# Clovelly, NSW - Sun 2nd December. Rat heaven



## Gordon (Oct 14, 2007)

Just got back from a nice morning at clovelly. I'm terrible with names so I wont try and name everyone that was there!

Rocked up at 4:45, Rock monster was not what I expected. I found it pretty easy on the way out and in. I think it looks scarier than what it is, im sure it can be bad though!! The weather was fantastic, didnt notice any wind and no rain.

I picked up one 63cm rat on the way out. Then all I could manage were 3 bust-offs and a half-eaten mojo  I suppose it beats nothing at all though. I managed to stay in my kayak this time and keep all my gear 

Dave had a blinder of a day including a nice port jackson pictured below. But i'll leave it for him to explain. Unfortunately no one found a legal kingie all morning.

Big thanks to the guys who provided us newbies with some great advice. Much appreciated. Hope to see you all out there maybe later in the week or next weekend.

Cheers

Gordon


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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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## tugboat (Nov 15, 2006)

Rat heaven with a few bigger ones thrown in....

Managed to boat 3 fish all between 50 and 63cm, 1 non target species (rock cod) and a large squid!

The rock monster was fast asleep today you could walk out leisurely and take your time paddling out and in 

Got smoked and reefed twice today on much bigger fish ...lost 2 jigs   

memorable moment was when I decided to head back in and thought I'd troll a hard body. The lure wasn't swimming well so I thought wind it in and have to retie the knot as the knot must have slipped down onto the eye of the lure.
I'm winding the lure back in across the surface of the water on it's side and as it reaches the yak lift the lure up out of the water... next thing a kingie launches itself clear of the water and slams the lure down..... :shock: :shock: :shock: 
Lucky it wasn't a big kingie <---never thought I would ever say this... as the line looped over the tip of my rod... I managed to rotate the rod to get rid of the loop and land the fish with no broken rod  .


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Rats indeed.

I got down to the carpark at 0200 in my best g-string (made of S&P mojos), - do you think that rat JT turned up? I fomented gently until around 0445 when the rest of our motley crew turned up, from memory (sorry if I missed anyone), Wigg, Pysgodwyr, Fred, Tugboat, greyburn, Keza, Timax & Parky(?) and we went to do man's work. Easily out, and we spread out around the island. Wigg was first on, and there was sporadic action through the morning. Only a couple of reports of surface activity, most of what fish there were were down deeper. I found the best tactic again was the jerking troll, and landed 4 rats over the morning doing this (one immediately after Lloyd suggested a little more action would be satisfactory). One more rat came from my battered Cultiva jig.

Lateish we headed out to deeper water, and the secret weapon was deployed for 2 cuttles in 2 drops. The first one was huge, squirting great jets of water in a cranky fashion but I lost him yakside after a fine display of resistance. The second was smaller, but met with freedom also. I'd have released them anyway (probably :twisted. Got a fine leathery as well (about 40cm), but decided one leatherjacket does not a feast make, so sent him back too. I had a squid tentacle (thanks Trevor) on a jighead, and felt a rough take then a heavy mobile weight on it, after some tug of war a port jackson shark came up (around 115cm). Not that keen on PJ sashimi, so a quick photo op & off he went. A couple of red rock cod (tiny, or I would have kept them, yum) rounded out a day of mixed species. 5 rat kings, 2 cuttles (yep, I'm counting them as mine), a LJ, 2 rock cod & an XOS PJ. Nice to see some new faces, sorry about your early departure Fred.

Easy exit, and a post mortem in the carpark, then home for a nanna-nap.


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

Well done fellas - glad to see that most of you seem to get into the fish !!! Got to say old SBD is diversifying his catch of late and no doubt this will reflect his evening menu!!!

Keep it up - got to get the big one!!!

Woppie


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## fisherdan (Apr 17, 2007)

Nice shots Dave, sorry you didn't do so well this time guys, I think it's our turn up north now!!


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## Parky (Dec 16, 2006)

Hi Guys,

It was good to meet up with you this morning, being a Clovelly virgin I didn't know what to expect but the Rock Monster was kind to me on entry and exit.

No Kingies for me today, only a rock cod on a jig, a few bites on some prawns and a soft plastic bitten in half, though I did enjoy it - Until...... Fred said his goodbyes due to feeling a bit sick, 30 mins later I was not the best myself so started to head back in. I would have blown chunks if there were any to blow.  Luckily I managed to stayed in the Yak as I was heaving away like a cat hurling a fur ball. I spotted Lloyd on the way back in so I followed him in for an uneventful landing.

I'll give it a go again maybe next week as I finish work for a month on Friday. I will be in Vietnam (Saigon) for three weeks after that. Does anyone know if there is any yak fishing over there :?:

Cheers

Rob


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Parky said:


> I will be in Vietnam (Saigon) for three weeks after that. Does anyone know if there is any yak fishing over there :?:


Rob, not Saigon, but if you can get up to Ha Long Bay (a world heritage area near Hanoi), there are kayaking tours that are based out of mother junks, aimed at the Western tourist. I'm sure they're not set up for fishing but I'm also sure you could work something out. They have a fish there that is very similar to bream so it might be worth trying bream techniques. I haven't done this, but have wanted to ever since visiting Hanoi


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

not much to add to the report as for me not much happened.
my only contact with a king was ended when the hook pulled  
otherwise i the smallest red rod cod i have seen, followed by the smallest sergeant baker i have seen :? the SB was hooked through the top of the head with the point aiming straight down, i can't for the life if me see how that happened, basically the hook had stabbed him in the brain. Luckily they don't use it much and it managed to swim off.
saw one boil for all of 10 seconds and that was it.
it was a bit bumpy out there so i could see how a few tums could be upset, take the drugs i say 

next time


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## Gordon (Oct 14, 2007)

> since the last one was so large, it pulled ya out of the yak.


