www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-BkzVlXJNs

Anyway I did get a 70cm kingie and a pannie when my reel screamed off. After a good fight where my braid was close to the backing I managed to get the fish up expecting another ratking but was very pleased to see the big red tail.

Thought it might go 15lb but the fattie went to 20lb. Managed to get a stringer onto it as wouldnt fit in my pod

Luckily yesterday I fitted a stringer just in case of the big one. Came in carefully thru the surfzone. Adrenalin still pumping.

Look at the guts on it

Read more in the forum

The snotty weather forecast hadn’t arrived by this morning with the exception of a few skiffs of rain, but definitely wasn’t far away, so a hasty pack ‘n go tactical strike trip out to the Keri Inlet was in order. Surprisingly few trailers at the ramp given the long weekend, but the fact the the western half of the North island appeared to have vanished into a wall of cold-looking grey water may have had something to do with it

Was greeted by a couple of pairs of bleary eyes at the window of a Hiace camper next to me as I thumped and crashed around setting up the yak Well, it was after seven anyway – ’bout time they got up and admired the view before it disappeared…

I still had the kingy rig setup from Toots, so snaffled a wee KY as I went out through the moorings – whacked a deepish-running bridle onto it and started to troll out to where a couple of terns and gannets were having a scoff in the channel. Plenty of sign on the sounder, but the only things down there seemed to be tail nipper goldfish, so continued across the inlet to where the current runs on the incoming tide.

Passing through a gap in the reefs in about 1m of water, I spooked something that took off with a couple of big tail beats, dunno what it was as I was looking the other way at the time, but was a promising sign – lots of baitfish and bigger things a-lurking.

Got away from the reef and into a shallow sandy bay and flicked the SP out to bottom bounce while I checked and setup the trolling rig for a shallow run along the edge of the ecklonia reef – First snapper of the day took the blood shad and was soon heading back to tell his mates about his latest adventure

By now the wind was just starting to pickup in front of the rain, and for once it coincided with my intended drift line past Slaines and out to the Brothers (although I was fairly sure I would have to pull the pin before I reached there) Casting back onto the edge of the Ecklonia gave a steady stream of 35 – 40cm pannies, with this many at my usual cutoff, I decided to up the limit after the first two to 40cm as there must be better fish given the numbers on the feed.

A few minutes later, and another cast onto the edge of the current, flicked the bail arm as soon as the SP hit the water and take up the slack – solid! Bugger! Must’ve cast straight onto the surface raft of weed! Leaned into the rod…it was moving. No resistance at all, but a definite weight No fishy moves, nothing… Branch maybe? Kept working it back towards the yak against the current, the little SP noodle at a full 90 degree bend, but still no fight and no action at all…

After a minute or so I saw a flash of orange, good sized snapper, but the complete lack of fight was puzzling – The it saw the yak, or maybe just woke up and took off like a steamtrain If I had accepted it was a branch and locked up the drag it would have all been over on the 8lb mono, but fortunately I had been clamping the drag with my finger as I heaved it in – So there I was with the wee drag whistling away as Muggins tried to get back to the weed – THIS was more like it A touch and go battle followed for the next 5 minutes or so until he was at grabbing distance, then, I don’t know why, I decided to get an “arty” shot of him underwater.

The flash went off, and so did he…Another two minutes before he was once again within reach – no messing around and I had a nice 60-odd cm Snapper in my lap.

So, with a nice few snaps in the bag, and the wind going around to push me home, I just drifted back up the channel dabbling the SP on the way. Picked up another couple of 40′s to repay some debts then as the COLD rain and southerly arrived, I pulled the kit in and headed home.

On arrival back at the beach an hour and a half after I left, the tourists had finally woken up and were sorting out what to have for breakfast as they sheltered under the tailgate of their Hiace – at least I think that’s what they were discussing as the frying pan was sitting empty on the cooker and I don’t speak whatever middle European language they did What the heck, it’s persisting down, and I enjoy the expressions on tourists faces so I offer them a (smaller) snapper. Blank faces. Universal sign language comes into play which they probably interpreted as ” I have a broken wrist and am very wet, would you take this dead animal from me?” but the smiles make me think they understood what to do with it . As I was driving away, they were taking a photo of it!

