HenryR

lol, I am !

I yakked out to North Head on Friday just gone Since I first heard about them last year, I've really wanted to see the salmon schools in action out there and, better still, to find out how practical it is to chase them from a kayak. It's a big stretch of water for a fat little fishing kayak and I know from stalking salmon schools in much more tranquil and confined places that, when they really want to move, there is no way I can keep up with them. Happily, I'm here to report it worked well enough. For the first forty minutes or so - I was there pre-dawn, ready to pounce - I did some excessive huffing and puffing, arms aching as I tried to sprint across hundreds of metres of empty water to gulls and froth. Too many times, I'd arrive at the edge of school, if I even got that close, and while I pulled my rod from the holder the fish would disappear or move off in another direction. I was in fact in the act of re-designating the day's target species - snipping off a lure and tying on a hook and sinker - when the salmon came to me. First cast for the day actually in to the heart of school resulted in an instant hook up. Nice. The schools got bigger and seemed to hang at the surface longer as the sky lightened. For a little while, I was able to hang in pretty much the same place and throw casts when the fish came near. I managed two fish in about an hour and a half, which is not many from thousands but, there were some long quiet spells and punting around in a kayak consumes a surprising amount of time. I picked up a few trevally in between the salmon. They took sps cast out and not retrieved - just drifted down. By 7:am the quiet spells became too long and I nicked of to try other things. Good fun for a few hours and it's an excellent change to be surrounded by way, way too many fish! Yay for weekdays off!!! 6:30am .. the rest of Sydney in the background, getting ready for work Possibly the 2 fish should have been three but, having raced from Old Mans Hat to here (the drop off where everyone camps out waiting for kings) I was so puffed (and perhaps overexcited?) that I managed to wrap the braid around a guide and snapped it first cast. I retied a leader in time and about three casts and no fish later did the same thing .. oh well, I would never have stopped to take the photo otherwise. one for dinner

Don't forget there are manufacturers who replace broken rod parts for for a fraction of the rod cost. Get a nice rod but don't have to lose your money or buy the whole thing again if something goes wrong is a great system. If you have time: there's not just sales, there's some great buys to be had 2nd hand. Of course, 8 miles down a gorge, be sure you're carrying a spare tip guide or two to stick on the end of what's left of your rod... something I learned the hard way It wasn't an 8 mile walk but was 3 1/2 hours drive from home, mid way through the first day of a long weekend.

I suspect the biggest, though not only, obstacles are on the fisho-side of the equation. It's not just that it's hard to imagine anything hitting a moving target without the aid of sight. If you're sight dependent, like most of us, lots of targeted casting at night is actually a bit hard to do. Near any sort of structure when it's properly dark judging casts is a nightmare. Even knowing when a lightly weighted sp has hit the bottom can be tricky without the benefit of seeing the line to go slack. Weird and a slightly new skill set. Like BN says, it can work. The most striking example of it I've ever been part of was catching bass on a no moon night in very narrow gorge. It was so dark I couldn't see my hand. The bass were 10m down where things must have been completely pitch black, but still taking vibes. A little bit amazing

BN, Coastie, Regan, Jacob, thanks muchly for the generous comments Jacob, you bet Pittwater is on the list of places to visit this 'season'! I've been on a few failed attempts at getting fish out of there but they've all been visits at times when other places weren't the go either. Sometimes you gotta rip yourself away from known bets to properly learn new stuff. It does sound like, when Pittwater's good it is excellent. Will let you know when we make it, lol, that far north!! Actually lots of places to try this summer ... we - krause, myself and a few other associated yakkers - learned a few new tricks in the slow last half of last summer and autumn. Still have a lot to learn but I'm quietly confident (or optimistic) that this season we can consolidate a bit and find at least a few good fish for everybody. coastie, do you get to fish the Haven much??

Great article JonD, Thanks for posting. I'll admit to using fluorocarbon because ..... no good reason .... I just understood it to be the done thing. You can't question everything in the world! Amusingly, while reading the article, it occurred to me I've never even thought to put two bits of line under water and compare their visibility. Not definitive but a pretty simple test! Even if it's right, myths busted and all, it sounds fluoro is an optimal choice for leaders intended to fend of abrasion. At least where the leader has a higher breaking strain than the main line because the fluoro would be (I'm assuming a bit here) unlikely to hit 'deformation point'. After a bit of soaking it seems that's even more the case because, then, nylon has got even softer. Fluoro as a mainline tho ... hmmm? Afterthought: anyone know if the deformation point is significantly below actual breakage for fluoro?

