# Hen & Chicken Bay - Meadowbank 230507



## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

I got down to the ramp at Abbotsford around 0500 on a freezing and slightly windy morning, and was ready to hit the water by 0530. I was disappointed that there was no Hobie dealer present to carry my yak to the water, but carried on regardless. They forgot to build the ramp all the way to the water (alright, it was low tide), but after negotiating the large step, I was poised on the stinky mud ready for my first trip west of the Harbour Bridge. The water was really shallow for the first bit - I had to use that black thing (paddle I think you call it). I trolled an sx48 (modded with single lure hooks) on light gear and was gratified to catch my first bream within 100m. At 15 cm and raised on Kryptonite, he went back in and I continued on.

There was no sign of any of the other AKFF folk so I decided to troll around to Breakfast Pt to see if I could scare up Lloyd. Sun was peeking over the horizon, wind had eased off and the morning was feeling pretty good. I caught a series of small bream and tailor around the marinas at Cabarita - all returned unharmed (the single lure hooks really make a difference for getting the fish off undamaged).

I saw the megalopolis of Breakfast Pt glinting in the early light (quite different to the scorched earth of the Google Earth image), but it was a Lloyd free zone. Continued trolling along the edges dodging River Cats and savouring the tang of Rhodes. I peppered any likely bit of structure with cast lures & SP's and scored more bream & tailor. Hooked into a good fish near Concord Hospital - felt like a decent bream - but lost it (the downside of the singles). Having got this far, I decided to continue up to Meadowbank have a look at Homebush Bay. Once I got there, I turned around and headed back along the Eastern shore. There were some deep holes that looked to be holding fish on the sounder, but none of them wanted to play with me.

I got back to H&C around 1000 and saw another yak in the distance - it was Devo (who keeps gentleman's hours apparently). He was just pulling in a nice little bream (32cm), so I was able to provide photographic services. We spent another half hour or so trolling around and telling lies until it was time for me to head back to the factory. As I got back to the ramp I saw Diveyak (or in fact his very orange outback on top of his car). Mark sportingly assisted me with the step once more, and suggested that my kayak looked well used (polite way of saying stinky). That'd be because my maintenance programme rarely includes washing (the kayak, not me). I got the the car loaded up again, by this time Devo had alighted and we briefly chewed the fat. A fine morning on the water generally - strange to go out with no intention of keeping fish, but good to see new places and faces.


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## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Nice one sbd,

Love the shot of the Yak in the pre-dawn light


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## DiveYak (Feb 5, 2007)

Sorry I didn't get out there today [email protected]# flu!! 

Anyway a couple of pics of you guys coming in.


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## devo (Sep 12, 2006)

I managed to hit the water at a more respectable hour than Dave launching from Abbotsford just after 9.00. No other yaks in sight at that time and my only company was a annoying westerly wind. I trolled for around 45 minutes on the Abbotsford side without much joy so decided to head over to Exile bay. My change in location was rewarded with 3 flathead --best coming in at 37cm the two others slightly smaller at 36cm.
( 2 taken on a CK40 chubby and 1 on a SX40).
I continued trolling and got a very nice tap on the chubby 8) and a few minutes later had a feisty 32cm bream on board. Even better , when I looked up I saw Dave cruising over on his hobbie and he was kind enough to take a happy snap of me and my new best friend - Thx mate.
I did one last lap of Exile Bay than started the slow troll back to the ramp. You wouldn't believe it , managed to snag a 25cm squid on a Jackal chubby. :shock: First squid I've caught but not sure if it counts been caught on a LURE  
Back at the ramp I saw a forlon figure in the shape of Diveyak (Mark)who couldn't make it out cos he had the sniffles !!- hope ya feeling better mate :lol: Said my good-byes to Dave and wrapped up another great morning on the harbour.


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

This one's for you Ken...


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## devo (Sep 12, 2006)

Back to what I thought was a fishing report .
If anyone cares , here's the photo of the squid I caught on a chubby.


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## GracefulLily (Feb 26, 2007)

Nice fat looking squid there & i dont think it matters if you got him on a lure...you got him in the yak thats all that counts :wink: .......did you keep him for dinner? mmmm freshly fried squid


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## DiveYak (Feb 5, 2007)

Devo,

I'm with you mate.............its a fishing forum. Enjoy the fishing.

Mate, hope I'm uop for Friday adn maybe one of those elusive Kingies...


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## devo (Sep 12, 2006)

I wish I could have kept him Suzi but unfortunately in that part of the Bay , its to toxic to eat anything - otherwise he would have turned into salt and pepper calamari very quickly 8)


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## GracefulLily (Feb 26, 2007)

Yeh i hear ya about the salt n pepper squid bloody fabulous 8) ...but yep the thought of glowing in the dark would put you off a little huh :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Guest (May 23, 2007)

I see from the photos you use the old ramp do you fish the wall near the golf corse or the stormwater drains.This time of year you can get a lot of trev up there on the sand flats.Its a good place to take beginners because of the speed limit.Also good place to learn sp.