Debts and favours have been repaid in fresh fillets, and I still have the big fella (which clocked in at a smidge over 11lb) brining down for the smoker tomorrow.

Mojo replenished

Went to a spot that has produced in the past and started to fish. The sea was a bit sloppy and the fishing was slow but after an hour and a half I had enough for dinner which was the main objective.

It started to rain and was getting very cold so I thought I would pop in close for a shot at some gurnard on the way home. Dropped anchor in 12ft of water and put my baits down. Quite slow again but picked up another nice pannie. Then all of a sudden all hell broke loose, something grabbed my line and started heading out to sea at a rate of knots! It didn’t seem to want to stop so I released the anchor and went for a ride

I actually thought I either had a shark or a stingray as I had caught some rubbish fish earlier in the morning. Once again I ‘assumed’ wrong

After a short battle I had a very reasonable sized snapper along side the yak Now what

The gaff was successfully deployed and I then had a large snapper sitting in my lap. I sat there for about 5 minutes in shock and sort of wondering how I was going to deal with it. Managed to get it into the back of the yak without falling out (just) and headed in as by that stage the weather had really packed it in.

When back on land I weighed the fish and was stoked at a new PB, 10.1kg

Unfortunately no on water or beach photo’s as it was pelting down and my camera is not water proof. Also my fingers were so numb I wouldn’t have been able to operate it!

Snapper for dinner

So the trip had been in the making for sooooooo long and we had a small window in the weather for Friday May 29th, the "who’s available?" call goes out, Hairy Little Dwarf, New2Yaking, and Mental step up to the mark…

Here’s my version of the events of The Toots Kingi Bash…

Thursday May 28th
So get home from work, pack the car full of all that gear I’ve been preparing all week, live bait rigs, poppers, jigs, rapala, various giant plastic baits, all my Kingi bases were covered! And on top of all that I threw in a few soft bait bits and pieces to throw around while the live baits bobbing around under a balloon…

New2Yaking turns up at my place, we load his gear into my car and off we go, 200m down the road – oops forgot the gaff, turn around and pick it up will need that for those big kingis!

A two and a half hour trip to the Tutukaka Hoilday Park sees us in our cabin teaching New2Yaking how I set up my soft bait gear.

Friday May 29th, 5:30am
Alarm goes off, get up, grab a quick tin of beans for breakfast, get all geared up, and we head down to Pacific Bay to meet HLD, all kayaks rigged and ready to go

The bay was nice and flat in the harbour but as we reached the heads the story changed, the entrance ws more like a washing machine, with a good 2m swell coming in and bouncing off every rock we were getting a battering.

Personally I’ve fished in worse conditions but not N2Y and he made the call to stay in the harbour, good on him I say, our sport can be daunting and dangerous at times, when it doesn’t feel right for you that’s exactly when you should pull the pin, good call mate.

HLD an I carried on to our pre-chosen spot in North Gable, about a 3 km paddle from the harbour entrance. Sun came up on the way there.

At North Gable and the swell didn’t get any better really, when we got there fishing for kings was pretty much off the menu as our target pin was now awash with white foam making it impossible and unsafe to fish so we decided to paddle slowly back to the harbour prospecting all the way.

I had seen a wreck marked on the marine chart in North Gable the day before to poped that in my GPS and headed out to it, found it on the sounder and could see plenty of sign, so dropped a 7 inch softie down and bang I could see the fish come 5m+ up off the bottom to hit my bait, locked it up and got a very healthy bend in the rod, lots of string pulled and 10 minutes later up pops a 14lb (estimate) Snapper, poped it in the yak, paddled over to HLD for a quick photo and back it goes to fight another day.

