Yakabout - Bowen Island, Middle Ground, Pt Perpendicular

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Bowen Island, Middle Ground, Pt Perpendicular

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Saturday, 27 September 2008

Great day for sailing and fishing

50cm snapper

With a forecast temp of 27 °C and moderate winds there was no way I could let the day pass without taking the AI (Adventure Island) out for a spot of fishing and sailing. The weather report was spot on as far as the prophesized sunshine goes, but it did get the wind directions wrong. I'd planned for a southerly blowing in the morning, turning to a northerly in the afternoon but at the heads of Jervis Bay the opposite seemed to be happening. This dictated a quick change of plans, as my original intention was to sail a considerable distance north with the assistence of a tailwind coming from the south in the morning, and then sail back south when the wind changed to a northerly.

Sea-skunk pike

Instead of sticking to the original plan I decided to be a little less ambitious, still starting out heading north, but not with intention to go as far as I'd planned. I tacked my way towards Pt Perpendicular, hugging Bowen Island along the way and passing through the middle ground reef at the half-way point. I was trolling a Rapalla X-RAP lure almost the entire way, but throughout the first hour I managed only one fish - a large, stinky pike. I had no intention of bringing the thing aboard, so I held it at the waters surface for a few moments and allowed it to flip itself free.

Winds picked up when I reached the point, so I decided to take advantage of it and play around for a while. Before long it died down to almost nothing, which I took as an opportunity to head back to throw some plastics around the middle ground reef. On my first cast I felt a few good bites that felt suspisciously like snapper. The next cast resulted in a hook up and as I reeled it in I became certain it was a snapper. It felt like a fair fish and I was pleased to see that when the 45cm specimen came to the surface, dinner was sorted.

45cn Snapper

A short while later I caught another snapper, this time putting up a better fight. Measuring up at 50cm, that was dinner for the neighbours squared away. I caught another one soon after, but being a bit smaller than the other two, was released. They were biting on a 5" squidgy flick bait (pilchard style) and wouldn't touch anything else I threw at them. My last 3 of these handy little lures were demolished by these three fish and after a while I gave up trying to catch them with anything else.

A little while later the wind came on again, so I took the opportunity to set sail homeward. I covered a fair distance today (26km) and trolled a lure most of the way. I was shocked that the only fish I caught while trolling was the pike. Indeed, I was aiming for something a little more brag-worthy. I've been told it's still a bit early for tuna so perhaps I was wasting my time trying. Oh well... the sailing was fun regardless.