slothparade

Went berowera yesterday, launched at 7am. Worked along the rock walls with a sugar pen and had the bigger bream I've ever seen launch out of the water after the lure. Never knew they could do that. There were also plenty of prawns busting up, just motored along with the net out and scooped them up, they were all released, just having a bit of fun. Went to a new spot to do some crabbing. Saw a hilarious tour group, funniest thing was when the group leader goes "someone (won't disclose they're name") stop sleeping, then sane person, come back" just kind of funny how someone was able to fall asleep while 'paddeling'. Anyways, had motor problems all day so wasn't able to do much fishing, but was still a nice day out. Will be picking up the pots on Monday.

Probably worth putting air lockers on though its a large investment it's well worth it. Even just the rear locker makes a lot of difference. Issue will be the maintenance of them, especially keeping up with making sure they're sealed. My mates ute and my LandCruiser (both twin locked) are basically equal in ability. Id recommend just sticking to the main brands, it's not worth buying the cheap online ones.

Definitely was, it's always nice to get outside though even though it was full of mishaps. The amount of trolling/drifting with rods in the back, I kind of got used to suddenly having a bit more resistance but definitely wasn't expecting to be swung around lol, shocked me a bit.

Thanks for the offer, appreciate it, but unfortunately it's the spine (plastic) that has failed.

Anyone know where I can get the pedal drive repaired?

PS. The photos have been compressed as the originals were to big to upload

Took the kayak out at around 10am unfortunately was running big time late. Got in the water and started making my way down to get live bait when part of the pedal drive snapped and my left pedal could only be left on the furtherest position, should have been a sign of worse to come. Was trolling a lure behind when the rod suddenly buckled and swung the kayak around and pulled a fair bit of line off before coming off, get the lure back and find the hook has been bent straight. Then got to the place and first cast, some how the line came over the bail (yes it was originally under as I was using the rod a couple of days before) and now I had a giant mess of line. After a while of hooked legs and pants I sorted that out and got fishing and of course miss the only bite. So moved on to the next place where the reel started to play up again and the pedal drive was starting to become loose for some reason. Did get a couple of nice pics. Anyways with no live bait, had to revert to plan B with the fresh squid. Trolled the fresh squid behind the kayak on one rod and a pilchard on a flasher rig on the other. Got a decent bite on the flasher but didn't land. Then got to a bank and found the squid to be half gone. Found a nice spot out of the current to go for bream and had some more food. Didn't get any bites. Then kept heading down until the line got tangled in dad's motor. So trying to deal with that in wind and current was fun especially when a boat whoes anchor broke and wasn't watching where they were drifting ran into us. We eventually made it to the beach where we untangled the motor. We swapped kayaks for a bit of fun then the wind and current started to pick up. So started to TRY and head back to the boat ramp. Got off the beach and the pedal drive snapped in half, yes it completely snapped in the middle, I don't know how. Paddling against the wind and current was hard. But the worst part was when I was getting a tow and none of the boats listened to the no wash sign. As my rudder had broken I couldn't steer and being Towed and getting hit by wake I litterally almost flipped. The side of the kayak was almost all under the water. Of course dad's kayak with the hole for the wiring in the unsealed front watch filled with water which all went into the hull multiple times made for a very rocky and unpleasant trip back he almost flipped many times with I was continuously going around in circles because of the current and broken rudder. Atleast we got back to the boat ramp in one peace. That's when we saw the highlight of the day, my mates 'highly prized' car which is completely bent, leans over to the left side constantly so he's filled the right side up with bricks to even it out.

Yeah they work. Throw them right under the trees. Extremely light line, make it look like they fell out of the tree. Ive had a little success with them

Yeah it's definitely American, can tell from the ad. Looks a nice rod and reel though. Enjoy 🙂

Those are pretty neat little spoons. Out of interest what travel combo was this? Ive only ever seen lures like this in America in like little multi packs and big ones sold by them selves. As for the soft plastics, they look to be the standard ones you get in all in one combo pack, I have a bunch of them I found on the side of the road. They work alright, not the great. I have a bunch of these tiny jig heads I found, they're like 1/24 ounce or something and tiny hook. Work alright on those soft plastics. As for the spoons, maybe trout on the small one and tailor and salmon on the larger ones?

