# VANUATU: 12/4 First awesome yakking experience



## duff (Apr 25, 2013)

Hi Guys

Should probably start off with an introduction, I'm Josh from brisbane, Boondall to be specific, and my local fishing ground is the kedron brook and jacksons creek behind the airport, been fishing down there for a few years in a stinky and started getting sick of constantly having to launch and retieve a 14ft boat by myself for such a small piece of creek. so the consideration of a yak has been on the cards for a while.

Anyway so on with the story. i recently honeymooned in vanuatu and the water there is amazing and full of fish, and every resort has little 3 metre cheapie yaks that you can use to go out in for a bit of a paddle. so one day i'm having a quiet beer on the beach when one of the locals points out to the water and says "see that dark blue part 50 metres out. that drops into 200m and theres tuna and mahi mahi galore out there!" well that was it for me. back to the room i went to pull out the trusty engel shimano telescopic that i had packed.

now seriously lets stop and think about this. were talking about a telescopic rod thats not really rated for any serious weight fish, that i threw my trusty 2500 shimano slade bass reel on which is loaded with 6lb braid. the only sensible part of the combo was the 20lb fluro leader i chucked on in the hopes that i might boat something. but i am about to set off paddling my first yak into the deep (200m of it) with no life jacket in an unknown country. yep you may have realised by know i am fishing mad, totally addicted!

so I launch from the beach about 2:30pm and set off paddling through the crystal clear stuff watching cheeky little soldier crabs darting about below me. its not long before the water starts to darken and i decide nows a good time to throw the 20g shad coloured jackall transam out behind me and see whats lurking deep below. a yacht is anchored just after the drop off and marks a good point to paddle around in the search for a fish.

just as i paddle past the yacht enjoying the beautiful scenery the shimano wakes up with a quick "zing ziiiing" i stop suddenly and turn to see the rod buckled over. i jump on the rod and strike! "slack line... wtf??" must have snagged some reef. i paddle out a bit further and start chucking the elastic mullet imitation around with varying retrieves for no luck.

its crazy hot with the sun high in the sky so i decide i need to head in and get a hat. start paddling back past the yacht (which in hindsight obviously marked the begin of the 200m dropoff and where the predators swarm) and before i knew what was going on "ZIIIIING ZING ZING ZIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!" man thats not reef this time! the heartrate triples and i spin to see the little engel that could buckled over in half at its breaking point. i jump onto the rod and theres no strike required, this beast has lunched the jackall and nows its a matter of praying for a miracle!

the fight starts off relatively easy sfter the first run. mr cusious comes staright for me and i'm gaining plenty of line back. but no sooner does he relaise he 's hooked and bam he's off like a shot, line starts screaming off the reel and i just let him run "god luckyi set the drag properly or that would have been a certain bust off!" we play around like this for nearly 20 minutes i gain 20m he takes 40m. i start freaking out about either being reefed or spooled. i just dont have the stopping power to bring this beast to the surface.

then i think back to watching arno bay snapper being caught on 1000 reels on youtube and big trevors on bream gear on AFN dvd's. i start picturing what the hosts did on the dvd's. its all in the rod angle, 90 degrees to the fish, your rod is the best shock absorber youv'e got. i keep replaying the segment over and over and i know its working, 20 more minutes later the big boys getting tired and i'm gaining line. then i see it, what looks like a massive tuna, but its too skinny.

i get it yakside and and its totally buggered just floating along side ways, my hearts in my throat because its not over yet. i pop the rear storgae hatch and swing the fish towards the back. his tail swings round and bang, ive got him. he gives a helluva kick but i wrestle him in to the back and shut the hatch. i lean back and give out the biggest YAHOOOOOO! then i look up and realise ive been towed 50m out past the yacht. wow what a fish! i paddle back in absolutely stuffed with a smile form ear to ear!

turns out the fish is a rainbow runner at roughly 75cm and they are closely related to amberjacks hence why it fought like a pig! and as soon as i got home i sold the stinky and bought a seak swift. definately converted to kayak fishing now


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## tonieventer (Jul 27, 2009)

So the addiction begins 
Sounds like a magical place to holiday and fish.


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## WhipperSnapper (Jun 2, 2012)

Nice fish! welcome to kayak fishing  your here for life now ! :lol:


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## duff (Apr 25, 2013)

yeah it was magical, had such a great time. its so close to brisbane as well. thanks for the comments guys


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## Salty Dog (Sep 18, 2005)

Hey Duff,

Great fish on light gear.

Which part of Vanuatu were you in? I've only been to the island that has Port Villa. All the locals told me that the other islands were nicer though.


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## AdrianK (May 30, 2006)

duff said:


> the little engel that could


Nice phrase! :lol:


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## gcfisho (Oct 31, 2009)

Great story and i can relate to taking the telescopic on holidays, much to the wifes disgust!


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## duff (Apr 25, 2013)

Salty Dog said:


> Hey Duff,
> 
> Great fish on light gear.
> 
> Which part of Vanuatu were you in? I've only been to the island that has Port Villa. All the locals told me that the other islands were nicer though.


thanks salty, i was staying on the biggest island, Santo. its much quieter and just so relaxing!



salticrak said:


> Jolly good show, and a good report first up.


thanks salticrak, I really love reading all the reports so I thought i should make a contribution ;-)



AdrianK said:


> duff said:
> 
> 
> > the little engel that could
> ...


cheers Adrian, it was truly amazing what a pull out rod can actually do, i was impressed!



gcfisho said:


> Great story and i can relate to taking the telescopic on holidays, much to the wifes disgust!


haha may I remind it you gcfisho it was a HONEYMOON! she was pretty annoyed when she saw it in my bag but luckily we were already there lol. all was forgiven when i caught the fish!


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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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## duff (Apr 25, 2013)

RedPhoenix said:


> Nice! The rainbow runners put up a bloody good fight by the looks of things.
> Good effort on light gear.
> 
> Red.


ta red, yeah mate it was pretty intense and according to youtube i'm not alone. most who have tangled with them take a while to boat them.

cheers josh


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## bunsen (Jan 2, 2009)

awesome!


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## gcfisho (Oct 31, 2009)

Honeymoon!That should be worthy of some sort of prize ( or at least the start of a thread ) , love your work.


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## eagle4031 (Jan 29, 2010)

Welcome Duff 
Great story ,, keep them coming


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## duff (Apr 25, 2013)

haha cheers for all the comments guys, yeah I will definately keep the reports coming once i get the yak sorted, just mounting some rod holders and the usual bits and pieces on it as we speak. hopefully take it for its maiden voyage this weekend and i happen to know a nice metre plus shovelnose lurks down at nudgee but i had an unfair advantage in an anchored stinky. i'm sure he'd love round two with me in a kayak :twisted: :shock:


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