Cerberus Cephalopods

Another weekend another kayak trip. This is great! As planned, we headed to Black Rock and launched at 6.30 in Half Moon Bay. It was good to meet a fellow VicYakker (Mark, known as Rollie) and we had to wait a while to launch due to it being overcast and still dark. Lucky because this gave us time to pay the ridiculous sum of $10 for a parking ticket! We headed to the wreck Cerberus, and I flicked a 3" pearl watermelon minnow at it. No sooner had it his the water than I was on! Not a massive start, but a 20cm pinkie opened the account. For the next half hour or so we caught and released many similar size fish, with almost every cast resulting in a hit. I even managed a 38cm flathead which went into the keep net for dinner.
It went quiet so we headed out a bit and anchored up after our first drift resulted in 500m of movement within a couple of minutes - A bit breezy so too fast to drift. A couple more undersize pinkies came aboard and we headed back in to the Cerberus for one last try. After 15 fruitless minutes I swapped to a squid jig and first cast on the drop I was snagged on the ship..... As I was cursing my luck and readying myself to say goodbye to $22, the snag took off! My PB squid to date then came aboard after a spirited battle, so I quickly removed the jig from its tentacles, cast back in the same spot and went to get the squid out of the net. I didn't have time to accomplish this as while it was dropping again a good squid took the jig! Then I had my 2 biggest kayak caught squid ever in the net but was drifting close to the ship, so moved off and put them in the keep net. Then I had 10 more minutes of casting at the ship for 1 more (Slightly smaller) squid. Dad tried to get in on the action, but failed to tempt any squid. He did catch quite a few pinkies in the meantime though.


The pic is of me with the Cerberus in the background. Disappointing to find that although we had to pay $10 just to park in the carpark (Even though we didn't have a boat trailer!) there were no fish cleaning facilities provided. Apart from that, it was an enjoyable day and good to meet another fantastic VicYakker.

Black Rock - Where to launch?

Dad and I are fishing at Black Rock on Saturday (If there are no babies yet....), in search of some pinkies, salmon and flathead. I will be stocking up on the gulp 3" and 4" minnows in pillie (Great colour), nuclear chicken (Another top colour) and vader (Just a good name). We are trying to decide where to launch. The ramp is point A on my map, with the Junction Beach at point B. I know for ease of launch there would probably be more space etc at the ramp, but I think most of the pinkie-holding reefs are south, nearer to point B.


I have posted this on VYAK at http://www.vyak.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=544 to get some opinions. Honestly it doesn't really matter where we launch, as long as we get onto some fish!

Storage solution

Well, I've had the both mine and Dad's kayaks sitting in my garage for a while now, as it's more convenient to take them out from there rather than drive to Coronet Bay (1 hour) then to Mornington (45 minutes), when it is only 35-40 minutes to Mornington from my house. Although this has been great (Fished 4 weekends in a row until this very windy weekend), it has caused 2 problems: My garage was filling up and had not much room to move, and Glen was at Coronet Bay this weekend without a kayak. I can't help Glen, but while I'm not out on the water I had some spare time to fix the space issue. Here is what I came up with:


Basically I went down to Bunnings, bought 50m of rope, 4 pulleys, 2 D shackles and some aluminium marine grade attachments to put the rope through from the wood. I got the wood from off cuts from previous renovations to our house. I drilled holes up each end of the pieces of wood (Cut to about 32cm long). Initially I also had some 250mm bolts to go through the wood, through the scupper holes and into another piece of wood below the kayak. This only worked at one end (It was too deep at the other end with the footwell etc) and would take too long to put on each time. I just made up a couple of loops of rope and now thread them through the scupper holes, up and through the pieces of wood then loop them back around. See picture.


All I have to do to get it off the ground now is pull on a couple of pieces of rope, then tie them off to the side of the garage. It not only keeps the kayak out of the way, but I can store paddles, PFD's etc on top. Total cost was about $67 for the materials from Bunnings.

