La Perouse

[frankie machine]

Hey Raiders,

Four years into my fishing career and I took the plunge and bought a fishing kayak – a Moken 12 Angler. Picked it up yesterday and wrestled it on the roof racks (lesson No.1: lay a towel on the back of the Mazda – hope the wife doesn’t see the scratch). With the piggy bank suffering (and having been inspired by a posting on a yak fishing site), I stopped off at a hardware store on the way home a spent a couple of dollars on some pvc pipe to knock up a cheap rod holder – for someone whose handyman skills are tested by changing a lightbulb I was pretty chuffed with the end result.

Up this morning and armed with some brilliant kayak tips from Fishraider guru Roberta (thanks again), with the wind having dropped, I headed out to La Perouse with hopes the maiden voyage would have a better ending than the Titanic.

Successfully unloaded kayak, loaded it up and headed for the sand (lesson No.2: keep rod out of rolder when you’re moving kayak past trees – spent about 5 minutes untangling line).

Out on the water and the sun’s coming up, I’m happy just cruising close to the shore getting the feel of how the kayak goes. Took a small supply of lures to really just do some practise casting, not really expecting any result. Then after about 20 minutes get the shock of my life when I hear that lovely ‘whizz’ of the reel. Concentrate not to panic so I don’t lose my balance and then start reeling in a top little tubby tailor. Go to grab the net (then realise I have to unhook it from cord - d’oh) but successfully land the tailor. Muck around trying to get the fish ruler out of hatch (lesson No.3: get a fish sizing sticker for the hull) and it comes to 38cm. Absolutely rapt, even though it had totally destroyed the MF40 soft vibe I’d been throwing around. Spent another hour just cruising, drifting, casting – the shoulders are feeling a bit tight now - but an absolute great way to spend the morning, bring on the warmer weather.

[Andy Loops]

nice work mate sounds like there will be plenty more reports to follow!

Cheers

Andy

[jordan.widz]

great report there and sounds like u had a great day out on the yak, good lessons too, i take my hat of to all kyakers out there it must be so hard stay in control of the fish in such a compact vessel

[scotty1856]

Great little report I did engoy reading and I look forward to you next report. Good luck

Scotty

[jenno64]

Frankie,

Good to see you in a yak....you'll have a great summer!

[Basil D]

well done on a great report, enjoyed reading it and had a great Laugh.

[southerly]

great stuff enjoy the yak it is a whole new world, I like the rod holder but don't see a tether on the rod, worth tethering anything you don't want to loose now to avoid dissapointment. Though you would not be the first yakker to 'loose' kit overboard so that an equipment upgrade can be achieved.

David

[arpie]

Hey Frankie - nice looking yak!! Congratulations on your purchase & Well Done on blooding it with a very nice tailor it your first outing!! As David says - tether EVERYTHING to the yak ..... even my pliers & knife are tethered (or at least make sure it floats ...... some pool noodle stuck up the handle of your net should help ......) and I would recommend you sticking a measuring tape directly onto your paddle (which is also tethered) so it is one less thing to look for when you get a fish!! ( cut it a bit thinner so only the measurements show & it'll stick on better!)

Oh yes - the old rod in the trees trick!! It happens to everyone!! It won't be the last time!

Have fun in your yak, don't forget to test it's 'lean factor' (how far you can lean in it left or right before you feel uncomfortable or tippy) so that you know how far you can in 'an actual catch' situation when a big fish may go straight under the yak or you are trying to pull it in ...... maybe one day, just go out without gear & 'roll off' so you practise getting back on again (not too far from land!)

Enjoy & have many happy hours on the water with it

Cheers

Roberta

[paulthetaffy]

Hi Frankie, congrats on bloodying the yak!

All those lessons are ones that I think all of us yakkas need to learn (the hard way) at some point - it's like a right of passage or something

If La Perouse is your local spot then you're a lucky guy. It's got some great spots that are just out of reach of the landbased angler, particularly round in Congwong bay (east of Bare Island) where there is an artificial reef (google for it's location). You might need a sounder to find it (or follow a boat/yakker) but it's a great holding spot. But you don't have to go that far - there's heaps of trevally all around La Perouse at the moment though and they're easy to get into. There's a few yellow marker buoys off the front of the headland that you can tether your yak to (or just use it for a reference point). Throw out a few pilly cubes for burley every few minutes and this will trigger the trevally into feeding. Then either bait fish the bottom or my preferred method just throw 3" soft plastics around, and let them sink all the way to the bottom. Hits are ususally on the drop (it's about 10-12m deep out there so takes a while to sink) but if you don't get a hit on the first drop just hop them back to the yak. It's great fun on light gear and you'll get the odd pinkie/bream/flattie/random reef species too.

I have to echo Roberta's comments about tethering absolutely everything. You WILL go in at some point and you will lose everything that's not nailed down. But be sensible with your tethers too otherwise the tangle potential makes it dangerous to have lots of them in the water with you. Retractable lanyards are great for smaller items like scissors, while thin bungee cord/coiled plastic keyring chains are good for rod/paddle leashes. Try to make everything as short as possible while still being functional to minimise the tangle potential. Many yakkas have a dive knive permanently attached to their PFD so that they can cut all lines/leashes in an emergency. There's a few kayak fishing specific forums that I think both Roberta and I are members of that will offer you some more detailed ideas. I don't want to take anything away from fishraider though so PM me if you want more info.

And lastly I agree with Roberta about testing your yak's boyancy and more importantly practising your deep water re-entry for when things do go awry. I learned the hard way and was lucky enough to figure it out on my own. BUT - big but - the water is very cold at the moment and the shock can cause all sorts of problems. Make sure you're wearing a PFD, don't practice it alone, and make sure you're wearing good thermals or a wetsuit!!

Paul

[duck168]

Good for you. Guess you won't be walking up and down Dolls Point casting soft plastic anymore. Fantastic report and it made me chuckle.

[frankie machine]

Hey Raiders,

Thanks for all the positive replies and more great advice. Roberta, the fish sticker on the paddle is a simple but effective idea and Paul that place you mentioned around Conwong sounds great. Unfortunagtley due to work I won't be able to get out again for a couple of weeks, but already hanging out to give it another crack.

Cheers