i was gonna post this in Fishing Reports but now I see it's already got a place. Even though Rod had plans to hit the Hacking and I was weighing up the merits of paddling to some quiet corner of the Hawkesbury to sit in the sun and chase luderick, it was krause who called the shots in the end. Krause dictated an early start at Port Kembla for all three of us. It was the slimmest of plans. We'd fetch some livies, troll them around in the first hour or two of light, not expecting much to happen, just in case we got lucky. Then we'd retreat to the back of the bay, where the weekend's big swells couldn't get us, and toss plastics for flathead. And that's almost exactly what happened. Only pike and mini barracuda wanted to eat yakkas and one by one we all drifted to the back of the bay. There, sadly not much was happening either. Krause had a few bumps but no hook up and Rod likewise, bites but no fish. I couldn't even get a bump from a fish so, half heatedly, I paddled back to the breakwall. A lucky decision that scored the only fish of the day. It was a pretty chaotic fight because I had line out to a snagged lure when the livie rod took off. The king managed to circle through the lot (of course). Two crossed lines, one tied to the bottom the other to fish charging off in to the distance, and two unsecured rods in a kayak. I decided to sacrifice a lure and cut the braid on the snagged line figuring that'd be the end of it. Braid is like spider web at times! More than once during the fight I looked down at my reel to discover the stray braid had somehow reappeared and was again wrapping itself around my reel again. It took lots of nervous line snipping, some luck, and a fair bit of the frantic back paddling that comes with hooking kings from a kayak near structure to finally get a fish in the net. New kingie pb for me, 80cm, and few nice hours in some almost summery sun. We finished off the morning with a quick walk out to Hill 60 and watched small mountains of water roll between the point and the island - big seas might limit the fishing options but they are awesome. little boat meets BIG boat fish meets little boat

Awesome, a little bit of pent up spleen vented (in a controlled manner) and almost guaranteed to be heard. thank you so much for posting that !

It's a bit banal, no?

dislike

same, same - nearly a month of doughnuts. Luderick though .... don't forget they eat weed flys ......

hey Salty trout, I can't speak for the fishing but I've paddled .. can't exactly recall the distance, probably 6 or 7kms of the Shoalhaven as it runs toward and past Braidwood. This was year's ago and after a lot of rain. We were chasing rapids not fish and I wasn't fishing much at the time but even so it struck me as a very nice looking stretch of water for fishing. We did see fish, couldn't tell what but I would be money they were carp - big surface swirls left in the muddy water from fish fleeing when they spotted us. Anyway, there's some very pretty water there and it's easy big enough and interesting enough, and when we went, winter, cold enough to house trout.

a qualifier to my almost rant above because I think it makes me sound even more clueless than I am and confuses the point. I'm not suggesting that a Caldia and a Certate are the same reel. They are not. If I pay close attention to my reels, I can tell the difference. The point I was trying to make is that if you're a punter like me - keen and fish very regularly but still a punter. Then, my impression is, in practice there's very little if anything at all to separate the two reels. And the point, I think to be taken from that is not that reel makers are having a lend of at the pricier end of the market. The point is, that in making the step up from reels in the will-suffice price bracket to mid-range reels with 'nice' features, if you like your fishing and fish regularly, you actually gain some very significant ground for extra money spent.

