Fishing and your fishing set up.

[Alan79]

I love my Fishing and Kayaking. And after searching for older fishing threads I find they're locked. So I thought I'd start a new one to talk about my new set up and maybe find out what kind of set up others have for fishing.

I pretty recently bought a used Feel free lure 10 kayak which is a huge upgrade on my old kayak which wasn't really good for setting up as a fishing rig. It just didn't have any convenient spots to add rod holders and generally it was pretty poor for storage areas. I mainly went for the lure 10 since it's super stable (enough to stand up in) comes with plenty of options to set up extra rod holders on top of the three standard ones. And it's got the best seating system I could find (since my back doesn't enjoy 5 hours in a set position). The seat on the feel free lures has a ratchet system that allows you to elevate it into 10 different heights while on the water.

Since getting the lure 10, I decided to buy an electric outboard since it's a pretty heavy Kayak and I plan at some stage soon to sort out a fish finder. I have half dozen things on the way to me at the moment including a new set of roof racks since the old soft racks I was using weren't good enough for the heavier new Kayak. I also have a $600 50ah 12v battery for the outboard coming and I have about a fortnight to do some mods to a towbar bike rack to convert it to a rear loading tool. I'm in the process of converting a milk crate to be well organized in the Yak with storage in the back and I'll also set up a better system for mounting the motor. The plan is to take 4 rods set up with different lures that I can switch between quickly without having to worry about rigging up 35 times a day as I have in the past.

I love having a good paddle, but with the trolling motor I should be able to travel 15-20km on a single charge of the battery so hopefully if the fish aren't biting near where I launch I'll be able to move a lot more quickly to somewhere that they're hungry.

I mainly fish fresh water since thats all that my local area has, but plan to take a few trips towards Coffs harbour, Red Rock and that general area to try out some estuary fishing. I'm pretty excited about getting out on the water with my new setup. I've watched a crapload of youtube vids to get more ideas on a better set up and am thinking I might create my own to share my adventures.


Anyway enough rabbling from me. Anyone else have a nice fishing set up or any good fishing stories to share?

 

[coach]

Hey mate, love fishing
Got a 4.3 Quinterx I gutted and fitted full decks etc
Mostly fish freshwater myself
Any questions I’m happy to answer if I can

View attachment 22465

 

[south of heaven]

I love a good paddle the fishing usually comes after I finish and buy a few kg of prawns

 

[DinkumDog]

Due to storage I was looking at an inflatable kayak. Lots of waterways near my place to explore. Are inflatables much chop or steer clear?

 

[Alan79]

Due to storage I was looking at an inflatable kayak. Lots of waterways near my place to explore. Are inflatables much chop or steer clear?

I've used one inflatable they sell at BCF. They paddle ok, are easy to store and pretty quick to inflate. I don't know how well they'd stand up to the lures I fish with. But there's always a solution. I guess if you were fishing in one you could take a car floor mat or something similar to protect against peircing it with a hook.

Edit- I was looking at getting a tinny recently too. But my yard size meant I wouldn't have really had space to store it. If you were interested in a more solid boat that stores in a small area the portabote is a good option.

 

[DinkumDog]

I've used one inflatable they sell at BCF. They paddle ok, are easy to store and pretty quick to inflate. I don't know how well they'd stand up to the lures I fish with. But there's always a solution. I guess if you were fishing in one you could take a car floor mat or something similar to protect against peircing it with a hook.

Edit- I was looking at getting a tinny recently too. But my yard size meant I wouldn't have really had space to store it. If you were interested in a more solid boat that stores in a small area the portabote is a good option.

Thanks mate, I’ll take a look at Portabote.
Storage is a bit of an issue and I’m not on the water all the time so hard to justify a major investment but I’d like the flexibility to do it reasonably quickly (including angling) but not through buying a white elephant. After all, they do say the best two days in owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it . Cheers.

 

[Alan79]

Thanks mate, I’ll take a look at Portabote.
Storage is a bit of an issue and I’m not on the water all the time so hard to justify a major investment but I’d like the flexibility to do it reasonably quickly (including angling) but not through buying a white elephant. After all, they do say the best two days in owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it . Cheers.

One other reason I like kayaks is because you don't need to keep them registered along with trailer rego and maintenance. So it negates the first and last day rule of owning a boat to some extent. If you have a garage for your car there are some good ways to store kayaks like hanging it on the wall from a sling too. One of the big advantages of kayaks is that you can usually get into smaller areas where a dinghy would even struggle to access. Biggest disadvantage is that unless your fishing buddies own kayaks it's generally restricting the social aspect of fishing. But time constraints also do that for me. I have a couple of mates that are keen on fishing. But getting time off to fish at the same time is often hard to manage. So the kayak is a good option for me.

