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Kayaking with dolphins | Category: Fishing Talk

Mark Totzke 4 weeks ago

A couple days ago, while fishing for blue cod, I had a big pod of dolphins come up right to my kayak.
Was really cool to see them so close by and I got some nice footage.
I see dolphins quite often out on the kayak but this was probably the biggest pod so far.
Must have been around 50 dolphins or so. Later I saw them in the distance making huge splashes - looked like a boil up in the water. I guess they rounded up some baitfish and had a feeding fest. Unfortunately couldn't film that as it was too far away.

a snapper a day keeps the doctor away
itsaboat 4 weeks ago

Did you see any sharks?

Often sharks will be under the dolphins. Dolphins like to keep sharks in sight.

Mark Totzke 3 weeks ago

I haven't seen any sharks on that day. The dolphins went all over the bay - it looked like they were rounding up baitfish.
I've seen an Orka with a calf at the same time. But they were a bit too far away to capture on the camera.

I know that there are lots of sharks in the area though.
Yesterday I was fishing with a big live bait and the whole live bait got bitten of with half of the leader in one go.
The part of leader that I reeled back in was shredded to bits.

Half an hour later I had a smaller live bait under the kayak and it got chased and eaten by big barracoutas.
They came right up to kayak and almost jumped into the kayak. The livebait was all chewed up.
Eventually the barracouta ate the rest of it next to the kayak and ripped of the hook with a bit of leader.
I only had 80lbs mono leader. That didn't stand up to the barracoutas teeth.
Next time I see them I'll either move to another spot right away or change to a wire leader.

It was actually real good action yesterday.
When I started out from the boat ramp I thought I'd try to catch some live baits on the way to the rocky point where I've spotted some kingfish the night before.
So I started trolling a 4 hook sabiki rig with pink flashers. It was a sabiki rig with slightly bigger hooks so that it wont break on a decent kahawai. After about 5 minutes of trolling I got a hit. First I thought it was a kahawai. When I started reeling in I saw a splash on the water and believe it or not it was a kingfish. At about the same time that I realised it was a kingfish it realised it was hooked and went for a massive run. I had my drag set pretty light and was using light gear.
So I started tightening the drag a little to prevent being spooled. I couldn't really stop it, it went straight down over a drop off into deeper water, line peeling of my reel. I thought the sabiki hooks are probably gonna break any moment.
After a few minutes it snapped off. The kingfish must have dragged my 20 lbs leader over some rocks and it snapped a meter or so above the hook.
My heart was racing and I was cursing that I didn't use heavier leader.
But it confirmed my theory that kingfish really go nuts over pink lures once again.
Next time I'll tie my own 4 hook sabiki rig with pink flies, strong line and strong hooks and troll that behind the kayak.
See if that was a one off thing or if I can repeat this.

Afterwards I went to the rocky point and caught a few kahawai on a silver spinner for live bait and then the whole shark and barracouta story from above happened.

Suddenly a really strong offshore wind picked up and I tried to get back into the bay.
And believe it or not in that worst moment the pedal of my kayak broke. The left side pedal came loose and it turned out that the aluminum thread that's holding the screw in place was already completely stuffed up by the time I noticed that it was loose.
So I couldn't really screw the pedal back into its arm all the while the 20 knots wind was blowing me out to sea.
I really struggled to get back half pedaling with the broken pedal and halve paddling with the paddles.
Barely made it back into the bay and into safety.
Man what a day yesterday. Super exciting and also very frustrating.
Now I'm kinda stranded until I get a replacement pedal 🤬

a snapper a day keeps the doctor away
desertglow 3 weeks ago

Sensational and exhausting but liek you said what a day. How good are those pedal powered kayaks? Would you dare to use one in Top End waters? Dolphins are fine, crocs are the bggest NOT.

Mark Totzke 3 weeks ago

Cheers desertglow,

Yeah I love my pedal kayak.
Would never go back to a traditional paddle kayak - at least not for fishing.
I had to use the paddle over the last few days, while I'm waiting for the spare part of the pedal drive and it's a huge pain in the bum not having my hands free while fishing.
Also feels like forever to get somewhere.
Using the propeller power is much faster and way less tiring.
Also you don't need to haul around an anchor as you can easily stay in place by slowly pedaling and it's way easier to move against the wind.
I'll do a review video of my kayak soon.
This is so stable, you can even stand up on a calm day.

I wouldn't trust it in croc infested waters 😂 one big bite and you're a goner.
Lots of sharks, including geat whites, where I fish. But haven't had any encounters yet.
I wouldn't take this kayak on massive offshore trips.
But you can easily do more than 10 km without getting tired on calm days. If I fish in open bays or somewhere along the coast I usually don't go much further than 3-4 km offshore. Thats only because that's about the distance where start to get nervous 😆 But I pedal much further if I stick closer to shore and around headlands, islands, etc

a snapper a day keeps the doctor away
desertglow 3 weeks ago

Cheers,Mark. Look forward to the review. Bummer about the crocs. How much did the kayak kit set you back?

Mark Totzke 3 weeks ago

These pedal kayaks are the cheapest I could find.
It's an Australian company called dream kayaks.
The model that I got is a siren 10. It was $1600
Pretty cheap if you compare it with other pedal kayak brands.
A Hobie pedal kayak for example costs nearly $5000
And a wilderness kayak, which is essentially identical to the dream kayak, is about $2800

a snapper a day keeps the doctor away