By the time the photo was taken and the drift I was now way off the wreck to decided to go hunting else where. Couldn’t find anything for about a hour, and the roll of the sea was taking it’s toll on my tin of beans, they were then deployed as burley, no they didn’t work, no fish to be seen anywhere…

Went looking around the rocks found nothing, drifted into a spot where HLD had been ten minutes earlier and pulled up a nice 12lb (estimate) Snapper, thought about weather or not keeping it for a feed for just long enough for the Snapper to make a bid for freedom off my lap, so that decision as made…

Gave up on the wash fishing and headed to the center of Middle Gable where I found a very nice looking patch of foul in the middle of one very large bay of nothing, on the sounder the foul looked to be holding what looked like a single large fish (or 2/3 small ones huddling together).

So down she goes, this time it’s just a 5 inch Lime Tiger, just what was on there from my wash fishing, again positioned myself so I can see the bait going down on sounder, and again there it is, the fish is coming up to meet the bait, ok, flick the bail arm, the rod bends double, and line screams from the reel, holy, what is this? I had just tightened up the drag on the last couple of fish so this has to be bigger, or fitter

15/20 mins later at the end of what was a run, get line back, run, get line back, battle up comes a very nice looking Snapper, jump on the VHF, "HLD, Need another photo please", at this point the fish is still in the water on the end of my gaff, the fish is exhausted so no escape for this one HLD comes over and I pull it up, "Nice fish, very nice fish", I said "what you reckon, 20lb?", he said more like "21lb". Cool ok, I’ve got my first 20lb from the kayak! Then comes the part where you find out just how easy it is to slide a big fish into the well… yea right!

We then call it a day and paddle back to the harbour to see how N2Y is getting on, my stomach makes doubly sure on the way back that there are no more beans left in there… Swell is stil hanging around outside the entrance.

So we then paddle back into the harbour to find that the swell stlil isn’t there and N2Y has caught a couple of throw back Snapper and a John Dory (which he also threw back, didn’t know the size limit…) Had a nice paddle back in to a very flat Pacific Bay.

Couple of photos on the beach:

Seems I need a bigger chilly bin…

No one had scales so off the the Marina and to the club office to get it weighed

Official weight… 11.48kg or 25.3lb WOOT! Not only did I break my 20lb Snapper personal best I also did my 25lb one at the same time! Ok off to the pub for a pint!

Photo taken back at home.

Just like to say thanks to HLD and N2Y, had a great time with good company, thanks guys!

Cheers, Mental

The predawn was still and clear, but not too nippy, as I met up with Mental and New2Yaking at Pacific Bay in Tutukaka Harbour. Didn’t take long before we were on the beach for final preflights, and away into the sunrise…

Mental heading towards the entrance

Unfortunately, the forecast swell was a tad bigger than expected, and although not rough, the reflection off the cliffs made it too dicey to have a serious attempt at the intended quarry with the occasional big roller cruising through – not the sort of thing you want to find barrelling down on you as you negotiate the wash

The washing machine was a little too much for N2Y, and he opted to stay in the harbour area, whilst Mental and I headed off towards our possie, a nice pin that regularly holds kings.

…They were probably there today as well, just that we couldn’t get within about 30m of it without turning into flotsam. So we turned our sights to good old trusty Snaps (although I spent a fair bit of time dragging various plastic articles along the edge of the aerated water in the hope that something was that far away from the reef – they weren’t) and apart from a couple of throwback snaps averaging about 6lb, I came home empty handed. I couldn’t have kept them anyway as I was banking on picking up some salt ice at one of the service stations in Whangarei on my way through – NOTE: NONE of the eight service stations that were open at 0500 in Whangarei stock salt ice. I won’t make that mistake again!

With fishing being fairly slow (possibly due to the small pod of young female Orcinus orca that appeared between Mental and myself – and just as quickly disappeared – leaving me doubting if I had actually seen them ) I took a bit of time out to tease a small hammerhead with a pink shine, he wasn’t playing though (spoilsport ) and carried on cruising south.

