My young fella has been itching for a while to get out offshore fishing with me on the kayak. I've taken him a few times on a Viking Nemo I bought for him and his brothers a few years ago but he has always struggled with paddling any great distance or getting through the surf. Both of which precluded him from fishing at many of the locations I fish offshore. We tried off the beaches past Teewah over Christmas but the swell was a bit much and he just couldn't get out. But last weekend the swell drop our below 1m and with light easterly winds tending north later in the day I knew we were in with a good shot.
We headed up the beach early Sunday morning and launched into some of the best conditions I have had offshore in a kayak, the swell was tiny and he got out first go. I rigged him up with a big gar as a troll bait and we set about working the 15m line behind the break where there is often little patches of coffee rock to hold a bit of bait here and there.
It didn't take long for his reel to start screaming and next thing I know he was getting towed backwards at a rate of knots. Eventually he got the fish under control and worked it back to the kayak where I paddled up along side and sunk the gaff for him and pulled the fish aboard my yak which has a hatch that the fish can be safely stored inside.
It was a cracker of a first mack for him, a Spanish that measured 1200mm and weighed in at 7.9kg. He is constantly onto me now asking when we are going back up, and if I can buy him his own stealth kayak or offshore fishing outfit. I think I have created a monster. I'm not sure he is really aware of what he has achieved, many fisho's in both boats and yaks can only dream of catching a fish like this, he just thinks it's going to happen everytime he goes fishing now.
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