A bit of fun in the Kayak

[Dan23]

Hi All,

The old man has set up his kayak with some rod holders and a sounder so I traveled down to Ocean shores to try it out with him.

Usually We just troll around about 10 feet from the rock walls and have had decent success with picking up average sized flathead in the past. But seeing as we now had a way to see what goes on out in the middle of the canal we decided to try and find some decent structure that might hold some bigger fish.

I have a bantam coriolis baitcaster that I used to use when I was a kid but it had seized up from not being used. My dad must have been motivated because he gave it a clean up and now it's running like new. So with my reconditioned weapon in hand I felt like I had to get it back into the action. Sure enough withing about 10 minutes of paddling around out deep dad announced that we were going over some interesting structure and that he could see big fish sitting on the bottom on the sounder. We both thought jokingly probably a nice flathead eh?? Sure enough a few seconds later.. bang a fat 50cm flathead! My trusty baitcaster hadn't taken long before it was back in practice. After this we paddled around for a while longer getting the occasional tap and had a few fish follow lures to the kayak's edge.

The following day we ran into a bloke who pointed to a spot on the other side of the canal where he'd been catching Taylor of all things. So we gave that a try but couldn't hook any. So when we got back home I had my surf rod rigged up with a raider lure on it so I figured it couldn't hurt to chuck it around off the back fence to see if there were any taylor out there. I remembered we'd seen some bait schools near where I'd hooked the flathead the previous day and it was within casting distance of the back yard. Sure enough after about 3 casts something smashed it. Expecting to find a small taylor I was dumafounded when it turned out to be a great trevally only slightly bigger than the lure. I'm constantly amazed by what lives in that waterway. So far these are the species I have caught or seen in that one little patch.

Bream, flathead, eels, grunter, 1 mangrove Jack 39cm, Muddies, Mullet, Gar, Whiting, Stingrays, Taylor and a Great Trevally!

[img size=500]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/fatflathead.jpg

[Dan23]

Imagine my surprise hauling this in [img size=207]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/trev.jpg

[Angus]

Mate well done.

I stay down at New Brighton a few bit.

What canals are you referring to? Are these the canals neat Golden Beach? Or back towards the Brunswick river. Im looking forward to another kayak session there myself.

Nice report cheers.

Angus

[Dan23]

Yeah right up at the northern end of ocean shores north in the newer area. I think the closest beach is called south golden beach. that little stretch of canal is hardly fished and then when you get to the bridge that takes you back towards new brighton it has a ban on fishing from there to about where pippies cafe is now which is a bit silly because I'm the only person who I've ever seen fish there. But It means there's heaps of fish to be had around there. That area really goes off on a full moon and always fishes best in the morning and mid afternoon. For some reason I never seem to have any luck at night there. I caught that Jack I mentioned on a bit of Fisho at about 5am just as the sun was starting to come up over the horizon. That is by far the most active time.

Edit: Just read over that and it sounds like I fish in the banned spot. I don't anymore since they made it a no go, doesn't matter though there's plenty of decent fish in the legal spots.

Post edited by: Dan23, at: 2007/07/18 09:53

[Angus]

Nice one mate.

Thanks for that.

Ill be down there for 2 weeks in spetember with my kayaks. So ill give it a bash.

Cheers.

Angus

[Dan23]

Cool,

Keep an eye out for two blokes in a blue kayak loaded up with rods. That'll be us. Just another tip, Yellow and silver SPs seem to work best for the flathead. Haven't had much luck hooking bream on lures. Only ever got one on a smaller red squidgy wriggler. Am keen to try those ecogear sx40s but haven't gotten around to buying one yet. Apparently the bream around there are harder to get on lures around winter and are more aggressive in summer. You'll still get heaps of bream on Fisho, prawns and small anchovie pillies. Berlying up also works well to bring em in when bait fishing.

Good luck.

[Angus]

Yeah i have fished the Brunswick by Kayak a few times.If you go under the freeway bridge the bream are quite numerous. I also got creamed by what i think was a Jack there.

Also off the wooden peir near the fresh fish co-op, thats a great place for bream on plastics. Plenty of other fish like moses perch and cod there to keep you entertained as well.

And then off the bridge near the cravan park, loads of whiting.

Good fishing mate.

Angus

[pcsolutionman]

great report and nice lizard mate. I think youl find that trever is a big eye trevally not a great or giant trevally

Lee

[Dan23]

You're probably right. I looked it up in Grant's thinking it was a golden but the great fit the description better cause of the black spot on top of the gill. Haven't got the book handy to check it out now. It certainly did have big blood red eyes.

[pcsolutionman]

yeh ive caught dozens of them bigger than that one on full pillies off the rocks up at noosa, thats a big lure for that little fish. must have been one hungry fish

Lee

[roobs]

nice one. whatever the size trevally give a good account of themselves. i've only ever fished the surf at new brighton, we stay near pippies. incidentally, what a great little shop that is- everything that you need and cheap booze to boot!

[Angus]

Roobs: Yeah we stay just around the corner from Pipi's ourselves. And your right, awesome shop.

Angus

[Dan23]

Yeah it is sweet, magazines, junk food, bait and beer what more could you possibly want? It's funny actually outside of South Australia that specific area has the highest amount of purchasers of coopers, any true beer lover's favorite beer.

It weird too, people drink openly in the little spot across the road near the water and the cops never do anything. Supposedly as long as no one causes any trouble they turn a blind eye to it. If you look in the water down there you can see legal size bream swimming around. You also often see people wading around in on the sand flats at high tide casting lures. Must be a few lizards there.

[Angus]

Yeah i see them all the time. We also often take a carton down on the beach and make illegal fires. Rangers come up have a yarn no worries. As long as we take the bottles and clean up the fire pit they dont care.

I like tolerance like that. Rewarding those who have just simple common sense and do the right thing.

Angus