# The Challenge - Results, Woy Woy vs Wallis Lakes



## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Is that a child's hand holding that teensy bream? 

Alas, Sir, I must concede you had the better of us today. Seven anglers faced the challenge at Woy Woy - MangoX (Steve), Crowdy (Dennis), RobbieAUS (Rob), rawprawn (Greg), Stevo (that'd be Steve) and Paul.

The day for me started as well as it continued. I arrived early to meet MangoX setting up. Setup (gee its so easy without the motor) and was itching to see how P2 performed so took her out for a spin. After being a little unsettled at the start I got really comfortable and was cruising along. Don't know how I shifted by weight, but I clearly did because she listed right and ejected me. How embarrasing. Fortunately Gatesy was not there to take a photo that could haunt me for the rest of my days.

Anyhow, we hit the water, eventually all meeting up around Pelican Is. Attempted to fish some enclosed flats but the water was too shallow. One striking feature of the whole place was that all the weed was covered with an algae. It didn't look good. It was very hard to find any fish. There were some fry around and some juvenile bream were spotted.

Crossed the channel for fish near the roadway then under the bridge to try the flats on the other side. Again no good.

Crowdy suggested the flats at the northern end of Pelican Is so we all went over there, among disused oyster leases. More fish were evident but they weren't agressive. Paul got a hit but no hookup and Rob got an undersized chopper - the only fish of the day! I spotted a large whiting (would have given the Wallis Lake fish a run for its money) and cast my bubblepop past it. Three times the fish smashed the lure without hooking up. At least it showed some interest.

We then crossed Paddy's Channel to get away from the rising Nor Easter. No more action. I got a couple of follows but no hits. Crowdy headed in early for family duties and rawprawn, stevo and Paul kept going as they were close to home/cars.

MangoX, Rob and myself headed back to the meeting spot and had a bit of a chat before those guys headed out for a spot of unrestricted fishing and I headed home.

Good thing about the day, apart from the company and a guided tour of the local spots from Dennis and Steve, was the yak. She exceeded my expectations. My early ejection was not repeated and she was easy to paddle and quicker than the P13. I was very surprised by the responsiveness of the rudder, and the ease of use of the pedals. I also adjusted to the new paddle quickly and found it far superior to the standard viking paddle I had had.

A couple of negatives with the yak. The centre hatch is raised above the seat and presses on your thighs. Might try raising the seat a little once I'm sure I won't tip myself again. The other problem was that the bolts holding the pedals and the rudder came loose. The pedals were OK but I wasn't aware of the rudder bolts until I got home and the bolts were missing, with the rudder swinging free! :x Have fixed new ones nice and firmly, with some plastic washers so this shouldn't be repeated.

Other problem I had today was with the fireline on my Stradic 1000, which was used with the bubblepop. The stiffness of the fireline meant I was constantly getting loose line and ended up cutting off knots three times. For this really light work I need to find an alternative to fireline - it is just too stiff when new. Had similar problems with another lure, also with newish fireline. Other reel was fine but the fireline is no longer new or stiff.

Finally, I gave the Kinami lures I purchased as few weeks ago a run. These are quite large but have very impressive actions and cast a long way. I'll give them another outing when conditions are more favourable (no algae and warmer water).

To the Wally Lakers, congratulations, you clearly were the better team today. However, we shall meet again and join battle with a very different result


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## yaker (Aug 29, 2005)

.


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## YakAtak (Mar 13, 2006)

I reckon this is a great idea, love to see more events like this.


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

yaker said:


> Peril, how long before we see piccies of the new ride in the Rigged Kayaks pages?


At the moment she's just standard. Steve took some photos today. I'll post some more after I've pimped her a bit



YakAtak said:


> I reckon this is a great idea, love to see more events like this.


Matt and I discussed this. The plan is to make the next one an invitational, so teams around the country can join in. Looking for ideas. A snapper hunt is one. Freshwater fishing could be another. Would like to try surface lures again when it warms up.

Any of us can initiate one of these events.


