Lake Eppalock

Well a last minute decision this morning saw me heading for the fresh rather than salt, I'd decided I wanted another crack at some yellows before this cold weather really sets in. With the kayak loaded I headed off towards Bendigo planning to hit the lake around 11am, not the greatest of times but hey it's a public holiday it's meant to be relaxing. Oli decided he wasn't feeling to great and was staying at home so it was a solo trip for me. I decided to trust the new gps and follow it's directions despite having made the drive countless times before, lousy new toys. It seems it wasn't aware the highway was finished a number of years ago and the turn offs it wanted me to make soon saw it getting turned off. Eventually I did make it and hit the water around 11:30.

The recent rains have really flowed on and had I bothered to check the lake levels my plans would have been very different, the water is up about a metre over the bank and there's an abudance of freshly covered ground and plenty of food about. As I'd decided to bring a collection of shallow divers and work the edges today suddenly my plans weren't looking so good, I've found in previous years as the water level rises the fish really only feed morning and night, coming up onto the newly covered grounds before retreating back to the depths through the day. It seems this year things are pretty much the same with three hours of trolling the edges and flicking everything I had on me resulting in 1 carp around a kilo and not even a redfin to show for me efforts. I spent another 2 hours working my way back around the lake and by 4 o'clock I still only had the one carp to show for my efforts and a few less lures. It was my first carp from the kayak and it soon presented an additional problem, I don't like dragging carp around in my kayak while I wait to dispose of them...

Gorgeous day out on the water, terrible fishing, oh well there's always next weekend.

East meets West Round Up

Well the car was all packed (almost) and the doggies had finished off Adelaide and I was slowly falling asleep with thoughts of the day to come... The alarm woke me at 4am and it was time to finish off all those little packing jobs I hadn't quiet done last night. Forty minutes later I was finally on the road a piece of toast between my teeth and a sense of excitement growing. These get togethers are always great fun with a nice relaxed social atmosphere mixed in with some healthy growing rivalry and competition. Arriving just before six i began unpacking and catching/meeting up with new people. It's always good to put some faces to the different names you meet on the forums.

After getting setup and registered it was still not first light so I grabbed my night light only to discover the kids had raided it for batteries through the week - check before leaving home not once I get on site. One day I'll learn, so a bit more chatting and finding out what the fishing was like and it was shortly light enough to head out safely and get a start. My plan for the day was based around running three rods, one heavy trolling rig that would double as a squid rod, one light trolling rod that would become my plastic rod once I started drifting and another light rod that I'd rigged with a double paternoster in case I ran across some whiting. As I headed out towards the edge of the drop my plans fast fell apart, trolling a small vibe my light slickstic had a heavy strike and as I cleared the rod from the holder that brutal "crack" sound filled the air and my one piece was now a two piece, I managed to grab the second end before it disappeared down the line but in the process busted off on whatever it was I'd hooked...not a good start and I was feeling far less cheerful than five minutes ago. Putting the pieces in the back I started reconsidering my plans. By this stage I'd drifted out to the drop off area near the red channel marker and it was time for a new plan.

 I rigged the bait rod with a plastic worm and dropped that over the side while I re-rigged my heavier outfit with a squid jig in the hopes of scoring some fresh bait, all the while drifting further out past my target area, after about 10 minutes of drifting I'd had no luck on the squid jig and only managed a couple of 20cm pinkies and a red mullet on the plastic bait rig.

Deciding in favour of plastics over trying for some fresh bait I paddled in trolling both rigs on the way for no success before re-rigging again (so much for all that effort the night before getting rigs done). Now I was ready, readjusting my position as the wind picked up and shifted direction I began my 1st drift getting numerous hits and landing two pinkies just over 30cm's that were released along with a flathead of 34cm's that was my comp winning hopeful for the moment. Two more drifts over the shallow sections and not much had changed with a few smaller pinkies and even smaller flathead all going back I decided to try out wider having had a bit of success with larger flathead moving out of the shallows at this time of the year.

 This time my drift took me through 6-8mtrs of water and I travelled along having a chat to a few of the others out on the water who were having similar results. After awhile I found myself alone (not due to my part I'm sure, just reports of pinkies in shallow) and looked up to see my second outfit in the rod holder bend over. Grabbing the rod I set about with little real enthusiasm and as whatever it was started playing as a dead weight I started to call it for a banjo, as it got closer to the yak and I could see it it also saw me and a decent looking flathead came alive and began a relatively short but exciting fight as he ran under my drogue line and then popped up on the surface for awhile skipping along before taking off under the kayak. Lifting him into the yak I called it for a 50cm and my previous effort was looking a bit embarrassing alongside but between them at least dinner was taken care of. At this point time was running out for the comp weigh in so I set on one last drift with only a small flathead to show for it before tying on some x-raps and trolling in hoping for a decent pinkie or salmon to go along with the flathead. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and I returned to shore with only the flathead to show for my efforts but a great time on the water with plenty of like minded fisho's. At the measuring table I was rather happy to find that the largest flathead to this point was 46cm and managed to top this by 3cm's with the big boy coming in at 49cm, not my greatest flathead catch of late but certainly one to be happy with.

