Shorty's Adventures (West Aussie)

[Shorty]

Well Saturday june 7th marked my first real fishing trip in the 2nd hand Extreme i picked up some days ago, it was a real toss up whether i would buy it, some punters saying its great for calm waters only, Douglas Gaxiola from here gave me a full run down on the extreme and put my mind at rest in the fact it can handle some rough stuff as well,so it was not long after that it was on my roof rack heading to my place.

I met Ian Saturday morning, this was the first time i have ever seen a real live yak set up in the flesh, despite spending my summers down the beach its still a fairly rare sport in this backwater city.

Ian was the star of the show,,filling up his bag with smaller type fish while anchored up behind Shag Island, while i drifted with a whole quid on one rod and cast lures for Tailor (bluefish) in the white water.

I never caught a fish but had a great fishing trip, heres a couple of pictures,,cheers Shorty.

[steveooo]

Reports from other countries are soooo cool.

[Shorty]

No worries Steve, i hope to give regular updates ,winters here so not the best weather at the moment.(thats why i am not lawnmowing today ,its pouring down)

Heres a couple more pictures if i may, a couple of months ago i wondered if its possible to fish out of kayaks, maybe i could be a worlds pioneer of the sport i decided a rod could fit in a scupper hole and with a basket on the back you could be in business

Heres my other yak called a Ventura, also a clue why i am called Shorty and my work supervisor (Dotty the dog) cheers,,,

[Shorty]

Heres my first trip out about 10 days ago, a storm was forecast but i was keen to give the Yak a try out, the Extreme handled the weather fine but i ended up in the van huddled up away from the wind,lightening and thunder,,,,,,,,,not to be out done i loaded up and went to a more sheltered cove around the point, the wind changed direction and i huddled in the van with the sliding door open hanging on to the yak for dear life, in case it got blown down the street

On the way home i had to go around downed trees,power poles and flooded roads

Things can only get better from my first trip

[sdcityboy]

wow! when you said you pinned on a whole squid i figured about 6 inches long! the extreme is one stable yak. you are gonna love it. love the color "shark bait yellow".

[dgax65]

Shorty, glad to hear that the eXtreme is working out for you. It looks like quite an upgrade from the old ride. Keep the reports coming. That pic of your eXtreme in the clear water is killer.

[bajadog]

Beautiful country...thanks Shorty.

[lambadmin]

very cool

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by sdcityboy

wow! when you said you pinned on a whole squid i figured about 6 inches long!

Actually i caught about 20 squid and cuttlefish last week, the bait that i put out was the smallest one i had ,about 3/4 of the size in the picture, the only taker was another squid ripped its heads clean off, i pulled what was left of it out of the water and threw a lure in it place, but it did not want to know about it.

Doug> The extreme is working out well, just need to gather up some gear now, apart from rods and a crate i have little else, a Sea Anchor and Anchor will be added this week, i like to spend a lot of time drifting but sometimes its drifting to fast for my liking.

Reports will come in each trip, the long range forecast for this week is not looking real crash hot, i had better include wet weather gear in my wish list.

Bajadog,,,,lambadmin,,,Cheers,,,

Take it easy all,,, Colin

[h2ofishfo]

sweet report if u think u are drifting way 2 fast out might wanna think aboust a yak drift sock .....geez w/that clear water u could almost sight fish in 40ft water ..hope 2 hear about a toad "jack " in your next post !!!!!!!

[GHOSTHUNTR]

The area you live in looks really cool. What are the types of large gamefish to be caught?

[Corey]

Thanks for the reports & pics from down under. Do you plan to take Dotty out on the kayak? She's the perfect size for it. I am curious about your local game fish as well. Cheers!

[ratdog]

Reports from another country are cool, what about another continent and hemisphere... way cool.Curious about the local gamefsh, also.

[Shorty]

Thanks for the reply lads.

h2ofishfo > I have never heard of the Yak Drift sock before, i have brought a small sea anchor suitable for small boats, hopefully it will work ok,,yes the waters can be clear but way up north of the state better still, can sometimes spot fish way,way down deep.

bellyuptim,Ratdog, Corey > No plans to take Dotty out in the Yak, she is not a big fan of the water you should see her at flea bath time ,lol

The game fish side of things is not really that crash hot in comparison to other places,,Marlin,yellowfin tuna Mahi Mahi are here but to far out for the Yak, most is light game fishing on Australian Salmon, Snapper and the like, my personal target will be Mulloway which look like your White Sea bass,,,,,,,,,the further North you go in this state the better the game fishing, i am near the bottom.

heres a couple of links that maybe of interest, the main island off the City,,

http://www.rottnest-island.net/

This weeks planned fishing trip at Penguin Island,,,

http://www.penguinisland.com.au/

A website from Queensland i find of interest click on the Perception Angler series in top left hand corner

http://www.fishingnoosa.com.au/

And possibly the main Australian forum on Yak fishing ,,,

http://www.akff.net/forum/

Cheers ,Colin

[Shufoy]

Shorty, didn't know you also purused these forums!!

