a challenge and at one stage had to walk. In Bass news we seriously lost count of the amount of small to medium fish we caught. Black and black and gold divers did the trick, as did spinner baits. Chris pulled 8 smallish fish out of one area one after the other on a black diver. I got two from under the next tree along - clearly he had the better of it at that stage :-) The best fish of the day I found in the bottom of a deep hole with heaps of fish showing on the sounder. The bottom went from about 70cm right down to almost 8 metres very quickly, a bit like a cliff under the water with the fish at the bottom of it. I was in site of North Richmond bridge by this stage. Looked bloody fantastic on the sounder, should have taken a pic but I was a bit excited as the fish alarm was going nuts LOL Anyway, put on a bigger 3 inch plastic with a Betts spin and let if flutter down. Couple of cranks of the bottom and wammo - a beautiful big fat fish of 36cm. My best Bass of the season so far. I was stoked to find them on the sounder and then actually put a lure down there and pull one out. I felt like a real fisherman with half a clue! I was really happy with that effort and really was enjoying myself. So a few pics of from today. Cheers David.

Ah that's great work. I have one lone taylor made lure in my box that I've never given a decent swim... maybe I will now LOL :-) Good work again.

Oh my word!!!!! Horses. Well done.

G'day mate, I launched at the very small boat ramps along the main road that runs parallel to the creek, right near the bridge over the creek. Is that the central coast highway???? Can't remember but near the bridge. How do you go in the lagoons.... I was staying at MacMasters beach and was going to fish Cochran(sp) Lagoon but didn't as it didn't look like there was much action in there. Thanks for your kind comments everyone!!!! Cheers David.

Well done, looks like a nice spot in the Yak.

Thanks Scratchie, I was pretty pleased - especially with the EP!!!! It was a great delight to catch that fish, just a bit special :-) Oh... and its even more special from the Yak... you just seem so much closer to the action than in a boat, I'm totally addicted to Yak fishing now.... Cheers David.

Hi Stewy, Thanks very much. I certainly enjoyed the catch and the way he "sucked" the lure in on the pause. Totally different take to a bream. With any luck it won't be my 1st and last :-)

Hi Guys and Girls, Sorry for the late report but just found time now to stick it up. Was up at MacMasters Beach for a week with the fam. Took the yak and went out to Erina Creek on Wed 6th for a look around and a flick given I've never fished it before. Got the yak on the water before sun up and paddled around having a look and getting a feel for the place while dragging a lure behind me. The tide was on the last run out when I got there and the best action was at the dead low slack water and the turn of the run in. Had a great morning trolling hard body's and flicking at baitfish busting up on the surface. Tailor chasing the bait fish but I did pull one bream on a lure from underneath the bust up which was great. The highlight for me was my very first EP. Got him under the bridge at the entrance to Brisbane Water after I trolled through, caught a small tailor so turned around and threw the lure back under. I gave it a twitch or two and then let it sit. The EP sucked the lure down on the pause which was really cool. He went 30cm so I was very happy with that. Trolled up the creek, which I have to say is a bit of a "sewer", but there are heaps of fish, stingrays and eels in there. Got a few bream, saw heaps of wildlife and then pulled the pin about 9.30am to head back and see what the fam was up to. So I think I did fairly well for a totally new stretch of water for me and was very happy in the end to bag the fish it did. Some pics follow of fish caught big and small... All taken on the one lure, tried plastics, different hardbodys for no result. The pink Halco Scorpion did all the damage. Cheers David.

Hi guys, I've had a question about how I fitted a sounder to my yak but couldn't post pics in the reply to a thread so have started this one. So... here goes: I've got a Lowarance X4. It's really good and went for that because of the clarity of the screen. The rest of the specs were pretty much the same as all the other sounders from other manufactures. I also got this one as the sounder unit itself is quite compact and fit the space nicely where I wanted it to go. I've mounted it over the drink bottle chanel in the middle of the yak just in front of the seat and behind the swivel rod holder. Its a great position as its easy to see and use from there. I went to JayCar electronics and bought a small metal plate for $4 to screw to the yak and then mount the sounder base on. The PVC pipe came from bunnings. I put a bolt through the rod holder to use as a gymble style stop for he pvc pipe so it doesn't move around and cut a slot in the pipe to fit over the bolt. A tip, don't glue your pipe until you fit it over the bolt and have all the angles correct. I nearly did and would have been starting again. I then mounted the transducer bracket off the bottom of the pipe with a bit of aluminium and i tied the extra cable together with cable ties and it sits around the base of the swivel rod holder in the front to keep it neat(ish) and out of the way. Battery box is a tupperware container siliconed in the back and the battery cables run through the seat saddles on the side of the yak. In all it works very well with very minimal hole drilling. I only had to drill two small holes to secure the plate for the sounder base. Nowhere else. David. p.s. Oh the wheels are a homemade invention I created. I've modified them since so they're not so heavy but cutting some of the wood away and painted them so they look better. They have posts that fit through the scupper holes and the yak sits on top. Works a bloody treat but being made out of a huge piece of wood weight far too much. Next prototype will be aluminium or steel with rubber for the yak to sit on.