Looks like a bit of fun. In the warmer months, chuck out a whole yakka or large bait with steel wire and you will get bronzies. heapes of them around there.

Thanks for clarifying, I was just flicking through yt shorts when I came across a guy hammering on and on about his stainless steel rock climbing stuff. Just thought it might have been helpful to relay that info. Can definitely understand the issue of weight though. Thanks for correcting though. Sorry about the misguidance. Not that long ago I did see an ad for dog life jackets for sale.

It's probably worth looking and a lift jacket as well. Those rock climbing things are stainless steel, well the good ones are.

Probably a dumb idea as I don't know anything about alveys, but isnt there a specialised Alvey for luderick? I'd have thought that would be suited to float fishing?

I found going lite to no sinker with small hook and a chunk of bonito works well. Get quite a few bream and stuff. Though I'm not not really trying and just chucking out a line while waiting between sharks

Could it have been one of the catfish?

MY trick when handling fish on the kayak is to either lift them into the kayak and chuck them up the front and quickly dispatch or just remove the hook and back into the water. Because I usually have my feet over the side for stability the whole area in front of the pedals is free. If I need to make adjustments, I have the rudder somewhat pre set to adjust depending on how I've needed to adjust before and just pedal with my hands. For emergencies where a quick escape was needed, which has happened while I was still landing fish. Ive turned a car shade into a freezer bag so I just pop the fish down the hatch while making my escape. As I do basically all my fishing in salt water, I never use a stringer. As for the rigs I usually fish a dropper rig so I just have the sinker over the side and keep the spare hook over the side as well. As for the rod holders, I have a rack with 2 30 degree pipes out the sides for trolling. But this is setup for offshore, absolutely useless for estuary. Thanks again Derek for teaching me about the ins and outs of kayak fishing.

In wood tech we watched our teachers finger get eaten by a ban saw, was a bit of an eye open. Ive also had drills go through my hand and come out the other side, wire brushes go into me. The one to top it all was my boss got a bar of metal go in one side of him and come out the other, part of the drilling rig. And yes he's ok, narrowly escaped.

If you bring a pair of pliers, use it to pull out the pins either side of the wheels then you can pack it into the front hatch. Takes a little bit of fiddling to work out the orientation but it works. PS I'm using the standard Hobie cart, not the C tug

Sharks will be coming down and into the harbour soonish, they've already began to come down. Also jervis bay, Nelson bay and south West rocks are my favourite places. Long reef has been producing for me. Good luck 🙂

As far as I'm concerned. Sienna then Sedona them stradic then saragosa then Stella as the core reels, but there are stuff in between. Here's my theory, I recon they're just part of combos and they're just peddling different looks. They don't have half a dozen twin power competitors for example. Just a marketing thing as well as giving way to many options for combos.

Have you thought about a custom rod?

I'll probably be heading out as well

I use some Japanese brand braid, platypus, crane, just to name a few. The issue with cheap braid is that the colour rubs off on your guides very quickly and actual strength can differ quite a bit, also wind knots can occur. Just for reference though, I've landed big bream on cheap $10 braid. My thoughts on J braid ect, they're good, high quality, I just can't justify spooling every reel with expensive braid, hence only a few of mine are spooled with expensive braid. As a side note, don't be to afraid of cheaper braids like ashcon fish, or wft strong braid, I know people and I personally use them and have landed large fish and sharks on them so for what it is, it gets the job done for me. As for fluro leader, I like what Evers cheapest, I usually go with Berkely vanish or whenever I'm re-spooling a reel or a mates, I'll keep the line to use as leader. I can honestly say it is completely fine, I landed a gummy shark on very old line without any issues. Personally I'd go 8-10 lbs braid and just change out the leader, allows me to target a broader range of species.