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## Crikey (Oct 30, 2005)

Hi Guys,

Apologies for not making it this morning, I was up at the crack of dawn but work got in the way again. The closest I have gotten to the water is the Sport is fully rigged waiting to go in the garage. The idea is that I will just walk it down to Kendal Bay and drop it in there. So much for the best laid plans.

Glad to see that you got into some fish though


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## Guest (May 23, 2007)

redphoenix said:


> Guys, again. Please stay on target.
> Sorry Suzie, Bazz & others for the collateral damage, but SBD & Devo deserve a chance to provide us with a (quite excellent) report without us wandering off too far.
> 
> Red.


Sorry to say it Red but you have done a good job again, but I'm not going to sit back and let ass holes take cheap shots at me for my unfortunate experiences, especially when the wanker wants to antagonise matters with his primary school delinquant tactics.

I am at a point where I am ready to leave this forum because of the new mod that thinks he is above the rest of us, I know others feel the same.

I only have one more topic to put up tomorrow once I get my yaks back, keep an eye on the for sale section.

See you on the water. :wink:


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

SBd, Dave , was very interested in the single hooks on sx 48, i have been keen to do this with the sx40 , but thought it may upset the balance and the lure would loose its magic , obviously not , what size hooks did you replace them with ?, and was the action much the same , would love to do it , as all my fish are c & r, must make life easier


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## Crikey (Oct 30, 2005)

Dave,

I am interested in the single hook set up as well.

While Balmoral was firing earlier this year I fitted a few HB's in the 3-4" range with single hooks. I used smaller size Black Magic circle hooks thinking that the self hooking properties of the circles would be better than using "J" hooks. I think they worked a treat but saying that the fish were hitting anything at the time, the bonus of the singles was ease of unhooking the fish and certainly less dramas with fouling the net with the hooks once the fish was in the net, it should lower the risk of self impalement as well.

I am very interested how you fit the hooks, I tried the following.

1. Discounted using a single split ring with an unmodified hook as the axis of the hook was at 90 degrees to the centerline of the lure it just did not look right and I never even bothered wetting this type of rig

2. Fitted the hook with 2 split rings but it started adding weight and the hooks seemed to dominate the lure

3. I fitted the hooks straight to the ring on the lure by opening the eye of the hook just enough to fit it to the ring and them closing the eye again, I think this was suspect as the hook eyes already seem to have been work hardened and many of them snapped as I tried to open the eye, I did persist with this the only draw back I saw was a lack of articulation between the lure and the hook that definitely seemed to upset the actio of the lure.

4. Very gently heated the shank of the hook to dull red and twisted the shank through 90 degrees so the the eye was in line with the gape of the hook then mounted the hook on a single split ring. This worked and caught fish bonito and salmon mainly. I really did not persist with this either as shortly after getting this far the fish turned selective and I spend the rest of the season using small metal slugs. The only problem I encountered with this is the heating destroyed the anti corrosive coating on the hook so they rusted very quickly and had to be preserved.


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Lloyd & Barry,
the trick to the single hooks is to use the Gamakatsu single lure hooks. These have the eye already in the correct orientation for use with a single split ring, & the eye is oversize to allow full movement on the split ring. I've put size 6 on both sx40's & sx48's - this is a little larger than optimal on the sx40 (the 2 hooks can engage each other, but it's fine if you're careful - I think size 8 would be ideal, but I haven't managed to find any yet), but perfect for the sx48. I've also put larger ones (size1) on a cd7 - they look the biz, but I haven't wet them yet.

I was surprised how many clean hookups resulted (about 20) and I only lost 1 fish - release was definitely much easier.


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## .329 (Apr 17, 2006)

I've wondered how the single hooks work on hard bodies - I think I'll have to give it a try. I've already converted some small metal raiders and slices using the gamakatsu g-stingers with success


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## Crikey (Oct 30, 2005)

Dave,

Where do you get the lure hooks from?


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Lloyd,
Otto's (Victoria Rd, Drummoyne) have them, Compleat Angler (City) have them in a limited range of sizes.


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## DiveYak (Feb 5, 2007)

Dave,

Do you think you catch as many with the single hooks? Or is more a matter of ease to release the fish? Can't find any info on that above - sorry if I missed something.


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Mark,
early days yet, but my gut feeling is less hookups (slightly), but also (hopefully) less thrown hooks because trebles can lever themselves out, wheres a decent hookup with a single hook ain't going anywhere. The main advantages I see are easier release, less damage to fish & less damage to me (trebles in my soft parts), as well as less catching on kayak etc, and probably less snagging as well. I think that nothing probably initially hooks fish (or people) better than the tiny little filthy sharp Owner trebles that come on the sx40's, but the Gamas are very sharp & fairly fine wire, and seem to work nearly as well, without the troubles that trebles inherently have. YMMV.


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Can also get these hooks, in a range of sizes, but different brand from motackle. Try Hooks>Assist/Jig Hooks


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## Guest (May 24, 2007)

Yes the gama single lure hooks are the go if you think the weight differance maybe problem go up a few sizes in your split rings.


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