August round up, it ended with an explosion!

Since my last post I’ve had four sessions from my kayak, two of these were in the mini heatwave we had mid- month. I sweltered on 12th on my shore session and it wasn’t much cooler on 14^th and 15^th which made it a challenge.  One of the things I’ve wanted to do is chill out a little more, see some sun rises and some sunsets rather than driving two hours and then start my sessions. The van has been great for that.

Anger management!

I had a beer and watched the sun go down and at that point realised I had left my kayak trolley in the garage, super! So the three-day trip was not off to a great start.  My wife met me halfway the next day so I got off to later start than I would have liked but I was fishing for 11am. I found some consistent surface action for the first time this year, the Bass were small but plentiful, even in that weather. I got bored and after a few hours went exploring the coastline, caught lots of Pollack and found the source of all the seals in the area.  This is a rarely fished stretch of the coast and I had a few close calls having them come close to taking fish a few times.  For the shore angler this would be a long walk to find yourself competing with a dozen plus seals.

A cracking cave, when I see these I always wonder if it's been explored or has some history of being used by smugglers. Or, is this the hole through which seals are deposited into the sea down in the SW!

I felt a change was needed and relocated that evening.  I launched at dawn with high hopes of some better fish.  I set up some meticulous drifts along a stretch of coast that normally produces the goods, but it took me an hour to get an offer. I eventually found some fish but they were finicky and in 25ft of water.  I had to finesse to some slimline soft plastics and 7g jig heads to hook them, initially I thought it was mackerel hitting the FBM, but the change converted the knocks into fish. With sun burning a whole in me by mid-morning and a dozen schoolies returned, I didn’t feel the effort was worth it and peddled back.  The small tides, weather and finding two nets strung up in 12ft of water burst my bubble.  I had a look around me, without mentioning the area, this stretch of coastline is having much more pressure applied to it this year. Campers, kayaks and centre console boats and almost 100% from England, left me feeling it’s best avoided till the end of September for my next visit.  The number of fish had been reasonable, but the size was a disappointment over the two days.

My intention was to fish for Perch on the Sunday.  The best part of a bottle of Port put that idea to bed and the next morning I had a lazy day and watched a movie before travelling home. That was a decent enough Sunday morning in the sunshine and nice way to wrap up the trip.

I had another early launch last Thursday, I’ve only fished here once before, mainly as launching and retrieving is a problem. The storm from two days previously had left some lift in the sea. As I paddled the gulley parallel to the shore to avoid the weed and boulders directly in front of me, I must have past over a submerged rock. When the following trough arrived, it deposited me on a large boulder that was now exposed, and yak went over! Thankfully I was quick to bail out before it went over completely.  I was in about 5ft of water, so it was no big deal, but not a great start.  The fishing was pretty good but it only lasted 3 hours as the forecast was an absolute fantasy, from the three sources I use. I checked these again when I was on the water, I was sitting in 1 metre swells and a wind from a different direction?  The fishing was good with decent numbers of Bass and the Pollack were a nuisance to be honest. Knowing what the landing was going to be like and having already taken a dip, I cut my losses.  It’s as well I did to be fair; it was the trickiest I’ve had. I’m pretty sure if I were in my old Outback there would have been problems.  The Revo is easier to control coming on to a beach with some surf.  I’ll be back here but it will take some really settled weather. I’m just glad I didn’t head the 4 miles along the coast that was my intention, the fact I caught fish straight away saved the day.

This brings me to yesterday.  I had a nice evening in the van on Saturday night, a view with a sunrise in the morning, my kayak trolley is in the van and I’m having a coffee looking at the weather apps, cynically thinking, what shit show is on the cards today? 

   Jamie joined me and off we went, into the tide.  It was good to have some company and some chat, the venue can be challenging, we both feel better buddied up here.  We had our arse kicked here in September last year and as we went out, we were both thinking about what was coming down the line, fishing and weather. For once the forecast was actually better than expected. The fishing was just something else.

Decent sized schoolies from the get go.

Waves of Bass, some of these returns lasted about 50-100 yards on a drift. Fish were hitting the surface at points.

As I was landing fish at times there were two or three others coming up with it, the fishing was on fire!

We would drift and cast and then troll back.  At one point the fishing actually went up a gear and we couldn't get back to start the drifts without hooking up. We took a break here and there and chatted about what we could do to sort out a better fish or two, livebait was spoken about be we were not geared up for it.  The bigger lures I had were in the 60g range and were only fit to be trolled on the both the rods I was using.

There seemed to be some bigger targets in there but there was a lot of competition.  I've never had a session from the yak that's been as relentless, peddling, casting and catching for 6 hours, totally exhausting. Jamie said at one point he'd had enough.  I reminded him that days like this are few and far between.  I was just dialled in, for me, every cast I was expecting a lump and I was like that till we headed in. In the end we didn't get "the" one, but had some nice fish. I had 9 over 50cm, the best was 54cm and most were high 40's and plump.  

The big guy was nearly asleep at the helm on the way back in.

With the numbers, a tremendous days fishing when the kit you use, fish and weather all come together, just a fantastic overall experience.