PhilK
Very Well-Known Member
G'day all, how's it going? This is a fairly long story for the fishermen out there, but believe me it is needed here and there are pics interspersed. I've just copied it from a fisho forum I'm on so excuse any unneeded details.
I haven't gotten in the kayak or wet a line for a very, very long time. My kayak fishing mate Matt and I decided to break the drought, so to speak, and head out for a fish. We grabbed our mate Ryan who is a mad keen fisho but hasn't gone off the yak or in freshwater so he came along for his virgin session. We perused our uni timetable and saw that we had Monday arvo off (this is a few Mondays back now) so organised to head out for a fish then. I ducked up to a tackle store where my girlfriend had bought me a voucher for our anniversary and spent way too much money - came away with a 7ft 3-5kg Daiwa Exceler rod and a Banax 'ssnakeskin spinner' reel fitted with 14lb crystal fireline.
So kitted out, I was ready to hit the water. Matt kindly supplied Ryan with a kayak and we met at around 3 pm at our location, which I have decided to keep secret this time. It was a beauty of an arvo for it and a really lovely location. We hopped in and paddled out, frothing on the fact that we were out of uni and enjoying the outdoors. There was plenty of VERY fishy looking water around and we quickly got to work flicking all sorts of lures at the snags. Ryan was already converted to kayak fishing because of the peace and serenity and we were discussing the purchase of his kayak - Matt and I were very pleased to have converted another person.
Before too long, as is always the case, the newbie got the first fish. Just a little bass, but as his first kayak caught fish and first freshwater fish Ryan was quite pleased with it really. Caught on a spinnerbait. Ryan's birthday was the other day and he had recieved from some mates a new rod - it is a 7ft long fibreglass job fitted with a 6000 size reel and very thick mono.. we had a good chuckle at him using it on the kayak!
We continued working up the watercourse without so much as a bump on any of the lures (though I did lose one of mine to a tree). This seems to happen to me a lot - the fish just don't agree with us as to where they should hang out and perfectly fishy snags yielded nothing time and time again.
We passed through a little narrowing area and saw a beauty of a log angled down from the bank into the water. It provided a lovely pool in its lee and I claimed it as my spot to cast, but I spent too long buggerising around and Ryan drifted past me, poising his rod. "Fish of the day out of this one boys" he laughed and flicked the spinnerbait right on target in a beauty of a cast. No sooner had he flicked the bail arm over when...
ZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZ--ZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZ! He nearly crapped his dacks and so did we. Whatever it was, it was bloody well big and pulling line off his 6000 size reel like nobody's business. His rod was buckled over to snapping point and half buried in the water when the fight stopped, and he said he was snagged. At this point we were speculating a big catfish, a big bass, a shark?... Matt and I kept flicking lures around but it soon became apparent Ryan had been wrapped around a log and was never going to get the fish out himself.
Matt selflessly donned his wetboots and took his gear off and jumped in the cold water. He swam out to where Ryan's line was and followed it down - yep. Wrapped around a log alright. I figured they could manage and took some snaps.
It soon became apparent that my help was needed too so I paddled over. The current was pulling us downstream, which was annoying as hell but we needed to see this fish - we were now thinking it was a lungfish as it had just stopped fighting. At one point Matt followed the line and bumped the animal causing the reel to sing out and him to crap himself and shoot almost vertically out of the water. "#@$% ME IT'S HUGE WHATEVER IT IS!"
It took a good 5-10 minutes but eventually Matt managed to break off the branch of the snag the line was curled around and he brought it to the surface where I untangled the line. Ryan took the opportunity and reeled like crazy as, freed from the snag, he was carried downstream by the current with me close by.. Turned out the fish had moved itself right under the kayak and he soon had it to the surface and he yelled out an almighty "HOLY @$%# WHAT THE @#$% IS THAT?!".. I was drifting right by him and saw it too "GOOD LORD!!" Poor old Matt, who had put in so much good work was left upstream - "come back you bastards".
Ryan had no lipgrips or anything, so he reeled the beast in and I gripped it.. I attempted to extract the hook but I was being tangled in his line and we were getting pushed into snags etc so I just cut the line, and tied the lipgrips to my wrist. We slowly struggled upstream to a spot where we could land the kayaks on some logs. We got together and looked at eachother and just wet ourselves laughing... the fact Ryan had said "fish of the day boys", the fact Matt selflessly jumped in the drink, the fact I lipgripped it and got the hook out eventually... it really felt like we caught it all together, even though it was Ryan's fish.. the bastard.
Without any further ado, here are the photos.
A beautiful Mary River Cod, and by far the biggest fish I have seen caught or had the privilege to be around. It went 90cm or so, but we were just using a 37cm fishrule so accuracy probably wasn't great. To see this fish in the flesh, to undergo such an adventure to take it out was just so special. Matt has wanted to catch a Mary River Cod for years and years but has never even seen one, but even he was stoked with Ryan's catch. We took very quick photos - it was probably out of the water for 40 seconds or so total and always had the body supported and we filmed it swimming back to the depths completely unscathed by us.. we just couldn't wipe the grins off our faces and the pub meal we had afterward couldn't have tasted better.
