Mackeral Fishing

Well lately the offshore conditons on the Northern Rivers have been pretty ordinary with the recent rain and severe winds, but on Saturday the wind has eased and a clear window of oppurtunity to tackle some offshore fish.

Launching the boat at Woody Head around 6am, we made our way to some waypoints we had saved where we find quite a bit of bait for livies. No luck with catching any livebait so we ended up trolling out into Shark Bay where a few boats had gathered under a group of birds.

Motoring over there we discovered there were fish busting up some whitebait, which the birds were hovering over.

Casting around raider style slugs past the busting up fish which readily scoffed down our offerings and the fish ended up being Spotted Mackeral all larger

than 70cm long, bigger than the fish we encountered the previous trip.

After about 2hrs of chasing the schools of fish we had bagged out and decided to head back home, a great morning fishing with 10 mackeral greater than 70cm each and the largest at 90cm.

Gold Coast Bass

Well on the 22nd January I travelled North about an hour and met up with a mate of mine, John who was in charge of putting me on to some bass within the Clear Island Waters (CIW) on the Gold Coast.

The water was slightly dirty after all of the recent rain and flooding, but there was quite a large amount of bait swimming around. It was also very windy which prevented much surface fishing for the day.

Clear Island Waters is a subdivision based on constructed canals, the water is freshwater though pre-exisiting boat launches and pontoons indicate is was once salt or at least brackish. There is lots of pontoons and extensive weed banks along the concrete and rock walls.

Well at a lesuirely time of 10:30am John and I launched via a small park and peddaled South slowly trolling an Atomic Hardz Deep Crank 38 in Ghost Gill Brown, though I was more interested in the possibility of surface fishing underneath the jetties and pontoons. Which did result in a good follow underneath a pontoon at the Southern limits of CIW.

John had picked up a few small bass so far until I landed my first, as we went along I found some more bass willing to play and the biggest at 32cm TL.

There are bream living in this waterway and proving this were two at 31cm and 35cm for John, who had now landed all his fish on a Dark Green Maria crankbait.

At around 1pm we decided to head back in and I preceded to pack up and drive to Hinze Dam which is in the hills West of Nerang.

Here I met up with Chris another KFDU member and we started out slow downstream jounery in search of some bass which apparently were biting according to some paddlers that were already on the dam.

After a pleasant 4hours of fishing I finally got a hookup on a large something which buried me in the lilypads, losing my beloved Lucky Craft MS Black Sammy 65.

Well following a nice day fishing for bass I packed up and headed for my accomodation for the night.

(Photo credit John C.)

Hinze Dam

Afternoon Bass

Lately I have been using the Revo as the bare hull whilst fishing for bass in some local creeks with a bit of success. Just taking one rod, half dozen lures and using the paddle I have been enjoying the simplicity that kayak fishing can provide an angler.
The creek I have been fishing in is crystal clear, tidal and the upper reaches of the brackish section of creek, therefore bream have been encountered on some of the trips.
The main tactic I have been employing with improving success is using walk-the-dog surface lures like the Lucky Craft Sammy 65's.
I have mainly been trying to walk them correctly and varying the speed of retreive with varying success according to the conditions on the day.
The latest time I went down was this afternoon, where I landed 4 bass all over 35cm fork length and the biggest estimated at 40cm. Using pauses and slowly working the lure seemed to be the best way at enticing a strike, even when the lure was travelling in 'open' water simply slowing down or allowing the lure to sit for a few seconds reacted in a savage strike from a fish.
With the recent success with these walking lures, I am quite sure that they will feature in some future reports especially when the local waterways heat up at tad more, bringing the surface fishery of the North Coast into full swing.

2010 Wivenhoe Kayak and Canoe Convention

Well this year I again travelled to Lake Wivenhoe, which is about 1 west of Brisbane or 3 1/2hrs from Ballina for the 3rd Annual Wivenhoe Kayak and Canoe Convention which commenced on the 11th September.

A bit of info about the competition first:
- The Convention as its known by the regulars is a 2 day fishing competition where bass and yellowbelly (Golden Perch) are the main targets for the competition.
- Its a catch, photograph, measure and release style comp where competitors lay the fish on a bragmat or a ruler and take a photo of it with their individual 'token' visible in the photo. This style of comp is the best practice for fishing as the fish are returned relatively quickly to the water instead of being held in a livewell which on a kayak can be unsuitable. The major prizes are given away as lucky door prizes, though some good prizes are given for 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall place marks and biggest bass and yellowbelly for each day.
- The proceeds from the entry fee, BBQ's, raffles and donations all go towards the Somerset Wivenhoe Fish Stocking Association which is the main group which stocks Somerset and Wivenhoe with silver perch, yellowbelly, saratoga, Mary River Cod and of course the Australian Bass.

