Me & Dave - A paddle together at last

[hairymick]

G'day guys,

Dave came down the other day and brought his Mill Creek with him.

We put in in a salt stretch of our Burrum River for a spot of fishing and gentle paddling.

Dave brought his trusty leccy for the jaunt.

And of we went downstream with the falling tide.

Fish weren't very interested

but we got a couple of pretty nice shots.

and Dave had a paddle in my Southwind. 8)

All in all it was a great - relaxing day on the water, in good company.

Thank you Dave for going to the effort to come down here and share my river with me.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Glad you two blokes got together. What a pair!

 

[Ozark]

How you like the southwind Dave? I see you brought your greenland paddle.
Paul

 

[dawallace45]

Well the Mill Creek 16.5 has now been renamed the " Barge " , because that is what it is compared to Micks SouthWind , what a bloody ripper , that thing is fast , way faster than the MC16.5 could ever be , hell even with the electric on it I could only just keep up with him once he got going , I do believe if he wanted to pour it on when he was fresh there is no bloody way I'd have been able to keep up , I would have liked to have given it a real good work out and paddled it a few km's but I've screwed up the tendon in my right wrist at the moment and dislocated my finger a week ago , I put it back into place straight away but it's still very sore and tender so holding a paddle at the moment is a little painful

Micks river is a very beautiful place , I look forward to paddling it again once I build the Laker , Mick was right , the fish didn't cooperate but that was ok as they did the day before and even the day before that wasn't too bad as I'd spent half the day catching and releasing undersize bream , about 30 or so of them all told , not a near legal size one in the bunch but fun all the same ,

The trip gave me the chance to check out the problems with the motor setup , the whole idea needs a lot of redesign or maybe just a new boat to put it on .

Paul that paddle was a new one I was making and it still needs a lot of work , I made the blades thicker this time and the handle too , the handle needs a lot more meat taken off it and the blades need thinning a lot , Mick tried it and hated it , the first two I made were a lot different but felt much better , may persevere with this one or maybe just make a new laminated one , don't know yet , too busy with the shed at the moment to worry about it

David

 

[dawallace45]

Some pic's from the river

 

[hairymick]

Thanks Dave, 8)

I'm glad you liked my boat and even more glad that finally somebody else has had the chance to confirm just how good Southwind really is. Mill Creek 16 is a great boat. I have never seen one before.

Once one or two more Southwinds get built, there will be other rave reviews about this magnificient design. I only wish somebody in America would build one and see for themselves. This boat is something very special and is the yardstick by which I judge all other paddlecraft. so far, nothing measures up. Sasquatch comes close, but was wanted for different purposes.

Enough of a rant You've all heard it all before.

 

[bearridge]

First off. Dave, ya gotta quit bein' so hard on yerownself. Sounds like ya already done enuff ta wear out three 'er four bodies. :wink:

Second. In the first pichur, who lives in the house back off in the woods?

Third. What kinda seat iz in Dave's boat? Looks like a plastic yard chair with the legs cut short.

Fourth. What makes the river rise way up on the bank ta make them trees fall?

Fifth. I done good ta recall four things. 8)

Jest lookin' at them nice pichurs made me wonder how fast them homemade boats mite go if yall blokes used yer body ta paddle, not jest yer arms. When yer settin' back on a seat, ya jest caint git much power inta yer stroke, cept shoulder power. Purty soon ya'll mite start ta look like Popeye. I know he wuz a queer sailor, who toted a can a spinach inside hiz shirt, but what if Miss Olive Oil begins ta look good ta ya?

I dont know how ta fix this problem.......less Hobblin' Jack comes out with a new set a knee caps. If he does I mite shoot mine fulla dope too. Mebbe put one of them fake tits underneath each one? I dont see how come one of ya'll outside the box boys dont come up with a new seat....one that puts more power in yer giddy up? :wink: Mebbe knee pads 'n a tilted seat that keeps most of the load off yer knees?

regards
bearridge

Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature. Samuel Butler

 

[Wannabe]

Bear,
What you suggest is true, and everybody knows it to be true, But would'nt that be like--- exercise which is way too close to being work? :cry:
Bob

 

[bearridge]

Friend Bob,

I am talkin' bout cuttin' down on the exercise. I used ta paddle usin' jest my arms, but when I learnt how ta git my whole self inta the paddlin', it wuz eazier, but ya caint do that settin' back in a seat. Now if yer jest driftin', piddlin' along with the flow, settin' back iz jest fine. :wink:

regards
bearridge

All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things. Bobby Knight

 

[Kayak Jack]

In another string, we banter on about what "globalization" is. Read these posts and SEE true globalization in action.

Guys from all over the world get together electronically, a few groups of us get together in person, and the whole world can read about it. Fellas - THAT is an array of examples of the concept. We're knee deep in it, and are part of the cutting edge of it.

 

[hairymick]

Friend and Waterman Bear,

What you say is definately very true. The piccies were taken at a time when we were trollig lures (except Dave in my Southwind) For that it is better to go way slooooooow. For this, particularly in southwind, a nice comfortable seating position and a mere gentle stroke every now and then is more than sufficient. 8)

First off. Dave, ya gotta quit bein' so hard on yerownself. Sounds like ya already done enuff ta wear out three 'er four bodies.

