yakass

With the Sunshine Coast series of the KFT fast approaching, Yakass members "TheBigGuy" and "Wombatx8" and myself went for a bit of practice on the wiley bream. The tide for today was similar to what we will be fishing on the day of round one of the comp. For this trip, we concentrated on the Pelican Waters canal estate. It was a beautuful spring morning and was almost windless first thing in the morning which made it easy to spot any fish action.

We fished the last of the run out tide and a couple of hours of the run in before calling it quits and heading home for lunch. Next recon trip will most likely be down to Bells Creek one day next week. Some of you may remember that I came 2nd overall in last year's Sunny Coast series. You may also remember I caught only one legal fish for each round. Today though,I was very pleased with myself. I caught 3 Bream and dropped 3 (assumed) bream. The first 2 fish went 25cm and 25.5cms to the fork. I was doubly pleased with myself for having boated more than one bream in the first place as I usually only get one. I am yet to master these well fed canal fish.

Although it will be some time before 2011 models start appearing on Australian shores, Hobie are set to announce the new seasons kayak line up. The very first confirmed information about what next year holds in store comes in the form of a new online Hobie kayak 2011 catalogue that will very soon take shape in print form.

There are a number of notable additions & alterations, one of which that is probably going to make a lot of people very happy, inadvertently upsetting some others simultaneously. Lets get that out of the way first, followed by a related disclaimer I'd like to share on behalf of all Hobie kayak dealers. At last... Hobie have finally made the Adventure Island available in (what appears to be) dune colour as a complete kit, in both the AI and TI models.

Mark my words - this will very quickly become the most popular colour of the 3 (in Australia at least). Its a colour dealers have been asked about almost constantly for the past 12 months or so and many dealers will certainly be thankful for having it available, as will countless buyers no doubt.

Here comes the disclaimer, and I send this out to each and every person who has asked me if Hobie was planning to release a dune coloured AI, to which I have always responded 'apparently not' and typically adding 'but they definitely should.' I have always based the 'apparently not' response on answers to that very same question asked of Hobie directly, by me in person and others in online forums. The answer has always been something along the lines of 'there are no plans to make the AI available in dune at this time'. So to those of you who might feel mislead by this, I apologize. I suspected it was coming (which is why I asked) but I was never certain.

I suppose technically, it's not dune. They call it Azul... but going by the photo in the online catalogue, I'd say that's simply because of the inclusion of blue trims on the sail (which really give it a lot of pizazz). I'm excited by the 2011 AI, not just because of this new colour, but also because of the new aka/xbar lock-in system currently featured on the Tandem Island. I'm really looking forward to seeing the new AI up close and personal. 2011 might be the year I upgrade my AI... to another AI

For the past week I've received numerous inquiries as to the whereabouts of the 'Ultimate Fishing Kayak' clip I previously mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Anticipation for this one is pretty high as I knew it would be, which is partly why it isn't yet ready. I'm pretty pedantic about the way I go about videoing this sort of narrated content and of utmost importance to me is capturing clear audio. And for the past couple of weekends the wind has been blowing both strong and consistently enough to be a problem. Thats par for course this time of year on the Clarence coast, but with the dawn of spring upon us, that should all be about to change. Not only should that give me a chance to get this shoot done, it should also improve my catch rate, which has been fairly lacklustre of late (unless we're counting bonito & pike, which we aren't).

As soon as I observed Holger's newly installed electrical bilge pump system (earlier in the year at Copmanhurst) instantly I saw the value in the concept and within a week I'd installed one of my own. Haste is never a good thing though and in this case, resulted in a fairly sloppy job that although was functionally and somewhat theoretically sound, was always something I'd planned to redo. When it came time to install the new Lowrance HDS5 sounder into the yak, it felt like an opportune moment. Before installing the sounder I uninstalled the bilge pump system, intending to put it back together again, only this time with some better materials and the benefit of hindsight. But just as soon as I got done installing the sounder I took a good look inside the hull and figured that reinstallation of the bilge would make it look a bit like the innards of a pinball machine. And it got me to thinking...

And that thinking very quickly made me reconsider my affinity to the electrical bilge pump concept, which when considered with the newly added power drain caused be the chartplotter/sounder, raised red flags. The likelihood of a battery running out of power is actually pretty high. Just as pertinent, I think, is that the likelihood of operational failure is also fairly high, for a variety of potential factors. And when weighing this up with the likelihood of failure on the obvious surrogate - a manual bilge pump - it became pretty clear to me which was the most reliable overall option. So I decided to leave the electrical system uninstalled and instead devised a way to secure it's manual counterpart securely into the hull.

