The Fish Cure: November 2016

WISEMANS CHOICE ADVENTURES

SPECIFICATIONS

I had the pleasure of visiting the Wisemans Choice watercraft warehouse last week, Wisemans choice is located in the Hunter region of NSW in the town of Rutherford, just on the outskirts of Maitland. It was an absolute pleasure to finally meet Nathan Abela who is the managing director of the company. Nathan and I have developed a business relationship over the last 3 months. Nathan asked me to come aboard the company as a Pro Staffer/Media Consultant just in time to launch Wisemans flagship creation the 4 metre stand up anglers kayak. there has been nothing spared on this Kayak, it has been built for anglers who take not only just kayak fishing seriously, but this kayak will turn the heads of even the most avid boat anglers also.

The size of this Kayak is so accommodating and spacious, lets just say this kayak has been built for comfort. It is a whopping 4 metres in length, 900 cm in width and 40 cm in depth. It has a flat bottom with a v nose taper at the bow of the craft which makes it extremely stable on the water. Anglers can stand up in this kayak with confidence and even walk around the hull with little movement, the most impressive part of the stability of this hull is you can even stand on the bow of this kayak and flick lures around, now that is a game changer.

There are four fixed fishing rod holders throughout this kayak making rod storage issues a thing of the past, I have mounted two fishing rods on the left and right side of my seat with the mounts facing in a horizontal direction toward the bow of the boat, this allows my rods to have little to no hinderess from objects like tree branches, as I will be using this kayak in some of the tightest bass country with overhanging trees along the rivers edges, this allows me to duck and weave in and out of these structures without the fear of vertical facing rods in holders like many other kayak manufacturers design their crafts.

There are six scupper drain plugs throughout this kayak to allow out water that has made its way into the hull during paddling. It features one large storage compartment located at the bow of the kayak large enough to fit some of the bigger tackle cases like a Versus 3080 box in which i have stored in this compartment. Adjustable foot pedal to control the rear rudder to control the direction of this kayaks path. The kayak features two medium sized lockable storage sections located at the middle of the kayak on the floor just in front of the mounted seat and one large lockable storage compartment which can also double as a small live well for nippers and live prawns as this has a scupper drain plug that can be removed and replaced to allow water to fill up this compartment which i think is a innovative idea.

The seat design is what excites me on this yak, it is a raised seat with an adjustable backrest, this seat is very well designed as the comfortability it provides are far better than any kayak seat I have ever used which is a big plus to me as I suffer from lower back pain, so its almost paramount that i require a comfortable seating arrangement in a kayak so I do not leave a yak in more pain than i began with.

It has two side moulded carry handles and a one soft handle mounted on the bow and one mounted on the stern for ease of transportation, drink holder incorporated in the mould and front and back bungee cords that hold down the front and rear hatches with plenty of added extras like rail mounts. As I have stated "Nothing has been spared on the design of this Kayak" The kayak has an in-built electric trolling motor mount exclusive to this mould which allows an additional extra if the angler decides to mount one of Wiseman's Choice trolling motors which they have available in either 40 lbs or 55 lbs thrust by just adding the motor bracket to the rear located mount. Wiseman's Choice also has available a casting stability bar for ease of mounting on this yak, its just a matter of screwing in onto the existing mounts on the sides on the craft for anyone that wants the added piece of mind while standing up in this kayak.

The net weight of this watercraft is 33kg and its carrying capacity is a huge and impressive weight of 250 kgs. This was also one of the most important factors for me as I have a 30 kg 120 Ah deep cycle AGM battery mounted behind my raised seat to power my electronics and even with a heavy power source like that it still sits amazing in the water.

ELECTRONICS

I have had a lot of questions on social media with the congenuity of convience this kayak has in terms of its design being made for serious anglers who are searching for kayak that isn't too expensive and in the price range for most anglers, but still meets the requirements of some of the more expensive models made by other companies marketed at the same group of fishos. Now when choosing where to mount, install and run cables for electronics on this kayak Wiseman's Choice have well accommodated the burden of installation easing up some of the more stressful issues when installing your electronics. I decided to go with a Lowrance HDS 9 Gen 3 unit to install on this kayak and the standard sounder mounts available to anglers at most boating and tackle stores has a universal rectangle mount on their sounder carriers. So it was just a matter of screwing it into the pre existing screw holes provided in the yaks design, therefore allowing you to not have to drill any unnecessary holes into the plastic of this hull.

