Woodgate Beach again,

[hairymick]

G;day guys,

The car is packed and I am waiting on Robin to come home from work to get her stuff ready. We are heading up the coast to Woodgate again.

We hope to get off-shore to get some pelagics and some piccies of my Southwind in action. To this end, Robin is taking her plastic sea kayak because it is more open water capable than anything else she owns at the moment, I am toying with the idea of building her an Okwater so that she can have a proper boat. to accompany such a fine beast as the Southwind.

The forecast is not looking real good and tomorrow might be the most suitable for Robin - offshore. She is not a confident paddler.

Hervey Bay Waters:
Sunday until midnight: SW/SE winds 10/15 knots. Seas to about 1 metre.
Monday: SW/S winds 10/15 knots. Seas about 1 metre in the northern Bay.
A little rain.
Tuesday: SW/S winds 15/20 knots increasing to 20/25 knots.
Wednesday: SW winds 20/30 knots.

Nevermind, We have a real nice cabin just back from the beach booked and it will be nice to get away. If all else fails, we can allways head up a small creek nearby and try out some of my lovely new Cabelas hardbaits. :twisted:

Took a couple of piccies of the two boats on the car. I reckon Robins 14 foot sea kayak looks like a toy beside the Southwind. It is called a Contour and is made by Perception. I think they are called a Carolina? in the States.

They are very good boats but just don't seem to have the class of wood.
I am biased of course.

Will be off line for a couple of days from tomorrow.

 

[oldyaker]

Have a great time Mick.....I'm jealous....stuck here with a ton of work around the homestead. :cry:

 

[bearridge]

It iz 9:45 pm in Brisbane. Hope ya'll had a swell day. It iz 7:45 a.m. in Pittsburgh....sorry oldyaker. :cry:

regards
bearridge

It's a little early in the day to go wigglin' yer bean, aint it Jake? Augustus McCrae

 

[oldsparkey]

Mick
I wish that you and your lovely wife are having the time of your lives and did not forget the cameras.

Chuck.

 

[catfish]

Hey Mick it,s bad other people have to still work for a living. :wink: I guess it,s good that some one can go paddling. :lol: Hope you take lots of pics. Have a great & safe trip.

Mick I have to give you a thumbs up. Isn,t that a toyota your driving , you do have good taste. Me & my son both have a yota four wheel drive . They are tough vehicles.

 

[dawallace45]

Well Micks probably freezing his brass monkeys off , we've had a cold front move in and it's bloody freezing [ for here ] , it's 68*F inside the house and 48*F outside with a wind blowing , that's probably a nice warm day for some of you in some of the northern parts of the USA but for us here in the sub-tropics it's bloody awful and we're just not used to it , according to the weather report it's even colder down where Mick is

David

 

[bearridge]

Friend David,

Yer killin' me. That iz first rate campin' weather. Snuggle down in the bag 'n enjoy the cold, fresh air. Here it iz 74 degrees at nite....not fit fer man 'er beast. Daytime in the 90's. The horror....the horror.....

Lance's son-in-law sez the fan on my sweet air motor iz waitin' fer Dr. Kervorkian. He jest left ta order me a new one. It wuz mitey hot here yesterday without the sweet air. We caint open windows (even if we had screens)....skeeters 'n humidity. I'm whackin' skeeters whilst I type. Open a door 'n 10-20 come inside aimin' ta suck blood 'n spread the East Nile Virus.

All that dang Texas rain brung 'em out. Good thing we got a high dollar skeeter poison program. :cry: :cry: :cry:

regards
bearridge

Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

 

[dawallace45]

Bear , 90's aren't hot , it's just warm , when it doesn't drop below 110*f for weeks at a time and shoots up to 120*f for several hours a day and the humidity is so thick you can just about carve it with a knife is hot , when the temp is 120*f and the humidity is 3% and the 15 km per hour wind feels like it's searing the skin off your face is hot , these are the reasons I left the last place I lived and moved down here to a better climate , no 90's are just warm

David

 

[catfish]

Bear that does sound like fine campen weather . Man I got turkeys flying around down here too. One landed in a tree outside the limb broke he was so big. :wink: I,m sure glad them suckers aint no bigger than they are , they would hurt.

Dwallace I believe what you described would be miserable to me too. I guess it,s what you get used too.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Cat,

When a turkey lands in a tree and settles down a bit, HOOT like an owl. The turkey will answer back with a gargled gobble.

I heard them answering back to lightning and thunder one night on the Au Sable River.

 

[bearridge]

Friend David,

Humidity iz a killer. It dont matter if it iz 85 'er 100. When I wuz a little pardner I went ta the 50th anniversary Boy Scout Jamboree in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They claim it wuz 50,000 scouts there....campin' out under the stars. It wuz June 'n the thermometer sez close ta 100. We met up in a big field where they tole uz ta walk slow 'n be careful 'er we mite die.

We run....everwhere we went. All the city scouts went ta fallin' out cuz of the heat. Us country boys who grew up in the humidity jest laughed. We felt good ta be up in the high mountains with no humidity. I hear it wuz the same in the army.

