allen_f

She went 70cm

Well done on the yak mate! Subscribe to my thread in kayak crew to see if anyones getting out for a sesh keep the fish coming i say

G'day Raiders, I've been swamped with a combination of work, uni and business so I haven't managed to get out for a while. I've been cravinggggggggggg a fish for a long time, so I took the Easter long weekend as an opportunity to get out. Met up with fellow Raider and all round champion Krause at port kembla harbour for a first light launch. Being Easter Friday, the boat ramp was packed with eager boaties. We took our time, got down to the ramp, almost got run over a few times but launched just on first light. It's quite embarrassing, but I've never used a bait jig before so Krause showed me the way as he picked up livies, trevs and snappers in quick succession. I managed to hook up a few but they all dropped before getting into the yak so big fat ZERO on the livies there. Krause being the awesome yak partner that he is threw me a couple of his and thus began the session. The water wasn't the most comfortable and the wind + rain definitely didn't help but hey, to be on the water is to live right?!? we drifted and trolled our livies for another big fat ZERO for the both of us. We both got a couple of touches from something but no hook up. Meanwhile a couple of boaties were teasing us about a shark in the bay.. psht sharks don't exist till I see one for myself......... (knock on wood). Couple of hours in and still nothing... eventually the water calmed down and glassed out. Tailor were busting up and chasing little baitfish of <5cm. So I tossed out a metal and bagged a few tailor up to 20cm, I just craved any sort of action. Meanwhile a dead yakka was on the other side of a baitrunner outfit waiting for that screaming reel. Eventually we found a drop off and I changed to a hard vibe to try for anything in the area. A few casts in and I hear - tick, tick, tick .. .tickk .. ticckk tick tick, it get a tad faster, I grab the rod and wait a couple of seconds before setting the hook. FINALLY FISH ON. I felt like I was pulling a log, no head shakes.. nothing.. I thought great snagged on debris but as I pulled line in, I felt the subtle headshake. I knew I was onto a flatty and seemed like a good one too! I dropped a big flatty yakside in the hacking a few weeks back because my landing net was too small (the head of the flatty wouldn't fit in the net). So with an upgraded environet, I was ready to scoop this one up. Took a few minutes to get it yakside and I lost it. I was ecstatic, it was another big flatty. This time I wouldn't drop it. I gave it some drag and let it tire out a bit, trying my hardest to not let it break surface. I had 30lb leader on so my hopes were high, I quickly called krause over to help me net and attempt after attempt neither of us could get it into the net and finally I managed to get the net under the big girl. Into the yak she went, I could've cried with joy. I knew she was a big girl and I was in a dilemma whether to keep her or not as I needed to provide an Easter feed for the family back at home. So I had Krause flip a knife (sheathed ofc) and it stuck with keeping the big girl. I felt a bit bad keeping a big breeder, but just for everyone's info, this is the first flatty I've ever caught bigger than just legal. The future breeders will 100% go back after this one. With the big girl in the keeper net, I was keen to get onto another. But all I could pull up were pinkies, 2nd one into the yak was a just legal 31cm, so I decided to keep it as it was also my first legal snapper. It'll go down great for my meal prep as baked snapper. Finished the session around 3 with just the two and not much else. Keen to get back to PKH as I saw some more big fish getting pulled up on facebook today! Hope it'll be my turn next. The flatty tasted beautiful for dinner and was enough for 4 meals for myself! Great fish, but I would definitely stick to eating <50cm ones. The flesh cooks up juicier and more tender on the ones between 40-50cm and the bigger one comes out a tad flakier. Still deliciousness none the less. Here's a couple of pics! Sorry for the long report. Video is below of the big flatty

Me and krause were out in PKH yesterday, we heard from a few boaties that someone got onto a marlin!! Must've been you guys hahah congrats!! You wouldn't have driven past us two in the yak would you?

you have balls tempting a shark like that!! HAHAHA I would've lost it, i love animals but don't get me wrong. I don't want to be around a shark when I'm only 10cm from the water's surface.

Burley hard, find deeper water and fish light. Play them in open water and have the time of your life

great sienna combos on atm for easter sales! Get em for under $100 with a pack of lures from you know where Get on em, my first combo was a sienna combo. I am in love with it. Student budget too, I've got a couple of varieties of them now!! Great value!

Apologies to Rod!! Keen for the meet up, who's bringing the beers?

Me and Krause are heading out to PK for the easter friday to get some fish for the family barbeques, come on raiders, let's get a party going!! Everyone's got the day off right? Someone bring the easter eggs

That is a beautiful fish!!! Would love to pull one in on the kayak ahahah, great catch though!!!

fuarrrrr sunrise kick off, im pretty keen depending on weather, would be good to get the new rig going. Let's call it on wed/thurs for the trip. Haven't been out in so long... brb need to install my anchor trolley HAHAHA

I have heard there are some crabs around captain cooks, I did pull up a big empty muddy claw once which was about the size of my fist... must have been a really big muddy.

Try making a live bait tube out of pvc Should help keep the squid alive! Good sesh though, haven't been out on the yak in ages.. I'm itching for a sesh

hahahah, i lost a similar flatty last week next to the yak... the head could barely fit into my berkley yak net to give you some sort of idea at how big it was. 4 failed net attempts later and an attempted lip grip, it snapped the leader and got away. Atleast you got a pic of it in the yak I'm still crying till this date.

I realised that too, first two times it came off was when some water got in and it became really moist and steamy inside after a long day. This is becoming a big issue for through hull transducing :'( maybe its time to get the marine goop, but I havent found any in the sydney area

hahah this!^

hahah I put a 10kg dumbell on my tranducer this time to hopefully squash out the airbubble!! Let's hope it lasts

Hey mate, I'm not a pro but I can help you out a tad. From what I know you shouldn't need to tie a sinker to the lure. Just use the lure as is either straight to the main line or to the swivel depending on the type of lure it is (some lure pro correct me on this. I'm hopeless at lures). If you can't reel your lure back in and it just keeps spinning, you can tighten the drag (the dial thing at the front of your reel in most cases). Just twist it clockwise until the line starts coming back on. If it's max out and you still cant retrieve the lure then I would imagine the lure is too heavy, but I don't think that will be an issue And no I dont think you need to bait up the hooks of your lure. Best of luck mate!

Thanks mate, I think the heat and vibration plays a big role in the delamination with the allclear, i find that it debonds when the kayak gets warmed up to around 40 or so degrees and some water gets in making it humid inside the hull. A small bump from anything in the hull would delodge it. Let us know how the sikaflex goes! Hopefully itll be the goods

Did you try the bass shop in penrith nate? Lemme know how sikaflex goes, if mine debonds again... im gonna lose it AHAHA but till then I've duct taped it down over the bond

Yeah baby! Smashing it! Keen to get down there with ya

Agreed! Always double check

sienna is life. A big franchise store usually does sienna + sonic pro combos for $69, take a look through some catalogs Being a cheapo student, I have a few variations of this combo and have caught fish! Just play em right and it should even bag you a few kings, salmon etc

Definitely mate! I'm going to head out into botany bay sometime next week with a couple of mates in inflatables. We'll just be hanging around the rock groynes. If they aren't free and I finalise a day, I'll be heading out to the hacking and I'll post the deets up here

Hey mate saw your post on both groups! Good job on the king!! To prevent slipping try use lip grips which are tethered to your yak, that way itll never slip back