A big thanks to the sponsors and those that contributed to the prize pool (I managed to win back my own plastics)  Rob and the yakfisher boys for their efforts on the day,lots of dvd watching for me now and Neil May for the bbq and drinks,. Was a great chance to catch up and share stories with like minded individuals and that adventure island is still up there on the toys I'd love but probably shouldn't buy list. For more info on the day visit the Vyak Forums. I'm sure there'll be plenty of similar sessions in the future so keep an eye out for trip plans.

unfortunately most of my pictures came out like rubbish so I'll see what I can do with them and get them up, fortunately there were plenty of others out there taking shots on the day.

Altona Assault

No not that kind of assault this time. This weekend sees the first East meets rest of Melbourne gathering (plus us country types) at Altona. Around 50 kayakers are planning on hitting the beach and braving what was initially forecast as "not a chance I'm going out there" wind but has since been downgraded to "okay I'll follow you out"
type weather. Should be a great day with a bbq thrown in courtesy of Neil May at Westvic Kayaks and Kampers and there's also the chance to try out a few demo models for those interested. Final weigh in is 11am, we'll have to see how the west goes vs the east vs the mountain boys. I'm sure we'll get a few on the board despite our reduced numbers.

Halls Gap Day 2

Well when we got back from our evening fish my brother in law and his family had arrived so we spent the night around the campfire enjoying a drink and making some plans for the morning. With only the two kayaks with me (see honey I told you I need another) Oli volunteered himself for a sleep in and we were all set. Managed to get on the water about eight with the sun just beginning to climb above the mountains and paint the far cliffs with some light, this gave us another thirty plus minutes on the water before the sun actually touched it, one of the nice things about fishing in a valley.

We set off with Adam in the mini and myself and his youngest Ryley in the Tarpon, Ryley has been in the kayak a few times before but never fishing so after a few interesting moments with him crawling around and rearranging himself we got settled and underway. I had visions of an early morning dip a few times there but the tarpon does have great secondary stability as long as you don't panic... We headed out through the mists along the dam wall where the guy the day before had been fishing, trolling a range of lures including a tassie devil, a vibe and a small minnow, all in either bright reds or blacks. The water is very dirty with all the recent run off and rain in the area.

Without to much success apart from a couple of exciting snags it was looking like being a bit of a bust when I heard the call from the back "What's happening" and turned to see Ryley onto a decent looking fish. Working the kayak back to the fish as much as possible we soon had a nice fat redfin alongside who proceeded to take one look at us and take off back into the depths and the fight continued. A couple of it's to big can you bring it in nows later and he soon had the reddie alongside again and this time I was ready with a waiting net instead of a paddle in my hands. At this point Adam paddled over to see what was going on and it was great to see that proud parent face as we held up what turned out to be Ryley's first solo fish, first fish on a lure, first redfin and first fish from a kayak. Not bad for a mornings paddle

 

Halls Gap

Easter Weekend
Well Good Friday saw the cars loaded up after a late night with the parents catching up for birthdays and the first Easter we aren't home for. We headed of early - about 12 before we were finally on the road with all those last minute "oh did you get?'s" and headed up to Halls Gap. I hadn't stayed at the camp ground before, tagging along with some friends and their family for this trip and after getting to Halls Gap decided I'd better actually find out where Takura was. The camp grounds are located out the back end of Halls Gap just next to Lake Bellfield, the camp is relatively small with about 150 sites and cabins and has a decent camp kitchen and all the standard amenities, was very impressed with the size of the camp site with enough room for our large tent as well as the boys small tent and our two cars. Always nice to be able to camp and not feel like you're on top of your neighbours all day long. The campsite also had a big open paddock that kept the kids amused when not on the water and a number of walks and climbs straight out the back of the site. Really happy with the camp grounds and would recommend it to anyone headed that way.