So in the end, we drifted back down towards Toots, and met up with N2Y again for a quick bash around the entrance reef, but not too much was happening there and we pulled the pin about 1300Hrs

Oh, there were a couple of breakfasts spilt, and other fish caught, but I’ll let the others tell that tale

A great morning, just a shame we couldn’t get serious with the torpedos….Next time maybe

Every year the best of anglers from all NZACA affiliated clubs are invited to fish the NZACA Nationals to compete for the title of National Champion. This year’s champs were based in Coromandel Town, on the Coromandel Peninsular.

The NZACA Nationals are a tournament to decide the best Fisher and caster in various ages based sections. The best or biggest fish may not always win as the fishing placings are calculated on bag weight multiplies by species factors – so the competitors are kept guessing right up to the prize giving.

This year was my first year competing from the kayak (I am a member of the North Shore Surfcasting Club and have previously landbased fished). I had decided to complete from the water against the boaties and fish for the newly listed Viking Kayak Trophy (You can tell y the name, it’s been donated by Viking Kayaks – thanks Grant & the team!)

The aim of the Nationals is not only to catch good sized fish, but to catch different species too. You can only weigh 5 snapper, 3 Kahawai, 3 Trevally and limited numbers of other species including just one Kingfish. So the idea is to target them all, but how you do this largely determines the outcome of your points.

I fished the first morning unsuccessfully for kingfish and moved on to Snapper once I realised the Kings were not interested in either my fancy jigs or live yellow eyed mullet….although my fishing buddy Stephen tap did have a short lived tussle with a King, they were largely absent all week.

I’m an ardent plastics fisher, so as soon as my dreams of a Kingfish dried up I moved straight to the gulps. The Championship rules state you may only fish with one rod and a maximum of two hooks, so when we switched to SP’s the livies had to be stowed until needed later.

The fishing was hard, not only because of the fish generally keeping their mouths shut, but we were fishing in an area exposed to a strong Easterly that was forecast to blow at 15-20 knots for both days of the competition. The first morning was the best conditions, but interestingly the fish didn’t begin biting until the water was roughed up and the swell had reached over 1.5meters. To make things even more interesting I found the only fish interested in biting anything were on the easterly side of the reefs we were fishing. It’s the rugged days like this that I am so thankful for the increased stability of the Viking Profish – she was stable enough even in the white water so that I could persevere and get my SP’s to the fish hunting below.

Around lunch time on day one I happened across a small work-up close to the reefs and began casting SP’s – and I found my first ‘keeper’, a nice 1.5kg Snap – no monster, but at least I was on the board. I moved out a little deeper and crossed a few schools of baitfish with bigger fish below. In these rough conditions, where the water is mixed up and there’s a lot of colour form white water, sediment and weed I like to used a brighter colour, and on which included good contrast – the ultra-reliable nuclear Chicken came out and was an immediate hit, literally. I was smashed by what I took for a snapper immediate, a strong hit followed by deep powerful runs. The fish had far more control than me as the water I was in was like a washing machine and the wind was driving me towards the reef. I loosened my drag and played the fish as lightly as I could while I repositioned myself away from danger. The result was the fish made it’s way to the reef and my heart sank as I thought it would now be impossible to raise him – you’re limited to 15kg line in the nationals and I’d erred on the side of caution, spooling with 15lb IGFA braid – not a great tool for wrenching a fish out from the reef.

Today however the fishing gods were on my side (largely…) and the increased pressure I could apply bought him out of his hole and the battle renewed, now with me determined not to allow him back tot he bottom. Some more deep runs and powerful head shakes came and went and then the fight turned – he was mine. I quickly gaffed and iki’d him, popped him in the bag and let out a mighty woo-hoo! I was really in the game now!

