Big Catch Competition

What a massive weekend. Is started friday afternoon, when after shopping and waiting for Dad to pick me up, we were off..... Almost. As we turned onto the Monash I remembered that I had left our room key to the apartment on the kitchen table. A quick exit at the next opportunity and we were off again. We arrived at the Apollo Bay Surf Lifesaving Club at about 7.30, signed in and hit the pier for some serious squidding. Dad hooked one almost immediately, and I followed him a while later on dusk. We went back to the room for a good night's sleep! Saturday morning greeted us with typical conditions when you want to get out and kayak fish - A fair swell and blowing a gale! I met a few guys from VYAK and AKFF whilst readying the kayaks for launch, and then I cleaned the 2 squid on the waterfront. Unfortunately, as I was doing this, one of my thongs which was on the ground next to me floated away and the strong offshore breeze varried it out into the harbour and far away before I realised it was gone.... If anyone is travelling across bass strait soon make sure to keep an eye out.
Undeterred (And because all of the Hobie crowd were there effortlessly gliding over the waves!) we headed out, but stayed in the marina. I had a couple of hits on a 4" pillie SP but decided we should target whiting, and anchored and set up with some squid. A couple of decent leatherjacket and 4,000 wrasse later, we switched our attention to squid, and quickly bagged 2 more to use as bait the following day. Most of the yaks then headed in (Us included) to hit the hopefully more protected rivers. First thing was first though - We hit the bakery for a pie and coffee, and judging by the amount of other yakkers in there, we weren't alone in not yet having any fish!
After that, Dad and I hit the Aire river (See pic). We threw around plastics and strike pro minnows for a while for nothing more than a few small salmon, then anchored and fished with prawns. Immediately I missed my first 2 runs, and hooked up solidly with a massive run on the third. Before I had turned the fish, the leader inexplicably snapped. I think I was over-zealous in my half hitches around the twig I was using as a sinker stopper. We then landed 1 31cm bream, came back in and weighed it in. Although it was by now 3pm, they informed us it was the first and only fish weighed in to date, Very embarrassing having your picture taken and having all this fuss made over such a small fish!
Saturday night saw us have dinner with my parents in law (Lasagne - Best meal of the trip!), and a late-ish night. Sunday we awoke at 5.30, I rolled over and went back to sleep but Dad made me get up at 5.45 - He was keen for a bream or two! We headed back to the Aire River and met Tim, an (almost) local from Colac who already had 2 bream @ 32cm in the livewell. As we anchored and had our first lines in, Tim came back to show us his latest catch - A 41cm, 1.1kg monster. After a couple of moves and many small salmon, I hooked and landed a 27cm throwback and a 29cm model. Small, but legal. Dad moved over to next to me and was soon in on the action. He hooked and landed a 27cm one, then his rod took off. As he was playing a spirited salmon back to the yak, his other rod also took off and the fish headed for the reeds. I pushed my way over, grabbed his salmon, landed and released it and got the net for him. Unfortunately, his fish was well embedded in the reeds. Here is the advantage of kayak fishing - He paddled across to it and saw it, by now exhausted and near the surface, although around many reeds. I went over and slipped the environet under a 33cm fish - His best of the tournament. We then headed in to beat the 11am final weigh-in.After checking out it was back to the surf lifesaving club for the final results. Tim won the bream from kayak category with his monster, and in these conditions it also claimed "The Grand Slam", because nobody caught more than 1 of the 4 species on offer! All eyes were on the major prize, a $2400 Hobie voucher, and Merv Hughes drew it out and the winner was....... A guy who fished from a stinkboat all weekend. No class!
It was a great weekend, and we have already lined up the unit for next year! Here is Dad's best for the trip on the official measurer:

Mornington mayhem

Yesterday I decided if we ever want some decent fish, we need decent bait. So I went out yesterday morning and bought 2 new squid jigs - Yamashita 2.0 in the natural colour and a 2.2 in the transluscent colour, the "shallow diving" one.
Went out with Dad last night, when the wind finally dropped after howling for a few days. He picked me up at 5pm, although it took a while to load both kayaks onto the roof of his car. We arrived at Mornington half an hour later to some great conditions. After a launch and a 10 minute paddle we found a likely looking reef and cast out. First cast I was on. A small, "million dollar bill" for those jewie fishermen. Shortly after Dad was on too, this one slightly bigger. 20 luckless minutes then we both hooked up again. As I pulled mine out of the water it decided to ink me - Rookie mistake!
This is Dad with a couple of the little inkers.
It went quiet again for a while, then I hooked up and dropped a smallish model at the kayak. A move of 50m and just before dark I pulled out 2 more in quick succession. Unfortunately, through all of this I had the squid in my kayak (4 by this stage) in the footwells and they definitely saved some ink for the poor kayak.
The storm clouds started gathering, and with the promise of an electrical storm we decided enough was enough. A quick paddle back to the ramp, packed up the kayaks, cleaned 4 fsquid or the table and kept 2 smaller ones for bait and home we went.
Once home, we added flour, salt, pepper and paprika and here is the result:


I do think that there has to be some better recipes out there that bring the flavour out more though! Still, very fresh and very tasty.
Off to Apollo Bay next weekend for the Big Catch Competition.