The wedding of Mr and Mrs Kuma

It has been a long time in the making, I have been with my beautiful wife for 12 years and engaged for 8 of those years but on the weekend just gone she made an honest man of me as we wed in Melbourne finally. On the day as most brides are she was stunning, we had a very quiet ceremony with only a small group of people who are very close to us with no fuss and no formalities that come with most weddings. After the ceremony we had an informal reception at the Corner Hotel on the rooftop garden with friends and family before heading home for beer and pizza. What can I say other than it was a day suited to us and reflected who we are as a couple. Massive thanks on the day to me best man Dale McClellend and the bridesmaid Jo Smart, they were a great help to us both before and on the day. Dan Stanilovic one of my closest friends was kind enough to offer to take photo's and offer help with anything we needed in the lead up to the day, Nathan Smart was also behind a lens being the wedding papparazi so a massive thanks to all who were here to help.  Now onto the important things like fishing.

Port Fairy Tuna

Bluefin busting under birds

It was decided a few weeks back that instead of me having a bucks party for my wedding next week that a few mates would just head down to Port Fairy in the hope of finding a 100+ kg Bluefin Tuna, I was joined by my best man Dale McClellend and my best mate Daniel Stanilovic, for this weekend it was decided that we would take Dales boat a 6.5m Freedom Sport, this boat is know for lots of line class records and its skippers all round knowledge offshore. We left Melbourne's South East at 0230 in the morning hoping to get on the water by about 0730. I managed to get a bit of sleep in on the way up but earlier in the week I had some surgery on my teeth and jaw and with a little infection I was too busy popping pills to get much sleep, it was going to be a testing weekend with the pain in my mouth but pills and persistence would get me through. We hit the water at about 0800 and after a quick setup of the boat (should be noted I just stood by drinking coffee and talking to people at the ramp LOL)

Bluefin

We headed due south of Port Fairy in 45 to 50 meters in an area that is known for big bluefin tuna. Dale was on the wheel and Dan was working on the lure spread and again I was doing stuff all, We found some isolated patches of birds working nearby so made a bee line for the area the birds were in, in all the years I have been Tuna fishing I can say with confidence that I have never seen the fish so flighty. The bust ups only lasted a matter of seconds before they pushed deep again, it was clear from then on that it was going to be a tough weekend. We continued chasing the birds and bust ups for another hour or 2 when the first scream from a reel occurred, coming from the long rigger a small black and gold tuna bullet style lure got smacked, I was on strike so set the lever drag forward and got stuck into the fish, this fish gave a good accounting for it self in the fight department and behaved like a bigger fish but after a little bit of line play the fish came to the boat without out too much effort, Dan took the trace and Dale took the gaff and like a fine oiled machine they had the fish in the boat, its amazing how easy things can be with a good team on board. The fish was bled and prepared for the ice and it was back into the troll to try and find some more.

12 odd kg of fresh pre smoked Tuna

The next few hours saw a massive change in the bird and bait activity so a fair few kilometers were traveled as we looked for some activity, nothing seemed to change so at about 1430 we called it to head in from 17km out to rest up and try again the next day, bolting back in we got to about 5km from the ramp when all of a sudden birds appeared and tuna started busting again so off the throttle we set up the spread again to see if we could make some magic happen, it was tough going for a while with the fish behaving like they were in the morning and after chasing school after school of fish again we managed to hook up, same take from the same rigger on the same lure as the morning. Dan was on strike so he took the rod while Dale started clearing lines for him to fight the fish, I figured that they may still be deep blew the boat so I took a jig rod with a 200g turkey slider jig and started working below the boat. Nothing on the jig and just as I started to pack the rod away Dale had the trace at the side of the boat, we all know how unpredictable fish can be next to the boat and this one was no exception, as Dale position the fish to lift it took one last burst and headed under the boat, Dale was quick enough to let go of the trace to avoid contact with the boat, the fish took a quick deep lunge and then made a run back towards the boat, with in seconds the fish had managed to throw the hook. Devastated we decided to head back in with the low light and start fresh in the morning.

