# Kayakfishing the Sydney FAD



## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

A cunning plan had been hatching for months, when several AKFF members had expressed interest in kayak fishing the FAD's (Fish Attracting Devices), 9kms offshore of Sydney for DolphinFish.

A suitable window of opportunity needed to present itself, namely, warm offshore water and stable weather. A couple of weeks ago 'Team FAD' consisting of myself, Gatesy, Ken (Kraley) and John (JT) hatched a plan and pinpointed a possible day where we could all get out and have a crack at some of these pelagic rockets.

The weather maps were watched, the ocean temperatures were scrutinised and the plan was set. A late Wednesday afternoon meeting, to board the mothership, Kraleys stunning 36 foot boat "Platypus" and an early Thursday morning meeting with Mr Mahi Mahi and his friends.

Anyway, myself JT and Ken met and loaded up at the Marina during one of Sydneys worst thunderstorms in years. So much for those freakin' weather forecasts! We juiced up the beast and slowly motored up the harbour to our overnight mooring location at Little Manly cove, where Gatesy was joining us. The trip was 'interesting' with pitch blackness, occasional lightning bolts, howling wind, rain and the bow of the boat getting slammed by heavy wind swell, so progress was 'slow and steady".

On arriving at Little Manly, Ken was trying to avoid hitting any rocks when out of the darkness appeared a lonely figure peddling a hobie and loaded down with gear. Luckily he could see us because we couldn't see him and we avoided running him over, despite kens best efforts to do the forum a favour and rid of Gatesy forever.. :shock:

We all bunked down around 11.30 and it seemed like 5 minutes later that the alarm was beeping to tell us it was 3.30am and time to catch our livebaits before making our way out to the FAD. THe stars were out and the wind was down, conditions looked good.

WE managed to catch 15 or 20 yellowtail by 4.45 and then we set off for the FAD, located about 9km out off North Head. Kens boat runs at about 6 knots for $30 worth of petrol per hour or he can amp it up to 12-15 knots but then it sucks $300 of juice per hour. So the decision to 'take it easy' was unanimous 

Around after an hour of motoring through swell that was 'bigger than we'd hoped for' (about 2 metres) we arrived at the FAD, just in time to see the sun peeking up over the horizon. I was expecting a large buoy with flashing neon lights and a 'fish hotel ' sign , but the actual FAD is a tiny little buoy - hard to imagine that this is something that attracts bucketloads of fish, but apparently it does :? 









After a bit of rigging up and stuffing around, we lifted mine and GAtesy's yaks off the bow into the water and we boarded the yaks. It took a bit of teamwork to ensure that paddler, rods, gear etc all made it onboard safely but we all launched OK. As we'd only brought 3 yaks (one person had to stay on the mothership at all times), JT, Gatesy and Myself all launched first and proceeded to start fishing


















I had on a live yellowtail and was also tossing a soft plastic around when I heard an "I'm on!" from Gatesy. Woohoo! 

















A small kingfish was boated








not what we'd hoped for, but hey it was a fish and only 5 minutes into the trip!. Things were looking good!

We all trolled and cast sp's around for a while and all of a sudden we all started noticing how many bluebottles were in the water :shock: :shock: . I've never seen so many in all my life. THere were literally hundreds of them in the water. Every time we brought in our lines, the tentacles (some of them 20 feet long) would get tangled in the line and we'd have to unwrap them. They were stinging us all on the hands, even through my golf glove I was copping stings. Then I felt a stinging sensation on my foot and noticed that one had popped up through a scupper hole and was going to town on my ankle...









Yowchie yowchie!

THe morning conditions calmed off and the wind dropped. The swell was still there but the water took on that oily calmness that we'd hoped for










However the calming conditions started getting me thinking about what I'd had for dinner last night and how much I'd love to see it again :?  :shock:  So after burleying up for a while, I made my way back to the boat. I then learnt that while trying to reboard the mothership, Ken (peddling Gatesys Adventure) had been flipped out when the bow of the kayak went underneath the swim platform on the mothership. This resulted in Ken going for a flip and one of Gatesy's rods going for a swim in 150 metres of water   . This was chalked up as 'part of the learning process', but it was a bit of a bummer.

Before we left Gatesy's announced "stand clear boys, I'm about to blow chunks" - which left me cracking up, but true to his word, he is a man of action and followed up his comments with some serious hurling action, the technique of a man who's done this before!  









AFter that we tied the yaks to the back of the mothership and dragged them behind the boat back into the harbour.