Thats the excuse ive been telling people!


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## avayak (May 23, 2007)

tugboat said:


> memorable moment was when I decided to head back in and thought I'd troll a hard body. The lure wasn't swimming well so I thought wind it in and have to retie the knot as the knot must have slipped down onto the eye of the lure.
> I'm winding the lure back in across the surface of the water on it's side and as it reaches the yak lift the lure up out of the water... next thing a kingie launches itself clear of the water and slams the lure down..... :shock: :shock: :shock:
> Lucky it wasn't a big kingie <---never thought I would ever say this... as the line looped over the tip of my rod... I managed to rotate the rod to get rid of the loop and land the fish with no broken rod  .


Hi Tugboat,
so much for the importance of lure presentation. Maybe its a sign that poppers might be worth a thrash using your skip retrieve?


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## Crikey (Oct 30, 2005)

Even after being mentioned in dispatches for complaining about the lack of action I had a pretty good day of it and broke the kingey drouhgt for this end of the year. I got a 60cm fish on a trollcraft deep diver given that I took him on the 12kg kit with 40lb braid I am not sure that the 8kg outfit and 20lb braid would be up to the task without suffering a lot of reefing.

Just after getting the fish the mirage drive started to make a ticking sound, I had a look at it and couldnt spot anything obviously wrong so decided to head in rather than risk the paddle home. This is the first time there has been any sort of problem with the drive in 100's of hours of use. I had to compare it to Rob's to see what the problem was -poor maintenance practices - bad show given my background. The grub screw that holds the idler pulley shaft in place had backed out and the shaft had disengaged from the trailing side bush. Lucky to get home. All fasteners on the drive have been snugged up this morning. No complaints about the drive if anything having a problem at this time is a testament to its construction given the lack of attention it has been given over the last 2 years.

I want to get out from Cloey a few more times this week if possible PM me if you are considering it.


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## Dave73 (Dec 3, 2006)

SBD, what are you doing getting there at 0200? :shock: 
I hope you got some squid or something at that time for your efforts. Not much of a moon around either, it's interesting bobbing around out there alone in the darkness!!

Dave


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

So Lloyd - tangerines are your secret weapon of choice :lol: :lol:


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

Dave73 said:


> SBD, what are you doing getting there at 0200? :shock:
> I hope you got some squid or something at that time for your efforts. Not much of a moon around either, it's interesting bobbing around out there alone in the darkness!!
> 
> Dave


he was there at 2am because he was on his way back from the long reef trip the day before  (after which be found he no longer had a home to go to).

i noticed there was a police car cruising around, he had probably been told that there were a bunch of cars in the car park, in the dark with there boots open and they were exchanging small packets of stuff going by the name of soft plastics or salt and pepper rumoured to increase your mojo levels.
obviously the new ice 

do they do mojos in ice ??


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## fiery44 (Sep 10, 2007)

hey guys . had a good two hours fishing before i wanted to chunder , caught one smallish trevally and put him back , got back to the so called boat ramp and was a bit worried cause at the time i just wanted to get on dry land so wasnt too careful but every thing went well and got back in safely . gonna take me drugs next time, cause i'm not giving up till i get myself a kingy dont care if its a small one, i don't like being a kingy virgin . see ya next time

Fred


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## tugboat (Nov 15, 2006)

fiery44 said:


> hey guys . had a good two hours fishing before i wanted to chunder , caught one smallish trevally and put him back , got back to the so called boat ramp and was a bit worried cause at the time i just wanted to get on dry land so wasnt too careful but every thing went well and got back in safely . gonna take me drugs next time, cause i'm not giving up till i get myself a kingy dont care if its a small one, i don't like being a kingy virgin . see ya next time
> 
> Fred


Fred watch out once you get hooked on Kingies there is no going back, they are worse than drugs.... they make you want to upgrade your fishing gear


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Lloyd, glad you got on to a fish mate. I've seen it much more hectic fishwise than that, but goodness knows which variable controls when. 
Despite being of a somewhat lackadaisical nature, I've learnt to make sure my drive is in good nick (my kayak smells though). 
I'm interested in a trip Thursday or Friday.

Dave, I was lost on a flight of fancy, I got there at 0445 :wink:

Fred, persist and you will get a king at Clovelly. Were you fishing bait or lures? 
I used to use Travacalm (blue multi active), but I've acclimatised and don't take anything now. 
Re the rock monster, there's a lot to be said for a calculated entry. It was very mild on Sunday, but even that can get you.


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## Parky (Dec 16, 2006)

Peril said:


> Parky said:
> 
> 
> > I will be in Vietnam (Saigon) for three weeks after that. Does anyone know if there is any yak fishing over there :?:
> ...


Hi Peril, unfortunately we won't be going up to Ha Long Bay this trip. My partner is from Vietnam and has a sister living in Hanoi, so next trip over I'll have to suss out the fishing up North some other time.

Cheers

Rob


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