Well on the 10th of September my start to the weekend started slowly and due to a few mixed messages I ended up having to catch up with the NSW convoy of Pete, Kerrie, Adrian and Geoff. Off we went on our journey up to Brisbane (and stopping off at Fernvale for some groceries we finally drove into Captain Logan Camp and began setting up home for the weekend.

I quickly set up the kayak and went out for a pre-fish to try and find some schools of bass and to work out how to use the new GPS I bought recently. Lake Wivenhoe is a huge body of water and due to the strong northerly winds (20knt gusts) some large waves came over the bow and darkness approached the wind began to die down indicating some good conditions for the weekend.

While walking around the campsites with a beer in hand I caught up with some fishos from the previous comps I had enetred such as the Clarrie Hall Dam comp and last years Wivenhoe Convention. The moderators from one of the major kayak fishing forums in Australia (www.kfdu.com.au) provided a BBQ that night in which the proceeds were given to the stocking program the Convention is created for. Well I willingly donated 16 fish to the dam that evening!

Staying up late into the night drinking home-made scotch, beer, sambuca and for some people (Kerrie) passion pop did not help with trying to wake up early the next morning in preparation for the 7hrs fishing ahead.

I wandered out on the lake mainly to explore the new surroundings as last year it was only 60-something percent full and now at 95% there was a lot of water between fish. Trolling a newly-acquired Jonesy Elle my first fish which was a fork-tailed catfish of 50cm came aboard. These fish hit the lures surprisingly hard and gee do they put up a decent fight!

100m further along whilst trolling over a school I had marked the day before a fat-ass bass of 34.9cm decided to engulf my Jonesy's Elle. I had finally caught a bass from this forsaken lake!


A few more hours of trolling and I had moved up past a small island aptly named Pelican Island (that place stinks literally!) and began trolling along a cliff face at around 8.6m deep. For one moment I was pedaaling along nicely and then all of a sudden the lure 'snagged' on something that stopped the kayak dead in its tracks! I thought I had snagged the lure up, but as I turned around and gave the 'tree' a good whack it took off, taking 30m of line with it!

A good fight ensued with the fish taking me under the kayak a few times and after a few fumbled netting attempts I had the new pb fish of 46cm in the net. These Wivenhoe fish are unbelievably fat and are well deserving of the nickname 'footballs'. After de-hooking the fish and taking the length photo for the comp I pedaled over to a fellow kayak fisher some hundred metres away from me so he could take a portrait photo for me. Thankyou to you sir.


After releasing this fish back into its watery home, I trolled around Pelican Island and slowly made my way back to camp, where I handed in my catch card and rang the fish bell under Fitzy's command.

Meeting up with a bloke I know called Peter back at camp, I went and set up a shrimp trap (for my fish tank not for fishing use) and some red-claw pots.

I then rigged the kayak for 'show mode' and dragged it up to the oval where most of the competitors had lined their kayaks up for display to other participants to have a look at with brands such as Ocean Kayak, Hobie, Viking and various other stables of yaks. I found this event quite interesting as I know have a good idea of what kayak will be next on the list (Old Town Dirigo 120 and Hobie Adventure Island), personally I fielded questions about my set-up left, right and centre, most likley because I was wearing a Hobie Fishing Team shirt at the time.

Another BBQ was running that night but before I tucked into some tucker I went and checked the redclaw pots and found I had caught my first redclaw with a total of 5 in only one pot, so I moved the others near to the one which caught them and left them overnight.

That night the BBQ was again great (no cooking or washing up!) and certainly drew in a lot of people. Another late night drinking around the camp fire session and I woke up to the calls of Peter and Geoff telling me I was late to that days briefing. I quickly ran up to the event HQ and grabbed my catch card and number and set-off to a glassy lake morning. Checking the redclaw traps again I found nothing had become trapped in the pot so I chucked them back in and moved off.

The 2nd day I trolled for 18km and another 5km of mucking around, and for that 23km of non-stop pedaling I was 'rewarded' with two massive forkies and busted off one of my new best lure a Jonesy Elle on a tree in 10m water.

At about 11am on the 12th, I decided that was enough for me and I pulled into camp and began packing the tent, esky, chair, fishing rods, kayaking gear, clothes and all the other junk that goes along with a weekend camping trip into the car ready for the 3 1/2hr drive home. After the prize draws were all done and dusted the NSW convoy again moved off and stopped for a final pie at Fernvale, before heading off on our separate ways as I went to visit some family at Arundel before walking in the front door at 7:53pm.