Not one reply to my question but since this thread has so far had over 7,700 reads, I assume there is interest out there. So, for the inquisitive and the reckless and maybe even for the competent having a 1st look here's some pics and impressions from my dive in the Daiwa's magseal no-go zone. I might be mistaken but, I did not seem complicated. That's a good thing. I reckon the first thing to say is that magseal is not some magic substance that coats all the moving parts of the reel's interior. That is such an any easy impression to get from Daiwa promotionals that, not only did I have it but, the staff in my favourite tackle store, one of whom has watched Daiwa techs working on magseal reels also had that impression. The reels guts are lubricated with good old oil and grease. There's a couple of very helpful threads, with some much more expert commentary than I can offer, over at Alan Tani. They are recommended readying. From those and from what I saw, magseal happens only in two places in older Certates and Caldias. #1. At the 'magnet assembly' on the outer end of the roller clutch housing. #2. In the line roller bearing - I haven't looked in there yet The magseal oil is more a sealant than a lubricant. It's some type of ferro fluid. Daiwa won't say exactly what. If you don't already know, ferro fluid is oil (the word fluid would suggest it doesn't have to be oil?) with little bits if metal suspended in it. The little bits of metal mean the liquid is attracted to magnets. A neat trick. Ferro fluid wasn't hard to get. I got mine from a speaker repair place in Qld. It doesn't cost much. There's a few people over at Alan Tani who say they've been using this particular fluid for a while and that it's worked fine. That's the recommendation I went on. This is the ferro fluid I ended up getting. It comes in a little plastic sachet. Unless you own a lot of reels there's more fluid in the sachet than you're likely to use. The flat plate is the 'magnet assembly', the main seal happens between it and the collar pictured (Daiwa call call the collar a spacer) a close up of the magnet bit. You can stick pins, paperclips, etc... to it Woohoo! No clips or screws required. The magnet bit just hangs off the spacer/collar bit. There's a gap between the magnet and spacer/collar which, if left unfilled, would let water and salt and everything in. This is the magnetic plate in place on the reel, gap still unfilled, with the 'main shaft', the bit the spool rides on, sticking out. And this is it. Magseal. The same scene as above but with the gap filled with ferro fluid. If you read up online you might get the impression that putting the fluid in place can be tricky. It's not. You just cut a little bit off the top of the ferro fluid sachet and squeeze a little fluid into the gap until it seems full. As mentioned, the sachet comes with more than enough ferro fluid to have a few goes on a few reels. Get anything wrong and you can wipe the ferro flud off, fix what you got wrong and reassemble with no fear of running out of fluid. I've been inside two reels and in the process had to do an extra disassemble-reassemble because I managed to put the collar/spacer in upside down, and also because I let the stopper lever slip off it's notch while reassembling, In addition to that I did a few put it together pull it apart explores. Even after all that there's still tons of fluid in the sachet I bought. To give a little more context. A little deeper in the reel here, under the roller clutch housing. These pics are a Certate not Caldia but they very much the same at this point. Plate and spacer/collar, roller clutch housing (it's part of the outside of the reel), and, at the bottom with some green plastic showing, the roller clutch which sits around the shaft and inside the housing. Youtube clip of maseal fluid in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYgakH4LZ30 And here, a ripper teardown clip for 2011 Caldia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWphPQjNnRM ------ Anyone wanting to know more: do do some online searching, there's better commentary on this topic out there than I can offer and, you're also welcome to pm me, I'm more than happy to chat about what it was like.

there's special extra slippery grease for drag washers. might vary depending on what washers are in whatever reels you have. any ok tackle store ought to be able to steer you in the right direction but, maybe before you head down, have a look on the appropriate manufacturer website(s) and see what the people who made your reel think you should do to it !

thanks Fil that seems like a very good theory.

ta all for comments yep, when I got home and jumped online to see how 56cm sized up, I realised there's a good chance I've well and truly hit my drummer peak before I've even really begun. Gotta say, I'm still looking forward to going back and doing the required ground work. They are a really beautiful fish and they live in amazing places. I notice you fish for drummer. I've been wondering about the blood from the gills thing. When I saw it assumed the fish must have been either gut hooked or hooked in the gills. Then, when I got the fish back to the ramp and dug the hook out I discovered the though the fish was hooked deepish , it was hooked in the mouth. Any any ideas on what the bleeding might have been? It's troubled me a bit. It seems unlikely but I've wondered if the bleeding is just something that happens to drummer?? Has left me wondering if should have put the fish back The rig (almost the best of all possible rigs, no?): Has been a while since I have but I love fishing a free floating bait. Basic. Pure. I have been carrying a few bobby corks too. Am still working up to the added complexity of using them. well, if whoever does have final say ever let's you loose on the water, if you can't find anyone else to paddle with, you could always fire me a pm Regan, thanks heaps for the species clarification

"but that's fishing" - I wish it would be like that a little more often! Sounds like a really great arvo

sweet !

hey Psycho Fisho, there's a pretty ace (re)post here already that covers much of what you're asking:

that's a lot of fishes !!!!!!!