Seal in waiting for a feed at the ramp

I made a quick call to the Warnambool Holiday Park to sort out a cabin for the night and booked a cabin for some well needed rest and a bed for the night. After a quick pack up of the boat we headed for the Warnambool Holiday Park, upon arrival I met with Steve at the check in area, I have to say it was probably the most friendly place I have ever been to, staff and people in the park were great. Dale needed to make some quick repairs on the boat after hitting some thing in the water his live bait tank pick up had come adrift so wee needed to find a place that had some spare bits to do a quick fix so we would not take on water. It was decided that the filling of our stomachs was more important than the boat so we headed into town to a place called maceys bistro, meals looked nice but not quite big enough for me so I settled for a Chicken Parma and a Steak, also who can pass up a desert bar with self serve soft serve ice cream, not me thats for sure. Full as a boot the 3 of us waddled out of maceys and went in search of some silastic for the temp repair till we could get back home, we found a KMart open so Dale and Dan went in to find some while I put the seat back and had a nap. The boys came back and it was back to the Warnambool Holiday Park to charge phone and camera batteries and charge our selves so we could continue the battle in the morning.

Terez, Caldia and Gan Craft Jointed Claw rigged for Tuna

Day 2 had the wind up a bit but not deterred we made the short trip to Port Fairy from Warnambool and put the boat in the water, the plan was similar to the previous day so back to the same water depth line and started trolling with a similar lure spread to the day before. We quickly realised that the Tuna were not in the same area as they were, there was no birds, bait was scattered not balled up and water condition was different, we headed south east towards Lady Julia Percy Island, we had been on the water for a few hours and the wind was due to pick up so I made a phone call to Matthew Hunt, Matt is the best Tuna Charter operator in the area and very well known for his consistent results of good catches. Matt was brilliant and got on the wires to his network of gun Tuna local fisho's to try and find the fish for us, not more than 5 minutes later he rang back to let us know one of his mates was on the 80 meter line and was on a fish at the time. We had to make a decision whether to head south a further 40km and hope that the wind did not get out of hand or keeping working the shallower banks trying to find the fish close, we made the desicion to go deep, it was a long trip with the wind blowing against the current but an hour or so later we were in the area, a quick radio call to Adam the guy who was nice enough to share some info with us and we headed to the area to find some fish, we soon noticed the change, birds every where dolphins balling up bait and activity every where.

Dolphons from the 80 meter line

Alas it looks like we missed the bite time, we spent a couple of hours working the bait balls and areas where birds where diving, no Tuna were busting nor where they on the sounder, we knew that they would have been there by the activity but we just missed the window of chance as the fish had moved on. We decided that it was time to head close in and do what I do best catch a couple of squid from the reef outside Port Fairy. It was going to be a rough trip back with the wind picking up a bit, so we tidied up the boat a bit and made the long trip back, things got a bit damp with a few waves rolling up the front of the boat and onto our lap, I think the only dry part of me was a small part of my boxer shorts between my legs, we all had a good laugh along the way even when I managed to get a Halco lure lodged into my leg. We again got to about 5 km from the rap and the birds started again, back to the same drill of running lures out and chasing the birds, was not long before we realised that the Tuna were not surfacing it was slimy mackeral chasing 3" sauries to the surface. Defeated we called it a day. When we got back to the ramp we found out that only 4 other fish had come into Port fairy over the same 2 days. We got back to the ramp all wet and salt infused tired and sore we decided to stay another night, I rang the Warnambool Holiday park again and Steve was able to look after us again. We had a welcomed shower and change then headed to a Chinese Restaurant for a banquet for 4, there was only 3 of us but we all needed a good feed, after a few calf stretching exercise's from the boat trip and heaps of laughs we headed back to the cabin for a good sleep.