Thanks to Fitzy and his helpers for providing such a great weekend and the kayak fishers making it worth the drive from Mexico (as some people call it). I hope to be there again next year!


Photos to come soon :)

The Clarence Gorge 2010

Well after driving 2 1/2hrs on highway and rough dirt roads we arrived at our campsite approx 1km downstream from the infamous Clarence Gorge. Quickly setting up our campsite we packed our kayaks and began our paddle upstream, fishing along the way. As dusk began to devour us Dad called out for the net as he had a 'spotted bass', so I rushed over and helped him net the accidentally hooked Eastern Cod of 10cm (please not that this species is totally protected under NSW Fishery law and was not targeted), a quick photo and he was off back into his snag.


We fished until 9pm that evening and retired after a hearty meal of heated chilli and pasta to the deluxe accomodation only a tent and sleeping bag can provide.

Arising at 5:30am the next morning, the air was chilly though a warm breeze from the Northwest had rolled in, a sure sign of some fish to be landed that day. The aim for this session was to reach the very top of the Gorge, which require us to kayak to the furthest navigable section of river and hop out and hike the rest. We fished our way along the Western bank of the river and passed 2 waterfalls before reaching the shallow and complex section above the Gorge for no fish so far, so we turned around and made our way back. The Clarence River breaks into separate streams here and we crossed the shallow river where they rejoin just downstream of the falls to gain access to the 'island' between the two parts. It had began to rain now and the majority of the stone around these parts is granite so with tedious steps we scaled the small cliffs to gain access to ledges just above the waters surface to fish.

Within accessing one ledge, Dad had hooked into a big fish and it was my job to climb (slide really) down the cliff face to net the fish with my hat! The fish went 48cm total length and was very skinny from its upstream migration from the estuarine spawning areas around Yamba/Iluka.

It was my turn next with a reasonable 36cm bass, my first decent fish from the Gorge. Meanwhile Dad was on again with another 45cm fish which was also very skinny in body shape.

All of these fish came from the same rocky point that acted as a trap for the foam created by the upstream waterfalls.
The fish seemed to go off the chew then, and we moved further upstream to discover another waterfall we couldnt cross to move upstream again, so we decided to head for camp and fish along the way into some holes that provided hits beforehand.
Landing another 4 bass with the largest at 20cm, we jumped into the kayaks and pulled up into camp for some breakfast/lunch/dinner and a sleep.

A late start to the next day at 6am saw us back in the kayaks for another fish, but we did not venture any further than the first set of rapids due to time constraints. Only luck for this day was a large eeltail catfish that dad caught on a live shrimp.
So there was our 2010 Clarence Gorge trip and now we have an idea on how to tackle it next time as Im actually going again later this year.

Snapper on soft plastics

Well the snapper season has begun on the North Coast and after recent reports of decent snapper from the Illuka area, Dad and I decided to head down that way for a fish on Sunday morning. But as luck would have it successful snapper catching friend (Mark) was looking for some fishing partners to go offshore with him from Ballina, so we jumped at the chance.

Launching around 5.30am and signing on with Ballina VMR, we crossed the bar in search of some snapper over the shallow reefs.

With Mark showing us how to work the plastics oiver the reef, we began casting and bouncing our jigs as we drifted over the structure. Mark quickly landed two snapper about 50cm each.

Not wanting to be left behind, I changed from the bigger 7" jerkshad down to the 5" model Mark was using and after about 4 annoying Red Rock Cod my lure was smashed by a snapper of 68cm, which put up quite an account for itself.

Changing spots and lure patterns, we decided to not go ahead with motoring out wider as the wind had began to whip up some decent chop and wasn't worth the cold wind and chop.

So from this trip we got to catch some good fish and see some whales as they made their way along the Australian coast to the Great Barrier Reef for the Winter Migration.

Thanks Mark for taking us and showing me (seeing Dad didnt catch a thing, haha) how to successfully use plastics on the offshore reefs.

Discovering new grounds of the Oxley River, Murwillumbah

Recently I was asked to join some fellow kayak anglers on one of the streams they have fished with success.

Never fished this waterway before we organised a time and place to meet, which I unfortunately missed due to sleeping in (sorry guys!)but once I got into gear I was on the water 50mins later launching from a causeway which crossed the Oxley River the waterway I was to fish. Due to the 1hour difference in launch times I missed my fellow anglers and decided to fish my way upstream to try and meet up with them.

