Hairy's Laker

danmull · Post by **danmull** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 4:02 am

HIYA GD
lol one thing with woodworking itsnever a mistake or a oops. lol its just one more thing you have to fix .. hardest part of working with wood is just like doing anything yourself. you just have to get over the fear of what you think is a mistake. lol to eveyone else<unless its is told> its just a custom application. i built the free plan canoe for me and my son and even he was telling me what to do lol.

have fun

GuinnesDraught · Post by **GuinnesDraught** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 7:30 am

thanks all for being such an inspiration

I think i'm gonna go for the free version of the laker as my first build as take it as it comes

I love these sorta little challenges anyways so don't think it'll be a total failure

especially when i have you guys to consult when i hit a snag

will check for the ply this weekend but the weather here is not to great at the moment so gotta wait till it settles

btw guys...do you really need marine ply wood or will any other good quality plywood get the job done?
I'm in Sri Lanka and so far my friends tell me that indonesian ply wood is the best available here...he didn't know anything about marine plywood

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 7:54 am

Ahh a Sri Lankan - Outstanding!!.

Mate, It doesn't really need to be Marine Ply. Ply with water proof glue is better - is all.

When you are selecting your ply, look for three genuine layers of ply wood if you can. Many of the cheaper plys, have a very thin veneer on either side with some sort of filling compound betwen them. This ply is OK also, just a but harder to work with.

I don't know about Indonesian ply but I suspect that some of ours comes from there as well. if you can select your sheets, look for ones without voids and that will lie flat and are not warped too much.When you get them, keep them lying flat and keep them dry.

Once they are coated in epoxy, and become a boat they will be fine.

My laker is build out of the cheapest and nastiest ply you could imagine. It was mae from sheets I had rejected for other builds so it was the worst from a very ordinary batch of sheets and the boat still turned out pretty good. One sheet was so bad, that one side of veneer had delaminated from the core stuff. Even that was repairable.

Mate, the free laker is a fine boat. It is way to good to be free in my opinion but there ya go.

Please share with us your build adventures and piccies if you can and we wll all chip in and try to help where we can.

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:09 am

I think the luan ply we have here in the states is from Sri Lanka or Indonesia. I used it and it worked fine but, I probably would spend the extra money for the marine grade stuff next time.

GuinnesDraught · Post by **GuinnesDraught** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:21 am

G'day Mick
another little question for you and this is not about the kayak

I've never fished off a kayak/canoe though i've been offshore fishing and casting for a while...
just a plain dumb question?

how do you fish off from a kayak and what sorta baits do you use?
do you use livies, dead baits or artificial lures etc..
II noticed that you've caught a fish from your laker by using a spoon

I use clarkspoons when in troll for kingfish here and that's about it

btw...did a small photoshop job on robin's laker...hope she won't mind

when i finish mine i'm hoping to get it some where near this

hairymick · Post by **hairymick** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:03 am

GD, I love the colour mate! I was foolish enough to say so just as Robin walked past and the remark got me a smack up the side of my head.

re the lures, I like to use hard body minnow type lures mostly or soft plastics. een experimenting a bit with topwater stuff from the states lately with varying degrees of success. A lot of American tackle and tactics work very well on our spcies here as well.

As a last resort, if all else fails, I use live bait. small fish or crusteceans. Metal spoons work well on our pelagics but I don't go off-shore much anymore.

Re how I fish, Generally, I mount a couple of adjustable rod holders in front of me and just paddle around dragging a couple of lures. sometimes I drift along the banks and cast lures or baits at structure.

I left the front bulkhead out of my laker so I would have somewhere to poke the bigger fish out of the way till I can get to shore and fillet them. If I don't have to kill them, I just let most of them go.

A kingfish from a laker would be a great experience!

we don't get many this far north if we are talking about the same species. Spanish mackeral, I think the Americans call the same fish King Mackeral and the South Africans call them cuda were my main target species off shore, up to about 40 pounds - all teeth and attitude. I used to subdue them with a club before bringing them on board.

the locals reckon it used to be a heck of a sight, a grey haired old coot belting hell out of a fish beside his sea kayak - 7 or 8 miles off-shore, then dragging it into the cockpit and heading straight back in before the fish could spoil.

I am better equipped now with my southwind but am just too darn lazy to go to all the trouble anymore. There is a smaller species of mackeral (7 - 10 pounds) that schools much closer in (only a couple of miles out) that I will probably get stuck into this season. Big diving minnows or big spoons work very well on them.

GuinnesDraught · Post by **GuinnesDraught** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:37 am

Mick
sorry to have gotten you into trouble mate

on fishing...i also buy most of my tackle from either australia or usa. buy my offshore rods from australia and most of my lures from usa... Huge fan of mann's lures

recently got myself some bill lewis rattle traps... haven't caught anything o them yet but i'm sure they'll be great to be dragged behind a kayak

never tried softplastics so far... this must be like the berkley gulp series right?
anyway...must get the kayak project off the starting line as soon as the weather clears and getting myself the tools needed...
I'm reading the build instructions almost every night to get myself full familiarized with the process

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:13 am

I love top water fishing. I use either the Top Dog Jr. by Mirro-lure or the zara-spook Jr. White with red or the chartreuse yellow color. Use the “walk the dog” technique, faster and with more action in the hot months and slower and less action in the cooler months. Also helps to downsize when cold.

Basically, to “walk the dog” you cast out and after the lure settles down give it a quick twitch. It will usually dart to the left or right. Then give it another twitch and it will dart back the other way. You want to set up a left, right, left, right motion of twitching with the lure. For some fish keep it moving for others it helps to stop twitching for a few seconds and let the lure rest. Then start the action again. I have caught all kinds of fish with top water like snapper, ladyfish, drum (trout and reds), lizard fish, mackerel, bonita, snook and just about any other predatory fish. Practice makes perfect. Set out to use nothing but top water one day and you will improve and get the hang of it. It is by far may favorite way to fish. If there is a lot of floating grass it is a pain to use them though and they usually don’t work under those conditions.

Mirro-lure

Heddon zara-spook

Good luck!

surfman · Post by **surfman** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:19 am

Also, the super braid lines work a lot better due to the sensitivity and the lack of memory. Fishing with mono is like fishing with a slinky. Try to always keep tension on the line while “walking the dog” and if a fish strikes and misses you won’t do a false hook set. With the braid if the fish gets the lure you will know, then you set the hooks. I always mash the barbs down on the treble hooks on those lures as well, it makes unhooking them a lot easier. Occasionally one will get off but, most of the times the hooks hold just fine as long as you keep pressure on the line.

GuinnesDraught · Post by **GuinnesDraught** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:17 am

surfman
yep..superbraids like powerpro doesn't have stretch that's usually associated with conventional lines like flurocarbon etc... and it's thin profile also helps for longer casts...
but you gotta be little careful when a fish make s run for it cos fast moving braid can easily and will easily cut your hands...

we also use mirrolures and some rapala top waters here... and yo-zuri poppers are also popular

these are all must have tackle when casting here in sri lanka