Fishing the surf with penfishingrods.com

I'm taking a self imposed challenge of catching something decent from a surf beach using a Pen Rod Goliath from penfishingrods.com, unfortunately I will need to try again as this time I caught only undersized fish:

King fish & Aussie Salmons from Manly

I recently planned several early morning sessions with a fishing buddy I met in Balmoral. We are trying to catch some kinggies off the rocks. So for me it's wake up time at around 3.30am and head down to one of the wharfs in Mosman. 4 am ish, yakkas are getting caught on prawn or minced beef. I use either a hand line or a pen fishing rod.


Usually 4 yakkas are enough for me as I have to leave the spot at 7am to go back home and get ready for work. My mate stays till 10.

5am we're in North, South Curl Curl or Manly.

Yakkas on a float and bottom rig and there we go.

After few weeks we were getting donuts or the usual bream and trevally, but finally last week, an hour after I left, my mate caught a 1.10m @9.4kg King fish, when I caught a small Aussie Salmon before leaving.

He was definitely happy of his catch :-D

It was caught on a squid strip, was whole but a small fish ate the head before...

Here is his setup:

8000 shimano baitrunner oc reel

10-15kg 12ft timber wolf rod

30lb braid 

50lb leader

7/0 double snell rig

It took 10 mins of good fight.

Here's my salmon:

Went back today, caught another Sambo, lost another one on a 2nd line (double hook up) due to a bad knot on the snap :-( and a flathead who tried to swallow a yellowtail on a bottom rig.

My setup is:

Alvey 13ft 650 GTS rod

Alvey 650 A1 rod

15 lb main mono

30 lb fluoro leade

Size 6/0 suicide hook

11ft Saratoga Mawler rod

Shimano Aerlex 8000 XSA

10lb braid

30lb fluoro leader

Same hook

Fishing kayak rigging part #3 - Car roof rack and first test

It's been a week I've bought this new kayak and today will be the first day I'm taking it out on the water. But before I can go I need a way to transport it. although it can fit inside my Honda Odyssey 2004 the problem is I can then only take my son on the childseat and my wife would have no space to sit, but most importantly, the kayak is so wide that it will hide my left side view making it a dangerous drive.

My car already has roof rails but no cross bars, seeing their price brand new, I decided to make my own. So I went to Bunnings again, and bought four U bolts and two Cypress pickets, they are 65cm wide and 1.20m long and thick enough to carry the kayak. Back home I started to measure where I should drill the holes for the bolts. All nearly perfect on the first attempt, the holes were just a tad too small so I had to tweak them a bit.

Here is the kayak before going to water:

I couldn't film myself yet as I haven't yet created my camera pole and then my wife was busy running after the little one so that will be for the next time.

Here is a footage of the missus trying giving the kayak its launch inauguration:

After the session, a little shower is required to remove all dirt. I bought a 2m garden hose with a universal tap adapter, very handy.

Next step, the camera pole. I used to do a lot of photography and have this monopod that can be extended. I will be putting my Nikon P7100 inside its underwater case and that will be my action cam hehe. I will check where to mount it, the easiest would be the rod holder that I have attached to the milk crate. We'll see.

Fishing kayak rigging part #1 - Rod extenders and anchor pulley

Before going out trying my new fishing kayak, I need to get some more items and rig it up with some accessories. So today, after work, I headed to Bunnings to buy some PVC tubes and other stuffs. Man, everything is so expensive in Australia! Hic! Oh well, I won't save too much but that's not bad.

I bought some 25mm and 32mm PVC tubes with some tees and caps, trolley wells, axels, bolts, 3mm ropes, snap hooks and 20mm pulley.

For this first update I wanted to build a kayak trolley that would fit inside the scupper holes, an anchor pulley system and couple of extensions for the fitted rod holders.

To my surprise the 25mm tubes were not 25mm! The sticker and painted text is saying 25mm but when I measured the inner diameter it was 30mm? what the ... ? Oh well, will take them back and exchange for 20mm ones then.

So I ended up making the anchor pulley:

The loop at the bottom will be replaced by a metal ring when I'll find one.

A snap hook at the front and back allow me to attach the pulleys to the carrier cords that comes with the kayak.

I now need a metal ring and an anchor.

And the rod holder extensions. I just want the rod to be a bit higher so they won't get too much splashed with water.

The 32mm (I measured 38mm on these..., don't understand the difference between advertised diameter and actual one) PVC tubes slides in perfectly, I added a 45 degrees elbow so the rods would stick out at an angle. Each of the tube sections are about 25cm long.

Fishing kayak rigging part #2 - PVC trolley

So 25mm PVC tube is not really 25mm in internal diameter for god knows what reason...