Well making my way upstream I discovered that this waterway was quite similar to one I usually fish such as the Wilson River upstream from Lismore. But it was quite shallow along the majority of the stream and there were many portages between pools.

The water was very cold and a cool breeze was blowing in from the South West so bass captures were not expected to be high, so the trip became a recon for future trips.

Working my way upstream I ran into a few large rocks so repairing the torn fins and slightly bent masts on my MirageDrive.

Eventually I recieved a hit and hookup from underneath a spectacular on my ever productive Atomic Hardz Shad which pulled from the hooks.

Upon reaching a time halfway point I came across a pool in the eddy of the stream littered with logs and tree stumps, in a secluded corner of this pool my lure was immediately taken savagely as a nice bass of 32cm became caught around my rudder and numerous logs in the pool.

Releasing the fish I peddaled over to the area where it came from and found it was less than 40cm deep! Surprising seeing most bass which are caught are found in deep shadowy areas of pools/streams.

After catching this fish my MirageDrive became irreparably field damaged (unable to repair in the field) and to use it required my to remove one fin and use the remainder as the primary propulsion. Using the MirageDrive like this causes the kayak to rock from side to side due to the swinging fin below.

Sick of the rocking motion I removed the drive and began my agonisingly slow paddle back to the launch ramp (some 3 1/2km away) with my measuring board (it is attached to a piece of wood about 50cmx15cm) because I negated to bring my paddle along.

3 hours later I made it to 500m from the launch ramp and found a paddle laying on the bank with an abandoned fibreglass kayak, so thanking my lucky stars I borrowed the paddle and paddled the ramaining 500m with relaxation.

Thanks to Silver_19 for inviting me to fish the Oxley River even though we didnt meet.

New PB bass

Hey guys,
Well after handing in an assignment for uni on friday that kept me up all night finishing it, I thought I had better treat myself to a fish at one of my spots for a bass.

Well when I arrived I found that the water levels were up higher than usual making the water dirtier and colder (this water comes from a dam further upstream) so I didnt like my chances.

First cast and I ended up with a tiny bass about 15cm on the Stiffys Fat One (great lure like the Atomic Hardz Shads I rave about), following it were about 10 other smaller fish. Surprisingly they were all eager to smash the lure, even though water conditions werent ideal.

Moving downstream (I fish about a 100m section at this spot), the action slowed off so I walked upstream again to another hole where I have seen some humoungous bass sitting in there before, so I cast out my little Jazz walker and it gets smashed by something with size.

The fish surprisingly jumped clean out of the water a few times, and when I landed it realised why; it had hooked itself in the eye poor thing.

Unhooking it and asking some random kid who was swimming in the waterfall a bit further upstream, a measure against the rod and I let the fish go back into its hole.

I fished further upstream than normal but no more fish.

When I got home I measured the rod according to where it laid against on the rod and it went 45.6cm, a new PB and closer to the margin 50cm mark!

Afternoon Mackerel

Hi,
Well today (9th April) John, Keith and myself wandered down a bush covered track to a rock ledge to try our luck with some Spanish Mackerel as recent reports had been promising.

Setting up our gear for a longish afternoon session I threw out a yakka under a balloon, which hung around for about 30 minutes before giving up the ghost and dying.

We decided on focusing on catching some live garfish which were circling below the ledge, so John and I got a few on sabiki jigs which were quickly floated out under balloons and floats.

Johns bait was taken twice before he eventually hooked up to what seemed a large mackerel, but after is long initial run it had worked its way loose and freed itself.

Another gar later and John was on again to a mackerel which didnt drop off and after a tenuous pre-gaff moment I drove the gaff into it and hauled up a Spanish Mackerel of 19.5kg, a great fish and my first look at a mackerel in person.

Dispatching the fish, we hurriedly went about catching more gar and floating them out past the washes.

Keith hooked and lost 2 good fish with his livies, one fish came off due to the wire trace slipping through the gap in the eye of the hook!

At about 4pm I was sitting down watching a far off ship go past when my reel starts screaming, so I stood up pushing the drag lever to strike and held on.

20 minutes of chasing the fish around the rocks, John had gaffed my fish which turned out to be my first Spanish Mackerel of 12.9kg, I was stoked!

Hauling that fish up the rocks for some photos, we decided to make our way back as the sun was steadily disappearing over the horizon.

So packing up our gear and slinging our fish over our shoulders we made our way back through the twilight bush.

Thanks for reading and more photos will be added when I get them from people.


John and I with our Spaniards

Success at Clarrie Hall

Hello,
Its been a while since my last post but here we go...

