Lang Lang cop out!

After I had 7 squid ready in the freezer from my last trip, Dad and I were set to hit Jam Jerrup again in the yaks. We found low tide was about 5.30pm, so we could easily launch about 2pm, but would have to wait until 7.30-8pm to get back in, a couple of hours after dark. As we don't have lights yet and we definitely don't want to get stuck in the mud again, it was off to launch the boat at Corinella and motor up.
After launching about 1pm, we were on the spot about 1.30. I prepared the burley and threw my first bait in, but before I could get my second rod ready Dad was pulling in a healthy gummy. After netting it I go my second rod in. I had some slimy mackeral on one of my rods (Purchased slimies and pilchards on the way) and squid on the other. Within 5 minutes Dad was on again, boating another good gummy. I asked if he wanted to have a rest now that he had bagged out. After a few smaller gummies it went quiet and we moved towards French Island to the other side edge of the channel. We dropped our baits in (All with squid now, which was accounting for all fish) and over the next 45 minutes did not get a rest, having multiple double hook-ups. In the end we left them biting as we couldn't keep any more gummies and just had to catch and release them.
We motored towards Freemans Pt at walking pace, and sounded up some fish near the bottom. Hearing recent reports of some winter reds coming in we dropped the anchor and got all of the rods in. For the next couple of hours we moved once more, sounding up fish again. Apart from a few tentative bites we did not get anything more of note, and came in about 5.45 very happy with some great gummies.
Back at the ramp we had 3 other boats come in when we were cleaning and filleting our gummies, and between them they had caught 2 undersize gummies after fishing all day using bought pilchards and squid. Over the last 2 trips to the Lang Lang area (One in kayaks, one in the boat) we have caught well over 20 gummies with most being a good size. The key has been the fresh squid, so the lesson I have taken is that you need to spend the time collecting quality bait and it is the difference between a great day on the water and coming home empty handed.

Unlucky 7

Got up early for my last day of holidays. Hit Mornington around 7am and attached the new sounder (A portable Humminbird 160) with a piece of rope. Turns out I need to work on my system to attach it! Paddled out to the reef at Red Cliffs and started drifting. Threw my favourite squid jig around and second cast had a nice calamari in the bag. The rest of the drift proved fruitless so I went back to where I caught the first one and anchored. 6 more squid in the next half hour was a great bit of fun, but then they slowed down. I missed a strike (First miss of the day!) and decided I'd get them active by working 2 jigs, so threw the other one out aswell. As I was working them, my favourite jig became snagged. I gave it a couple of short, sharp tugs and it broke at the leader! This is the last time I used 4lb leader at a reef that shallow - 10lb catches just as many squid and is easier to get off snags, and with squid jigs hovering around $22, it's a much smarter investment!
I continued fishing with a "shallow" yamashita, that had a very slow sink rate. I was also trying to get my sounder to work properly, which I think I basically have, just need to get it attached to the boat properly. While this was going on my rod was nearly ripped from my hands. The squid took a bit of line before dislodging itself. That hardly ever happens!
A positive for the day was the sounder worked as it should and I picked up 7 good squid to be used for bait in snapper season, the big negative was my favourite squid jig which has caught nearly all my squid on now forms a part of the Mornington reef.
On another note my online tackle order arrived (Well, about half of it did with the rest on backorder!) and I now have a 307 colour SX40, a Bushy's stiffy vibe in phantom and 2 TT switchblade vibes in nightmare and tiger minnow. Very pumped to get out on the Patto river to give them a try before the big Bemm River trip in late September!

All quiet at Mornington

Well, we have had a week of inclement weather to start the school holidays. I spent the first week at Coronet Bay, and got a leave pass one day to go to Mornington to chase some squid for bait. I got there and it was a massive onshore wind (No internet to check weather conditions from Coronet Bay, although Westernport was very calm!). I headed out through surf-like conditions but came back in shortly afterwards when I was nearly tipped numerous times by the swell.
Headed out again yesterday in much better conditions, however the squid would not play the game. The water had cleared up, and I was fishing the high tide so it looked very likely. First cast produced a small inker. Second cast I tried a new jig and snagged it up straight away - My 4lb leader was no match for the reef! Back to my old faithful natural yamashita 2.0 and over one and a half hours I got one more smallish squid. Headed back in about 11.30.
Not a great day, but sure beats working!