I paddled up into the wind again and caught a nice 2kg pannie immediately – they were on the bight! Next cast came up solid into another very big Snapper – again he ran deep and strong – but not into the reef. I got cocky and applied what turned out to be too much pressure – the line came up limp and my heart sank. You can’t help but kick yourself in a moment like this. But kicking oneself on a kayak is actually very hard, so I settled for a clip upside the head!

I retrieved my line expecting to be short one jig head, but instead I got my whole rig back plus one bonus. In the strangest “one that got away” story I’ve ever had, I found the hook on my jig head had been closed almost completely and on the very tip of my hook was a large Snapper molar. It seems there’s now a large Snapper out there with one less tooth and a dentistry bill he owes me for 

Next morning we were on the water even earlier, with only hours until the weigh in it was time to chase our other species. Once again the wind came up quickly and rough water greeted us. The swell had increased over night, but the wind was less intense. The water out wide was dark and menacing, you get reminded how small our yak is when you climb a 3meter swell and your yak doesn’t even cover the whole front face. Awesome!

We finally put in at 12pm and headed south to the Weigh in. Once there we learned that fishing had been hard for most, but a legal King and some 15lb snapper had been weighed. My big fish went 8.52 kg or 19lb. Would it be enough? My total bag weight was 21.6kg, low by Nationals standards, but seemed to be better than average.

The Prize giving is not until the next evening as Saturday is Distance Casting day. We turned up at the casting court at 0830 along with 60 or 70 other competitors. Casting is not my personal strength, but it’s a very fun sport to watch.

The casting is a little different form the fishing as there is generally a pool of players that you know will be vying for top honours. The Ladies section has been dominated by Debbie Edgecomb and Janine Slater for the last few years, but change was in the wind!

It was our youngest competitor, Ben Marmont who really shined. Ben managed to take second place in the Midgets category in just his first nationals – well done mate! Bill Hohepa, NZACA Patron was on hand with his camera to interview the kids – they loved it and we can’t wait to see the show aired on Cue TV in a few months.

Peter Froggat of New Plymouth was the eventual Mens winner with a new Nationals Record of 229 meters –that is a sensational feat and one hell of a spectacle. Well done Peter.

The ladies open section was easily he days most exciting with Janine Slater’s 109.55 meter cast being pipped in the final round by the final two casts of the day. First Lorainne Baker cast 110.20 to take the lead but the lead fell again, with the very last cast of the day by Robin Burton reaching 110.89!! What a finish – you can’t buy excitement like that!! Sadly Debbie Edcombe was hindered by gear failure – not something that helps when you’re at the top level.

The prize giving followed a fantastic dinner. A lot of the following awards were a blur, many winners in different sections including myself for kayaks – Woohoo – I had won the inaugural Viking Kayaks Trophy for heaviest bag from the kayak. In this division Greg Theunissen and Stephen Tap of Hibiscus Coast came second & Third respectively. In the Overall Boat section Greg was third, Jessie Vulatich of Auckland Lady Anglers second and to my real surprise, my total points weight of 208.95 was enough to secure the top spot! Woohoo number two! I’d done it’ I’d won the individual award at the Nationals in my first year on a yak!

The teams prizes went to North Shore Surfcasting Club as the Shore Champions. First team in the Boat Section was Hibiscus Kayak. They did well in difficult conditions and all 4 members contributed to a great haul. The teams Casting was won by Greg Smeal’s Kawerau Angling & Casting Club team. Great effort form a well trained team.

We left Coromandel with a great sense of achievement. Adverse conditions had hampered us, but in the end we came out on top.

Congratulations to all winners, and the NZACA Board won ran the event, it was a genuine success!

Derrick

Ocky Blignaut, Steve Tapp & Greg Thuinessen of Hibiscus Kayak Fishing Club, Kayak / Boat team Champs 2009

Me and my 19lber – think I was happy ?????