Please note that all measurements are fork length and time is in NSW, because the dam is in NSW and Im from NSW and thats how we roll.

Launching at the stroke of 5:30am I headed off to an area I had prefished the week before, so heading up there I worked a walk-the-dog lure around the lillies and after a few swirls I hooked and landed my first fish and first walk-the-dog fish. Further along another fish on the Jaz Zapper, so they DO work!
:snic: By the way I think these lures have a better action than the 3x more expensive Sammy's.

Changing to a shallow diving Atomic Hardz Crank I hooked and landed my biggest fish of 37cm, after that a miriad of fish came aboard the yak with 12 from my areas.

After the sun had well and truly risen above the sky (about 11am) I headed downstream past the launching areas catching up with a few guys who were still out. Deciding to explore the Eastern side of the Dam I peddaled down the tiny inlets and bays but now luck catching any fish.

After encircling Snake Island I found a tiny inlet that was just big enough for my yak to sneak into (after running into about 4 submerged standing trees) and the same lure found its way into two small bass about 20-22cm on two casts.

About this time it was 1pm NSW so I decided to head back for a rest at the campsite but had it on the way under the shade of an over hanging eucalypt. I landed at the boat ramp and shared advice and reports with the other guys who were there.

Had a bit of lunch and headed out to stuff on the bank around opposite the boat ramp, no fish for the arvo session and packed up at 6pm NSW and pulled the yak up in time for some cow on a burger.

At the end of day 1 I had landed 14 fish (12 on the card because 2 flipped out as I was measuring them.

Day 2>>
Again launched at 5:30am and headed to the same area as I did the day before, but this time hung around in the lillies for longer. I used every type of surface lure I had; Jitterbugs, bloopers, walkers and finally I put the Jaz Zapper on again and first cast, BAM! hooked up to a feisty fish of 34.5cm came aboard.

After this one fish, no strikes, swirls or any fish.

I turned around and headed back to the big inlet near the launch area with the pine trees and jigged some lures like MF40/50's, chatterbaits, lipless crankbaits, plastics over a large tree which had a few large fish schooled around it, but I couldnt tempt them so at 10:30am I called it a day.

With the presentation precedings over, most people headed off to their respective locations of residence, me on the other hand went for a looksy at some of the creeks I drove over on the way there and had a fish too but didnt get anything except a list for more lures after I dropped my favourite one in 2foot long grass.

Thanks to Leigh for organising such a great event, the sponsors for providing prizes, etc. and the ABA for their great cooking skills and being there to help Leigh organise and run the event so smoothly.

The results (NAME/SCORE):

Mark Fraser 1803
Pete Bostock 1790 (Biggest Bass Winner = 41cm FL, and only 13mm behind Mark)
James Melville 1710
Josh Carter 1684
Graeme Bowes 1670
Trent Hassall 1620
Tristan Mace 1615
Mathew Kirkpatrick 1598
Brad Lambert 1520
Adrian Ryan 1520
Graeme Whitehouse 1520
Andrew Bullen 1345
Mel Parker 1300
Paul De Odorico 1255
Roberta Pearce 1245
Geoff Gudgeon 1215
Geoff Fullarton 1140
Alex Bennett 1020
Ray Sweeney 1010
John Carroll 980
Daniel Darcy 971
Sel McLennan 970
Ken Ferguson 890
Barry Trapp 830 (Winner of the Viking Tempo Fisherman Kayak)
Nick Contojohn 760
David Doherty 760
Dawn Semple 540
Cameron Alexander 530
Andrew Kennedy 380
Glen Kennedy 350
Josh Culnane 342
Stephen Cousins 310
Bill Mitchell 280
Rod Vardy 275
Alan Britcliffe 0
Ray Kennedy 0

Pedalling out onto a wind rippled dam surface of Clarrie Hall (Dam) I rigged my rods and organised my lures into a more comfortable setup. The slight breeze had kept the surface moving, so the plan was to fish the lily-pad edges of the secluded bays and inlets that dot the edge of the dam.

In the first bay I landed my first fish of 31.2cm on a black Arbogast Jitterbug retrieved along the edge of the lilies.



Working my way along the edge of the dam, something was busting up tailor style about 50m from the bank. The action of the mystery fish had caught my attention so I quickly rigged up a 3in Smelt shad soft plastic on a Betts jighead and cast out and over the fish swirls/surface strikes. Allowing the lure to sink about 2 feet I slowly retrieved it and came up tight with a very agro fish who upon hook-up steamed over to the nearby lily pads. Pulling it away and onboard it went 31.5cm, a very healthy fish.



