Kayak: Budds Beach

BRISBANE Troy Brown

It’s tough to say goodbye, but luckily for myself and fellow members of the Qld Hobie Crew, our penultimate meet and greet for the year was a multitude of parking places along the waterfront in the morning. Once parked, you can haul your kayak to the single boat ramp, or simply wheel your kayak straight over the sand. Even at low tide, provided you’re not pulling a massively overloaded kayak, flats. Still, exceptional kayak anglers often spend more time moving than fishing, narrowing their window of opportunity while seeking the best fishing grounds.

As I had a sleepless night and needed to be onshore early to set up our presentation

The most effective weapon for fishing tight spaces in any waterway, the Hobie Outback. They are amazing kayaks, but nearly any kayak will broaden your fishing horizons.

merely a perfect transition into 2023.

With many of us having never fished the area around the haul over the short section of beach is simple and will avoid queuing behind the boat trailers. barbecue, I fished within a few hundred metres of our launch site. My catches were modest; I managed to drop one through

Taken late in the day and missing some participants, but this crew is surely the friendliest on the water. my drive well and another overboard, so I didn’t worry about amassing points for our friendly competition. Others were faring better, but despite numerous catch reports over the UHF radio, I wasn’t hearing anyone reporting larger fish being boated. As we were fishing a multi-species event, with the three largest legal fish being tallied for a total catch length, I expected anglers to target flathead and larger species. Early reports of only a few smaller flathead and trevally, mostly bi-catch for those chasing bream for fun on the pontoons, Tim ‘The Don’ Donselaar with one of the many bream caught on MMD soft prawns.

Monica Crichton had a large haul of various species and negotiated this bridge more elegantly than the author. [Note from author: lower the Power Pole BEFORE passing under low bridges, as getting stuck is somewhat embarrassing!]

confirmed my suspicion that group members were focussed on the social gathering, rather than the fishing!

Despite the size of most catches being modest, the variety was impressive. Our bream experts, including our overall 2022 series winner Lex Irwin, seem to be magnets for these fish. Logic dictated they should chase larger species, but when you’re a bream specialist, it seems the passion over-rides everything else. Despite chasing bream, Lucas won the day with a reasonable catch of flathead.

Budds Beach at the Gold Coast, it was bound to be a challenging day. Combine a new location with a strong wind warning, an enormous volume of weekend water traffic, then add hundreds of jetskiers dressed as Santa for a charity record attempt. When you’re fishing with a bunch of great people, the inevitable result was a lot of fun, some fish and heap of laughs.

The launch from Budds Beach, is an easy task in a kayak. Finding street-side parking is possibly the biggest issue, as spots fill up fast with families claiming picnic spots on the waterside. The solution is to arrive early, as there are

Once in the water, there are a multitude of options. What a kayak lacks in speed, it makes up tenfold in manoeuvrability and stealth. The kayaks in our group disappeared in all directions, with some choosing not to stray far from our launch, others covering a much wider area in search of a winning catch. Given the strong wind, I was slightly surprised to hear a couple of members had gone as far as the open sections of the Broadwater, but kayakers are a determined bunch! While lacking the potential to travel long distances, kayak fishing provides superb access to the rear of pontoons, narrow creeks and shallow Lex still managed a top-three finish, which reflected both the average size of other species caught, but mostly the impressive length of his bream haul.

Tactics from our winners varied considerably. As a sponsored Frogleys Offshore angler, it was no surprise that Lex caught most of his fish cranking small Atomic Bream Shads along the edges of the pontoons. Lex offered some great advice after the event, sharing his technique for bending the tow point, so his lure tracked along each side of the pontoon. It’s a simple means of controlling the lure that I’d used multiple times

when trolling a lure behind my boat, but never considered when casting lures alongside pontoons from a kayak. I mostly gave up on hardbodied lures beside pontoons, as the precision required seemed like too much effort. With Lex’ tip, you can easily position your kayak to improve your casting angle and distance yourself from shy fish, while still running your lure parallel to the structure. It was a tip so simple, yet so useful, that made my day even more worthwhile. Added to that gem, Lex also suggested that only a small alteration to the tow point was needed, while cranking just fast enough to find the perfect action of each lure. Winding too quickly can cause the lure to “blow out” in the water, forcing it to drag uselessly on the surface. One of many fringefin trevally caught on the day. They are a beautiful fish and there were lots around.

Lex also had success working the rear of pontoons in deeper water with Gulp Crabbies and hidden-weight

Another capture from Lex Irwin, who is the bream version of The Terminator – this man is unstoppable!

jigheads, as well as the reliable Cranka Crab. I draw the line at using anything that smells worse than bait, so despite its effectiveness, one of those lures will never appear on my kayak! Crew founder Tim Donselaar, discovered on the day that certain lure juices and auto carpet are a poor combination! Despite his unfortunate accident, Tim caught a number of fish for the day, but hilariously they caught while casting MMD soft prawns downcurrent on You’re going to love your new Savage. The oldest You’re going to love your new Savage. The oldest name in Australian boating, knows how to build the edges of pontoons, rock name in Australian boating, knows how to build strong, reliable units that are a workhorse out on walls and pylons, rather than strong, reliable units that are a workhorse out on the water. They’re built tough to get you where the stinky stuff that attacked his carpet. Lucas Mulligan won the day with some solid flathead the water. They’re built tough to get you where you want to go and then get back to where you need to be. With a great day’s fishing and fun in between. you want to go and then get back to where you need to be. With a great day’s fishing and fun in between. and a mulloway combining to give the longest overall catch length. Lucas has a simple method that fares well in most areas, trolling lures, such as the Atomic Double Deep along the edges of drop-offs. Using an electric motor on his kayak to cover more ground, it’s an effective technique and can yield great results. Trolling can be prolific on some days, but also risky when fish are tight into structure. Knowing when to change depths, lure type, speed and, importantly, when to start casting the edges, requires a solid strategy and good technique.

With many anglers and many species, we also saw many different methods

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of catching them. Event organiser Ray Hawes, who seems to always find a variety of fish species, unsurprisingly managed his usual result at Budds Beach. Ray worked lightly weighted plastics around the structure, gently winding and lifting the lure in the strike zone. He was another having success with favoured a simple slow roll, proving that in different currents, water depths and for different species, we often need to use a multitude of techniques.

Budds Beach provided some great variety, despite the unfavourable fishing conditions. I’m surprised to find yet another area of

The crew’s ‘Mr Consistent’ and the organiser of the meet and greets, Ray Hawes.

MMD prawns, hopping and twitching the lure to simulate distressed movement, while using more erratic retrieves in the faster moving water for aggressively feeding trevally. Anglers such as Tony Riley the Gold Coast I want to revisit, as the list seems to be endless. Each spot makes me want more; more visits, more time and more of the great company we enjoy in this amazing sport.

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