EVER since I can remember going fishing as a youngster, tilapia were a regular catch from Oxley Creek and North Pine Dam. Unfortunately, tilapia have rapidly spread in the past decade and seem to have infested almost every waterway. I live near Oxley in the western suburbs and while riding bikes with the kids have observed the populations of tilapia …

When reeling squid in, keep them in the water and don’t lift them out because when you do, they tend to fire ink, and in a kayak it’s likely to be right at you. Once alongside, slide the net under the squid and point the top of the tube in your direction so any ink gets shot away from you, …

I leave off rod holders and keep the deck of my kayak bare for the fly line. If I take other rods, I don’t sit them upright in rod holders, I lay them down either in a hatch or secured along the side of the hull. My fly rods are over 8’ long, so I use a landing net with …

Every combination has its difficulties and I usually try a few different ways before deciding on which setup nests together the tightest. Even pairing the big Hobie with a small kids’ kayak is no problem. Adding two or more kayaks to the roof of the car increases drag noticeably and decreases fuel economy, in my experience adding just over two …

For me summer means kayak fishing in creeks and rivers. Most watercourses can be paddled fairly easily but sometimes they can be blocked by log jams.  To make it easier to traverse such obstacles, try to limit how much gear you take with you. Even the smaller kayaks such as a Freak Assassin GT will weigh over 25kg without your …

Being fibreglass, canoes are quite light and their length means you can lift one end onto the car, then lift the other and slide it up on the roof racks, avoiding a dead lift of the whole thing like you have to do with most kayaks. Up until this point, I had been taking the kids out in a small …