Maiden voyage… The Blue Gnu

As some of you may recall, I was a keen yak fisho around 8 years ago and enjoyed writing a good yarn about my adventures with “Happy Hooker” when the sport was relatively new. I have have been out of the kayaking game for a little while now for whatever reasons, however thanks to the stars all aligning perfectly I am now back, and I am back with a vengeance. Thanks to Dennis T from Australian Kayak Specialists, I am now the proud owner of a aqua blue Stealth BFS, which I have aptly christened as “The Blue Gnu”.

As you could imagine, I am over the moon about returning to the sport and being the proud new owner of my dream Stealth. But as they say in the movies, good things always come in pairs. Not only do I have a new toy to paddle, I have also been rewarded with a new little fishing buddy, my youngest son, who has joined the addiction with his first ski, an Erics Tunny.

Now, obviously I had planned to start the return to my sport with an amazing tale of an hour long epic battle with a prize longtail tuna (See session 2/3 here) and the stories about “the one that got away”, but alas, when we arrived at our chosen launch spot at Noosa we were greeted with dark skis, rising swell, and a dream crushing shorey.

Not exactly the start I wanted, especially after convincing my beautiful bride that the investment in the new ski would see a banquet of fresh seafood on the table. Today would not be day we indulge in fresh sashimi or crispy skin snapper fillets.

All was not lost however. The beauty of Noosa is that when the surf side is ordinary, the river is usually protected. As it turned out, it was the perfect conditions to take the young fellow out on his maiden voyage. This trip would see us retreat to the calm conditions of the river, spend a little time getting used to how the skis reacted on the water, get comfortable with the basics, and take in some of the amazing surrounds of Noosa.

We paddled for hours, tested our might against an outgoing tide with 15 knot head winds, and simply got comfortable with our new fishing platforms. For me, I’m glad the weather was ordinary as I got to spend some quality time with my youngest son and share some great yarns about the epic fishing battles which he has yet to experience. And if it couldn’t get any better, I found Kkaleesi along the way :) .

For now, we are eagerly watching the weather reports and dreaming about the first blooding of our skis. So keep your eyes peeled, because before you know it we will be out there on the deep blue, and I for one have some serious catching up to do.

Tight lines…