Kayaks converge on Woody Head

Author: josh

Category: Trip Reports

Created on Saturday, 16 January 2010 22:34

Written by Josh

There was quite a crowd of kayak fishermen that converged on Woody Head (NSW) simultaneously this morning, with a fleet of kayak-topped cars rolling up on cue. Mine was the first in the water but the other guys weren't far behind. I led them over to the mark I refer to as 'mark 016' where a school of slimeys was located. Slim and Biggles from Kayak Fishing Down Under (KFDU) were heading in another direction, however, so I opted to follow their lead instead. Not just because I know Slim has had some great success out here, but also to spend a bit of time fishing with Biggles, whom I'd never previously met.

Chatting away as we set off to the north I spotted a large spanish mackerel leap out of the water no more than 20 metres behind Slim's yak and for a moment I thought he'd hooked it. I cast a lure right into the patch where it leaped but got no reaction. We continued on and soon after I hooked a small bonito, which I quick returned. After pressing on for another 4km or so, we then turned around and made our way back to the headland. Although I had no hook ups a long the way, we did start catching fish when we got there. 

At first more bonito showed up, followed quickly by Tailor. Slim boated the 1st (a good-sized greenback of around 60cm) and soon after dropped a much larger specimen. After losing a couple of lures I finally had a solid hook up and brought in this tailor, which measured up at around 50cm. After quickly bleeding & cleaning the fish another hook up followed - this time a bit larger - although it spat the hook as I was reeling it in.

By the time we found the fish this morning we'd pedalled over 10km and it was getting close to midday. Had we concentrated our efforts on the headland - with a tailor-catching mindset - we would have caught quite a few more. By Woody head's standards it was a pretty quiet day today, with little bird activity and firt the most part, bites few and far between. Regardless, it was a really nice morning on the water and a great way to start the day. And it was great to see so many kayak fishoes going hard.