I went back to Bunnings for an exchange and took the 20mm instead, which are about 23mm...

After an hour of calculating the dimensions, sawing the tubes with multiple adjustments, I finally built my kayak trolley in about an hour.

Here is the result:

I just need to apply some PVC cement to finalize it all. I will also probably buy some pool noodles and wrap it around the horizontal top tube to protect the kayak's hull.

All these DIY creations are not my designs, I found some tutorial on the internet and adapted them to my needs.

My kayak fishing adventures begin

After several months looking around gathering for info and thinking if it would be something for me, I decided, with the approval of the missus, to buy a fishing kayak. I was hesitating between getting an inflatable boat and a kayak with a budget of about $380.

There are pros and cons for each.

The inflatable boat does not require space for storage and would allow more than one person on it. But on the other hand it takes times between parking the car and getting on the water. Being inflatable means there also is a risk of getting punctured. A friend of mine just bought one and it just confirmed that it is not for me.

A kayak does require storage place and for transportation, but I personally feel safer on it. And paddling with a kayak is easier too. For my budget I can only get a single seater 'yak but I'll be on my own most of the time. If the missus wanna join we can always change turn or hire one. 

So there I went going to that warehouse that had a kayak in discount for $320, the reason was people usually don't like its color, camo finish sells quick but not those blue uni-color ones.

The only thing that bugs me a bit is storage. But it was easy enough to take it into the unit in the second bedroom we are using for storage. And owning a Honda Odyssey, the 'yak can fit inside. I'll get a roof rack anyway cuz once inside the car, only me and my son on his child seat can be inside.

Now it's time to get some safety gears. I will build my own flag pole with an old fishing rod, I need a PFD, setup some first aid kit and other stuffs. For those interested in kayak safety, here is a great website:

http://modernkayakfishing.com/articles/safety

I'm lookng forward my first kayak fishing session!

Re-spooling my Alvey reel

After using the 630 A1 "Surf Champion" my cousin gave me, I decides to change the line. The current one is a high visibility yellow fluorescent that I find awesome as I can see it event fishing at night from the beach. So I went for a Talema Super Hi-Vis 6.6 Kg 500m.

The packaging is cool, the spool is in a plastic box you can reuse for tackles.

What surprised me is I wasn't expecting a thin line it's a 14.5 lb and seems like a 6 or 8. Usually 15lb mono are around 0.33 - 0.38mm this line is 0.23mm, good for distance casting.

So as Alvey recommends, I dunked the spool in water before reeling it on the reel. Trying to make the line at an angle facing out for easier unspooling when casting:

That's it, ready to go. One more thing:

Ball bearing swivel and snap swivel for twist management and ease of rig change. The swivels are rater 15 and 10 Kg, more than the line rating but they are the smallest I could find.

The Australian Salmons are back in Curl Curl

I'm switching sleep cycle again and this is my first sunrise day. Low tide at around 7.23am, got to Manly at 5.45am but got only undersized Tailors so I drove off to South Curl Curl. On the rocks at 6.30am and I noticed there were lot of fishermen today on the rocks 200 meters on my left. One of the guy was fishing with live baits and caught 3 fish in less than half an hour, seems to much of an easy fight to be king fish, so I think it must have been sambos.

20 minutes after my first cast, the line straighten and my rod tipped down, fish on! Seeing a jump on top of the water, that is definitely a salmon. He then went straight to the rocks, damn! So I let go of some line to release the pressure and he turn back to the sea, after a nice fight, I finally landed a nice one.

Then a second hookup, but unfortunately this time my sinker got stuck on some oyster on the rocks, after a moment I managed to have the sinker line to break still keeping the fish on the dropper line, but that was too late, the line above the hook was already damaged and with a little pull it snapped, releasing the fish back to the ocean. Good for him :-)

After a pretty quiet beginning of Spring, it's great to see them back on the Northern Beaches!

Bondi Beach saves Spring fishing sessions

I joined FishRaider forums recently, amongst the members that commented on my Facebook Page, it turned out that one of them, Duong is a relative of a good friend from France. The world is small as the say.

Yesterday Duong decided to do a session in Bondi Beach targetting Sambos. I was tired from waking up at 5am (unplanned), but decided to join Duong anyway. For the whole of this Spring, all I caught were undersized whiting, sharks and undersized Tailor, so I was really hopping this session would be a success.

I got there at around 8.23pm but found that somehow the rig I prepared got tangled with a sabiki rig that slipped out its bag. So I wasted time trying to undo the tangle to end up tying a new one.