One thing that surprised me while fishing Clarrie Hall was how frequently and how loud the surface strikes of feeding bass where as they smacked the insects from off the tops of the lilies. With such surface action happening around me I broke out the walkers and tried my hand at fishing a style of lure I don’t often use. No strikes or fish from these, so I chose a shallow diving Atomic Hardz Crank in Silver Shad (my current go-to lure).

First cast under an overhanging tree and I was on with a 28cm fish for the camera.



By now the breeze had eased off and the dam surface became glassy, the view to the north towards Mt Warning was very scenic, something that Clarrie Hall is well known for. With extensive lily pad banks, weed piles and even sections of standing timber Clarrie Hall has defiantly hooked me and I will be coming back, even just for a paddle.





Second cast a bit further along in an inlet and another fish but only about 20cm.



One of the biggest inlets I explored went for a far way into the hillside and I only came to a halt when the creek had become clogged by an immense amount of leaf litter (the sounder was showing a creek bed depth of 4m+.



It was about now that I realised that time was getting on and I had better start to turn around and head back to the launch site.

Along the way I picked up another 20cm fish that followed the lure all the way across the inlet and finally ate it, giving me something to do in the stifling heat. The temperature out on the dam was probably around 38°C, something I didn’t want to stay out all day for, so at around noon I tucked into some pre-made sandwiches and headed ‘home’ trolling a deep diving lure.

Secret Creek Bass

Hello,
Today I went out to a little known spot that large bass (50cm+) can be casually swimming in amongst swimmers for a fish to see if they reacted to fishing tactics.
Well first cast I hooked and landed this feisty little (16cm) bugger


The little tacker

I moved downstream to a larger pool because some 'considerate' kid came down and started swimming right there where I was and started throwing large rocks around.

The second cast I noticed a large tail fin idle past my lure, so I immediately threw the lure out again and the fish followed it once more, so I slowly twitched it in. Each time I twitched the bass became more interested. So another 3 casts and I resolved to dead slow retrieve which was nailed by a large fish.

A long fight ensued over rocks and through narrow gaps in the rocks, but I had the fish subdued. As I traced the fish to haul it up on the bank the leader broke at the leader-lure knot and I immediately grabbed the fish by the mouth as it still had my lure in its gob.



So I got the lure out and showed the nearby American tourists what a proper bass looks like, a few photos and away she went.



Measured to the marked spot on my rod, she went 43.5cm exactly what my original PB was!


The best lures I have used (the bottom one was the lure for this report)

Flathead in the morning, Bass in the afternoon

Hello,
Yesterday at 7:30am my mate Vincent and I launched his electric outboard powered canoe into Mobs Bay and began the pottering trip around the Bay. We casted our lures, both soft plastics and hard bodies to the edges of the mangroves, in hope of catching some bream and flathead.

After several missed fish, we had each landed 3 flathead to 40cm and Vincent several small tailor, we decided to pack up and we were off the water by 2pm.







Getting the rods and lure boxes organised for an afternoon bass session, Dad and I made our way down to Tintenbar to fish from the banks.

The first spot we went to didn’t produce any fish or strikes so we decided to move to the other side of the bank, but further downstream at the end of Crosby’s Lane.

After changing from a jitterbug to the ever productive Atomic Hardz shad, on which I landed a small 26cm bass which had some severe caudal and pectoral fin damage. On the 3rd cast I hooked up to a fish that fought fairly well and I hauled it up on the bank for a measure and photo, going 33cm and extremely well conditioned.





So flathead in the morning and bass in the afternoon, what a great day!

The Clarence Gorge

Heavy raindrops collected in the hollows of the granite and began to cascade over the polished surface as I clambered over the boulders, trying to escape the impending lightning strikes that were falling some half a kilometre away. The storm had started to move on and I kept moving upstream fishing the current eddies and boulders that make up the infamous character of The Clarence Gorge.

The weekend started on Friday 11:30am when a small group of blokes in 4WD’s headed off on the journey to the property where we would be camping for the next three days. We arrived at the campsite some 3hrs later, and began the process of setting up camp. In this first group were Brian and his son Nick; John; and Dad (my Dad) and myself.


Entry to the Gorge Property


The river on the way into the Gorge

Rigging up the kayak I made my way upstream to explore the river and to try and reach the actual Gorge. This was an easy pedal of about 40min to reach the steep granite cliffs of the Gorge and its first series of small rapids. This little jaunt rendered no fish but some huge surface smashes which didn’t result in any hook-ups.

