Hi Fellow Yak Fishos,

Ive recently invested into a kayak after considering this for some time. I am originally from QLD and have spent my youth fishing off the beaches of the islands and estuary's out of boats with the old man, but that was very much traditional bait fishing.

Ive been trying this soft plastic/lure fishing thing after many hours of youtube fishing adventures showing how much fun it can be with a bit of bait, but have had extremely limited success and am getting a bit demoralised given my apparent ineffectiveness on all fronts.

I live up in Mill Park so Port Melbourne seems to me to be the closest PPB access point, thus why I have been launching from here and it also seems relatively protected.

I am hoping that there may be some people on this forum who may be keen to find a companion or at least willing to have one tag along and learn a bit from you on a few fronts being PPB/Victorian Angling in general, Soft plastics/lures and also fishing out of the yak most effectively.

Id also appreciate if anyone has any suggestions of a local anglers club that is active and you think someone like me may find enjoyable/useful.

Thanks in advance.

P.S Maybe someone will spot me on the water, I drive a green Native Slayer Propel 13, my seat has red pool noodle arm rests which are a custom comfort mod, always up for a chat and company.

There are several angling clubs around that I am sure would welcome you. Hobsons Bay Angling Club might be worth a look. I think they are near the Yarra mouth. You can google angling clubs. The club of which I am a member would welcome you, but I think Upwey is just a bit far for you.

Welcome. I think there are a couple of yakkers that are members of the Mitcham Angling Club. If you are down Mornington way, we can always catch up. I only fish with sp's.

On a nice morning you will find quite a few kayaks;
- Altona - End of Millers Rd. There is a ramp
- Werribee South (Campbells Cove) - Campbells cover road. Launch at Car park end of this road. There were 9 kayaks out Tuesday morning.

A lot of these guys use bait or SP. Its usually one or the other though.

Hi there,
As Maverick says, there are indeed a growing number of active kayakers at the Mitcham Angling Club (3 of us at present). There are also a great group of very knowledgeable booties there, and I have learnt heaps in the past few years from them

Don't get discouraged with your soft plastics. I have carried them in my tackle box since they were first available in Australia perhaps 50 years ago. I had never caught a fish on one. One day about 15 years ago I got hold of a sqidgy DVD and decided to give it a red hot go. For the next three day for 8 or 9 hours I worked the waters of lake Eildon into a foam with all the recommended patterns and retrieves etc. Result; a big doughnut. I Emailed Steve starling who was the face man on the DVD and told him the story accusing him of selling dud tackle. He responded and promised me that if I kept going it would work. I decided to put in one more day. Result; one redfin no bigger than the lure I was using. I packed it all away in disgust. Then a few weeks later I finished work a little early and just thought I would have a few casts to kill some time. 30 minutes later I had a rainbow trout a brown trout a good redfin and a yellow belly all on the same SP. From that day to this most of my fish have come on SPs. I still use hard bodies and bait but the standard is SP.