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