Dale doing the hard work

Although the fish didn't play ball I had a ball, a weekend fishing with 2 great friends with plenty of laughs and good food, it was a pleasure. It was also a great learning curve being able to cover lots of kilometers gave me a better understanding of the area. Sadly when I arrived back the the cabin I checked the local reports to find that Warnambool, Portland and Port Mac all went of with multiple catches of fish and lots of fish busting all over the place, spewing, I did have an outfit rigged with a Gan Craft Jointed Claw re rigged to make it tuna proof and I was hoping to land a tuna on it, at the end of the day what it does give me is an excuse to go back and try it again.

If any one is looking for a place to stay in the area I could not fault Warnambool Holiday Park for more details go to www.whpark.com.au or contact 035525031 for bookings

For the best charter operator in the Portland area go to Matthew Hunt Fishing Services or contact 0419760510, thanks again for your help Matt.

Kuma goes Italian

For my friends who can read Italian Planet Spin Magazine has an interview with me courtesy of Luigi at Planet Spin, for those who can read Italian here is the link.
PLANET SPIN KUMA INTERVIEW

If you can not read Italian and would like to have a look then you may need to use google translate with this link
English translation of PLANETSPIN interview

It is a massive privilege to be published in Italy where squid fishing is just starting to gain some serious momentum at the moment, although on the world stage the European market for squid fishing has been quite small with its renewed popularity I am sure that there will be lots of squid news from this region in years to come.

Dark Sunday morning

Sunday morning in the cold, dark and wet conditions I launched the boat at Hastings, Hastings is on the mid eastern side of Western Port so its conveniently smack in the middle of all the squid, the idea was to head straight to the deep south of Western Port in search of some of the early season breeders that can some times come into the port at this time of the year, we started the 35km boat trip in the absolute black of the morning at about 0500, all was going well running the boat at full noise until we stuck our heads around the corner at Sandy Point. We were met with a stiff south westerly blowing straight up the port, this combined with a fast outgoing tide caused the swell to build to around 3 meters at times with a 1/2 meter chop on the top. Suffice to say the the journey slowed down some what and what was supposed to be a 15 minute trip turned into a 45 minute job as I could not see the next swell coming, I headed closer to shore to get some protection and the trip was becoming more comfortable.

Lure stealing seal

We made it to Flinders in the south of the port and searched for some nice water to start throwing egi around at, this proved difficult as with the rough conditions water clarity was all but gone. We found a small patch of semi clear water and started plugging away. We did it fairly tough without a look at a squid for almost an hour. Just as we were discussing a move I hooked up to a reasonable sized squid of 1.9kg not the giants we were looking for but put us on the board, another half hour of mucking around and we landed one small one of about 800g and decided to make the move back towards Hastings to fish a few banks of sea grass that are known to hold squid, again it was tough going but we found a few around that 1kg mark before decided to head north to Quail Bank. It was at Quail where things started to look up, we found a good patch of squid in about 4 meters and kept plugging away at them for a few hours. It was here we saw our biggest for the day, if landed would have been an easy 2.5kg, however a friendly seal made short work of both the squid and the egi (DOH)

My mate Dan and I had landed a nice bag of squid keeping 10 for the table. Most productive egi on the day for me was the Gan Craft Egi-Jya 3.5 in Sunset Kuroshio and for Dan was Gan Craft Egi-Jya 3.5 Olive Le Kuroshio, a notible mention also to the color Black tiger as pictured below hanging off the squid in the water. We both had a ball but was a tough day in the end with the early conditions not helping. The wind ended up clearing in the north end of the port for a perfect setting and a perfect drift of about 0.5kph, the water mirrored out and the water cleared up. Sizes are on the increase as the season progresses but still no sign of the big big big squid we hope to find soon.

