I recently landed a Spanish and snapper on a double hookup. I was working a chunk of unknown (to me) territory. As I got the hit, I punched a waypoint straight into the GPS and started following a procedure that worked a treat on the snapper last season.

My plan was to focus on this specific GPS mark and see if that school of snapper I stumbled upon was a fluke or whether they were holding in that position while visiting the inshore reefs. Given the super fast current and the following wind on the double hookup day, I was given a really good benchmark for a comparison because on the next test day there was no current and a 10-15 knot southerly wind blowing me on the exact same drift path but in the opposite direction. In effect, I was able to reverse my path from North to South and then South to North to narrow down the mark.

As I lined up for the first drift, I saw similar fishlike blobs on my GPS in the zone around my newest mark but kept paddling about 500m upwind and crossed two more decent waypoints that I know hold snapper at this time. I spun the yak around, sent out the drougue and started flicking SP's ahead of the drift. As I crossed my first snapper mark I felt a bump, just wide of the 2nd mark I had a strong run but lost the fish. Things went quiet until about 15 metres from the newest waypoint when I landed a nice 4.5kg snapper. This was a good sign because my newest mark was now increasingly reliable and my original marks were tested again for positive result. Rather than travel 500m back and possibly catch something at the more familiar marks, I made an 80m run back from the newest strike zone and figured this would allow for a few drops using concentrated drifts over the fresh area.

Here's a piece of unco fishing video from this arvo that gives a good example as to how the fish directs the fight and how the angler needs to adapt in order to score a tasty feed. Unlike many reported yak battles, the actual fight on this 8kg Spanish lasted about two minutes.

I'm known as a skull dragger so these short run battles are a good match to my preferred fishing style. This rod and reel is normally reserved as my bait rod but today looked a bit quiet so I rigged it with a live slimey and set it just 5 metres behind the yak. I keep it loaded with 30lb braid just in case I troll or cast SP's with it. Almost instantly it was smashed.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Treading water in Marine Park Mayhem
On Thursday 11 February 2010, Kayak Fishing columnist Dan Bode was angling within the permitted Habitat Protection Zone inside Cape Byron Marine Park (CBMP) when Marine Parks Authority (MPA) Rangers marshalled his vessel and falsely accused him of fishing inside a Sanctuary Zone.

While physically demonstrating lines of sight as zoning references from the MPA dinghy, Mr Bode says the MPA Ranger made it known that in the opinion of those onboard, he was breaking the law. "The two officers presumed my guilt by evidencing invisible lines of sight that could easily have stretched from a backpacker at Wategos to a cannabis plant in Coorabell". Mr Bode believes the accusation forced him to prove his innocence or risk the $500 fine.

"By predetermining my guilt based on a series of arbitrary visual waypoints to back a verbal accusation of zone encroachment, the officers could not feasibly encourage my enjoyment, appreciation and understanding of the marine park... What transpired was a circus of fear and harassment that continued for up to twenty minutes".

As events took an unfathomable turn, Mr Bode was directed by the Fisheries Officer onboard to make his kayak immediately available for inspection. Mr Bode stated, "The Fisheries Officer couldn't tell me how he proposed to inspect my kayak but insisted on an inspection. To make my kayak immediately available, I voluntarily dismounted in the middle of the ocean, pushed my craft towards the Officers on the MPA dinghy and risked my own life in the name of Fisheries compliance. After a couple of seconds in the water, fear set in. I was on my own in lumpy seas with no immediate offer of direction or support coming from either of the Officers".  With his kayak now in the custody of the NSW MPA and the liability for his personal safety now in the Authority's jurisdiction, Mr Bode was literally left treading water, more than one kilometre from the closest land mass for a period of up to a minute. "Surely there's enough questions on Duty of Care, OH&S procedures and ethics contained in this incident alone to fully investigate the heavy handed enforcement practices dished out within our NSW Marine Parks", Mr Bode concluded.

Since my last entry ages ago I've been fishing a lot. The water has been really patchy with only a couple of kilometres making the difference between warmer mackerel water and cooler shark water. Still no luck on the 2010 mackerel but I've enjoyed some great fun kingie sessions.

Today would have been one of them but the current was pushing against me at around two knots. This was quite manageable but in the space of five minutes at the reef, I sent out a quick live yakka, landed this 6kg kingie and promptly packed my gear ready for the downwind paddle back to the launch site.

For readers of Fishing World Magazine, the February issue sports a piece on paddle fitness written by yours truly. Horrendous currents like the four knot speedway early this month are the primary reason I cited big margins for the amount of body conditioning required for open water kayak anglers. Some days at sea are extremely difficult and paddle fitness and stamina make a huge difference to your personal safety.

If you're new to open water yak fishing, the following formula could be a starting point and show's you how to mathematically calculate the amount of energy reserves you might need as a handy buffer in open waters. Of course, I accept no responsibility or liability for the use/misuse of this information and always maintain that other factors such as personal health, paddle/pedal fitness, swell, current and weather conditions as well as stamina are all key considerations for all offshore kayakers.

With the pelagic season almost upon us, rainy periods or blown out days like these are the best time to kit up for the season. In this post I'm going to talk about one of the rigs I'll be using out wide this season, and why.

My 2010 livebait surface rig:

Rod: Custom Dakau Kalia 400
Reel: Shimano Saragosa 18000
Line: 50lb TufLine XP braid
Braid to leader knot: FG Knot or Slim Beauty
Leader: 60lb Jinkai leader
Terminal: 80lb crane swivel clip.