Coronet Bay whiting

A bit misleading in the title of this post, as I only boated one whiting for the day. However, it's the 4th weekend in a row we've managed to get out on the water, and it's been a lot of fun. Another early start, with Dad picking me up at 5.30 and we arrived at Coronet Bay about 6.40 with a rising tide and high hopes. As we went to park, Kel (momunny from VYak) arrived and we set off. First we tried drifting throwing squid jigs around for nothing. Dad and I anchored and threw out rods with fresh squid strips on them hoping for some whiting. About 7.30 Mitch (mtfisho from VYak) turned up and started flicking a plastic. 2nd cast he was on, and pulled in a 45cm-ish flathead up to his yak and lost it at the side. His Dad Gaz (angryseal from VYak) turned up aswell and they went off trolling around. Now motivated by Mitch's hookup, I threw on a soft plastic and started drifting. Almost immediately I had a good hit and follow...... From a squid! Where was it 2 minutes beforehand when I had the squid jig on?????Dad and I decided that the whiting may be in closer in the shallows, and paddled in. Whilst flicking a plastic, my bait rod with squid strips went off and I soon pulled in a healthy 34cm whiting.


We moved a couple more times, and I got a very nice sized grass whiting, which was released due to them being far less tasty than their cousins the king george, then a couple of leatherjackets, which also went back over the side.
We paddled back towards the Coronet Bay ramp (Still not open!) and tried one last time for some squid. Dad cast out his black yamashita 2.0 and then busied himself casting out his bait rod. When he picked the squid jig rod back up he was on! Not a monster by any means, but a good size and it will be great bait for future whiting trips. It's also good to know that there are a few squid in Coronet Bay and we don't have to travel to Mornington every time we need some calamari!


We were ready to head back in, still couldn't see angryseal and mtfisho anywhere. After packing everything up and putting the yaks on the car, we finally saw them come back into view and they were out past the stick, maybe fishing for gummies or elephants?
Anyway, another good day on the water and meeting of some new faces. The forecast is good for all weekend so good luck to all who venture out!

Early Morning-ton session

After a quick call to Dad last night, we were ready to make the most of the long weekend. Unfortunately it's going to be blowing a gale, thunderstorms and windy, so we decided an early morning assault on Mornington was in order. Dad picked me up at 6, we loaded up and launched about 7.15. After paddling to our spot, we started casting. 2nd cast Dad was on with a nice size calamari.... and 3rd cast he also bagged a nice one. It took me another couple of casts before I got one. Dad then straight away got number 3. I went back and started another drift and got my second. It was still very nice on the water, but a breeze gave us a fair drift so I started paddling back with the squid in a keep net on my yak. Unfortunately, it turns out that Dad gave me the "big holes" keep net and on the way a squid somehow escaped!I anchored up and started casting again. I was on 2 casts in a row. After the second cast, I dropped my jig straight down in about 2m of water whilst getting my 2 squid from my net into the keeper net. I found out another one had escaped it so it was straight back in the boat never to see water again! Whilst I was cursing my stupidity, my rod dangling over the side was on! I pulled up number 5. Then Dad got a snag..... And lost my new yamashita "shallow" jig, which had up until then been responsible for the downfall of a lot of squid! I fixed him up with another one (My last decent one), but it dove quicker and while he was constantly chasing it to get off the snags I bagged another 3.


Dad decided to cut one up and use it as strips of bait for whiting, so went off and fished the edge of the reef. I joined him and soon we had a few small pinkies each. I had a couple more casts with the squid jig and bagged number 9. This gave us 12 between us, although 2 had escaped through the "keep" net!
A great morning, off the water in an hour and a half with a great bag of calamari. Just when we were leaving a couple of boats pulled up, but we didn't see them get any. Maybe if they had have been using the stealthiest of all fishing craft, the kayak, they would have done better......

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.