Friday
Finish packing my bags, end up with one rucksack and one back pack full of gear and clothes and one home made rod tube for a couple of rods, Mrs Mental gives me a ride out to the airport, check my bag in and get told it’s another $15 for the rods to ride on the plane too…

Suppose I should just explain here that yes I’m FLYING to a kayak fishing comp… No I’m not loaded, I just struck it lucky with the guys at Viking Kayaks, someone posted about the comp back in January and I said I’d like to go but didn’t know if I could be bothered driving all that way etc and it was a shame I couldn’t fly there and have a kayak there waiting for me to jump in and use for the weekend, well I got a message the next day saying if I got myself there then there would be a kayak waiting for me to use all weekend! So booked the campsite and used my Air Points (I fly a lot with my day job) to book the flights!

Where is the Taranaki swell?

Off the plane and find the shuttle there waiting to take me to the campground. Get to the campsite and check in, get told I’m in site 18 next to the gate, that’s ok but where is cabin 3 where my buddy for the weekend is staying, I get shown that’s it’s just down the other end of the camp, that’s fine. So I wander over the road, and start to pitch my tent, just get it out the bag and the camp owner pulls up and says “I’m moving you to next to your buddy”, fantastic!

Ok, tent up, still no sign of my buddy, he was supposed to be there before me! ah well, wander around the camp/beach meeting a few people, talking to the Viking guys, trying to find out where people are fishing for the weekend, yea like they are gonna tell me that

Friday swell…

Anyway buddy turns up, Sean, I get the kayak off the Viking guys, and start to fill it/rig it for the weekend.

My ride for the weekend

Then we head off to the briefing. Briefing went ok but seemed a little disorganised, was probably expecting something more along the lines of the Beach and Boat briefing but it still seemed sufficient. A couple of beers and a feed at the bar and back to camp for some sleep before the Saturday onslaught

Friday sunset

Saturday
Rise nice and early and get the kayaks down to the beach, yep we pretty much just fished off the Oakura Campground beach all weekend, the issue with not doing you home work before you get there, probably should have tied up with a local too, next time…

Loaded and ready to go

Saturday sunrise

Headed out off the beach and paddled south for a bit, about two bays down and had a troll around, Sean picked up quite a few nice Kahawai which turned out to be just under 2kg each, and I picked one up too, just over 2kg. Action was pretty slow so we had a paddle around looking for fish, I didn’t have a sounder on my loan kayak so was sticking pretty close to Sean who had his sounder

Sean with his first fish of the day

We picked up all sorts of bits and pieces, blue cod, wrasse, rock cod etc – Another point worth thinking about when planning a trip/comp that is not in your back yard… Find out what the average size is for the area so you know when you have something big… The first blue cod I picked up was obviously a legal blue cod but had no idea if it was big or small for the area, as it didn’t look huge back it went, it then turned out to be mu biggest blue cod I caught all weekend… No worries though it wasn’t bigger than the winners

So after catching some 20 plus fish we decided to call it a day and paddle back into the camp, now to tackle the surf… Yes I know that was like the flattest that Taranaki ever gets but still more than I’m used to in Auckland… So a little surf and a new kayak (without a rudder) what to do, ah well just give it a go, what’s the worst that can happen… Yep you guessed it, I rolled it, in what turned out to be all of 1 foot of water!

Yep I rolled in this…

So off to the weigh in, we stand in line with everyone else with our Kahawai, weigh in didn’t seem to start on time for some reason but we got there in the end, as mentioned above not massive Kahawai but I beat my buddy

My little 2kg Kahawai

Sunday
Again head off the beach at the camp, along with several others today… Wind and swell have picked up quite a but but still not the normal Taranaki conditions I’m told

The “swell”

I spotted a cray boat pulling and setting pots about 1 km off the beach, I assumed he wouldn’t have these on the sand so there must be some sort of feature out there, so i head out to him, just to see him pulling empty pot after empty pot…

Not just me catching nothing…

Fish for about 4/5 hours and pick up fish after fish after fish but still no Snapper and still nothing big, ok well the Barracuda were pretty big! Actually they were my first ‘cuda from the kayak, would be nice if they were my last too…

Such a nice fish… NOT

So nothing to weigh in on the second day for me, Sean picked up a bunch more Kahawai but nothing bigger than the first day so they went straight into the auction box to raise some money for the local surf life savers

The competition winners were then presented with their prizes and a great comp came to an end, overall a very well run event, has a few areas for improvement but what comp doesn’t and with all the local support the comp gets it can only get bigger and better each year!

