a-frame81

Hi @Acoustix , Most of the lakes around Canberra have decent weed beds around them. These can be a great place to find fish hunting for food, but you can get fouled by the weed. Using bait this is likely less of a concern, but with lures it can be a pain. I found that I have much more success form my kayak as I can target the outside edge  and either cast or troll along. I mainly fish Lake Ginninderra up in the north. Lake Burley Griffin is pretty good from the bank as you have a lot of areas with deep water right near the edge where the old river flows. Some of the banks are pretty steep though, but there can be good snags in those deep sections which will hold cod or Yellowbelly. I'm keen to get my kayak out there at some stage to try and pick up something decent.

The lakes can be pretty fickle at times around Canberra, depending on how stirred up they are by the rain and cold weather can shut down the fishing pretty quickly. That being said, apparently you get some cracking cod during the winter, it may just take alot of work.

As Bretto77 said, @KhalidMSyed has some great videos of the Molonglo River near Uriarra crossing that would be good places to try.

I bought the AFN Fishing Atlas for Canberra, which is written by Andrew McGovern, who has fished this area for a long time and it gives you a great run down of the lakes around Canberra and a decent outline of spots on the Murrumbidgee.

Cheers,

I saw that in your other post and it was where I thought it looked like. Will have to hike down for a fish some time. Do you hike in from Uriarra Road side or from the Holt side?

Awesome work Khalid! I'm still yet to crack a Murray Cod, just Yellowbelly and Redfin but I have only tried a few of the lakes from the shore and kayak so far. I'm trying to pick where on the Molonglo your videos are from and have a bit of an idea. Might have to plana hike to try and locate the.

Cheers,

Andrew

Hi @TBG There's good fishing here in most of the lakes for Redfin (European Perch), Yellowbelly Perch and Murray Cod. Oh and plenty of carp....

I spend more time at Jervis Bay when I'm down the coast but have fished a bit around Batemans Bay as well. Good beach fishing at Murramarang just north of Batemans as well, I got a few flatties and a salmon in a short session when I was there one weekend with the family.

Hey @Messyfish good to see there's at least one other ACT angler on here. I've tried for ages to even get a bite from a Murray Cod. What lake do you normally fish? I have usually taken the kayak out on Lake G but am keen to explore the Molonglo and Lake Burley Griffin. I use mostly lures from the yak. Do you get many reddies or Yellows using bait?

I only have a small Humminbird sounder with the transducer mounted inside the hull. Seems to work fine but is a very basic unit. In the future I'll hopefully be able to upgrade to something new. Just waiting for slightly warmer weather to really test it out in the local lakes. I have a small agm battery, 4ah I think, right in underneath where I've mounted the sounder.

Mine is in the hull with silicone. I just made sure yo put it in hot water for a good while to try and avoid bubbles. I only had white silicon, not clear but it doesn't seem to have affected it. 

I managed to get out last Sunday arvo to test out the sounder. I tried a smaller lake I'd fished from the bank before but it was choked with weed so no luck this time. 

In good news ut looks like the sounder works perfectly shooting through the hull.

Thanks Hamish, now to find some time before it gets too cold down here to chase some natives.

There ya go, all fixed 

Thanks kmcrosby78, I bought a cheap waterproof case for it that seems to work ok. I just have to make sure I don't drop it. Should probably come up with a way to tether it to the yak.

I did try that but unfortunately it doesn't have the option. The manual says models sold outside the US should have an extra option for metric. Mine doesn't,  so even though I bought it off ebay from Aus it must be a US model.

I'm hoping so ellicat.

The trev went to about 35cm, just a bit longer than the flattie in the pictures.

I've tried the FG a few times from 6lb braid to 8lb mono leader, but kept getting slipping and the know undoing. Probably doing something wrong.

I mostly use the modified albright and it seems to work ok. Might have to try the FG again on my baitcaster with 20lb braid and 30lb leader....

Took the yak out for the first time this morning. Just a paddle today. Hopefully it's warm tomorrow morning so I can head back out for a fish.

Seems pretty stable and paddles well as far as I can tell. I haven't paddled a kayak for 15 or so years.

Thanks Drop Bear. I'm hoping the nice weather holds out down here for the weekend so I can have a go without freezing.

I managed to off the roof part with no worries, resting the bow on the back of the car with an old windscreen shade under it to protect the paintwork. Only really lifting 15kg or so at a time that way. Should be all good.

Hope I can catch a heap more now I can get out around the reeds and weed that seems to line every lake down south.

It's 3.9m long, I believe it's a Seak brand, similar to https://www.anacondastores.com/water/kayaks/seak-mako-kayak-39-m-blue-camouflage/BP90126776

Came with a paddle and seat as well, so a very good deal. It's missing the scupper plugs as they guy couldn't find them, but I figure they're not too expensive to replace but I'll see how wet I get without them first. I was glad to find a slightly longer kayak, as I will use it on some bays when I go down the coast and our lakes can get pretty choppy when the wind comes. We'll see how my back holds out lifting it on and off the roof.

6 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

Mate you should join the fishing comp. Starts tomorrow so you will need to be fast. 

I would but I'll be up in the mountains 4WDing this weekend. Got to get my snow driving fix :-)

Thanks Benno,

I have a PFD already, my service kit just arrived yesterday so will get onto that part pronto. I'll take a few weeks to look at Gumtree and see what's there, but keen to have one ready to go for spring when the fish come back on the chew a bit better. The wetsuit for Winter isn't a bad idea with water temps down here too.

I'm hoping for some "in hull" storage, at least for key/phone etc but was going to get a  dry bag in any case as hatches can leak. 

I think I'm set on a sit -on , thanks to all the feedback here. As much as the sit-in would be good in the cold, it will be harder to get gear sorted on the water. 

As for seat comfort, I'm likely to only get and hour or two at a time around family needs so if I can mange it for that it will be ok. Good to know about not really getting wet on the sit-on. It will definitely come in handy in winter and I'm only likely to fish flat water, or the occasional estuary when I can get down the coast.

Thanks Ellicat, I'll be leaving it for a couple of weeks to see if anything comes up on Gumtree that's a dedicated fishing rig, but otherwise will probably just bite the bullet.

A couple and they seem to be good as a general use kayak.

Thanks Guys,

On a tight budget, but looking at options. Maybe thinking of one of these: https://www.anacondastores.com/water/kayaks/seaflo-adult-kayak/BP90098727 at the moment with a  rod holder. Light and have plenty of deck space for the kids. I could add a rod holder in front of the seat as I've checked and there's a pre-drilled mounting spot under a sticker (you can see it on the pic of the red version). Plenty of storage on the deck and enough weight capacity to ake me and some gear. Thoughts?

Cheers Ellicat,

How wet do you get in them? Noting winter gets pretty cold down here, I had thought the sit-in may offer a bit more protection from the freezing water.