Two Days, Two Tales-Rapid Bay and beyond

Rapid Bay and beyond

It was a 4:15 am wakeup and a 4:30 departure to chase the sunrise at rapid bay. By 6:10am I had arrived and by 6 30 the yak was on the water and we were venturing out towards the old jetty in search of kingfish. I paddled around the jetty at first searching for life signs, which didn’t take long to find. I peered down into the clear water to see a school of approximately 80 yellowtail kingfish of various sizes. To this I quickly dropped down a soft plastic lure which was acknowledged mouthed and then ignored by a fish of around 80cms. I then decided to anchor up in the vicinity of the school and burley up.

After an hour of catching nothing but leather jackets I decided it was time to trial a new approach by catching some live bait so I paddled into the shallows of the bay and again burleyed up. It was not long before I was surrounded by a school of sprat tommies where I was quickly able to land one which was all of 5 cms long. This fish was placed into the live well as I casted out my free rigged size 12 hook in hope of catching another livey, however all of a sudden the tommies had vanished and were replaced with a small school of kingfish which were happy to just cruise on by.

Unfortunately whilst trying to catch live bait a group of spearfishermen moved in to the jetty and chased the large school of kingfish for 2 hours until they finally landed one. Which meant when I finally had a few live baits the larger school of kings was nowhere to be seen. By now it was around 12pm and with the daytime maximum forecasted to be 41 degrees it was time to get into shore, hydrate and don the snorkel for a look around.

After exploring the underwater world of the old jetty I formulated a plan to have another crack at the kingfish. My plan was collect half a dozen sprat tommies for live bait and then to quickly paddle out to the area I thought most likely to hold kingfish. This part of my plan was executed perfectly with two healthy live baits out it was time to wait. The wait was not long though with one bait becoming ambushed by a pod of squid. I quickly landed 4 squid with the smallest placed on as live bait. However this was to avail and after nearly 2 hours of live baiting without even a hint of interest I decided I would paddle to a spot more suited to bottom bouncing. This was successful straight away landing a 50cm flathead, then a school a salmon trout appeared in the burley trail and I was able to quickly land 2 before the school moved on. The bottom bouncing action was then slowed by persistent leather jacket and rock cod attacks.

By 7pm I believed it was time to call it a day so I paddled to shore and cleaned up the kayak.

Whilst cleaning I noticed a school of tommies coming into the scraps trail I was creating whilst cleaning the kayak. I quickly grabbed a light rod and caught 2 tommies which went on live. Five minutes after casting the live baits my rod doubled and I hooked and absolute screamer, to which I called a small bronzy. However with a splash of the flap I knew it were an eagle ray, after a 10 minute fight I was able to land the ray and cut the trace to release the old girl. I then cast out a half pilchard and as I was bringing in the slack it was wacked by a salmon trout which was quickly landed. I then cast another half pilchard out for the same result. By now the sun was setting and it was time to pack up the yak and get on the road to meet my old man for the new adventure planned for the next day.

By 6 30 the boat was on its way down to the boat ramp and in the water by 6 45 am. We then steamed into a flat 1 metre swell with light 10 knot south westerlies to an area which was holding fish the previous day. After some blind trolling in this area we decided to proceed further south until birds were spotted, this didn’t take long. We spotted 1 then2, then3, then 4 schools within a few kilometres and it wasn’t long until my Diawa exceller was screaming, hooked up to a nice southern blue fin tuna. After a 10 minute typical battle I was able to land a SBT of about 15kgs.

We then set the lures and trolled again until the next hook up and the next and next. By now we had landed 4 SBT’s and decided that was enough between the three of us and that we would now head to a bottom bouncing reef nearby. We fished this reef for about and hour for nothing but leather jackets sweep and blue devils all of which were returned. As the South Westerly was picking up it was time to make the long journey back, we decided we would run some skirts as we headed back through the sloppy conditions and It didn’t take long to hook up on another SBT of around 10kgs, after a quick fight this was landed and released. We then steamed back for nearly 2 hours in some rather uncomfortable conditions.

To summarise it was a good couple of days fishing and I need a rest until next time tight lines.