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| fish’n’tip 0456 breaming from a yak with rob paxevanos |
Dated: 26 November, 2008
Rob’s weekly FISH’N’TIP written for the week of Wednesday 26/11/08
FISH’N’TIP 0456 Breaming from a yak
A mini revolution is taking place amongst some anglers and that is they are downsizing to a kayak and getting into places that have never been fished before! The result is bigger fish in amazing numbers.
Bream are one of many popular species that anglers are targeting; they are available around the entire coastline and are particularly poplar with anglers in the southern half of this continent.
One example of the sort of fishing you can get is when some friends and I four wheel drove into an isolated estuary on the south coast of NSW last summer.
I won’t mention the name of the estuary; don’t need too-the map is dotted with stacks of them and the thing they share in common is that you can’t get a boat in there so a kayak is ideal.
We didn’t use any hot new techniques; there was simply more fish and less fishing pressure.
Each of us caught dozens of bream, quite a few of which were over 40 cm and several even pushed up towards the 50 cm mark! There was also lots of flathead, Estuary Perch and even the occasional bass that day. The trek in involved a bit of planning and effort but it was half the fun and phew what a blast once you’re on the water!
It is not just the south coast of NSW that has sneaky little lagoons that don’t get fished. These sorts of places exist right around the country!
And it isn’t always independent systems you are looking for either when putting a yak into use. Many of the larger rivers have little off shoots and anabranches where the bigger boats haven’t been able to muddy the water. Black Bream in particular can get big and fat in such places.
Even more surprising is that the sneaky spots that hold the lions share of fish are not always that far from civilization. Keen Sydneysider friends of mine are putting their yaks so far up under the big wharfs that it ridiculous. Again the fishing has been outstanding in many instances!
The most important thing is getting in somewhere fresh and not fished by the masses; the numbers of fish you see will have you fast tracking your own breaming skills big time. That being said Bream fishing from a kayak does have some specific factors you need to consider.
If it is calm and you are fishing spots with little or no tide/current then most types of kayaks are able to lure fish effectively.
If it is windy or if there is some current yakers using paddled craft might for example want to look for a large shallow area where they can line up long drifts. This helps reduce the need to put your rod down to paddle.
A stake out or drogue can be very handy for slowing up or holding position in some scenarios.
Of course if you are in tight to structure you can sometimes hold that structure to keep the yak in position, eg pylons, trees, long weed, snags etc.
Conversely those with Hobie Mirage Drives will have found that it is possible to work whichever way you want, even directly into the wind and current, all without putting the rod down. This allows you to focus more on the red hot spots like reefy edges, bubble weed areas, pylons, old oyster leases and of course snags.
I sometime use my own mirage drive to help me hold in the wind or current over the deeper holes where the bream are sometimes in big thick schools.
Effective bream lures do not change much when going from a big boat down to a smaller kayak, but you will really have to narrow down your favourites into smaller tackle boxes that will both fit in the yak and are easily accessible.
As a standard yak bream kit I usually take a wallet or two full of my favourite softies and a small box of various sized jig heads.
Another small box is chock full of hard bodies and poppers. Blades and lipless crank baits go together in the one box and lipless stick baits are in the last box. This collection of mine has me well and truly covered.
Leader, braid scissors, pliers and the like need to be at your finger tips, and my yak has a neat little netted area that stops them getting washed overboard when cranking through any chop.
Most of all though you will need a sense of adventure and with the start of summer upon us and the bulk of the years work almost behind us it comes as no surprise the itch to go exploring some fun new water is reaching fever point.
See you on the water.
Rob Paxevanos
Robs Column Proudly Sponsored by the Hellenic Club of Canberra.
 | Inaccessible water that has never seen a lure before; now that makes for fun bream fishing
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| Rob Paxevanos
Fishnet Pro Angler
Report brought to you by fishingaustralia.tv
Email : robpax@netspeed.com.au
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