There were hundreds of turtles in the river and they weren’t afraid of us paddling past. There were also plenty of eagles and hawks.





I left the Gorge in the darkness and made my way downstream under the moon of a smoke screened moon, to arrive to a dinner of steak and sausages.

Saturday
Arising at the magical time of 5am I organised my kayak and gear for a full day of fishing which was supposed to begin at 8am, but I was delayed after the arrival of my uncle Terry.

Meanwhile John and Dad had left early to walk up to the Gorge along the river bank, on their return they practically fell over in exhaustion as the 40°C+ heat and kilometres of rocks radiating trapped heat had taken its toll on them, apparently causing the 1.5km walk to become like 10km. Though making the walk worth the effort, Dad had landed a 52cm to the fork bass on a black Arbogast Jitterbug above the first waterfall.

Eventually I left after John and Dad’s tale and went for another journey up to the Gorge, but I was clever and took the shorter (and much cooler) route by kayak. I was able to drag my kayak up onto a gravel bay and anchor it with my paddle, as I donned a pack and began the short walk to the falls. I was surprised that even during the middle of the day I was able to draw surface strikes, which still didn’t hook-up; very frustrating. Near the falls I found a souvenir from a certain creature I didn’t need to encounter this far away from help. The skin from an Eastern Brown snake was as more than longer to my fishing rod which is 2.1m long.



When reaching the falls I was greeted by a cloud of cooling spray of water, this brought instant relief as the rocks were so hot my rubber soled water shoes were starting to melt. At the bottom of the falls were hundreds of fork-tailed catfish either trying to climb the waterfall or feeding on algae, most of these fish were about 60cm long and well conditioned.



About four hours of hammering this short (200m) section of river I decided to escape the constant heat and returned to the campsite, to be greeted by Craig who had just arrived bringing along his daughter for her first camping trip.

With only 3 kayaks brought along, I had booked two hire canoes from the owners for the craft-less guys to use. So in that afternoon we decided to head up to the Gorge and allow the people who hadn’t visited it yet to have a look around and a fish along the way.

We went as far upstream as the first set of rapids impassable to all but Dad and John in one of the canoes. Brian attempted to climb it and was close to succeeding but was sucked under and over the yak went. I tried all of the possible routes through the rapids but wasn’t able to climb the 2ft drop. Portaging this rapid was not an option as it was created by large boulders trapped between extremely narrow and deep (12m) section of river.


The Gorge walls

As the sun began to slowly set behind the ranges, a storm that had been brewing all day finally let loose with heavy rain drops and lightning striking the mountains above us. Everyone decided to make the way back to camp, but I decided to stay behind and have another fish the waterfall one last time from the land.

I fished my way up to the waterfall for no fish and made my way back to the parked yak. I then made my way hiding along the cliff walls and keeping my rod low, as lighting continued to strike the nearby mountains and rock pillars.

Meeting up with John and Dad who were still fishing some way downstream of the Gorge, they had caught numerous freshwater herring and catfish on crickets. So I changed tactics and threw out a cricket on a small jighead and got a bass of 18cm instantly.



Returning to camp we were met with a trashed camp, as the wind had blown down our tent (first time ever) and some tarps. Seeing the tent was full of some water (all of my sleeping stuff was dry, yets Dad’s soaking wet. Haha there must be karma!) and the previous night Dad had kept me awake with his snoring, I decided to sleep in the tray of our Ute. A good night sleep was assured.

Sunday
Waking up after a solid sleep I had a quick fish around a drowned tree opposite camp resulted in 2 small bass about 20cm long on live crickets. The boats hooning past began to become annoying so I began the pedal upstream to the Gorge to try and meet up with Terry and Dad who left earlier this morning to try and reach the waterfalls, in the two canoes. Only meeting them about halfway we casted, trolled various lures with no result. The only fish caught during this session were caught using live crickets.

Eventually we made our minds up to go back to camp and have a late breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns and sausages. We feed like kings when we go camping!

Overall, I was pleased with the weekend but not particularly so with the fishing. Neil commented that this was a very slow November and that the best time of year to come for the fishing is September with an average of more than 1000 fish caught in that month. So next September we will be there again!

Thanks to Neil, Sue and Warren for running such a great place and we will be back for sure!

First Amberjack at Woody Head, Iluka

At 3:45am on Monday 16^th November I jumped in the car and made the 1hr long drive to Woody Head, Iluka to meet up with Sydney based kayak fisho “Avayak” or better known as Gary who was holidaying in nearby Yamba.



