Black Rock or bust (yak fish'n expedition)

Author: josh

Category: Trip Reports

Created on Sunday, 24 April 2011 09:20

Written by Josh

Weather was picture perfect for kayak fishing on Good Friday, at times with wind dropping out completely, perhaps a little too perfect. Seas were flat and calm when I hit the water but with winds so low it was going to be a bit of an effort to reach Black Rock. As I launched I couldn't escape the sneaking suspicion that I'd forgotten something - all my gear was here though, so what? Whatever it was stayed on the tip of my mind for hours, but eventually I forgot about it and pushed ahead with the plan. 

There wasn't many opportunities to sail as I made way north but soon after I reached the Black Rock area the wind picked up, coming in from the nor-east at around 7 - 8 knots. By this time it was late afternoon, which was later than I would have liked to start finding fish. There were patches of anchovy baitfish massing off the Black Rock area and things went from being decidedly sparse to decidedly fishy immediately. Aside from the trillions of mini-fish, I spotted mackerel, tuna, sharks and the largest Manta Ray I'd ever seen. 

I hooked and released 2 small mack tuna while casting stickbait soft plastic at them and soon afterwards hooked a small shark while trolling. which put up almost no fight. It went into some kind of comatose state when I brought it alongside the kayak, trying to lull me into a false sense of security. It'd only taken less than 5 minutes to get it up yakside and I knew it was way too early to drag it in. The lure was hooked with 2 trebles but upon inspection figured I could extract it and release the shark; being on my own with plans to camp out overnight, I figured it was more than I needed to try and fit on a plate. So as I held the shark in position by gaffing the corner of it's mouth to hold it steady and then used my Deckie pliers to remove the trebles. 

Once I'd removed the trebles it was then a matter of unwrapping line (from my other rod) from around the shark. This meant lifting it out of the water, which the shark took as a cue to wake the hell up. It shook its head violently just as I peeled the last wrap of line off it and angled the gaff hook downward to free it - I'm glad it landed back into the water safely and not on deck.

My next priority was to find somewhere to land and when I started thinking about this, I soon realised what it was that I'd forgot - to take a GPS mark for a good landing area at Black Rock (that'll teach me to hatch expedition plans at the last minute). From my vantage position at sea I found it just as difficult as last time to find somewhere that looked like a reasonable place to pitch a tent and for the life of me couldn't figure out where the camping area was. Unlike last time, however, there were a lot of people on the beach (stretching for km) and a lot of cars getting around on it to, so the beach didn't look so inviting and With the sun going down fast I was running out of time. Surf wasn't too bad along most of the coastline, though there were definitely some areas best avoided. 

Indecision reigned supreme and just as I hit the now-or-never stage I contemplated the merits of turning back to Woody Head. Although it'd be booked out for Easter I knew someone would probably let me camp on their site. The problem with this plan was that there was over 20km distance to traverse to get back there, meaning I'd likely be doing part of the journey in darkness. I weighed up my options - if I landed on the beach, wherever I stopped I would have to stay the night, even if I was unable to pitch a tent. The water was fairly choppy now, but still low. My main concern about navigating back to Woody Head through darkness was the possibility of inadvertently paddling/sailing into a bommie area. Heading back to Woody Head meant covering the same distance that took almost 6 hours to reach, though for the moment at least, wind was coming from behind so as long as that stayed in place, I'd get a nice run back in a little under 4 hours. By contrast, I could head for the beach now and be on land within 15 minutes. Hrmmm... 

Unable to make up my mind initially, I gave some thought to the following days weather predictions. Low seas again, but stronger winds from the south. That could make for a challenging journey back and accepting this was my final inspiration for turning back immediately. Fortunately the wind did stay true, pushing me along at a comfortable 7-8kph the entire time, which I accelerated to 9-10kph whenever I pedalled along with it (which wasn't much). Aside from a spirited tailor that fought in such a way as to betray it's modest size, the return trip was relatively event-less. 

I arrived back at Woody Head just over a couple of hours later (faster than I thought), right as twilight was fading to black. As anticipated, someone did offer to let me pitch my tent (the very first person to approach me for an inquisitive chat) but by then I was too tired to bother pitching a tent when I could just as easily jump in the car, drive home, get a good nights sleep and return the following morning. That's precisely what I did too, although my Saturday morning venture was brief. With strong winds coming in from the south I soon found myself heading back to land, as were all the other boaters out there. Although a real shame, at this point I was glad I came back when I did the night before. It would have been a very difficult trip to attempt in these conditions.