This photo is by far the favourite, and captures all the emotions perfectly..
Reckon we converted Ryan to kayak fishing?
I haven't gotten in the kayak or wet a line for a very, very long time. My kayak fishing mate Matt and I decided to break the drought, so to speak, and head out for a fish. We grabbed our mate Ryan who is a mad keen fisho but hasn't gone off the yak or in freshwater so he came along for his virgin session. We perused our uni timetable and saw that we had Monday arvo off (this is a few Mondays back now) so organised to head out for a fish then. I ducked up to a tackle store where my girlfriend had bought me a voucher for our anniversary and spent way too much money - came away with a 7ft 3-5kg Daiwa Exceler rod and a Banax 'ssnakeskin spinner' reel fitted with 14lb crystal fireline.
So kitted out, I was ready to hit the water. Matt kindly supplied Ryan with a kayak and we met at around 3 pm at our location, which I have decided to keep secret this time. It was a beauty of an arvo for it and a really lovely location. We hopped in and paddled out, frothing on the fact that we were out of uni and enjoying the outdoors. There was plenty of VERY fishy looking water around and we quickly got to work flicking all sorts of lures at the snags. Ryan was already converted to kayak fishing because of the peace and serenity and we were discussing the purchase of his kayak - Matt and I were very pleased to have converted another person.
Before too long, as is always the case, the newbie got the first fish. Just a little bass, but as his first kayak caught fish and first freshwater fish Ryan was quite pleased with it really. Caught on a spinnerbait. Ryan's birthday was the other day and he had recieved from some mates a new rod - it is a 7ft long fibreglass job fitted with a 6000 size reel and very thick mono.. we had a good chuckle at him using it on the kayak!
We continued working up the watercourse without so much as a bump on any of the lures (though I did lose one of mine to a tree). This seems to happen to me a lot - the fish just don't agree with us as to where they should hang out and perfectly fishy snags yielded nothing time and time again.
We passed through a little narrowing area and saw a beauty of a log angled down from the bank into the water. It provided a lovely pool in its lee and I claimed it as my spot to cast, but I spent too long buggerising around and Ryan drifted past me, poising his rod. "Fish of the day out of this one boys" he laughed and flicked the spinnerbait right on target in a beauty of a cast. No sooner had he flicked the bail arm over when...
ZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZ--ZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZ! He nearly crapped his dacks and so did we. Whatever it was, it was bloody well big and pulling line off his 6000 size reel like nobody's business. His rod was buckled over to snapping point and half buried in the water when the fight stopped, and he said he was snagged. At this point we were speculating a big catfish, a big bass, a shark?... Matt and I kept flicking lures around but it soon became apparent Ryan had been wrapped around a log and was never going to get the fish out himself.
Matt selflessly donned his wetboots and took his gear off and jumped in the cold water. He swam out to where Ryan's line was and followed it down - yep. Wrapped around a log alright. I figured they could manage and took some snaps.
It soon became apparent that my help was needed too so I paddled over. The current was pulling us downstream, which was annoying as hell but we needed to see this fish - we were now thinking it was a lungfish as it had just stopped fighting. At one point Matt followed the line and bumped the animal causing the reel to sing out and him to crap himself and shoot almost vertically out of the water. "#@$% ME IT'S HUGE WHATEVER IT IS!"
It took a good 5-10 minutes but eventually Matt managed to break off the branch of the snag the line was curled around and he brought it to the surface where I untangled the line. Ryan took the opportunity and reeled like crazy as, freed from the snag, he was carried downstream by the current with me close by.. Turned out the fish had moved itself right under the kayak and he soon had it to the surface and he yelled out an almighty "HOLY @$%# WHAT THE @#$% IS THAT?!".. I was drifting right by him and saw it too "GOOD LORD!!" Poor old Matt, who had put in so much good work was left upstream - "come back you bastards".
Ryan had no lipgrips or anything, so he reeled the beast in and I gripped it.. I attempted to extract the hook but I was being tangled in his line and we were getting pushed into snags etc so I just cut the line, and tied the lipgrips to my wrist. We slowly struggled upstream to a spot where we could land the kayaks on some logs. We got together and looked at eachother and just wet ourselves laughing... the fact Ryan had said "fish of the day boys", the fact Matt selflessly jumped in the drink, the fact I lipgripped it and got the hook out eventually... it really felt like we caught it all together, even though it was Ryan's fish.. the bastard.
Without any further ado, here are the photos.
A beautiful Mary River Cod, and by far the biggest fish I have seen caught or had the privilege to be around. It went 90cm or so, but we were just using a 37cm fishrule so accuracy probably wasn't great. To see this fish in the flesh, to undergo such an adventure to take it out was just so special. Matt has wanted to catch a Mary River Cod for years and years but has never even seen one, but even he was stoked with Ryan's catch. We took very quick photos - it was probably out of the water for 40 seconds or so total and always had the body supported and we filmed it swimming back to the depths completely unscathed by us.. we just couldn't wipe the grins off our faces and the pub meal we had afterward couldn't have tasted better.
This photo is by far the favourite, and captures all the emotions perfectly..
Reckon we converted Ryan to kayak fishing?