Duong arrived not long after with a sea popper rig and he too managed to get it tangled. There are days like this :-P

Rig done, I casted a fillet of Yellowtail with my Alvey rod and the 6000BCVRRT reel from my mate. The rig was a paternoster rig with a single twisted dropper loop with a two size 3/0 ganged hooks and a 3oz no-roll sinker.

Right after my cast my friend's bait net and the rod holder used to secure it to the sand got washed by a big shore break. So I dropped my pants and was going to go in the water to fetch it. But then my friend who then was holding my rod yelled fish on and it was bloody heavy. So I ran back and continue the fight. After few pulls and jumps, it was a nice 59.5cm Sambo!

Second cast, not even a minute after the bait touched water another big Sambo!!

After that it was my friend's turn to have his reel's fish alert hissssing through the night. Two other Sambos, one on full pilchard one on yellowtail fillet, and a Shovelnose Shark.

The other fishermen who arrived a bit later were not as lucky. The two main reasons being I was the first on the beach and made camp right in front of a nice big gutter, probably the only decent one on the night. And then when they arrived, I think the school was on its was out and my buddy was just placed right on their way to catch the two last one we got.

What a night! That was my first decent session of this Spring. I was a good decision, I was a bit sleepy before leaving home but the fish did wake me up hehehe. At the end we've lost the rod holder (DIY) and the bait net, but the 5 fish made up for it, no regret from any of us.

Cooking side, one of the Australian Salmon will go in the freezer, the other one will be partly eaten as Sashimi and the Shovelnose Shark is nice in Vietnamese sweet and sour fish soup.

We are having our neighbour from downstairs for a fishy diner tonight.

Pen Rod Goliath combos

Just received two pen fishing rods combos from penfishingrods.com, I already own one but wanted a backup combo and a fly combo.

These microlight fishing rods are tougher than you might think. I got decent size breams, trevally and flatheads on them ưith the biggest being a 55cm flattie.

These reels are the Pen Rod Goliath version, they are telescopic and extend to 1.6m long! Once collapsed they can fit in a pocket or anywhere so are always available.

Here is the fly combo once mounted.

There is 8 yards of double 0 float fly line and 4lb leader. Still waiting for my prawn flies then I will head to Narrabeen lakes for some practice.

Hitcase turns your iPhone to a waterproof actioncam

I recently killed my iPhone 5 after getting submerged by a wave while beachworming. So I decided to get myself a waterproof case. While looking for one I stumbled accross the Hitcase which not only protect the phone against waterdamage but also turns it into an action camera you can attach to your chest and various places just like a GoPro camera which it is also compatible with their mounts.

So I ordered it from their US website http:// www.hitcase.com/ and to my surprise it arrived here in Australia 3 days later!

The package I ordered is composed of the Hitcase itself, a lens cap, their StickR mount and ChestR mount:

First impression, it seems quite robust but a bit bulky, it's not a case you would leave on all the time although some might want to. Inserting the phone can't be any simpler and once inside you can still use the touch screen and access all buttons except the mute switch which is not critical. You can also use your earpiece or cover the headphone hole with the cap that comes with the case.

I don't intend to use the StickR mount that came by default, the extra ChestR mount I ordered was the mount I wanted. This will be awesome to take fishing or beachworming footage.

The image quality at first glance seems quite decent thanks to their glass wide angle lens. The image is sharper at the center but very acceptable around the edge. This is not a definitive answer, I have only tested it in bad light indoor conditions:

As the fish will start to bite I will be doing more tests. In the meantime my iPhone will be safe when I'll be out there.

My first fish on Alvey: a Port Jackson Shark

I've met chu Linh (uncle Linh) fishing in Dee Why about a month ago, I was then trying to catch some whitings but only got undersized ones. Chu Linh lives at walking distance from the south corner of the beach and often go fishing in Curl Curl too. Today he suggested we go fishing the rock pool. So we met at 6.30pm, I got there a bit early to catch the sunset:

Half an hour after we started we caught this shark, which I believe is a Port Jackson Shark.

As the beast was heavy and pulling strong my friend walk down the pool and headed to the beach. We were going to move anyway as the tide was coming with big waves that would make fishing the pool dangerous.

Then about an hour later I caught mine on my new Alvey outfit. He so lazy at the beginning I thought I hooked a seaweed. But as I brought him to the shore the shallow water woke him up! And he gave me a hell of a fight especially as I'm not used holding my rod with the left hand, my spinning outfits all have the reel handle on the left so I can use my right hand to hold the rod when fighting the fish.

I usually like sharks but I find this one quite beautiful, it's quite something to hold them. Of course both of them have been release back quickly to the sea.

This is my first fish on an Alvey outfit and I'm glad it's a big one.