We decided to keep on fishing for a while and chased a few schools of kingfish and mackeral around for a few hours, landing a couple, before returning back to the marina, washing up and parting ways.









A fantastic day out, and a new challenge overcome.! The only downside of the day was that the DolphinFish didn't co-operate. I found out last night that the water temps now back down to 19-20 degrees where earlier in the week it was 22-23, so the motto is now 'never trust the weatherman!"


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## Fishing Man (Oct 4, 2006)

great report guys,

those photos are unreal.


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## aleg75 (Dec 20, 2005)

WOW, what an epic! great read, did the fishing pick up once you guys left a trail of burley?

Was a shame that the dolphin fish didn't show, and I guess loosing $150 worth of gear didn't make it as fun as it could have been! yet a trip away like that would be great fun!


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## abitfishy (Sep 24, 2006)

I think a couple of guys forgot to drink Ginger Beer before going out.....


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## beefs (Jan 30, 2006)

Good work getting out there fellas - shame the fish didn't co-operate. Always going to be a learning experience though, the big fish are only a bit of experience away.



kraley said:


> Oh yeah - we were pretty restrained with the fuel so we 'only' burned about 130 litres for the outing. Geesh!


I reckon between the four of you each with paddles you could get Platypus up to 6 knots and save a whole load on fuel :wink: :lol:


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

What a great read and awesome pics, I especially enjoyed the chunk-blowing action shot :lol: Sounds like a seriously exciting prospect, chasing dollies from a yak, good luck on your next offshore adventure


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## kantong (Nov 5, 2006)

great report! what an epic indeed!
very nice shot of the "burley trail"!!! When I first read u wanted to fish the FAD, i was thinking these guys can't be that crazy to paddle all the way there!! too bad that dollies didnt wanna play!


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

Very fun!
So 9k from North Head? 
That would be quite a days paddle w/o much time at the destination.
So did you meter a lot of fish at the FAD?
I'm intrigued. We don't have FADs per se.


> all of a sudden we all started noticing how many bluebottles were in the water


Awesome. Just like a steeplechase; varied obstacles.


> Then I felt a stinging sensation on my foot and noticed that one had popped up through a scupper hole and was going to town on my ankle...


PEE ON IT!

Excellent report, and worth the price of admission.

Z

Edit: What's a dollie? Dolphinfish? Dorado? Mahi-mahi? Get'em!


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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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## Rod L (Aug 29, 2005)

Fantastic stuff guys, well done!
It's great to see people able to take further steps with kayak fishing and then share their learnings with the rest of us.
Maybe drop a line to the Big Water's Edge guys http://www.bigwatersedge.com/ for some tips on loading and unloading yaks off the mothership, they seem to do a bit of it.

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/movies/sci05_video.html


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## feel the sting (Aug 8, 2006)

Cunning plan indeed

Well done boys. It is good to see that adventurous spirit. I'd get back out there and trade the yakkas for slimies, the beakies are on.

Feel the sting


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## driftr (Sep 4, 2006)

awesome report guys, sounds like a great day.

Kraley that boat is awesome, what is it??

Blue bottles suck, i copped one over the face when i was spearing


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## Clarkos (Oct 11, 2006)

Great effort guys, and great report. Looks like you had it all to yourselves too.


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

ha ha ha ha ha , Davey , have been [email protected]#$g myself laughing at your report , fantastic mate , best tonic i have had for ages , good on ya guys, your out there doing it and really stretching the boundaries , i bet there was a lot of laughing going on ,THE FOUR CABALLEROS, i would love to read a report like that every week , GATSEY," stand back guys i am about to blow chunks"ha ha ha ha :lol: :lol: :lol: , i wouldnt mind betting the other guys were just about in tears when you made that announcement, Davey , if the nose of the kayak had of lifted on a wave and that blue bottle in the footwell had of slid down the cockpit towards the familys , waaahooo, :shock: :shock: i bet you woul have walked on water, fantastic , am still laughing, thanks guys, your great :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## wrasseman (Jul 28, 2006)

Great read. Sounds like you had the ideal plan there, pity the mahis didn't want to play but thats fishin. Would have been a great adventure anyway and now you've got an excuse to do it all again.
Cheers
Col.


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## Cid (Nov 14, 2005)

Great report guys and some brilliant photos, too. That one of Gatesy is a ripper! 

Bummer about the Dolphins not being around to play but it's been pretty sporadic lately. If you'd hit it on a good day, it would've been awesome!

cheers,
Cid


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Good onya guys. You'll be able to dine out on that one until you go back and catch some fish. Top effort


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## polylureosis (Jul 24, 2006)

Inspiring stuff guys.

great to hear of of few 'pushing the boundaries'.