Quick mid week session

Having finished work early on Monday I made the quick dash home to grab the boat, on the way home I posted on face book with an open invitation for any one who was keen for a squid session to give me a call. Plenty of response and I ended up taking my neighbor Ed from next door, I had heard some rumors of some thumper squid in Western Port so I made the decision to launch at Hastings and go in search for some big ones, We made a quick trip over to Tankerton as last weekend we managed to find a couple of half decent squid. Was not long before we had a few in the well. Nothing massive but around the 800g to a Kilo mark so still nice squid. After playing with the average size guys we thought a quick bolt down south before it got too late was in order. We got as far as buoy 6 when we came across some schools of Salmon so Ed thought a couple of Salmon would be nice, we stopped on a school of fish and had a couple of casts, after a slight technique change Ed was onto a nice salmon of about 2kg after a short fight it was boated and chucked in the well, apparently some people actually eat Salmon. I get bored pretty quick with Salmon so I cut the Salmon session short and went looking for squid again. We tried a few spots in the deep south of WP only finding a few standard sized squid and less frequent than they were in the mid west of Western Port so another change was in order, made the dash from the Flinders area to Quail Bank near Yaringa, was not long before the squid started coming in one after another, again nothing big but perfect for those who eat them. When things slowed down we made one last move to Tyabb Bank where things were a lot tougher with dark and dirty water so it was decided to call it a day. Ended up with a bag I think that Ed took home for a feed. Was great arvo on the water, no wind no rain and lots of sunshine. I used a few colors I have not used much or at all including some special colors not available yet on the Australian market, the pike in the areas I fished loved the new colors and I was bitten off on numrous occasions so there are either heaps of pike swimming around with a mouth full of new jewelery or some very expensive reef forming material laying on the floor of the ocean. One color that excelled on the day was Gan Craft Blue Blur Choi, the one with the lady bug on the back, I call it Big Gay Al, it was a cracker.

Eds Biggest

Big Gay Al

Last week offsore suprise

Last week I attempted along with friends Dan and Brent to get off shore and make an attempt at some Kings, whats the suprise you ask, well for the first time ever in a trailer boat I got sea sick, not sure if it was the servo pie, chocky milk and red bull swirling around in my stomach or if the big stabi craft had me going green but I was not well all the same, we stuck at it for another 4 hours but struggled, we had one live bait smashed with no hookup, countless couta smashing the stick baits and 1 salmon on an X-Wrap 20 but no kings. The water like me was very green and the whole time on the troll the sounder was very quiet so it looks like we picked a crap day to be out amongst the swell, I have to admit every time I am out there trolling or jigging along the coastline I am reminded of how small I am on this big blue planet, every thing from the rolling swell of the ocean to the massive cliff faces that adorn the coast of Victoria but the scenery is magnificent. The pics dont accurately show the swell so here is a before and after shot of a rock that is about 6 meters high.

Realizing that things would not get better we head back into Western Port to have a quick cast at the squid, this time of the year is not known for its big squid so we were not too excited about finding big squid but were happy just to land a few with squid being my number one species to target. We headed for Tankerton hoping to get a few small ones for a feed but the next suprise to come were to find a few above average sized squid for both this time of the year and this location, I was using a new Gan Craft color that was a gift from Mr Nakahira and Mr Kake on their last visit, resembled a lot of the grass whiting that are caught in the area and seemed to be a good choice on the day, Dan was using a Gan Craft UO-Jya. On the way out in the morning we noticed a faint smoke smell and could not work out what it was, when we got back into Western Port we saw the reason for the smoke smell, French Island was ablaze, hope it was just DPI fuel reduction burning.

UO-JYA caught squid by Dan

The French Island Blaze

doing it hard in PPB a few weeks back.

I had the pleasure again a few weeks ago to fish with 2 of the nicest egi fisho's from Japan, Mr Nakahira (Chube) and Mr Kake (Kotaro) joined me for a pre fish for a couple of days prior to the Egi Grand Final. I have to say it was 2 of the toughest days I have had on the water, it did not help when I found out that they call Chube the wind God, it was blowing hard and made our drift fast thus making the fishing difficult and the teamp was about 35 degrees, I dont know how these guys lasted with all the gear on, I was sweltering in shorts and crocs. We covered a lot of water in 2 days for about 20 squid all up, I felt a bit better talking with some mates who said they could not find any at all in the same time frame. We battled the conditions all the same and had a ball doing so. Here is a few pics from the 2 days.