Once we were setup we headed out for a wander around and I took Jasper for a drive to look at the lake, while the campsite is right next to the lake it's below the dam wall and an easy enough walk but not a kayak friendly one so it meant loading the car and driving up. I've never really fished Bellfield seriously before and had initially planned to spend most of the week at Fyans chasing trout amongst the weedbeds but I figured it was worth checking out and getting Jasper some time on the water, he has runs of loving fishing and not being bothered so the plan was to get him out on the kayak early and then we could sort the rest of the week out.

 With the lake sitting at about 30% it still has plenty of water but it's a long way from the road (as far as I knew at this point) so lugging the kayak up and down the dam wall made the mini x the obvious choice. While Jasper went for a paddle I walked the shoreline casting a few celtas after some redfin for tea. It wasn't long before I found a school and soon had a few small redfin and one decent one that was marked for tea in. At this point Jasper came in from his paddle looking rather wet but otherwise happy with himself and we walked the shore together for awhile with Jasper picking up two more redfin before we decided to pack up and head back to camp to see if the cousins had arrived. On the way back I got chatting to a local that had been fishing for the afternoon and whose bag consisted of three redfin to a kilo and one nice trout of about 50cm's. Ideas for an assault on Bellfield were fast forming in my head as I got back to camp...

Quiet Week

With a school camp last week leaving me ready for bed on the weekend and some other family commitments coming up including my little godson Ned's christening I didn't get out this weekend. Being the final week of school before the holidays means the nights are fairly hectic as well so I may manage to sneak out for a few hours Thursday night but otherwise it's not looking promising. Weather wise the weekend looks decent and should be able to get the boys out for a few hours in between soccer games and other weekend joy, then it's two weeks of fishing, and the garden, but mostly fishing... Family is off camping with some friends in Halls Gap for a week so planning to give Fyans, Wartook and maybe even Bellfield a bashing. Last time up there my eldest managed to outfish me for the first time in the fresh and I'm hearing about a repeat performance already. It's been a good chance to sort through some gear and rearrange a few bits and pieces, amazing how much "junk" you manage to collect over the summer.

Sunday Session

Well the initial plan to go chase some gummies went out the window with the doggies taking the NAB cup last night and some small celebrations that were held. The backup plan and brownie point earner kicked in and it was time for a family Sunday drive. Time to check out the Loddon, up around Bridgewater and see how it's looking.

The car was quickly loaded and a couple of rods thrown in along with the mini x strapped to the roof, a few snacks to keep the tribe preoccupied and we were on the road. Along the way we made a few little detours to check out a couple of the reservoirs and some side streams. Unfortunately pretty much all of the feeder streams are non existent and despite the heavy rainfall last week little has found it's way to the reservoirs, plenty of farmer's dams looking healthy though so another decent downpour and that may change. Laanecoorie is holding a bit of water, 12% and talking to a local caravan park resident is fishing fairly well, but what that means is anyone's guess, wasn't much for conversation. Cairn Curran and Tullaroop are around 5% and looking fairly said compared to days gone by.

Back in the car and on the way to Bridgwater the tribe's stomachs were rumbling so first stop was some food and a session below the bridge, we stopped off to grab some pies and sausage rolls and were greeted by the option b small town milk bar owner, the grump ( always seems to be one of two kinds; either incredibly polite, helpful and friendly or, the grump, I'm yet to meet an in-between, everything's just okay type at a country milk bar) We made our way down to the river with our grudgingly supplied pastries and had the pleasure of watching a couple of skiers running their laps (anyone remotely connected to kayaking would know of our undying love of all things ski, jetski and wake creating related). To be fair it is a designated ski area with lanes, ramps and slaloms set up, but still...

After chucking a few lures along the bank we decided to head above the bridge to the "historic swimming area" where we dropped the kayak in and tossed around a few plastics and spinner baits. The fishing was pretty quiet (dead) so the boys amused themselves in the kayak. While I walked the bank for a few minutes playing with a new surface lure I'd gotten, with the boys complaints and growling at each other as one got splashed, dunked or poked with a paddle ringing in my ears I had one last cast in mind before heading back to deal with the usual chaos of two kids and one kayak. Being the middle of the day I hadn't really expected much if any action on a surface lure and was really just trying it out to see how it's action was, so I was taken completely by surprise when the water behind the lure disappeared and a roughly 50cm cod rolled over and managed to dodge every treble on the lure. I fired countless casts back into the area for no joy, but seeing even a smallish cod smash the surface like that has certainly got me hooked on the whole surface lure bug. The trip ended with no fish landed but it's an area I'll be sure to return to with a serious fishing plan in the near future. On a side note I never did manage to sort the two kids one kayak issue out, normally there's no problem but I have the feeling they're getting to that point of needing one each, at least that's what I'm telling the wife...