Love to read the report from your next adventure.


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

One of the best reports I have had the pleasure of reading on this site since I became a member, this story had it all... Drama, adventure, action, suspense and some great action shots ( Even if they are of the sickest kind! ).

Very top class report and one I would expect to read in a magazine, wont be long till you can buy a 'Gatesy' style action man figure complete with Hobie Adventure and a swag full of Kingfish, they sure do make you out to be a man of epic proportions so I expect to be in awe at Barlings eh Micheal?

Well done again and nice boat Kraley!


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## JD (Jul 2, 2006)

Gives a new view into the mothership idea. I know it can be difficult to transfer from a tinnie to a larger boat, I guess it's all about practise. Good read, did the kayaks track ok behind the m/ship?


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

Yeah, the harbour was on fire after we got back in from 'vomit central' -aka the FAD.

We got amongst a school of kingies and I boated a 55cm model (Ken did you get that pic or what?) however there were so many fish busting up across the harbour that it was very frustrating - we'd throw all sorts of lures at them and could not get a hit!

Gatesy and I paddled around and around off Balmoral for at least an hour, with school mackeral going nuts all around us (I mean the entire bay was like a washing machine) but we could not tempt them.

The fact that Gatesy caught one doesn't say much for his fishing skills, but does say that he's got the uncanny knack of finding the blind/stupid/old and feeble members of the school that are so fed up with their fishy life that they decide to commit suicide :shock: :shock:

Regarding boarding/reboarding the boat- i found this quite easy, however this may have been that fact that I was the only paddler in the crew - I could just come in alongside, steer sideways or backwards to adjust and then reach out, grab hold and jump on. The Hobie crew, were restricted to forward movement only and needed a bit more assistance from those on deck. However overall, it was quite easy.

regarding towing the yaks behind the boat, this was also quite easy (once I remembered to tie the knot tightly -the yak came loose once!  ) but they did have to be trolled slowly. At one stage ken sped up and the yaks started launching off the wake and getting air, flying sideways etc. Michaels yak had a LOT of water pushing up through the mirage drive hole, and as he mentioned the front handles were taking a pounding from the towing ropes pulling hard every 5 seconds or so. Another few knots in speed would have not been good.

Anyway, the yaks survived, we survived and we all had a great time... 

I think JT also got some photos which he'll add soon.


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## Cuda (Sep 18, 2006)

Well done fellas, boldly going where no yakker has gone before :lol: These things take a little perfecting and we all look forward to a cracking trip report next time with plenty of "El Dorados" in the pics  
If you luck out again at least we can look forward to Gatesy providing some entertainment


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

Great work guys. This trip has been in the pipeline for ages so great to hear it has finally been done. And done in such great style! After all that "burleying", I wouldn't eat fish from there for at six months.

Scotty Beefs said ya could save the 130 litres of fuel by paddling. That is smart thinking but Gatesy, being the keen accounting economist that he is probably calculated that if they all paddled the Platypus the 9 km, they would have saved 130 litres of fuel but needed 546 litres of beer to recuperate, thus being no saving at all.


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Great effort guys. Land looks a lot closer than I thought it would from that far out. Which seasickness pills do you guys take (so I can avoid them)?


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## troppo (Feb 1, 2006)

paffoh said:


> wont be long till you can buy a 'Gatesy' style action man figure complete with Hobie Adventure and a swag full of Kingfish!


And with AKFF branding. Nothing like getting into the merchandising. And of course, it would not be a commercial thing, just a not-for-profit exercise that would help destitute yak fishos, like all of us on this forum, to spend a little more healing time with their favourite pastime.


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

Would a shock cord assist the issue of towing them (it)?
Something with a little stretch.

Z


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## JT (May 25, 2006)

It was an awesome trip. All new and there was a great sense of anticipation the whole time as we experimented with a bunch of stuff. "allright, we have succesfully gotten off the mothership now I wonder if we will be able to get back on"? The sense of something completely new and adventurous made me feel like a kid again. I suspect I wasn't alone.

The swell was such that the back of the marlin board on Platypus rose and fell by almost a meter at times. It was actually suprisingly pretty straightforward. Thanks in large part to Kraley's focus on communication and safety. In saying that a lot could have gone really very wrong if real caution hadn't been taken.

I was suprised at how close Sydney still looked from all the way out there (see pic). The closest we came to any Dolphin fish was a splash and the flash of a greenish/brownish tail directly under a clump of floating seaweed (could actually have been anything).

