# Wivenhoe Catfish 04/10



## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

I haven't posted a report for a while, so I thought I might as well, just for Ross. I've been having some fun from the bank with poppers nailing some huge catfish at Sinnamon point on the upper reaches of the dam, but really wanted to get the yak wet today as the wind was down a bit although still quite strong it was from the south east which I prefer as it means I get pushed towards banks with no fence posts and rusty star pickets. 
Got to the water about 4pm and disturbed a huge wedge tail eagle.










Put the yak in and rigged her up quickly and got out on the water. I trolled the little killa lure and a gold rapala bibless crank bait. about 20m of trolling and off went the crank bait, a little catfish, surprise surprise. By the time I released the fish and sorted out my lines I was 50m upstream and up against the bank, not pretty, but I wanted a good paddle, so cast out my lures and headed back out to deep water. As I got into what used to be the river bed off went the drag, something on the killa lure this time. 
Having two lines out can be quite a challenge in high wind, as the yak started to drift and the fish moved me as well the other line started to bow and before I knew it the line had come over my head and wrapped around the reel I was frantically cranking in and tangled badly with the line still very tight with a heavy fish. 
I had to act quickly and cut the line to the other lure and continued fighting the fish. It was a bit more compicated though as the line had gone under the spool and made a real mess. Had to paddle to the bank and jump out of the yak. Luckily the bank was firm and took my weight well. I wrapped the line to the other lure around the rod holder and hauled in a big fat catfish.










Thankfully all my knots held first go and it wasn't long before I was out paddling both my lures in two. 3 4 5 6 7 more catfish and I had done some hard yards paddling around the pumping station and was heading back to the launch site. 
It was still quite early so I paddled up the inlet towards the cliffs, something took the killa lure, at first it didn't seem to hard, but as it came up close to the yak it went nuts and turning it was very difficult, this fish had some weight. After a lot of struggling it came to the surface, got the net, ooooh no, not yet, off he went again, the net nearly slid out of my hand as I grabbed the paddle which was being blown around by a heavy gust. This scenario repeated itself about 5 times and the last time my heart nearly stopped as the net slid right into the water and started to sink, reached out and just grabbed the handle, phew!
A few more swipes and I had the beast in the net, a huge fat bugga of a catfish, packed it in and headed back to the lauch point so I could get a pic on the brag mat. Not my biggest forky, but a biggun all the same.










Packed up the gear and put the kayak on the car, had a few more casts which resulted in my confirming that there is a big snag in front of the little pontoon, hmm bugga, bye bye lure. Oh well, can't complain about the scenery.


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Nice one Karl. Fat fish!

Congrats on your Elite membership too


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## fishinswing (May 15, 2006)

Welldone Karl,

What an awesome catfish and by your report put up a great fight. I am sure you will hook up one of those 80cm plus catfish one that live in Wivenhoe, that will certainly test out your knot strength. Top stuff.


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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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## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

Thanks Dave and John.

Leigh, a lot of the area has been cleared either for pastural use or for the dam itself, some of the 'hills' in the pic would normally be under water, but the water levels are very low.


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Karl that little killalure lives up to its name alright are you ready to cope with its eventual loss of that little performer which of course may happen.

Well done also on being another maroon elite member. 

On the Cressbrook trip will you be at Esk on the Friday and I'll call and say gday on the way through to the dam.


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## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

Dodge said:


> Karl that little killalure lives up to its name alright are you ready to cope with its eventual loss of that little performer which of course may happen.


I had two of these lures, one I bought about 4 years ago to fish North Pine and it accounted for some massive bass, so I had to get another one, which is the lure that accounted for the yellas at Logan inlet. I recently put all new hardware on the old lure and lost it to a monster from the deep a few weeks ago.  But it looks like the newer lure is working properly again, and I expect to get some good fish on it, and even if I lose it tomorrow it has paid for itself. If the fishing gods decide it is time, you can't change that. 



Dodge said:


> Well done also on being another maroon elite member.


Cheers mate :wink:



Dodge said:


> On the Cressbrook trip will you be at Esk on the Friday and I'll call and say gday on the way through to the dam.


Absolutely Richo, should have a few bottles of home brew for the trip too.  
I'll be ready to convoy up so we can get lost together, hehe, or I might even make the drive up there in advance so I know where to go. 8)


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## Jeffo (Sep 10, 2006)

nice report & great pics. What's the biggest cat fish you have got?

Cheers

Jeffo


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## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

I've seen a few bigger than that one, but rarely bother to measure them, this one definitely gave me more curry than any I've hooked from the kayak though. Biggest one I have measured was 65cms.


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