This setup is my surface livebaiter where I generally send out a very lightly weighted livebait on a bridle. The trace portion of this rig is set up to catch spanish mackeral but I've caught kings, cobes, tuna, snapper, shark and all the other regular mackeral on it. This season I'm testing out fluorocarbon traces as opposed to regular mono. I do not like the ridged line lay on the Saragosa reel, the jerky drag (even when cleaned) or the bulk of this reel for the yak. I'm certain a smaller sized 8000 series reel would offer a more pleasant fishing experience. These personal issues aside, in terms of saltwater durability, the Saragosa is a worthy yak reel. Because the rod is derived from a jigging blank its got tons of grunt and is designed for stonker WA Amberjacks off a boat. Mackeral specialists will probably see this rod as complete overkill but I'll also be chasing hoodlum kings and cobes and really hope for wahoo or marlin runs. It's like a multi-purpose heavy spin rig that I slow troll with.

Today my summer season SP casting rod arrived. It's a Dakau yak prototype named the Drua HJS - This rod is now obsolete but that's a good thing because whatever the new generation blank is, yak users can expect a stepped up spec to what my prototype presents.

The Drua HJS is designed to cast SP's between 1/2-2oz and rates as a PE2-3. It is matched to the Okuma Salina II 5000 with 30lb braid and 60lb leader. I will use it for gathering livebaits at the start of the session then switch to casting 3/4 to 1oz 5-7" jigheads in 25-40m water depths for kings, cobes or anything else that gobs a soft once the livebait is deployed on the other rod.

Unlike my cold season Drua MH snapper rod which is very bendy, this one is faster with a significantly crisper response and tighter carbonlike feel. It is also 20 grams heavier than the snapper rod but measures in 2" longer at 6'2". On a fully locked up load, the biggest bend seems to occur midway through the blank where it then straightens somewhat toward the tip. On a full lock you can also feel the rod curve through the foregrip. I haven't tried casting 3/4oz SP's from it yet but I will tomorrow.

I think yesterdays entry presented an option about hitting the colder water areas early in the mornings this week to combat the water clarity. With that plan in place I speculated for a while because the 10-15 knot easterly that blew all night didn't look to pleasant straight up. There was nothing in it and I was hoping for it to settle as the sun got higher which it eventually did. The swell was tiny. In the end I took a punt thinking the overcast skies and pre new moon could favor a snapper.

Two minutes into the paddle a big pro boat appeared. Thankfully it kept going north. Just as I got my fist SP in the water a small tinnie turned up... Bummer... It's wierd, 50% of the time (if I don't know the guys in the boat), they coincidentally line up on the same drift I'm working. This happened three times until they realised I didn't know where the fish were. Just as the strangers on the tinny couldn't pick a rod bend, I brought in the first of 3 snapper between 3.5 and 4.5kg. Today had an odd vibe. There was a stack of bait around, the water was warmer than it had been and I had that funny feeling that the yak was being viewed at from underneath. When I got in I spoke to a mate who saw a few bronzies there yesterday.

I'm really surprised that nobody has pulled a cobe out over the last 2 weeks between NSW and Brisbane. Even though there have been a few up North in the Sunny Coast this part of the world hasn't seen much cobe action which is weird because there's plenty of rays and sharks about. A variety of sources state cobes prefer to feed in water temps over 22 degrees. All areas north of Byron can place a tick in that department. Cobes also like temperature breaks and scum lines. Another tick... And, they like areas with high concentrations of baitfish. Tick... Finally, they like rays. Tick, tick, tick, tick. So where the hell are they?

Looking at the ocean currents and the winds, it's not too alarming because this is a pretty standard December pattern where it's impossible to predict any consistency in water temperatures. The only thing we can be guaranteed is more Northerly patterns with occasional weak Southerlies to shake things up. If the Gold coast is due a pre Xmas run of small black marlin in close, we're going to need a good southerly that lasts around least three days followed by a lull between fronts. The clock is ticking. Looking East of Hervey Bay the warm water is just waiting for the EAC to push it south. In November hopes were high that we might be in for an early mackeral season but I think we were tricked by the first spottie arrivals exactly a month ago. Right now, I'd say any December pelagic run in the Gold Coast will probably happen a few days either side of Xmas. As mentioned, we need that Southerly.

First up, I'd like to compliment Josh on this new site. It's certainly big on great features and I'm sure it'll be a huge success. I'd also like to thank him for inviting me to contribute via this blog page. I'll try to post regularly but things are pretty hectic between now and Xmas so the gaps between posts might be a bigger than in the new year. I've never blogged before so this is all new to me.

Anyway! Here's my 1st blog at Yakass. Hope you like it.

Yesterday arvo the wind backed off so I went for a short afternoon paddle. The yakka's were thick on the sounder and didn't look like anything was harrassing them. Straight off the bat I picked up a pair on a sabiki jig and sent them both out on surface bridle rigs. Normally I have one deep and one shallow but this time I wanted to try something different.

Rather than send the surface baits a long distance off the yak, I decided to keep both baits in close. Yakka#1 was 2 metres behind the yak while yakka#2 was maybe 6 metres off the rod tip. This summer, I'm hoping to try a whole bunch of different techniques to spice things up a little. My latest theory matches bait depths to the placement of the target fishes eyes in relation to the water column. It's totally nuts but the theory was proven for the first time yesterday when I hooked two hammerheads and landed one at around 2m in length. Interestingly, I got these hookups at a structure-less mark with only a smattering of bait on it. This mark is dominated by sharks that constantly repeat the same old classic hits.

(I took this pic while dipping my hand in the water - didn't want to get too close)