YakFishWest

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To wind up a cracking year of Kayak Fishing with a great community, we held our final event for the year, Yakfishwests Canning Classic on Sunday December 6th 2009. In the form of a social day, with a social bream/flathead catch and release competition in the morning, and a picnic lunch, chinwag and play around on the yaks.

The rules were:

- Competition is a LURE ONLY event! No using of any type of bait, dead or alive. Also no berlying of any kind is permitted!

- All types of kayak or canoe are permitted, also electric and sail power is also allowed.

- No trolling is allowed, that is dragging of a lure, allowing the movement of the kayak to give it it’s action.

- Only one rod is allowed to be used at a time per angler.

I had setup two categories, Live Weigh-In ABT style and Photo Entries as per our usual comps.

What a fantastic day it turned out to be. The weather had been threatening to “blow it’s tit’s off” all day, peaking at nearly 30 knots, but upon arrival at Shelley Beach a tad before 6am, i was greeted by beautiful calm conditions, with a subtle hints of a SSEaster, but little else.

I started getting my yaks of the car, the Revolution Iggy was to be loaned to Wangler’s Scotty Coghlan for the competition, as i know i can trust Scotty (a call i later regretted when he returned my yak with a busted drive after ramming something solid…)…. I also brought the Stealth Supalight-X for my transportation if required, for show, and as a bartering tool to gain access to test rides on other folks yaks after lunch! As i was unloading, a few familiar faces started to arrive, and before long, we had filled most of the parking lane with YTV’s, or Yak Transport Vehicles and were all busy unloading and preparing our weapons.

The assorted craft ready to fish!

Soon the beach was lined with many varying kayak brands, and a multitude of different Hobies, measuring devices were tagged, peeps were primed, and at 7am, a rousing speach by yours truly sent the lads off in search of the elusive black bream. Some went east, some west, some straight out to the “Sticks”, and some chatted for another 10mins or so before ambling on their way!

There Off!!!

Some went that way, some went this way...

Meanwhile, the next 3-4hours for me was spent kicking back at the beach, with the new banner up every second person walking past stopped to ask what Yakfishwest was, and why we had scales setup, and so i talked the talk, and watched a few joggers cruise past. Chatted to a few of the lads on the radio, getting updates by phone, and soon it was obvious that as expected it was extremely hard going out there, and things seemed to have shut down.

One of the lads out at the "Sticks"

Soon tho, a bit of excitement, as Fisho “Fish Watch” Stu got on the UHF, alerting me to some guys illegally cast netting on a bank not far from me. Stu proceeded to give them some stick, and as i walked up to chat also, they jumped in there car and bailed. Good riddance… Tho! Soon enough Scotty is on the phone telling me the very same jokers had rocked up where he was and kept at it! He checked with them that they were sane individuals, before making the required phoning gestures… Retards..

By 11am the lads were beginning to return to the beach, most with tales of small fish, very tough fishing, and no live fish to weigh in! Nath tho came to the rescue, or so i thought, with a fish i his well, i bolted over in anticipation only to be shattered to find a 4 inch Hardy Head swimming around in his esky..

Some of the lads returning.

With the lack of any live fish to weigh in, the prizes for the photo entries JACKPOTTED!! So we all assembled under the monster shade tree, and proceeded to award the prizes for first and second to the appropriate winners (which i’ll list below). Certainly some great performances in the hard conditions encountered today. Nath (86) did well with two categories entered, with a 20cm Bream and a 21cm Grunter, Micheal (Emric) also got two eligible fish with his 18cm Grunter, and equal second place winning Bream at 22.5cm. Pete (Addidaspeteman) did well with a 20cm bream, and 2 decent Flathead at around 33cm, gaining a second place in that category, and Alec (mustrumur) also managed an equal second Longest Bream at 22.5cm and a decent Flathead also at 32cm. Paul (yakyakker) easily took out Longest Flathead with a great fish at over 44cm, Ben (Dahoughsta) took out Longest Bream with his 24cm fish, and Linda (Asalt Weapon 2) landed a 24cm Tailor, succesfully outfishing her hubbie and taking out Longest Other Fish.

The yaks and crew lined up for Booty!

We all sat down for lunch shortly after the prizes were awarded, and some of us took turns on eachothers yaks, Shorty’s Adventure Island was copping a flogging, i had a go myself, and can vouch for the massive fun factor! The wind had really picked up by this stage, pushing 20-25knots, and it really handled it well.  Erin’s Finn Endorfinn also got a run by myself, struggling to not tip it, and a few others had a go on there dream yaks.

A huge thankyou to all the sponsors who provided great prizes, and to all those who attended for making it such a great day! Not many fish were caught, but i’m sure we all had fun, and put a few names to faces!

Thanks All!

Entry List

Gale66 – Pro Angler
Brendan – Quest
Kayakarl – X-13
Griffon – Adventure
Jutto – X-Factor
Mattyoga – X-13
Nath86 – Outback
Addidaspeteman – Mini-X
Da Houghsta – Quest
Shorty – Adventure
FishoStu22 – Outback
Yakyakker – Adventure
Mustrumur – Outback
Dan – Manitou
Dawn – Manitou
Emric – Revolution
AsaltWeapon – Pro Angler
AsaltWeapon2 – Pro Angler
Sott Coghlan – Revolution
Chefdale – Prowler

1. Longest Flathead – As it says, the longest, baddest Flattie you can find!!

First – Yakyakker – 44.5cm
Second - Addidaspeteman – 33.5cm

2. Longest Bream – Again, fairly obvious!

First – DaHoughsta – 24cm
Second – Mustrumur/Emric – 22.5cm

3. Longest “Other” Fish – Any fish other than blowies or the category fish, ie Bream and Flatties!

First - AsaltWeapon2 – 24cm Tailor
Second – Nath86 – 21cm Grunter