Thanks to got out to the following people for making this a great weekend!
Mission Kayaks – Turns out that the trip down had caused Sean’s transducer to pop off his hull, the Mission guys gave Sean a tube of silicon to stick it back down, worked a treat guys!
Comp organisers – A well organised and well run comp, I’m sure I’ll be back
Viking Kayaks – Well without these guys I simply wouldn’t have been there – THANK YOU
Sean (and family) – I was looked after all weekend by you guys, I never expected to be fed and watered all weekend, thanks

Cheers, Mental

Read more in the forum > Link

Fisho

Checked weather forecast on Friday evening and there was certainly no problems there, light winds and no swell for Saturday and Sunday

DAY 1:

Up at 4:00am on Saturday, loaded up and headed off to chosen fishing location, just north of Tangahoe River but south of Awakino River ). Met fishing buddies at beach and after getting organised waited in anticipation at the waters edge for enough light to see the waves. 10 minutes felt like an hour!

Finally got to launch and away we went. We all got out without any problems except for one of the guys who fell into a hole while wading out and got soaking wet

We paddled for about 30-40 minutes and then split up a bit. I found some likely looking ground and threw the anchor out. I also put down my ‘magic’ berley mix. I got my first rod (strayline) sorted and sent it to the bottom. After placing it in the rod holder I attempted to get my other rod (softbait) in the water however before I had a chance the strayline took off. I grabbed it and after a short battle landed my first fish for the day, a nice 9lb snapper. Not a bad start I though

Put the stray line down again and the process repeated, twice! So after 15 minutes I had three nice fish on board all around 9-10lb. I thought to myself this is madness, at the rate I am going I will be heading in very soon

This time I left the strayline out of the water and finally got my softbait down. After a short time the ‘Cajun Chicken’ began to work its magic and several nice snapper were landed, all of which went back. I continued to get some nice fish on the strayline and most of those went back as well, apart from two that had swallowed the hook.

After fishing for about two hours things hadn’t really slowed down and all of my pre packed snacks and drinks were still untouched . While contemplating pulling up my rods for a breather my ‘Cajun Chicken’ took off at a rate of knots, and didn’t stop . I quickly wound up my other rod and then got into whatever had grabbed my softbait. After a 15 minute battle my suspicions were confirmed and I saw a big red flash under my yak. My heart started racing and I had to tell myself to keep calm and let the fish play out . The big red didn’t like the look of my yak headed for the bottom a few more times before he finally came within gaff range. Although not exactly textbook, I got the gaff in first time and dragged him aboard. After dispatching him I quickly weighed him. A new PB of 16lb

I continued to fish for another hour or so and landed some more nice fish. I was happy with what I had so they all went back. I also lost some very nice fish

So I returned home exausted and hungry but with a new PB and possibly the best days fishing i have ever experianced

DAY 2:

Day two started similar to the first although the trip through the surf was poorly timed and I got very wet but did managed to stay in my yak, just

Fished a different location but the fish were certainly still around. Landed some nice fish up to 8lb and kept a few for the family (brownie points to be used for next years comp ).

After geting a few snapper for the bin I went out onto sand/mud in the hope of catching a big gurnard. I did get 4 gurnard but nothing big enough to win the comp

Paddled in exhausted but happy again and refelcted on what had been a fantastic few days on the water. The fishing was great but just being out on the water in those conditions was a real pleasure

The competition was very well run and a credit to all involved. Met some great people over a few quite beers after fishing and it seemed everyone enjoyed themselves which is what it’s all about.

Until next year…..

Yakman
Day One

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