Just for another taste of our beautiful country, here is the post i made on our local forums about my last local overnight trip.

It ain't yakking, but it's West Coast Australian beach fishing!

Enjoy!!
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Well, i started planning this overnighter 3 weeks ago, and as usual, nothing went to plan. Mate pulled out at last minute, replacement pulled out, so i thought stuff it, wifes away, im going anyways! Cruised up lunchtime Sunday, found a decent spot, and set up camp.

Threw a few in during the late arvo, but weed moved in so i shut it down and contemplated the milky way under the influence of bourbon, thank god the dog was there, so at least it seemed i was talking to someone... Hit the swag early in anticipation of a hot bite, after soaking the burley bomb all night. By the way, as long and hard as i looked, i saw no paranormal activity.....

Got up round 5am, had some sausages, and lazily rigged a line. Re-stoked the bomb, and proceeded to have a super hot 5 hour fishing session. Landed heaps of chunky Skippy to a kilo/kilo -half, that managed to crank a decent arc into the Snyder 7wrap. Weed had all but cleared and things were looking good. Few small Whiting, and plentiful Bull Herring kept things moving.


Late morning i'm reeling in what i presumed was the upteenth huge Herring for the morning when WHAMMO! Half way in the rod buckles, and line starts peeling of the 6500ssm at a rapid rate!! Thumping headshakes, and a solid 30-40m run then nothing???@?! Back to the herring again. Im stumped and majorly dissapointed. And then i reel in this poor little Flathead thats been slammed by something on the way in! Well, dog was happy, fresh Flathead for pooch!

Packed up and gone by lunch, cruised home and cleaned up. Ended up with a decent feed, threw heaps back, and missed a few. Saw heaps of guys get bogged on the beach up there. It can be tricky in places, and the council is making life hard there too with all the works. When driving through this area, please take care, it seems as if a accident with 4wd's or bikes is imminent up here, with peeps flying round in all directions, and remember to always leave it clean.

[glenniesan]

Thanks for sharing a taste of oz land! Awesome stuff.

[Shorty]

Heres todays afternoon session near Seal Island, met Brett for the first time (who posted the beach pictures above and also met Ians wife , Ian in the above photos, today there brought a Hobie tandem down and fished two up out of it.

Today we caught Wrasse,whiting,herring,skippy and a few other species, nothing big just a nice feed and a great afternoon out , after all it is the middle of winter here so we were lucky today.

None of last weeks pictures loaded properly so its fingers crossed this week

[Shufoy]

Here's a few more pics of the same trip!

Was a great day, and my first ocean voyage in my Hobie Adventure "Shufoy"!!


Shorty on his Malibu Extreme, and Ian and Sharon on the Oasis.


Shorty , in front of the big rock!


Great structure, this is where there all hiding!


Sun starting to fade.


Really glassed off toward the end of the night.

Thanks to Shorty for organising it, and many more trips ahead.

[Shorty]

Thanks for posting the photos Brett, seems like mine don't work here anymore, at least i can't see them On Edit> i can now two days later ?

Yes it was a great Sunday Arvo session, friday and Saturday was full up for me , the goverment of Western Australia decided everybody needs to know a bit about the road rules on the water , so they have introduced a Recreational Skippers ticket for boats over 6 horse power, you SoCal boys and girls would have no trouble with it, we just had to learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road (except its on the water) $200 later i have an interim licence, thinking of mothershipping yaks out wide later maybe.

The other news is in my hot little hand i have DVD called threshers Yak Style about catching threshers at Malibu, all i need is a DVD player or find the connections to the one i have looking forward to viewing it.

I should mention the fact that once yaks are on the beach here they can draw a crowd and you can get bombarded with questions, people are amazed by them, thats where we are at here, maybe i will just take the yak down the beach and stand next to it all day as a way to meet pretty girls like some folks do with dogs.

Have a good week all

[Handymansd]

Thanks for the pics and posts guys! It's great to be able to experience another location that you can't experience yourself. I hope someday, sooner rather than later, to be able to fish that part of the world. My wife and I are in the process of putting things in motion to possibly immigrate to NZ, (Whangarei area). We'll see. Your posts make me anxious to get out and fish there.