The Year That Was
It's been a little over a year since I moved to South East Queensland, got a kayak, and started this site.
The days are getting shorter and the evenings cooler. When I walk out in the morning, the car is wet from dew. The late summer rains came — at least to the coastal areas. Some dams have filled while others continue to drop and the drought continues in some areas. The creeks have been given a much needed flush out and are beginning to clear which is good news for the fishing.
During the year I've fished locations from the north end of the Gold Coast to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. I've caught bream, grunter, flathead, mulloway, trevally, tailor, catfish, and pike — a couple of these being new species for me. In the process I've also learnt a bit about fishing soft-plastics.
The sport is visibly growing:
- Both major national fishing magazines have recently run articles on kayak fishing.
- A group of kayak anglers at Noosa have formed the Perception Yak Anglers' Club and are getting into some great fish — snapper, mack tuna, and spanish mackeral — in Laguna Bay.
- Bream Master have added a Kayak and Canoe forum to their site.
The Year To Come
I haven't caught a mangrove jack and now that the water temperature is dropping this ambition will have to wait until next summer. I'll also need to target some of those BIG Gold Coast flathead! Meanwhile, the bream should be improving over the cooler months and the tailor should be making an appearance.
I've been told of a couple of locations that should provide some squid over winter, so hopefully calamari will be on the menu before long!
I haven't made the trip to the freshwater impoundments to chase bass and yellowbelly.
I've been given a 12V7A battery (thanks Jonno) that's going to find itself hooked up to some lights so I can do a little night fishing.
Tony Smith, April 2003.