The plan was to try and help Gary catch a Cobia or maybe a snapper, so we headed out to the front of the headland and tried to find some yakka (yellowtail)/slimey (slimey mackerel) schools, so we could get us some livebaits.

On the way out to the headland, a pod of small Mack Tuna started to bust up next to me as I fumbled around for my camera in the hull. As luck would have it my rod wasn’t rigged up and by the time I had it rigged the school had moved about 600m North, regrettably I left them to catch up with Gary who had started to jig around a large school or what turned out to be a mix of yakkas and slimies.

After gathering a few baits, we rigged them for trolling and we set off in search of some reef to send down some plastics too.After about 6kms of reef searching we headed back into the shore around the base of the headland where there was more baitfish activity.



I rigged my new Team Daiwa Tierra rod up with a 3in plastic and started to cast it into the wash of the headland, this resulted in several strikes and hookups but each time the fish spat the hook.

Moving into a whitewashed alcove in the rocks, my plastic was bricked by something big, taking line at a fast pace while I tried to palm the spool of my little 2000 size reel to drag whatever it was I had hooked out of the rocks. After a while some colour appeared and there was what I thought were a school of salmon chasing my hooked fish (I also thought this was a salmon) and several other fish flipped out of the way of the net just in time as I netted my fish.

It was at this time I had landed a kingfish! Woo I yelled out and Gary made his way over to me. After a measure and photo I let the little bruiser go back to his mates who could be seen 6m below in the clear, blue water.



We fished this spot for about another 30minutes before we decided to move along the headland North, where we didn’t catch anything else but amused looks from some spectators on the shore, especially when I jumped out of my kayak to land into “2ft of water” which ended up being 6ft of water!

Later on whilst packing away our gear, Gary helped me identify the fish as an Amberjack not the Kingfish I thought it was, as it had sort of a keel on the tail wrist; something a Kingfish does not have and a stubbier nose.

Thankyou to Gary for putting up with me for the day and I’m sorry we didn’t catch many fish (besides the endless numbers of those yellow bait fish) and I hope it was better fishing for you during your holiday in the Northern Rivers.

Early Flathead fishing session on the Richmond

Hello,
With a 5am wakeup I made my way down to the Sailing Club boatramp at Ballina on the Richmond River to meet up with a fellow yak fisher and KFDU member Dwayne.

We readied and launched our yaks; myself a Hobie Revolution and Dwayne a Hobie Pro Angler, I have seen one of these kayaks before at the Lismore Camping and Outdoor show but to see one rigged up and in use for fishing was interesting.

The plan was to head over to an area called Mobs Bay, a bay enclosed by what locals call the 'Porpoise Wall' and try and land some flathead and possibly a bream on lures.

While fishing his lure Dwayne got the life scared out of him as a small pod of resident dolphins surfaced next to him, they hung around for a while most likely allowing their calves to chase the enourmous schools of herring that were present.

Pulling up at the entrance to Mobs Bay, herring were being busted up by small Tailor which shredded our softplastics.



I ended up landing a small flathead of about 28cm on a Banana Prawn Gulp Shrimp, a short time later a 24cm Tailor ended up joining the flathead on the catch list. Changing to a Nuclear Chicken Gulp Shrimp I ended up with another flathead of 31cm on the next cast.







We ended up moving over to the back of Mobs Bay casting our plastics near the small rockwall seperating the main Bay and the minor Bay behind it.

Fishing the bank side of the wall we snagged up several times on the wall and a nearby shipwreck, but no hits or fish. So we ventured onto the river side of the wall and began to fish the sand close to the rocks. With my 3rd cast came up tight against something with some go.

Landing a flathead of 52cm influenced Dwayne who was still on the bank side to come around and try his luck.



As I released my fish his soft plastic was smashed by a 64cm flathead, after a few pics Dwayne was struggling to choose whether to keep the fish for dinner. Deciding on let such a nice fish go, the fish swam happily away.



But again another fish decided to jump on Dwayne's plastic and he decided to keep this fish, the largest of the day at 67cm.





It was at this time Dwayne received a call and decided to return to the ramp and allow his children and relatives to have a pedal on the yak, so we said our goodbyes and parted, so I continued fishing.

Peddaling to the main training wall, I fished along the rock wall with a Gulp Shrimp which proved successful with a 40cm flathead which I decided to give to some nearby fisherman who said they were down on there luck when I queried earlier.

Another few runs to no avail and I decided to leave the fishing to the others on the river.

It was a great session and I was glad I went, thanks to Dwayne for posting up the Trip Ad it was good to meet up for a fish another forum lurker!