 

[coach]

@maroondog does a bit

 

[coach]

At Forster over Easter, be interesting to see how it fishes and how dirty water is after floods
Can always golf and drink beer

 

[UmoGus]

Love my fishing, unfortunately can't get a boat atm.

I stick to the rocks mainly

 

[coach]

Love my fishing, unfortunately can't get a boat atm.

I stick to the rocks mainly

Haven’t done a great deal of rock fishing
What do you normally chase ?

 

[UmoGus]

Haven’t done a great deal of rock fishing
What do you normally chase ?

Depends on the season.

In summer I usually go after Kings, Bonnie's, Aussie salmon.

Winter I chase blackfish and drummer.

I do also enjoy the hell out of flicking plastics for flatties and bream at Narrabeen

 

[Alan79]

At Forster over Easter, be interesting to see how it fishes and how dirty water is after floods
Can always golf and drink beer

I was reading an article a few days ago that indicates that if you can fish areas where the floodwaters start to disperse into salt there are usually higher than usual numbers of fish about. I've found that in the freshwater locations I usually fish, for about a week after floodwater recedes and the water starts to clear up the fish bite like crazy. I guess it'd be harder for them to find food with the water stirred up and loads of additional sediment in the water column. So makes sense that they'd be hungry when things are starting to settle down.

 

[coach]

Depends on the season.

In summer I usually go after Kings, Bonnie's, Aussie salmon.

Winter I chase blackfish and drummer.

I do also enjoy the hell out of flicking plastics for flatties and bream at Narrabeen

How hard do those silver drummer go

 

[UmoGus]

How hard do those silver drummer go

Drummer pull fucking hard.

They pull harder then any fish per kg iv experienced

 

[belmore_utd]

Ahhh have only just recently taken up the fishing obsession having previously lived in interior nsw where there was nothing but carp and algal blooms.
I now live in Harrington NSW and its a fishing paradise. Before moving here last July I had zero fishing gear I now have 12 rods and a yak with 5 rod holders. Being as the estuary is literally 50 metres across the road I havent felt the need to invest in an electric motor or sounder as yet. I am lucky enough to use the knowledge from those that have lived here their whole lives while also trying to crack the consistency code.
Havent targeted paelagics as yet but have no problem getting amongst bread and butter species flathead, bream, whiting and drummer aswell as spinning for tailor and salmon.

My best catches is probably a 78cm Flatty on a double clutch and a 45cm 1kg bream on chicken soaked with garlic, fish sauce topped with some bread crumbs.

Black drummer has been favourite fish to target. Tasty as hell and a great sports fish.

The most rare species I caught is a blue drummer, beautiful looking fish

 

[coach]

Ahhh have only just recently taken up the fishing obsession having previously lived in interior nsw where there was nothing but carp and algal blooms.
I now live in Harrington NSW and its a fishing paradise. Before moving here last July I had zero fishing gear I now have 12 rods and a yak with 5 rod holders. Being as the estuary is literally 50 metres across the road I havent felt the need to invest in an electric motor or sounder as yet. I am lucky enough to use the knowledge from those that have lived here their whole lives while also trying to crack the consistency code.
Havent targeted paelagics as yet but have no problem getting amongst bread and butter species flathead, bream, whiting and drummer aswell as spinning for tailor and salmon.

My best catches is probably a 78cm Flatty on a double clutch and a 45cm 1kg bream on chicken soaked with garlic, fish sauce topped with some bread crumbs.

Black drummer has been favourite fish to target. Tasty as hell and a great sports fish.

The most rare species I caught is a blue drummer, beautiful looking fish

That’s a cracking bream mate

 

[UmoGus]

Ahhh have only just recently taken up the fishing obsession having previously lived in interior nsw where there was nothing but carp and algal blooms.
I now live in Harrington NSW and its a fishing paradise. Before moving here last July I had zero fishing gear I now have 12 rods and a yak with 5 rod holders. Being as the estuary is literally 50 metres across the road I havent felt the need to invest in an electric motor or sounder as yet. I am lucky enough to use the knowledge from those that have lived here their whole lives while also trying to crack the consistency code.
Havent targeted paelagics as yet but have no problem getting amongst bread and butter species flathead, bream, whiting and drummer aswell as spinning for tailor and salmon.

My best catches is probably a 78cm Flatty on a double clutch and a 45cm 1kg bream on chicken soaked with garlic, fish sauce topped with some bread crumbs.

Black drummer has been favourite fish to target. Tasty as hell and a great sports fish.

The most rare species I caught is a blue drummer, beautiful looking fish

Double clutch is such a versatile plastic

 

[belmore_utd]

That’s a cracking bream mate

Unfortunately it wasnt much of a fight because I hooked it on my beach setup and just broomsticked it to the bank lol

 

[belmore_utd]

Double clutch is such a versatile plastic

Hooked it on a 10 second pause which I never do.