It was an awesome feeling to be so far out in such deep water. A real adventure and a lot of fun despite the general lack of things fishy. It was frustrating to see frigate mackeral after mack following the soft plastics in all the way to boat without actually hitting them. That's fishing I guess (well it was for me :roll: ).

All up a great adventure with some new territory covered with a bunch of great guys. A big thanks to Ken for making his magnificent cruiser available. Here's a few more pics of the trip.

Ken...I had the same thought on Gatesy as I watched him race full speed 200 meters across to another bust up on the surface. "Damn that man is focused on catching fish" I thought  .

Can't wait for next time.

JT


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

What a great trip fellas, good to see it came to fruition at last, and hope to read of a rerun soon

Gatesy next time berley early in the piece as it definately brings the fish on :lol:



> Probably shouldn't have been towing them at all in a seaway - but a shockcord could help. Could also have just let more line out to mitigate the effect of the kayak and boat being on different sets of waves.


Ken we have used the big O rings used in connecting sewerage pipes etc in the line as shock absorbers but attach the rope on both sides of the O ring with a big loop in the line so you are still attached if the rubber breaks.

Also suggest let out more line so the boats are on the back of the pressure wave in your wash, with any pace we would tie off on the rear of the second one.

Another idea comes to mind re the mirage holes, if going to be a regular tow, why not make up a sailcloth/canvas condom from the yak bow to a point past the mirage holes area, it wouldn't have to be a snug fit as water pressure would mould it to the yak and I think that would perhaps work like the old fashioned fothering canvas applied to big hull damage


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## onemorecast (Apr 17, 2006)

Well done lads.

If I was along I am sure I could have contributed even more to the Burley trail.

And yes 9 kilometers out doesn't look as far as I thought it would.


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

guys , i am still blown away by your adventure , what silent achievers, i am going to re read the posts tonight as i think it was an amazing thing to do , and i really admire your guts and determination, and , no wonder you guys "parked the tiger " out there , was a bit sloppy , and those swells would look big that far out on a kayak.


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## DGax65 (Jun 7, 2006)

Fantastic report, guys. Looks like you had some nice yakking conditions out there. Too bad the fish didn't get the notice to meet you out there. Catching some dolphin/mahi mahi/dorado from a yak would be quite the treat. Keep plugging away at it. I'm sure you're going to get out there someday soon and find a cooperative school. 
Those are some beautiful photographs as well. They give you that "my boat is so small and the sea is so great" feel. Don't you love a good swell when you're offshore? 
Are the FADS 9km from the closest spot to launch, or are they 9km from land? Those cliffs don't look very kayak-friendly. Is there anyplace to launch that is within paddling distance? 
Looking forward to the report from your next offshore excursion.


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## PoddyMullet (Aug 29, 2005)

Fadtastic...amazing those things attract fish. What an adventure (the mission not the yak), I'm glad we don't get the bluebottles down here, although that's "yet" given climate change. Top notch


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## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

Candy bars?








That's not nice.

PS that's our #1 lure for yellowtail (kingfish). Drop to the bottom and rip it back.

Great report, did I say that?

Z


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## Pommy Matt (Dec 11, 2006)

Hey Ken,
sounds like a great trip - unlucky with the dollies it sounds as if you did everything right. I got a first hand report of dollies on the government FAD out of Pittwater last week - I hope to get out one morning this week from a boat and confirm  
matt


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## Daveyak (Oct 6, 2005)

Great stuff you blokes! Whoever took that pic of Gatesy burleying (DaveyG or Kraley) should enter it in the fishing comp, definitely the catch of the month! Look forward to future reports of such trips.


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## Salty Dog (Sep 18, 2005)

Oh dear Gatesy, not again mate! :roll:  :lol:


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## beefs (Jan 30, 2006)

Just catching up on this post RE towing the yaks. I've towed a few around before and so far the Swing hasn't given me any issues - we've towed it behind a tinnie with a 20hp on it and had it on the plane, the yak tracked straight and true and seemed to "plane" also.

Had it behind a tinnie with a 115 and it also faired alright however at the same time my brothers Hobie Quest? (one without mirage drive) was an absolute pig to tow...he was holding the rope towing it and I thought he was being a sook saying how hard it was to hold...I helped him and he wasn't lying! Like towing an open 44 gallon drum. Something about its hull shape just didn't like being towed, not to mention it didn't track straight.

The secret we found was to have plenty of rope out so it wasn't affected by the wake and don't be afraid to give it some speed.


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