We also had a chance to play with some new light jigging gear that Gan Craft will be introducing to our market soon, PE1 and PE2 gear is a lot of fun and will suit our bays and outside in Vic waters perfectly and I look forward to seeing the gear here. Also had some fun catching flathead on the Big Spider Micro soon to be on aussie shelves.

After a days long fishing we managed to head to Gone Fishing Sales in Carrum Downs for another egi talk, another great night but this time we added a chef element to it, different thats for sure.

Jervis Bay

Image courtesy of Scott Thomas

A few weeks back I had the oppurtunity to head up to a place I have never before Gan Craft as they were in town doing some pictorial and film work with Fishing World Magazine, all started off well with the drive ufished, Jervis Bay in NSW was the destination. I drove up to meet with our friends Chube' and Kotaro from Gan Craft until a kamakaze Kangaroo jumped on to the road and made contact with the boat trailer near Broadford in Victoria, the roo managed to leave the left hand guard bent but no other damage, pulled into a road rest stop and managed to find some timber and used my jack to bend the guard back into shape. All good I kept on moving. I arrived in a nice small town Gerroa where I would be staying with our friends for a couple of days. I arrived to find both Kotaro and Chube' there but no sign of their fishing gear, was going to be a tough ask to catch a fish on film with no fishing gear, as luck would have it I had brought half my Garage up with me and included in the mess was a few Violence Jerks, this meant that the squid filming would go ahead. We had a fairly early night as the next morning saw an early start t a place called Hutchisons. In the dark of the orning we met with Jim Harnwell and his Camera man Scott Thomas who was kind enough to pop off a few shots of my boat floating something I dont have many of so massive thanks to Scott. Things started off a little slow but soon found the squid a long way from where we started off. We then got a call from the NSW sale rep Margret to let us know that they had arrived, Margret had picked up Yuki (osoi san) from the airport as he managed to miss his flight. It was good to see Yuki again, he always has a smile on his face. We headed back to pick them up and again headed back to where the squid were. Back in the same area Margret managed her first ever squid on one of the Gan Craft Australian Exclusive colors.
we spent a further 6 hours on the waters around Jervis and caught plenty of squid and salmon, although the kingfish were some what elusive, when we had arrived the reports from previous days had the Kings going crazy, however the should have been here yesterday phrase came up all too often., Not detered we kept at them and were beaten by them on the day.

The next day saw us again catching up with the fishing world team at the Shoalhaven River, this water way is known as a very versatile waterway with a good mix of fresh up high and salt down low with a brackish mix in the middle, the target was bass and again the should have been here yesterday phrase was baging between my ears again, we did manage one very small model that smashed a Gan Craft Big Spider Micro during lure testing, was a tough couple of days on the water but always great to fishi new water with ya mates.

Next couple of Days saw us head to Canberra, so far had done 1280km in 2 days looking at a few more to come.

Apologies

Massive sorry to every one that has been visiting this blog, I found out yesterday that my updates were not updating, for some reason the data was lost and I will update as soon as I can

Family Trip out on the PPB

Well it may come as a suprise too many that  with all the squid fishing I do that none of my family have ever caught a squid, the weekend gone saw an end to that with a family trip planned on Port Phillip Bay. Conditions started perfectly with no wind and a sunrise to die for, not sure how much the young one Maddison and my fiance Kim appreciated to early morning wake up at 0330 so we could be on the water by 0500 at Sorrento but we got up and made in time.

We did a few stops along the way starting in Sorrento and working our way over to the South Channel Marker picking up a dozen or so along the way, there is nothing like the look on a kids face when they get there first squid. Maddison had a grin from ear to ear and made all the right noises a kid makes when they load up on a fish, it was a very rewarding trip for me, I dont know who felt better me or her. Maddison was smashing them at one stage and had Kim and myself struggling for numbers untill we both struck back with a vengance.