My second winter with a kayak and I'm definitely still figuring winter meets kayak out. The last month, probably more, has been a string of doughnuts. Kayak doughnuts anyway. There have been a few excellent and relaxing days catching luderick from wharves in between the kayak doughnuts - thanks (again) DerekD for patient guidance in the ways of let's not over-finesse, let's just catch fish luderick-techniques - but I have badly missed catching fish from the yak. It's been made all the more painful because, it's seems the worse the fishing gets the more I want to go. No amount of changing spots, target species and people to fish with has helped. Last winter was similarly troublesome. The whole of September with barely a fish landed. So, this year, as winter approached and I started fretting about the lack of prospects, I hatched a plan. Drummer from a kayak, I decided, was the mission to undertake. My first trip out was a bit of an eye opener. North Head, somewhere I knew pretty well, and on a very flat day. I wasn't expecting things to be easy but trying to get a kayak close enough to cast a 00 ball and bit of bread into washes is properly unnerving and immediately I could tell, full of complexities I didn't understand and pitfalls I didn't yet know. I've stuck at, going out on very quiet days and bobbing round watching what happens, slowly inching closer to washes that seemed, I won't say safe .. washes where the risk seemed manageable. This week's drop in the wind and swell (0.6m swell, yes please!) beckoned. How could I not cash in some accrued extra work hours for a midweek fish? I had no expectations, the plan was just to go for a bit of a paddle and check out a new bit of coast. Pre-dawn at Long Bay, I was surprised to see the lights of two kayaks already on the water. It was two guys who usually fish Moli Pt for kings. Has been a fishless few months over there they told me. They were doing similar to me, taking advantage of the mild conditions to try new grounds. As the sky started to light up I left them still chasing squid, and paddled to Long Bay's northern headland hopeful that I might find some early morning salmon. No salmon, instead loads of what I assume were mini barracuda (I've never caught them before). They were fun enough for a while. The barracuda thinned as the sun lifted. I slowly drifted and paddled north sizing up the waves and the rocks and the zone where they meet each other. It's definitely not sit back and relax fishing. I watched what seemed like a good spot for close on an hour, working my way towards and around it before properly giving it a go. I think more attention and effort goes in to keeping track of where you are, adjusting position, and watching the rocks and waves than into the fishing. I kind of like that. Anyway, eventually I decided it was okay to paddle in close and throw casts before quickly backing back out. At first I didn't realise I had a bite. I thought the line sucking off the reel was just the pull of the surge. Then when I stopped it going out I could feel the pulse of a fish on the other end. As the fish ripped drag I back-paddled to get clear enough of the danger zone, to be able to concentrate on the fish. Bobbing round in waves and backwash, tied to a fish that's dragging you around almost as much as you're dragging it around it's hard to tell what's solid, what's the waves, and what's the fish. A minute or two into the fight I had the sense that I was no longer tied a fish, it was the bottom I had on the line. I've been through that before with kingfish and knew well enough, that that's the time to stop playing tug of war. I backed the tension off and grabbed the chance to get myself well clear of the rocks. When I tightened back up, the bottom was gone and the fish was back - cool :). Then I learned something new, don't play the fish with the reel and rod, play the fish with the kayak and the rod. It worked well. Within a couple of minutes I had myself and the fish in the safety of deeper water. I've half joked, and half hoped it'd work as persuasion (it didn't), to Krause that drummer might be like little winter kings. In the last stages of the fight, I was absolutely willing to buy in to the drummer are kingfish theory. The fish's stubbornness was amazing. I'd reef it up from the depths and as soon as it got within a sniff of the surface, it'd charge back down and circle for a minute or two before I could reef it back up, then we'd do the whole thing again, and again. When I did finally get a look at it, I understood why. My first black drummer was an instant PB. A smidgen over 56cm. I don't generally like to keep 'good' fish but it was bleeding from the gills so I popped it in a keeper, bled it properly and headed straight back to the car and some ice so as not to completely disrespect it by letting it spoil in the sun. It kinda cut my adventure tour of some new coast short but I'm not complaining! lucky to land it I think. The line looked like this all the way to the leader knot

yep, look under some rocks, or dig 'em up, or be extra nice to someone who has one of those funny home worm farms. You'll probably do well enough with bread and corn anyways. Or baked beans? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVSCEU2s1aw If you've not yet dived in to the world of UK how to catch carp vids ... give it a try there's a whole alternative universe of baits and techniques to try

xeratao, don't be too mean about the wacky comparisons I made . I did declare my cards when I said they were the only points of comparison I had. I'd love to be across more gear but I'm not, I was just being straight up about that I actually think the Certate comparison is kind of interesting. The reels are in different price brackets, sure. But I've fished the two side by side for years: mostly bass, trout, carp, bream, eps, flatties, lots of light line salmon, jewies and last summer some mack tuna, bonito, etc. I use the two interchangeably, I swap them between rods and swap the spools between the reels. And while I can't shake the thought that the Certate is a classier reel - and I really can't shake that thought. It's clear that when it comes to actual fishing, for me at least, there's no difference between the two. They are different colours, their clickers make different noises. But that is almost it. Not once have I been somewhere, or tied into a fish and thought; damn! I wish I was using the other reel. I've had both reels in pieces. There's a few bits that are plastic in the Caldia that are metal in the Certate but apart from that, to my inexpert eye, their innards looks very similar too. Study: $90 wine tastes better than the same wine at $10 https://www.cnet.com/news/study-90-wine-tastes-better-than-the-same-wine-at-10/ Yay for the sales lachie ! I've bought all my reels on sale. Mostly they were last year's models. The Caldia even came with a free spare spool - a feature I think every reel should have !!