Had a couple of hits on surface lures but no hookups, there were still a bit tentative, not smashing the lure if you know what I mean. All of these fish were taken on chubby divers (black and gold in the pics) or on spinner baits bumped through the snags and timber as you say. Hopefully the surface bite will come on soon. Nothing better than a fat bass smashing a suface lure in tight against the bank and then trying to pull the buggar out!!! :-)

Hey Pazza, Yeah, I've got a few pics but not sure how well they show the mounting. I can't seem to find a way to put them in this reply post so I'll post them in the Yak section in a new thread for you to see. I've got a Lowarance X4. It's really good and went for that because of the clarity of the screen. The rest of the specs were pretty much the same as all the other sounders from other manufactures. I also got this one as the sounder unit itself is quite compact and fit the space nicely where I wanted it to go. I've mounted it over the drink bottle chanel in the middle of the yak just in front of the seat and behind the swivel rod holder. Its a great position as its easy to see and use from there. I went to JayCar electronics and bought a small metal plate for $4 to screw to the yak and then mount the sounder base on. The PVC pipe came from bunnings. I put a bolt through the rod holder to use as a gymble style stop for he pvc pipe so it doesn't move around and cut a slot in the pipe to fit over the bolt. A tip, don't glue your pipe until you fit it over the bolt and have all the angles correct. I nearly did and would have been starting again. I then mounted the transducer bracket off the bottom of the pipe with a bit of aluminium and i tied the extra cable together with cable ties and it sits around the base of the swivel rod holder in the front to keep it neat(ish) and out of the way. Battery box is a tupperware container siliconed in the back and the battery cables run through the seat saddles on the side of the yak. In all it works very well with very minimal hole drilling. I only had to drill two small holes to secure the plate for the sounder base. Nowhere else. David.

Thanks everyone for the positive responses, I'm having a ball and the Yak is getting a good workout. Has some scratches and dings from clambering through the shallow stuff now so it looks like its seen some work as well :-) Scratchie, the conduit off the side of the yak holds the transducer for my sounder. It sits in the rod holder and has an alloy plate on the bottom that I have the transducer bracket bolted to. I wasn't really sure about mounting it inside the yak on a big glob of silicone so did that instead. Once the water gets shallow I just lean forward and take it out, put it on the front till i'm back in the deeper water and then stick it back in again. Works pretty well and I get nice readings off the sounder so pretty happy with it.

Hi guys and girls, Another Bass report but our best day on the river so far. Lost count of the small Bass we caught, some only just bigger than lure. But... got a couple of nice ones over the 30cm mark which I was really happy with. Surely some time soon I'll get a beast up around or over the 40's All bass were taken on Betts Spins and 2inch grubs or my "secret special lure" from the online store Had a seriously great day today. If I only caught small Bass it would still be an awesome day... big or small, I just love catch'n fish! Cheers David.

Thanks mate. No sign of fires at Yarramundi but they're not far away. Always safety first buddy, people at home need me to return after every trip! :-) Cheers David.

Howdy Raiders, Quick report from Yarramundi today. Put in at the bridge and paddled up to the top of the lagoon for 3 Bass. Got one trolling a hardbody along the bank which was nice. One other on the same hardbody (an online store special but a great lure). Got out and carried the Yaks across to the second body of water. Had a paddle around in there, didn't realise it was so deep in spots. We bashed our way through some rubbish and over a boom into the main flow back to Yarramundi. I dropped one fish just the other side of the boom while talking to some guys who were land fishing for Bass as well. Paddled our way with the flow back down to the bridge, carrying the yaks over the rapids where we couldn't paddle. My Chris made me a fish measurer which is a piece of PVC pipe with a fisheries fish ID sticker in the bottom. It's really great as it sits across your lap and you lay the fish in it to check the length, and then de-hook. Saves the fish jumping around the Yak and especially good for flatties or things with spikes :-) In all a very enjoyable morning with quite a bit of ground covered and a bit of adventure thrown in and with 3 nice little Bass I couldn't find anything to complain about! :-) I'll let the pics do the talking from here :-) Cheers David.

Oh yes that's a cracker. I'll be out on the weekend looking for a fish or two myself :-) Congrats, nice fat fish.

Ah yes, saw you there on the bank as we came in to call it a day. Sun was really hot and dead calm conditions. Not a fish off the surface but its only a matter of time :-)