I made some good progress with the casting but there is still a lot to improve, I sometimes get some kind of tangle om the cast when wearing a big jacket, somehow as it unspool, the reel hit my jacket and got out of axis and a block of line jumps out of the reel and gets trappes between the handle, this was handled by holding the reel a bit further away from my body.

Using your reeling hand as a drag by pressing it against the bottom side of the reel felt a bit awkward but fun too. I was originally scared it would scratch or burn with the rotation of the reel but it was quite smooth actually.

I noticed though the open runner is very useful for lowering the pressure of the line on the guide finger it also remove quite some of my leverage on the rod as the hand is holding the rod at a low position. Will need some use to.

It's quite a challenge to switch from a spinning outfit to an Alvey but when surf fishing I think it is worth it although I'm missing a bit of the simplicity (of use) of a spinning reel.

Still waiting for a Sambo or Tailor, it's been weeks I haven't caught one from the beach.

Hope you guys have more luck.

First day with an Alvey outfit

Woke up at 5am today and headed to Dee Why to try out my new Alvey ROD650GTS / 630 A1 reel combo.

It's no more winter times and the light was on earlier than me! Hmmm

Anyway, my first impression is that I can definitely like/love Alvey gears. The combo is surely heavier than my Saratoga Mawler Spin / Shimano Aerlex 8000 XSA combo, but it is well balanced so that is compensated and being an Alvey reel and a 13.4 ft rod the cast distance is being increased while decreasing the effort. Although, currently, I can cast farther with my 11 ft spinning combo but I think with time I will be able to cast much further with the Alvey.

Thanks to my mate who lent me his outfit during our other session together, I didn't have difficulties with casting. Today I managed to "master" casting by holding the line with the thumb instead of the index (not sure if one is better than the other). After a few casts I got used to synchronizing the release of the line and positioning of the right hand high up the rod.

Laying the line on the reel with my left hand fingers was much less painful than I originally thought.

One thing I noticed is I usually have my reel handle on the left side with spinning reels, but it doesn't bother me too much on an Alvey. But I'll try to mod my reel to have it on the other side an see if my right hand fingers are OK with laying the line on the spool.

Near the end of my short session, I reeled back the line and noticed that I hooked a small whiting but didn't know it cuz the rod was not sensitive enough, it's not made for small fish anyway!

So far so good, just need to hook a fish!

One other good point is being telescopic, it fits well in the back of the car.

It's now time to go to work. It'll be a bit tough this afternoon as this is the first day I switched back to waking up early!

Alvey vs baitcaster

I've seen few fishermen using a baitcaster for pier fishing and just one for surf fishing. As I understand there are benefits in using a baitcaster such as casting distance and accuracy. But the cons is the learning curve.

I also met couple of people using an Alvey outfit and my cousin keeps bashing around with the pros of using Alveys. He then bought some Alvey gears from an old lady whose husband was a fishermen and gave me an old 630 A1 reel. 

I managed to have my hands on a old Shakespeare Sigma Series baitcaster reel and bought a cheap rod on eBay for testing it. After a whole session practicing it, I think baitcasters are not made for me, it feels ackward with the weight on top of the rod and too troublesome to learn the cast. I also fish more often late nights or early morning before sunrise so it makes it even harder to learn.

So my next target is the Alvey. I met a friend on Fish Raider / Facebook who is an Alvey user so I could borrow his outfit for testing and I immediately felt its potential. A bit weird at the beginning but much better than a baitcaster for my type of use.

So there I went on my favorite online store and got myself an Alvey ROD650GTS. It's a 13.4 ft telescopic rod which seems very sturdy. 13.4 ft is to my opinion the high extreme for me, but their next option down is a tad too short for my liking.

So there we go:

I'll be testing it soon in real life conditions, lets hope the fish are up for some good fighting.

Any tip is welcome!

Some of the reasons why I like fishing

What is so fun about fishing? Some people find it boring, having never caught any fish. It's true you do need to be patient when fishing as fish are not always there. Very good fishermen know how to read the elements and hit the road to their fishing spot only when it's the beast time but most of us don't have that skill. But we still enjoy our hobby very much.

What thrills me is multiple things. There is the adrenaline when a big fish takes your line and give you a hell of a fight.

But when there is no hook up at all, I really enjoy being on the beach especially at sunrise when it is less crowded or at night during a bright moon lit night. Then there is also the family out day having fun with the kid and wife and at the same time waiting for the reel to go wiiiizzzzzz.

When fishing at night, I often take a folding beach chair to sit and sip some nice drink and watch the stars or meteorites. When the moon is bright, the whole beach and sea is so beautiful to look at.

Those who never saw the sun rise have missed something:

So even when the fish are hidding, I still like to go out for few casts. What about you?