# TAS - Northwest Bay Cracken



## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Well it's the first time my yak has been in the water in 6 months. 

But what an excellent day it was, I met up with James (jimmy34) at the Margate Boat Ramp at 7:00. Loaded up the yaks and waited till about 7:30 just incase anyone else turned up. Before I left home I had checked the current temperature, 22 degrees at 7:00 am in Hobart? This was going to be one hot day. :shock:









The conditions were perfect, no wind, high tide due to start running out in an hour and mirror flat water. The pressure was on though, this was my home turf and I had to deliver some fish for James. We pretty much followed the shoreline south stopping off in a number of bays and jetties along the way. We were both scoring small Flathead regularly, mostly just under size. One on the small shallow bays we peddled through had a sandy bottom and the water was so clear you could see everything on the bottom, including the odd coin sitting on the sand.  The highlight of this bay for me however was watching the large Stingrays gracefully gliding along the bottom, I could sit and watch them for hours, but my first keeper Flathead broke that spell.










We peddled by what passes for the Margate Marina and off in the distance I spied a few Salmon Rings sitting just off the Snug area, here was our target destination 8) . After drifting about here for 15 minutes we had both consistently scored various sized Flathead, some keepers but mostly just under size. When James discovered a Squid had attached itself to his SP, a quick call from him and we were both deploying the Squid Jigs.










With instant success, we both hooked up at once, now I had only caught small Squid before, but what I hauled in was a Cracken in comparison, measuring 640 mm from hood tip to end of tentacles. I had never caught a Squid in the Yak before and after reading so many stories here about getting inked I thought I would make sure he had disposed of his ink before hauling him on board. Well all I can say is a Squid that size has a bucket load of ink, it took about 5 minutes before he was done trying to squirt me. In that time James had already landed two other Squid and a couple more Flathead.










By now the temperature was really rising (once I got back to the car they said it was 32 degrees in Hobart) and I had promised Mrs. Blaen I would be back by 12:30. So we started back stopping a few more times to unhook nuisance undersize Flatties, oh and put another 2 keepers in the well for me :lol:

We hit the boat ramp again at 12:00 and had the Yaks loaded and we were away by 12:15. Living only 800 metres from the boat ramp I was home by 12:17 and had scored brownie point for being home early 8) with dinner in the bag:


----------



## waldo (Aug 19, 2007)

nice work blaen. The great thing about coming home with a feed is that you'll be encouraged to go time and time again.


----------



## CeltA (Dec 27, 2007)

Very nice report mate. That is a biggen squid & some nice flatties too, good onya.........wish i lived that close to a ramp


----------



## Baldy (Oct 1, 2007)

Nice solid squid that one, bait and a feed.....perfect 

Sorry I was a no show mate, I spent around 11hrs out on friday and stupidly decided to put my shorts on for the last couple....big mistake, my lilly whites got roasted :shock: :lol: Only 2 Bream to show for it, biggest 36 so I didnt worry about a report. I should have pulled up stumps earlier like I had planned but once out there I find it hard to go back  

Catch ya on the next one !!

Cheers
Baldy


----------



## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Baldy said:


> Only 2 Bream to show for it, biggest 36 so I didnt worry about a report.


Spoiled bastard


----------



## Baldy (Oct 1, 2007)

Peril said:


> Baldy said:
> 
> 
> > Only 2 Bream to show for it, biggest 36 so I didnt worry about a report.
> ...


 :lol: :lol: Thanks mate :lol: :lol: I think thats the first time anyone has said that to me 8) :lol: 
Someone might be able to tell ya why but all i know is the smallest Bream ive seen caught in the Derwent is a 22 and anything below 25 is rare...

If it makes ya feel any better once you know their lifespans, you would have to have rocks in your head to eat them, given the rivers history 

Given the amount of km's I paddled and the fact I was targeting Trout!! ..I didnt feel spoilt at the end of the day :lol: Lucky is was such a nice day...apart from the jetskis and ski boats :?



















There ya go mate !!

Blaen you can blame Peril for the highjack 8) :lol: :lol:

Cheers
Baldy


----------



## 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.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWeUokusAAAtXgAAQYAEAkBCAPm2+oCAASGqeaoGNI00eo2oNTQAAABSoYysbcXNwVCL4s50RI6g1oHbNg4Pfz4ylGNNSHEFkOxNnoi1IqRvEPi7kinChIcpRJdY=


----------



## Duane (Oct 20, 2007)

Sorry i missed the trip, but was away. Keep me informed of future ones though. My schedule is very last minute at the moment so don't plan anything around me, but will be great to tag along if I'm free.


----------



## chiefshaka (Jan 29, 2007)

Good job John 8) What are you up to next Saturday as the SFT guys are having a trout fishing expedition to Arthurs for the weekend and at the moment there are 5 yaks going with only 4 boats, seems like the yakkers are starting to take over in Tasie 8) 8)


----------



## vertigrator (Jul 25, 2006)

Top feed there fellas. 

It would be good to see you guys up at Arthurs. I am one of those other yakkers who's heading up.  We could have a yakkers v's boaters comp. :lol:

After I stained my yak with the first squid, it's been no turning back. They're such a great feed, specially when eaten fresh and I reckon all the ink splatters just add character to the yak. 

Cheers
Vert


----------



## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

chiefshaka said:


> Good job John 8) What are you up to next Saturday as the SFT guys are having a trout fishing expedition to Arthurs for the weekend and at the moment there are 5 yaks going with only 4 boats, seems like the yakkers are starting to take over in Tasie 8) 8)


Hey Chief, no can do this Saturday unfortunately, would love to but family commitments call.



Duane said:


> Sorry i missed the trip, but was away. Keep me informed of future ones though. My schedule is very last minute at the moment so don't plan anything around me, but will be great to tag along if I'm free.


No worries Duane will post here and TXT you for future trips.



Baldy said:


> Sorry I was a no show mate, I spent around 11hrs out on friday and stupidly decided to put my shorts on for the last couple....big mistake, my lilly whites got roasted :shock: :lol: Only 2 Bream to show for it, biggest 36 so I didnt worry about a report. I should have pulled up stumps earlier like I had planned but once out there I find it hard to go back


No worries Baldy sounds painful, shame you only got small'ish Bream a nice 50 cm fella would have made the sunburn well worth it 8)


----------