Now because there is many scupper plugs throughout the hulls mould, installing a transducer is a breeze. There are so many options to mount the transducer through the whole craft. If your decide to rear mount the transducer on the stern of the hull, there is a pre existing hole on the port side to run the transducer cable up through to the unit of the echo sounder using plastic cable securing clips alongside the yak, or run through the body of the kayak. I chose to mount my transducer under the kayak through the scupper plug underneath my seat, therefor i could hide any excess cables from the transducer. Lowrance have available a scupper transducer mount, which replaces your scupper plug with this mount you put through the drain plug and attach the transducer underneath your kayak and seals the hole back up to avoid any leakages into the hull of the kayak.

Now because this kayak is a weight of 33 kgs, it can be a ,little hard to manage by yourself mainly due the weight and combined length of this kayak, so what i have done is place the kayak on a Kayak trolley. Kayak trolleys are available from most boating and tackle stores for a small price, this will allow you to transport to the kayak to and from the waters edge, making it a very manageable water craft.

Wisemans Choice as a company seem to have their finger on the pulse for the design and craftsmanship that goes into these Australian Owned products and have basically the whole market under wraps with a huge range of Kayaks, Double kayaks, Kids kayaks, Canoes, SUPS and water sport accessories. The website displays a vast variety of whats on offer.... One thing is will say is "You will be happy with the pricing, These products are priced extremely well and is more than affordable to every Fisherman, Sportsman and avid adventurer". Check their website:

www.wisemanschoice.me

Its been a while since my last update on the website and I do apologize. There has been a fair amount going on at my end. My renegade 420 has gone through some very cool changes of late. Lowrance Australia and Tonic Eyewear have given the boat a full custom freshwater themed wrap.

alot went into the process of this wrap with a lot of design work performed by Allen Chew from Monster Graphix, Allen is a fantastic graphic designer that specializes in mainly marine and Fishing designs and artwork and let me tell you this dude really knows his stuff. I was able to partake in the design features of this wrap, and over many back and forth emails with Allen, he came up with this amazing Bass, Murray Cod and Golden Perch design that literally blew me away when i seen the draft copies of the design.

The full effect of the boat came together when Richard Potter from X Factor Signs layed the artwork on the hull. This was the first time I have met Richard and Rich has really made his mark on the industry with amazing work on some of the most reknown tournament boats in the country including Carl Jaocumsens Skeeters. and he made the final effect on the renegade come to life. I thank you both very much Allen and Richard

www.monstergraphix.com.au/

www.xfactorsigns.com/

The boat has Had a Motorguide xi5 with pinpoint gateway fitted thanks to Mercury Marine Australia, Point one GPS Atenna fitted from Lowrance, and also Lowarnce supplied the bow of the boat with another HDS 12 Gen 3 thats linked to the helm unit.

This year I started filming a mini Bass documentary/ Passion Video on our amazing native Australian Bass called Chasing Bronze. Its apart of my new branched video productions Cattai Cast Productions. This video will outline exactly what Bass fishing does for me and many other anglers across this country. We will be filming for most of the Bass season and will be edited throughout next year and hopefully released late February/March so stay tuned.

This Bass season has been a slower one than usual compared to most other seasons with plenty of Bass caught but the big ones a few and far. The Bass have really started to fire on surface lures, this is what cranks my gears, just in time for some new Jackall Lures surface cicadas.

The Bream have moved out on the depths now and started moving into the shallows on the flats, this gives me perfect opportunities to target them on some shallow diving Jackall Chubby Cranks. Now Bream fishos know that this is not always an easy task as the Bream sit high into the mangroves and can be a task to get them to bite and extract them from the hiding posts. Stay tuned for more of this fishing in the coming weeks.

A few fun sized Kingfish have filled our Harbour this spring, sometimes taking Bream lures and punishing me on 6 pound gear, some of them you can play out, some of them usually come off better.

George here landed a beaut of a king, going 80 cm in his kayak while fishing for Mulloway.

A few Lowrance electronics presentations done throughout the winter and springtime, if your in the area when I do one of these presentations please come along as this is a very informative show that I present which leaves fishos asking a crazy amount of questions and trouble shooting. This is a wealth of information for many fishos to learn how to use their electronics instead of just having them as ornaments on the boat.

This was a Prenetation i dis at Castle Hill RSL Club.

As many might know by now, Last winter had me leave OSP Lures and join the famous Jackall Lures Company., I also left Gary Loomis's Edge rods, Toray Braid Japan and joined Gosen PE Braid and Tairyo rods. This shift was on my own behalf and does not represent any ill manner on any of these companies or their products, it was just a change for a different direction I am going and puts me in a greater position for future direction.

Now there has been a fair amount of cool products that all these companies have supplied me to test out on the water on which I will go into more detail with in the future, but here is a few product photos for you to have a look at.