longhairedwahoo

Cheers for the advice legends. Fairly new to trolling on the yak so will defintely take your advice on the swivel though have seen gangs where the first hook comes with one already rigged straight to it so might just go with them for simplicity on the water. Also just thought I'd clarify that I have been doing all my fishing offshore of straddie, so am outside the bay but I think all the advice would still be the same

Hey guys, Went chasing some snapper offshore from the bay islands on thursday on the new (2nd hand) kayak. Pulled up a nice mixed bag of small cod, sweetlip and also kept a great size blacksaddle goatfish (my first one and very impressive on the chew) and a squire. Was using a relatively heavy telescopic rod that I imported (see previous posts) and one of the cheap as reels in size 6000 from BCF which meant that when the reel started screaming with something huge (thinking possibly a kingy or a shark but who knows) I had had no hope of stopping it. After about two mins it had me around the bottom and that was the end of that :_( Still a great morning on the water with no one out but me and the whales. On the kayak I really try to keep my rigging as simple as possible because doing any rigging while on the water is a giant pain. This is why I spool my reels with mono and run that straight to the hook, with a sinker sitting directly on the hook. After missing that fish I'm going to look at upgrading my setup to a Penn Spinfisher VI in size 6000 but want to know what size mono I should rig it with keeping in mind I wont be using leader. Because I'm fighting fish on the yak I dont think I need as much line capacity because when the fish really start running I can set the drag high and just get towed so I am more concerned about fishing too heavy line that reduces bites from smaller demersal species. Im currently thinking 30lb and rigging this to a set of gangs to trawl pillies on. In short is 30-40lb a good size albeit on the lighter side to land pelagics up to the 10ish kg range and am I an idiot for not using leader? Also if a mackerel does get hooked in summer can the gang hooks act like wire trace or will it still find away to get its teeth on the line? Cheers legends

Hey, if your going plastic can definetly recommend viking kayaks. I have had a nemo 1 man, a nemo two+1 and a 4.5m profish and they all lived very hard lives but did not show it at all. If your looking at tandems I would probably look at the viking tempo though as the nemo is definetly a bit crowded with two adults with not much room for storage of large items. Otherwise they are bulletproof, stable as and there are **** loads about on marketplace second hand if you dont want to pay heaps.

Real late reply but only just got through testing them all in earnest fairly recently. 2 of 3 are have broken from slamming while collapsing them. The last surviving one (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002654525394.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.828e1802OXtFrr) is definetly a bit weaker then what I was after, not too different from what you get at kmart in terms of power but a bit better build quality. Took this one out off straddie on my first kayak fishing trip dropping pillies on some offshore rocks. Was crap weather for the kayak (15+kn and 1.5m swell) and i was the only person out but ended up being the most productive mornings ive had in ages landing a dozen or so good squire a few of which I kept and my first grassy sweetlip as the highlight. was a lot of fun on the light and crappy gear. The grassy really gave this rod a run for its money and so its definetly not going to be the mackeral weapon I was hoping for but would be ideal for your bread and butter fishing. Currently looking at this https://www.bcf.com.au/p/penn-spinfisher-ssm-spinning-combo/M622381.html combo in 5'6 as my new budget combo to beat up on the kayak but will miss being able to cram the rod in the hatch like in the photo though. This was before the snapper closure btw for anyone concerned.

Hi, I started kayak fishing at Green island from wellington pt. Plenty of variety to be caught there all year round from Tuskys and snaps to the occasional mac. Its a decent return paddle but for about 60% of the journey you are just following the sand bar to king island (see google maps) so you can always get out of trouble. From there I would look at hitting offshore reefs which are quite popular like palmy or brays as you should never be to far from trouble.

Cheers @Tuna are fishand @Hweebeboth setups sound good, if my imports turn out crap as anticipated will probably try something along those lines.

Cheers Hamish, highest line class I could find in retailers in aus was a 5kg Abu which seemed overpriced so ended up finding a few suppliers in China and have 3 good looking 'carbon' rods on the way in hopes at least 1 is not crap.

Cheers @Breaming with brofor the reply it was what I expected tbh. I have had only good experiences with the cheap ones on camping trips where space was tight for bream and flattys (They dont last long though but I don't expect them to). Shame there's not something on the high-end.

Hi guys, Recently upgraded from a viking nemo 2 man to their profish 45 to trawl and bottom bash off pt Lookout in hopes of pelagics and large demersals. The profish unlike some other kayaks (stealths) doesn't have a big enough internal storage to store your typical 6ft boat rods while landing in the surf and so was wondering if you guys knew of any good compact options (collapse to about 80cm). I was hoping there was some heavy duty telescopic that would be heavy duty enough to bring in a decent pelagic. If this happens to exist it would be ideal because the rods could be rigged up before heading out, whereas a three piece would have to be rigged on the ocean which I have learnt can be painful or at least slow. Would love to hear what you guys run and will update if I find anything that seems good in search. Cheers

Trip Report: After the 9 hour drive we arrived at Rosslyn bay to the strong afternoon northerly you guys warned me about, loaded up the boat and started the punch out. As we left it seemed like every boat in the bay was returning and we were the only boat heading out. The odd laughs at us from the boats we passed did not help my confidence as we exited the marina. Very quickly we realised it was going to be a slow and wet trip (took about two hours in the end) and as i write this my tailbone is still in pain from sitting on an esky for the trip. Eventually we arrived at Miall and was greeted to a paradise that made it all worth it. About an hour before dark the two of us suited up to go spearing to catch the nights dinner. After an hour of searching around without pulling a trigger we started to swim back to camp. Fortunantely on the way in I spotted a big gold spot cod (a first for me) hiding under a rock that trusted its camouflage just little too much and after a quick fight it was dinner. Checking the forecast that night and remembering how rough the trip over was we decided we had to cut the trip very short and leave the next morning so we didnt have to make the crossing in twice as strong winds as what we came over in. A quick shoredive in the morning produced a PB 60cm coral trout for me before we returned home in glassy conditions that my bruised rear welcomed. All in all was somewhat a fail as we expected to stay for 4 nights and try trawl and dive for pelagics on the outer reefs but as a boatie I sure learnt a lot and two PB fish isn't a bad compromise either. Sucks for my buddy though who didn't get a single fish.

Thanks guys, sounds like I should be good for the crossing just gotta be prepared to take it slow but nice to know if I chicken out theres always corio. Hopefully will come back with a solid trip report in a couple weeks.

Cheers @AUS-BNE-FISHOI havent heard of Corio Bay but looks worth a trip north itself just from google maps. Admittedly I'm heading north to try get away from bream but at least it looks like nice camping and probably produces better than mud island anyways. Any advice on access to it or if theres anything important I should know about the area e.g. if its full of crocs would be massively appreciated? cheers, Jack

Cheers for the advice @Ryannnnnnnn, would've thought a 6.3 cc could handle pretty much anything keppel bay could throw at it but i guess I might've underestimated it. Dont suppose you know of any good plan B fishing or camping options in the area? I'm driving up from Brissie so dont want the drive to be a complete waste if the bay is rough.

Hi guys, Im heading up to camp and fish from Miall island end of next week departing from Rosslyn bay. Wind is looking good on the forecast (long range so taken with grain of salt) but the swell is looking like it will pick up while Im over there so Im worried about the trip back. I have no experience with the area though my understanding was that the cap/bunker group, swains and the keppels themselves provide a lot of protection from swell so wind is really the only worry. Just checking if this is the case because my boat is on the small side and I dont feel like getting stranded in 2-3m swell. Cheers, Jack