Kim had never even been squid fishing before so this was also a first for her, in one trip we managed to break 2 squid virgins, from here we headed towards Portsea via Sorrento, cating away in Portsea I could hear a voice yelling at me from the pier, was good to hear Don Smith From Gone Fishing Sales in Carrum Downs getting a few from the pier, they ended up with 13 for the day between him and a mate. With only small squid around we headed for Point Nepean to see if we could find some bigger ones, not planning very well I arrived to find the tide gushing out at a rate of knots so finding a nice drift was tough. Packed up and again headed for Sorrento where I knew we would find enough squid to keep the whole family entertained for a few more hours.

These few hours shrunk very fast as some one on the boat turned as green as their shirt, although a bit of sea sickness never killed any one there was no need to stay out and be ill when we had caught and released more than enough squid to keep us all content, everyone had a great day I was wrapped to see the happiness on teh faces of my family as they caught there first squid cant wait to get out there again and do it with them some more.

Stage 1 of Boat pimping complete

Well part 1 of the boat pimping has taken place with thanks to Danny and Jo from Seaford Signs, they came in on their day off or should I say every one else's day off (public Holidy) to get the boat started, I have a big print to go in the middle yet and am excited to see how it will come up as it Danny the sign man, sorry about the pic it comes from my iphone and in my driveway will update when I get some on water pics over the next few days

Back blogging after the Christmas break

Taken a bit of time off to spend some time with friends and family over the Christmas break, was good to step away from the computer for a bit.

Dan with his deep fish on a UO-JYA

Did a couple of trips while I was off playing in the deeper water, with a mate Dan. We managed to find a couple of nice squid in those trips even though the calamari season normally slows at this time of the year with only smaller squid being caught.  We worked the deeper drops of Western Port from 8 to 22 meters looking for some squid that have been attacking baits of fishermen chasing Snapper and Gummy Sharks, many of the baits that have been presented for fish were coming back with the tell tale sight of the triangle bite in the back of the head so we put some egi in front of them to see what would happen and what do you know we found some squid and some good size for what we expect in February. Dan then took his son out to teach him the same as he has been learning and young Izzak landed his first squid egi style from a similar location, from what Dad (Dan) tells us he had only just cast his line out and before he could tie himself up he had this first coming back to the boat, great work from the young fella.

Young Izzak also on UO-JYA

With the change in many of the things we used to believe about the squid spawn and habits I have just written a letter of support to for Dr Corey Green at DPI to get some funding so we can start to get some serious answers about squid spawn, squid numbers and habitat. We hope that this research will get us on the way to understanding a bit more about the slimey little cephlapods and help us manage the fishery a little better if needed. At present we have zero scientific data for Southern Calamari in Australia, no one has ever conducted a census and no one has ever measured spawn cycle's. At first after reading the application I was a little concerned, in recent times fishermen in this country have been the subject to many species bans, closed seasons and unjustified closed areas for fishing, however, we have no data full stop on this species I decided that we as anglers have a responsibility to the species to ensure its future and we can not do this until we establish numbers, habitat and population doubling times.

Another deep squid on a UO-JYA

I thought I might throw this pic in while i was posting, on my return from a trip to Flinders a few days ago I came accross a massive boil in the water, the pic only shows a small area but note I was in the middle of the boil, fish were breaching for about an acre of water, at first I assumed they were just Salmon busting but with the water so clear I could see fish clearly, Salmon were in the school along with Couta, Pike and Slimeys all chasing Garfish. This means that there is lots of stuff chasing these fish into the bay, looking forward to the next few weeks when the Striped Tuna, Mako Sharks and Kings fire up just outside our great bays and harbors, no if only this wind would bugger off and let us all out to enjoy it.

Click on photo for better view