 

Whilst I absolutely hate the word 'extreme' used to describe, well, anything, I have to admit that those of us kayak fishing off shore for larger sportfish are indeed acting on the extreme end of the yak fishing scale. So much so that there is a huge disparity in the practice of open water fishing vs that of inshore fishing, with respect to both the experience and how to best prepare for it.

It's taken some time for them to finally land down under, but Hobie's new heavy duty cart has arrived. Incorporating the very same wheel that Hobie have used on previous heavy duty carts (very tough) and the same frame as the standard wheelcart, these should be a good alternative for those looking for something a bit heavier and stronger than what is otherwise typically available. They're a bit dearer, but for some the extra cost might be worth it (Pro Angler, Adventure Island & Tandem Island owners... I'm looking at you).

Today's trip out ended with a good dose of spectacular irony and was easily my most enjoyable excursion for some time. It all started pretty quietly, putting in just before 6AM to a stiff westerly that blew me to the reefs out to the south pretty quickly. When I reached what looked to be a likely spot on the sounder I reefed the sail and lowered down a luminous Storm jig (supplied by member Roller, who sent them all the way from the UK) on one line and a soft plastic on the other. They both hooked up within a minute, one after the other. Both fish cod, both returned. I soon grew tired of red rock cod after pulling in a few more, so I tied on a couple of trolling lures and pulled out the sail. From here I got onto a sth easterly reach with a sth westerly powering me along and steadily I may my way to the mouth of the Clarence and beyond to explore the shoreline of Yamba.

I poked around here and took some very interesting marks around Iluka bluff before heading back to the nth east towards Woody Head. By the time I'd reached the point at Woody Head I'd sailed 26km. I furled the sail to pedal my way across the headland (where I often find fish casting towards the rocks) and as I did so I watched on as a fairly large shark (with a really thick head) leaped clear out of the water and did a semi-twist mid air and landed with a heavy splash. With a distance of about 60 metres separating us I was unable to determine it's species but pulled out the Shark Shield in readiness just in case. I drifted directly to the position I saw it jump, constantly scanning the water for more signs of it, camera and Rapala at the ready. It was right about now that my sounder decided to inform me of how long my 7AH battery could run it for, conking out on cue. This is where the irony begins because only moments after the sounder screen flicked off I started seeing fish. And lots of them.

I've ranted before on how I wouldn't buy a Panasonic cam again and I'm sad to say that what I'm about to reveal only reinforces the point. When I last raised the topic during an unnatural wait for a replacement unit, the issue being adressed was the various instances of the actual unit shell disintegrating (thats the best adjective I can use). I waited just over 6 weeks for that replacement, which is what frustrated me so much at the time.

It didn't take long for that concern to be completely over-shadowed by another. In the very same post that I revealed my Panasonic plight, numerous other members using exactly the same camera reported precisely the same problem - small chunks of outer casing chipping away. Eroding, not so slowly and certainly surely. These guys also sent their cams in for inspection, and also waited for over 6 weeks for a replacement.

Ever since I released a clip titled 'The Compleat Fishing Kayak' (in which I demonstrated how I was equipping the kayak for off-shore excursions when using it in outrigger mode) I have been continually asked to come up with something similar for the full trimaran. This is something I held off doing for quite a while, largely because I knew that I hadn't quite mastered the customization. I'm glad I held off, because not only have I now reached a point where I doubt I could improve the set up significantly, I've made numerous modifications and equipment switches to further optimize off shore performance and my load out is now remarkably different to how I use to roll. I haven't yet publicly displayed or discussed some these modifications so even those who have read and viewed everything I've uploaded so far will see quite a few new tricks that are working really well for me. I expect this clip to come in at twice the length of the Compleat Fishing Kayak, and with at least 3 times as much information.

Remember remember the 1st of November, as this is the day that new PFD law reforms come into effect in NSW. In our world of ever decreasing liberties, this reform was really only a matter of time. The new rules specify that users will have to wear legally prescribed type life jackets (or Personal Floatation Devices, AKA PFDs as they are supposed to be referred to) at all times by anyone in a canoe or kayak under 4.8 metres in length in open waters, as well as enclosed waters at 100 metres from shore.