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## MangoX (Feb 18, 2006)

alas defeat has come 

not once but twice !! :x

as Peril said, not much action....beautiful waterways...top day and company...but how bout that weed :!: :?: 
algae everywhere..

the day started with a  as I heard a splash behind me and saw Dave in the drink ! The mighty P2 had bucked the cowboy as is to be expected by such an untamed beast...

The highlight of the day for me was after our defeat and the boys headed home.
After a quick bite back at the boat ramp, where all boats coming back had bucket loads of trevs, decided to swap my pink grub and un-touched poppers for some serious SX-40 action. I rigged on rod with a Jackall Chubby which dives deep to around 10ft.
Just around the corner from where we launched, in amongst the moored boats, my fishfinder was going crazy with all the fish marked :!: 
So much so I had to turn off the fish id alarm.. :roll:

All of a sudden.... BANG !! my lightest rod goes of with the deep diving Chubby. A serious bend in the rod had my heart jumping :lol: 
Could not get any line back as I fought the fish with no ground gained for about 5 min. All the boats passing stopped to have a look. "You got something big there" they yelled as I struggled to hold on to the rod. "The lines got a lot of weed on it" I said as I wanted them to keep moving. It was flattering but it made me more nervous. After about 20 mins, I managed to real him in. :shock: :shock: :shock: My jaw dropped as I saw a MONSTER flathead. As soon as he saw the yak, he took off again, taking about 100 m of line. I prayed my backing to fireline joint held fast..
A old couple in a tiny stopped a few mts from me as my rod dipped almost under my yak...As I brought him to the yak for the 5th time, the lady started screaming "oh my God, that's huge !!" only drawing more unwanted attention. "You need a hand?" asked the bloke almost on top of me. "Have you got a net ?" I murmured..
I realised I wasn't going to land this fish after I put my Berkley lip gripper close to the fish's head, only to make it look like a tooth pick next to it. It was well over 1m. I reckon 1.2 at least. I tried getting my camera out of the hatch. Every time I raised the fish close to the yak it took off. I tried grabbing the leader a few times, but it took off, burning my hand. As I grabbed the leader again, with camera in left hand, the fish shook violently busting me off. :? :evil: :evil: 
[email protected]#K!!! it was gone. Never seen such a beast. Couple of on-lookers estimated it around the 8kg mark. Not to sure but it was massive. They enquired on my outfit and laughed when I said - 4lb fireline and 4lb fc leader.
2 lessons learned : (1)don't put your most expensive lure ($22.50) on your cheapest, lightest and shortest gear. (2)buy a net !!! :roll:

Monster fish 1 - Steve 0

(I shall have my revenge one day)


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## MangoX (Feb 18, 2006)

some pics


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Enjoyed reading the various reports, and good to hear the concept was well attended.

Dave imagine P2 felt quite flighty after the outings in the past on Peril, and if she gave you a flick it may be out of her system now :lol: ..looks good in the pic

Bad luck on dropping the horse lizard Steve, at least you know where it lives now, for a rerun of the battle :wink:


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Steve, a reason to return to Woy Woy eh. Bad luck on the lizard but at least you had some excitement.


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## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Great report guys, after reading the preparation thread I have long been waiting to see the end report.

This was a great idea and a great outcome, well done to all involved. I hope we see more of this sort of event soon.


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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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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

a big congrats to the wallis lakers and tryhard for his exceptional sledging work! looks like it paid off! cletus must be very proud..... also well done to all the guys on both teams who took part. I enjoyed reading about the 'challenge' and also hearing about the results.

shame nobody was handy with the camera when you went for a dunk Dave, would have been something that I'm sure would have popped up often on the site - a'la Rawprawns dunk shot!

When you mentioned that you flipped your new yak I immediately thought "oh' no, not another toyboy episode!" Had you paddled the cobra before buying? also, if it's a new yak I wouldn't expect bolts etc to start falling off!

look forward to seeing the beast in the flesh, maybe this weekend for the Sept comp?


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## rawprawn (Aug 31, 2005)

Yes a bloody shame there is no photo of Daves dunking :twisted: :twisted: .

Next time the win will be ours Wallis Lakers :twisted:


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