Saturday - Limeburners

 Well after a somewhat later start than initially planned - turns out my new phone's alarm is silent when it's on silent, stupid, stupid thing. We loaded up the kayaks and made our way to Corio Bay. Absolutely perfect conditions to be out on the water, with the faintest of breezes putting a ripple in the water and the sun putting out a nice 20 degress.
Water was well and truly out and one of the lowest tides I've seen in the area so the plan was to work the channel for some flathead and pinkies. Sent my son off towards the channel markers to flick a few plastics while I finished rigging my yak, only to see him turn around and head back as a bunch of yachts came sailing out from the yacht club and decided to drops some bouys for a race right we're we'd planned to drift through. Oh well. plan B time

After I'd finished rigging we headed back out together dodging the yacht boys (who raced once around their bouys and headed off the second we'd moved on) and started fishing some deeper drops. Was all fairly quiet with a number of hits on the plastics but nothing looking like hooking up until finally a little pinkie of about 15cm managed to get a plastic down it's mouth.

The day continued on like that with tails getting bitten off and plastics tugged down the jigs, fitting a stinger hook saw a number of small pinkies boated but nothing of real size or interest until a change from wrigglers to a worm pattern saw a nice 50cm flathead yak side. As I've managed to loose a few flathead of late as i've brought them over the side I called my son over with the small net - to lazy to get the large environet from behind me just for a flathead. As he got over the flathead gave a nice big headshake and dislodged the hook. Fortunately for me the greedy bugger grabbed the tail of the plastic as I dropped it and I managed to slide the net under him before he realised what happened. With my son's soccer game fast approaching it was time to head back to the car and get back home. Trolling back in I did have the pleasure of seeing that look of pure terror/excitement on my son's face as his rod doubled over and line started screaming off the reel, but as he stopped paddling and turned around it soon became clear it was just a rather exciting bottom fish.

All up a fairly poor performance for the area, chatting to a couple of guys back at the ramp it seems seven netters ran through the area yesterday so between that and the perfect conditions what hope did we have. Tomorrow I think I/We will be heading to Altona to play with some ting or even a gummy or two.

The weekend plan

Well this weekend is shaping up to be much more promising weather wise than the long weekend so the plan is to get out early on Saturday to chase some pinkies and whiting with my eldest in the kayaks before dashing home for his soccer game. Depending on Saturday's success Sunday will either be spent getting ready for next weeks school camp or getting back out onto the pinkies. It'll be another infamous battle between the shrek plastic and whatever I decide to try out, Elm put up a great post looking at wacky rigging worms on Vyak so I might give that a shot if we find a school or two.

My son is obsessed with watermelon grubs and pretty much refuses to fish with anything but his "Shrek" style baits. Depending on how well he does I might have to give in and join him this weekend. The new Vader colour from Gulp might change his mind, it could be a tough choice for him soon.

Dean

Well with the uncertain weather I headed off to Dean reservoir about 20 minutes down the road from my house. Arriving to find a car load of guys up from Melbourne checking the place out I had a quick chat with them before heading around the back end of the lake. With the amount of weed in the lake at the moment there's limited areas to fish even rigging plastics weedless, although I'm thinking next time the fly rod could be an option. The boys were doing no good on plastics and taking up most of the deeper water, so with the overcast weather I thought I'd give a couple of surface lures a shot. Down the tail end of the lake there are some narrow channels between the bank and the weedbed which, with some accurate casting can make for some fun surface action when the fish are active. With the water being as clear as it is and the banks being cleared of vegetation recently, a lot of stealth is required and my hopes weren't high being the middle of the day. My first cast at an old tree stump was spot on target and as I waited for the splash of the lure to settle the surface exploded with the splash of a clearly short sighted 30cm trout who managed to clear the lure before landing on the other side - you have to wonder how that guy survived missing a target like that. With that bit of excitement out of the way I worked my way along the bank towards the end of the lake with only a small redfin managing to hook up. I'll say this about surface lures, the size of the fish really doesn't matter for me it's landing that lure in just the right spot and the brief moment of a fish breaking the surface to strike that gets me going. Having said that it doesn't hurt if it's a solid beast that wants nothing more than to wrap you around every piece of timber in sight to keep it interesting. Unfortunately today that wasn't to be. I switched over to a river2sea baby vibe in a golden colour and managed to gain the attention of a roving pack of small redfin which kept me amused for awhile, but couldn't crack it for a decent fish today. With the storm clouds gathering again I headed back to the car and the safety of home not feeling like a repeat of yesterday drenching.