Lookin' back, I reckon dryin' out frum lack of water wuz a danger. However, we didnt fall out 'n we sold the city scouts 'n the Jap scouts a heap a cuckaburs....(porcupine eggs). :mrgreen:

regards
bearridge

The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States. George Orwell

 

[catfish]

Bear them porcupine eggs you talking about can be a pain in the butt in a feild. Have you ever seen a cow or horse that had them in his mane or tail.

 

[bearridge]

Brushed a heap of 'em outta Tex's tail, not az much in hiz mane.

 

[hairymick]

G'day guys,

Thanks for all the kind wishes.
Yersterday, was the coldest day I can remember fishing since I was kid. We re getting lots of snow on our southern highlands about a thousand miles away and the SW winds feel like they are coming right off it.

We arrived at Woodgate, Monday morning to fairly mild conditions with light off-shore winds and things deteriorated from there. After settling in to our cabin, Robin and I hit the beach to dead calm seas with a gentle swell of about a foot rolling onto shore. We spent the best part of Tuesday just paddling up and down the beach and taking piccies. I had a play in the small surf in the Southwind and Robin took a small video of me riding a small wave. The boat is superb. even better than I had previously posted and displayed absolutely no bad habits on the little waves there were. There was no pearling, She was stable and predictable and even quite manouverable on the wave.

I have been trying to upload the video but so far have had no luck.
I will be doing an updated review on this boat a bit later.

 

[hairymick]

Wednesdy, we woke to a very cold morning with SW winds around 20 knots so we headed up a small nearby creek. From the put in, to a place sheltered from the wind intailed a paddle of about a mile, punching straight into it.

Using a single blade, I was able to keep pace with Robin in her sea kayak and once we had reached fairly shelterd waters, the day turned out quiet nice.

Hairies battle cruiser - Southwind.

We set up camp on a mall sandy beach, where Robin commandeered my seat. :shock:

A bit later, She took Southwind for a little walk.

And has promptly put in an order for a 14 footer. She loves my boat.

A bit later, she snuck these couple of piccies of me with some small fish.

 

[hairymick]

Yesterday, We woke, to heavy overcast and even colder,stronger winds. Robin opted to stay in the cabin in the warmth (smart girl) so I went back up the creek in search of more/better fish.

The wind was gusting to 30 knots and funnelling straight down the creek to where I put in. As David has mentioned, we are not used to such cold weather here and generally, only suffer a couple of weeks of this each year. We consequently are ill prepared for it when it arrives. I wore the warmest clothes I had taken with me for this trip. this was a T shirt, jumper and light pray jacket - and shorts. I had sheep skin slippers but left them in the car to keep them dry.

By the time I reached sheltered water out of the wind, my nose and eyes were running and my feet were that cold, they were aching. At this point, I will point out just how happy I was to be in a decked, sit in boat. I can only guess how cold I would have been on a sit on top job.

OK, Time to take stock. Clean snot out of eyes & nose, cup of coffee, liberally laced with rum and back into the fray. i paddled to the headwaters of the creek, only about 5 miles.

Worked the calm patches out of the wind back downstream picking up a fish here and there - releasing most and only keeping enough for a feed.

Pulled out where Robin and I stopped the day before. The wind direction had shifted slightly more to the south and as it hit me on the bank I realized just how cold I was and how much colder the day had become. My feet were numb by this time. Even here, in the sub-tropics, hypothermia is a dangerous thing.

Lit a small fire on the back to try to warm up some. Couple more nips of rum with coffee and I was ready to fillet my fish and head home.

Nice feed of Pikey Bream, Yellow Fin Bream and a brace of Grunter.

 

[cctyer]

Bloody splended report Mick! I knew you would come back with some more great piccies and a great story or two. I cannot wait til I get to do the same. Thanks for the posts.

Bye the way what are the major differences between the north wind and your south wind cuz if that boat is as good as you say I might have to build one in the future. I'm as much a fishing nut as you, being on the water makes it that much sweeter! I have broke ice at the edge of a river only to stand in 40 degree water waist deep to trout fish. Sure I had waders but it still gets mighty cold, Although once you start catching fish you hardly notice the ice building up on your line and snake guides on your rod and how you can't feel your little fingers anymore. You know what I mean :wink:

Chad.

 

[bearridge]

Friend Mick,

I sho like them cold weather tales 'n picurs. Jack London never lived down here in the swamp 'er he woulda known why Sam McGee left Tennessee. Heck, Tennessee aint near bout az hot 'n fulla skeeters az us.

So ya headed out fishin' in fuzzy house slippers? I heard panty hose keep ya warm too. I never tried 'em.....clash with my stylish hats. :mrgreen: 8) 8) :mrgreen:

regards
bearridge

A virtuous life is its own punishment. Anonymous

 

[Kayak Jack]

Mick,

That Southwind continues to look like a really good hull. As I mentioned once, it should be a "swamp to sea" boat. It will feel at home almost anywhere.

 

[catfish]

Mick looks like you guys are just having to much fun. Mick I believe I woulda throwed that little fellow back , he,s to small. :lol: He sure would make the gravy & gritz good. Hey Mick I really like your set up . Reels trolling & is that a deph finder or gps on your dash.