New South Wales AUSTRALIA


Australia is known for some of the most unique and awe-inspiring scenery on the planet. Weath- ered rocks and rugged cliffs contrast picture- postcard sandy beaches, while diverse flora and fauna constantly remind you of the special char- acter of this continent. The brochures don’t lie, there’s nothing like it, ample reason to visit. You could come here to kayak fish for coastal


World-Class Bass Bonanza


El Salto candy. PHOTO: PAUL LEBOWITZ


species such as red snapper, trevally and kingfish, but they are available the world over. Instead, turn your attention to bream (pronounced brim). Scrappy fighters, they aren’t huge, akin to small- mouth with a salty twist. When active they’ll crush crankbaits and smack topwaters with an unbridled aggression, serving up adrenaline- filled, non-stop fishing action. Yet in a moderate mood they’re fussier than a snobby food critic nursing a bad case of indigestion. The charismatic fish are at the heart of the bustling New South Wales kayak fishing scene, where fields of up to 100 anglers vie for the biggest. Catching fish is merely the icing on the cake


when floating on New South Wales’ breathtak- ing waters beneath southern hemisphere sun- shine. It’s only the beginning: surfing lessons, nature walks, skydiving, winery tours, reptile and animal parks, and whale watching cruises—it’s all here. —Tim Allard


Primal paradise. PHOTO: STEVE THOMSEN


Chart Your Course


SEA OTTER LODGE $600 a night for up to 14; www.seaotterlodgebc.com.


Chart Your Course


ANGLER’S INN INTERNATIONAL, EL SALTO All-inclusive four-day packages range from $1,400–2,000 depending on options, including ocean fishing out of Mazatlan. Hobies and Ocean Kayaks are available by prior arrangement; www.anglersinn.com.


BEST MONTHS Any time; the bass spawn a sped-up three times a year.


BEST BAITS Topwater, topwater, topwater. Also lizards, lipless cranks and Senkos.


EL SALTO EMBRAC E


The spectral white bones of the ghost forest float above the lake’s surface. Tall cardön cactus stand sentinel on shore, watching over the horses come to drink. All are draped in the cool mists of dawn. I carefully size up a lane in the trees and send the bait off with a hopeful whoosh. The bass erupts only three feet from shore, engulfing the hapless topwater plug. The solid six-pounder dashes for the sticks. I get it, but not until sweating out a thorny embrace. It’s a fitting welcome to El Salto, where the fish are thick and brawny, and the shoreline brush hungers for a kayak angler’s blood.


VISITOR SERVICES Tourism British Columbia, www.hellobc.com/vi.


TRANSPORTATION Arrive via the enjoyable BC Ferries, www.bcferries.com.


BEST MONTHS July through September


BEST BAITS Painted leadheads and buzz bombs. For fly flingers, clouser minnows in the kelp and tandem hooked bucktails for salmon.


Roughing it at Salmon Central


Kyuquot Sound Wilderness PACIFIC NORTHWEST


Experience the grandeur of a primal seashore and the pull of a salmon on the bucktail trailing in your wake. Camp on deserted wilderness beaches or luxuriate in your own little floating lodge with your buddies on a seven-acre island along a wild, emerald coast. One of several large sounds scalloping the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Kyuquot is an exquisite, cold water, island-studded, inlet-laced, kayak fisherman’s paradise. For salmon, it’s a literal El Camino Real (highway of kings), but it is the highway of coho as well. This


stunning 30-mile stretch between Tachu Point and the monolithic Brook’s Peninsula packs more inspi- ration and better fishing than the entire outer coast of Vancouver Island or Haida Gwaii. The sound has recorded phenomenal king and coho catch rates in recent years. While salmon are the premier quarry here, there is good fishing for halibut, black rock bass, lingcod


and any number of bottom species, with nothing of civilization other than a few scattered logging camps, the odd fish farm, and the roadless Kyuquot Village, the northernmost of the 14 Nuu-chah- nulth First Nation bands. The old chestnut about the beauty of the places that fishing takes us was never more apropos. —Rob Lyon


www.kayakanglermag.com… 37


Bream battled. PHOTO: TIM ALLARD


Southern Scrappers


Chart Your Course


VISITOR SERVICES Tourism New South Wales, www.visitnsw.com.


BEST MONTHS Bream bite year round. December to April is best for surface lures.


BEST BAITS Ecogear hard baits or Grassminnows Texas-Rigged; Berkley Bigeye Blade; Gulp Turtleback Worm and Shrimp.


CAN’T MISS DIVERSION Sydney Harbor sightseeing with a stop at the Opera House www.sydneyoperahouse.com.


PHOTO: TIM ALLARD


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