Sunday plans

Well yesterday's not so pleasant weather has done wonders for the rivers and lakes and plenty of damage to houses and cars. We avoided most of it out this way and just got some heavy rain and light hail compared to Melbourne which is seeing people still cleaning up. The weather isn't looking pretty so I've decided not to head down to the beach with the kayak and instead I'm going to head to a few local holes and try some surface lures over the newly flooded margins. All those bass boys over at KFDU have got me loving the surface strike again. With the weed level at Dean there's plenty of food for the fish but I'm confident in finding a few fish up and about, later in the day I might take a drive towards Bendigo and see what's happening down there, depending on the weather situation I might even convince the wife bringing the kayak along is a good idea.

An interesting morning

Well that was definitely an interesting session, arrived at the lake around 11am and took my time getting organised watching a couple of young kids on an inflatable dinghy drifting around and fishing. Once I got out there they wanted a race but even against a fat kayak like the mini they didn't stand a chance. There was lots of clutter on the surface with feathers, leaves and small insects buzzing around but no sign of any fish rising. I decided to try a few laps trolling before I worked a few of my more popular snags around the lake and tied on a Damiki mu 45 and a new dc 50 I'd picked up earlier in the week. I've got a real soft spot for any chubby style lure after getting a fat rap many years ago as a young kid and having great success over the years with it. It was always the lure I was willing to go in after and I still have it today. The Dc has a nice erratic rolling action and certainly looks the goods, keen to give it's bigger cousin the 200 a go on some natives soon. After the first lap I had one small redfin on the mu and nothing for the dc 50. Another lap saw the mu account for 2 more slightly better redfin and still nothing to the dc so it was time for a change. It was time to bring out the everfaithful Rapala floating in a nice fluro yellow/orange colour.( One thing I finally realised after fishing Jubilee for probably 6 months was I had more success with yellow/orange lures and particularly ones that had contrasting black in them. A yellow/black celta accounted for any number of kilo + trout over the years before succumbing to a nasty snag. Driving in one day it finally clicked that there's a large bee farm just next to the lake and always bees around and on the water - so yeah the colour makes sense or at least the pattern.) 1 more lap and the Rapala had 1 redfin to it's score and the mu another 2, I still hadn't seen any signs of cruising trout and decided it was time to work some deeper snags and the edges. Two casts saw another small redfin alongside the yak and big black clouds and thunder rolling in. Deciding being in the middle of a lake, lightning and graphite rods was probably not a great option I hightailed it for the shore and some shelter as the skies opened up. Two crazy tourists decided this was a good time to go for a swim while I amused myself hiding under a tree hoping it was a short shower. 20 minutes later and it was still coming down hard and I was now wetter out than in the water so I dragged the kayak back to the car loaded up and headed for home. Judging by the hailstones piled up and half flooded roads on the way back I got out of it lightly. Oh well there's always tomorrow.

Saturday

Due to family commitments and an undetermined time for them, read (no one seems to know when but it has to be done)the new plan of attack is to hit a few local waters for the Saturday playing with some trout and redfin before heading down to Torquay or Avalon for the Sunday after some whiting and pinkies. Today I'm headed to Jubilee in Daylesford, with the Mini X, I prefer the mini in these settings because I'm not going to be covering a lot of distance and tend to use the kayak to get myself into position I can't reach from the shore so it's more a casting platform than the actual kayaking today. The plan at this point is to troll some minnow pattern lures along with some new Damiki's that I picked up last week. Later in the day I'll either switch to casting celta's or plastics around the willow trees and the back of the island depending on the insect life. If all else fails drifting some powerbait while I chew on some lunch is my final resort. I like to have a plan when I head out these days just to help minimise what I load and bring along, I find the more I bring the less I use so now limit my loading to half a dozen lures and whatever terminal tackle I need along with safety gear. On the way home I'm planning to stop off at a couple of the reservoirs and check on the water levels, Newlyn was up last time i was there but the fishing was very slow, while Dean was loaded with weed and lots of small redfin. Storms are holding off at this stage so I'm off.

Long Weekend

Well work is over for the week and I'm keen to get out on the water again, kids are away so it's a solo session this time and the only question now is do I head inland and chase some natives or hit the coast and chase a feed. The whiting have been in force around Point Cook of late and that's always worth a few brownie points, but I haven't cracked it for a decent yellow this year. I may head up past Bridgewater and check out the Loddon for a future camping/kayaking trip I have in mind. As I'm writing this the storm front that's been promised all week looks like it's finally about to break so that might be the decider, off to check the weather sites and make a decision.