Mate, Dave was in pretty constant pain the whole day.

Second. In the first pichur, who lives in the house back off in the woods?

Where my car is, in the background, is on a sort of point in the river. The river bends round behind my car and that hous is actually on the waterfront. Not sure who lives in it now. It has changed hands a couple of times in the last few years. Southerners most likely. I have seen that piece of land under 30 feet of flood water in years past when we had genuine wet seasons. It is on a 8 acre block with about 150 yards of deep water front. I wish I had been smart enough to buy one of these blocks a few years ago. Prices of such places now, are out of my reach. I didn't expect or weather to change so dramatically or the damning of our little Burrum River to have such an impact as to make these seasonal floods a thing of the past.

Ocean going barges and ships used to ply this river collecting coal from further upstream. All the mines are now closed. and the river is so silted up that it is difficult to find water deep enough for the family runabout. What has happened on this river is pretty typical of all of our rivers that have been damned and is a part of the reason I am so loud in my protests over the planned dam on the Mary.

Third. What kinda seat iz in Dave's boat? Looks like a plastic yard chair with the legs cut short

That is exactly what it is mate.

Fourth. What makes the river rise way up on the bank ta make them trees fall?

Tides reach up to about 4 metres variance here mate. That, combined with strong tidal flow is eroding the river banks. The place looks different every time I paddle it. 8) I think Dave was a little surprised at the strength of the tides here.

Fifth. I done good ta recall four things

Real good mate.

First true day of winter here today. 8) Just got up and saw Miz Robin off to work, settin in front of the fire trying to get warm.

 

[dawallace45]

Bear

Got to be hard on my self , it keeps me from doing more stupid things , I'm 50 years old and my joints x-ray like those of some one 15-20 years older , most of that from not knowing when to stop or slow down , it's always been in my nature to push my self to do a little more , go a little further , so when you see me write some thing about a injury it's more for my benefit , to remind me why I'm sitting down and so I don't feel as guilty taking the time to sit at the computer talking to you fellers when I should be doing something around the yard or the shed

Yep that is a cutdown lawn chair , best seat I've ever had , when my back isn't too stiff I tend to use my whole upper body to paddle , one of the main reasons I got back into paddling was I used a mates kayak and found the twisting motion from the lower back up helped keep my spine and back muscles working and lowered the amount of daily pain I experienced , the land clearing and house building has put me back to square one in that respect , the kayaks I have now just aren't all that suitable for the wide reaches of the rivers and inlets I now paddle , far too much wind signature and the flat bottoms aren't any help at all , I'm looking forward to building and paddling the Laker14 , should be the Ducks Nuts for around here


Actually I've found the two best sports for a bad back are kayaking and archery

The tidal run in Micks river is about 5 knots for the most part I'd estimate , the day before our paddle I put the Barge into the mouth of the Burrum at Burrum heads , run in tide , water was crystal clear , sandy bottom , absolutely beautiful , unfortunately I left my camera back at the motel at Childers , there is a large sand bank several hundred metres down from the put in and as I trolled a Atomic 5" grub in green gord colour across in front of the sand bank in about a metre of water a extremely large flathead just hammered it , I'd only gone about another 70 metres or so when my other line went off , this one was trailing a Squidgy 3" wriggler in similar colours to the atomic , must of been the colours for the day , another very large flathead but about three inches shorter than the first , after that the tide took me around the sandbank and into a channel up against a mangrove lined bank where there was just a mass of snags from downed mangrove trees , even from the low position in the Barge I could see that they were loaded with big bream and mangrove jacks , I was really running past too fast with the tide but chanced a cast any way , a very big bream just nailed it as soon as it hit the water , I'd had the fore sight to screw the drag up tight and was able to drag the fish out of the snag , actually with the speed I was drifting and the 20 lb braid it was pretty much just ripped out of the snag , I released the fish then decided that at the speed I was going I'd better turn around and get back to the ramp , I couldn't have been more than a kilometre from the ramp but it took me about a hour and a half with the motor on full speed to get back to the ramp running against the tide

It didn't occur to me during the paddle with Mick that as we were going with the outgoing tide and the water wasn't as clear as a incoming tide that we should be using different colour lures , probably should have has some thing like a fluoro pink or red , the lures we were using would have been extremely hard to see under the conditions

But yeah , I'm impressed with the speed of the tide in that river , most of the places I've been paddling around here aren't as fast as they tend to be more spread out , going with the tide Mick didn't need to paddle all that often or that hard and I barely had to use the motor on the down river section

David

 

[tx river rat]

Mick and Dave
Outstanding commentary and pics as usual .
That river is so much like my river (Brazos ) here in Texas it is spooky
I am 350 miles from the coast and you are tidal but they look so much alike.
Mick I have to hear how you compare the T-V and the Southwind so before you let Jodie have it take it far a good walk.
Great trip Guys
Ron