VYak RSS feed

Well, we have finally moved to version 3.0! There is now an RSS feed down the right hand side of the blog. It brings the heading of the five latest forum topics from VYAK, which is a great site for Victorian fishing kayakers that helps with planning trips, safety issues, DIY, recipes, kayak reviews, fishing competitions and even some classifieds for when you decide to upgrade to a newer model!
On the fishing front, it's been a bit quiet since the birth of my son, but hopefully we'll get out soon as we have run out of bait and need to hit the squid again!

Man Vs Wild - Great Grey Sub style!

Wow what an interesting experience. When many people see our beloved WP they think of the beautiful bluewater and the fast currents that dominate the eastern and northern arms, where many a gummy, snapper and whiting can be found. The area from Tenby Pt-Lang Lang and above provide a stark contrast to this.......

Arriving at 6.30 with Dad we drove up and down the road at Jam Jerrup making sure this was the place cheaterparts (Stephen from VYak) had told us about. Turns out it was, as he arrived about half an hour later than us. In this half an hour we had managed to unload and had started the walk out across about 600m of quicksand and mud to the water's edge. Almost dead low tide is not the time to be launching here. I was taking a step, sinking to the knee and above, moving the kayak forward and supporting my weight with it to take another step, then repeating the process. It took about 40 minutes to walk 600m. I thought Dad was about to keel over and die! Of course when cheaterpants arrived with Di (His wife), he was far better set up than us, with a great pneumatic wheel setup that took them half the way, then they knew which path to stick to and managed to launch just after us. This was where the bad part of the day ended (The walk!), and the good part began.

We paddled out for a bit until we were in about 1.5m of water. It was basically dead low so I got the rods set up. Cheaterparts, Di and I watched with amusement as Dad's first run (With the culprit likely to be a big black ray a.k.a "The Sofa") sytematically tore him to shreds before spitting the hook some hundred metres or so away from the boat. Then the action started as the tide began its run in. My first rod was sent out with half a squid head and while I was setting up my other one I had the telltale tap-tap-tap of a gummy loading up and soon it was game on. A healthy 3 foot specimin became my first gummy in the yak.

Then Di (On a light rod with a prawn for bait I believe) hooked up to a gummy, and by the sounds of it also hooked on to numerous other lines! It all went ballistic in their canoe as cheaterpants then proceeded to make it a double hook-up. One keeper, one just under for them. Not to be outdone, Dad then also hooked and landed a nice keeper gumbo.

This was all in the space of about 5 minutes and I had just set both my rods up for the first time when one started to load up again. I waited to feel the full weight of the gummy and struck, and within seconds I had lost about 50m of line. Characteristically, it then headed straight back for the kayak and dug deep for about 30 seconds then took off on another blistering run. The phrase "You're gonna need a bigger boat" did pop into my head more than once. While this was happening, my other rod also loaded up and on its run (And in the massive confusion now!) it broke off. Probably a good thing as the first one was dragging me around enough! I finally got it back to the kayak and tried to grab it. Not being able to reach the tail I grabbed the dorsal fin. Oops. It took off again, making its third massive run before eventually being brought back to the side of the kayak. I grabbed the tail and the fight was over.... Or so I thought. I could not hold this beast still, and it rolled in my arms and kicked its tail. One end of my paddle (Which was 'safely' tied to the side of the yak) got caught in the current, went vertical and threatened to take off. As the Great Grey Sub thrashed around in my arms it also kicked my bait bucket overboard. By the time the very very nice man that is cheaterpants had up anchored and retrieved it, the bucket was probably 500m closer to Warneet!

I dispatched a very angry gummy then shoved it into the rear storage hatch, where it struggled to fit (It was probably a smidge under 4 foot). A very good feeling. I had unfortunately no leader material left so could not rig up my line the other gummy had broken so was fishing with one rod. Dad in the meantime had caught a couple of good sized elephants which were released to fight another day, possibly because elephant fish are the devil.



The fishing slowed down as the tide came in (Probably moving in closer to feed on more crabs as the exposed banks were being covered) and we moved nearer to shore. Not much action here, so cheater and Di headed towards Lang Lang and Dad and I headed closer in, where Dad caught another gummy. Two each for us, so we called it a day. As we got in to shore, Dad saw that the tide was still a fair way out and with a "No way I'm walking through that again" headed back out to soak some more baits. I headed in, packed up and put the kayak on the roof. Then I enjoyed a tepid coffee from our increasingly unreliable thermose.

Shortly after, Dad, cheater and Di came back in. Cheater had caught another nice gummy and they were off to Morningto to stock up on some more squid for bait. We headed back in to wash the kayaks and have some hotter coffee. Below is Dad posing with a couple of the better specimens from the day.


In the wash up - If you want a gummy from a kayak, you could go to a lot of worse places than this, but make sure you go on a tide that is at least half in, and I suggest fishing the outgoing on a channel edge and the banks as the tide rises.

We're famous

Well, not exactly famous but I was flicking through "Victorian fishing monthly" and noticed a pic of myself and Dad at the Apollo Bay fishing competition, from early morning on day 1 preparing to launch our yaks.


You can see me on the left, eager to launch as always, and Dad on the right showing everyone his best side. I am currently in negotiations with Max Markson to broker us a movie deal.

Not too much to report on the fishing front recently - Our first son Ben arrived 2 and a half weeks ago so have been keeping busy. Did get to Coronet Bay this weekend, but unfortunately the wind conspired against us so did not manage to wet a line in anger.

Westernport critter hunt

Not entirely a kayak trip, but it started out that way.....
After hearing all about fresh bait being the key to any fishing success, Dad and I decided to try this theory out. Therefore before we hit Corinella last night, I first took the kayak to Mornington in an attempt to entice some squid. I got to Mornington about 4pm and was on the water about 4.15. First and second casts were smashed, and 2 squid in the boat. Then I decided to also work Dad's black yamashita alongside my natural colour. I was casting one, then casting the other and working them alternating so I always had 2 in the water. This worked well, however every cast was a hit so I was having double hook ups and having to do a lot of winding on the rod without a jig on it. It did result in me bagging out with 10 squid within half an hour.


Then it was over to Westernport. I arrived at the house at Coronet Bay about 6.30, and Dad wasn't getting there until 8. So I rigged up all of the rods, loaded up the boat and hooked it up to my car in waiting. As soon as Dad arrived we headed out to be greeted by a full moon and pristine conditions, with not many other boats out. We were really hoping for a jewie and found a nice spot in 2.5m of water just outside the Corinella channel with a lot of reef. My first cast resulted in a large elephant shark (ALWAYS a throwback!), and I rebaited and threw out again. Within 2 minutes one of my rods was off again, this time I was halfway through pulling it in when my other rod went off. This was obviously a bigger fish so I handed the first rod to Dad to finish pulling in. Dad finished pulling in the 50cm snapper (Which I obviously still claimed as mine!) and after a healthy fight and Dad doing everything with the net to lose it I pulled in a 6kg gummy shark, about 1.1m in length.


This fresh bait theory was going great! Another few elephant sharks, and then I had another run and pulled in a gummy of about 1m (4-5kgish). Dad finally got on board with a 90cm gummy that made his first for the night, then hooked a giant ray (Otherwise known as a sofa as you cannot move them.). A great run on Dads rod woke him up from his siesta at about midnight and he landed a nice 1.2m, 7kg gummy that put up a great fight. I then pulled in an absolutely enormous skate which took out all other lines, signifying that it was time to head in.



Does fresh bait make a difference? We talked to 3 other boaties back at the ramp, 1 unsuccessful, 1 with a couple of elephant sharks and the other landed a few elephant sharks and an undersize gummy. Geeting squid at Mornington is definitely my first stop in any fishing situation in the future!