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John Campbell

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Exploring Bowen
November 06, 2009, 03:39:31 PM

Hey guys

Weather gods were being friendly yesterday and with Scott visiting family in townsville
for a few days it was decided we had to sneak out for a fish. with my big boat out of action
atm we decided to grab the tinny and head down to Bowen and do some exploring around some islands
as well as checking out the Abbott point jetty with which i garaunteed Scott he would hook a decent
GT ( big mistake making promises you cant keep )

After launching the boat and having to play dumb while Scott was pointing out all the schools of
mack tuna busting up we headed to some rocky points in the hope of getting on the board early,
this was nt to be the case but we did manage to hook and get next to the boat a mangrove jack of about
3kg before it fell off just as we were going to lift it in the boat, we were both pretty impressed to
see a fish of that size attack a 150gm cubera with the big hooks that go with it !!

after that we shot over to the jetty with high anticipation only to be shattered by not even seeing a fish
except for a couple of little gt following well behind the popper, this was my fifth trip to the jetty and on
all previous occassions you would nt go more than 3 or 4 casts without raising a strike, but today there was nothing  :(

our next move was to drive out some 16 mile to a couple of islands that looked great on the map with deep
water close to shallow coral flats and rocky outcrops around the back of the island, it looked even better once we got there with good current clean water tuna busting up everywhere and fusiliers milling around everywhere
once again things were slow with Scott hooking up on a solid fish before pulling the hooks and having the occasional follow but all in all things were quiet.

around the other side of the island we found a nice outcrop of rocks with some mad current pushing past and
after an extremely accurate cast to the rocks scott hooked up solid to a GT which had a spirited fight but succumed to scotts power play tactics ;)  the fish was about 14 or 15 kg.  this was to be the only GT caught for the day so we for the rest of the afternoon we threw slugs at the busting tuna and kept popping the
fusiliers and rocky points for no action except for some nice mack tuna.

some interesting happenings for the day was when scott bet me that he could throw his popper in between these 2 rocks and i said no chance, well he may have won the bet, but i feel as though i had the last laugh when we werent
able to retrieve his lure  ;D  also when scott decided that he did nt want to wait for me to make sandwhiches for
lunch and decided to take sashimi to a whole new level  (following pics will make these comments easier to follow)

All in all we had a good day except for the fishing being a little slow  >:(  and was good to catch up
with Scott with whom i met on a Nomad trip earlier this year, cheers Scott


John













John Campbell

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Re: Exploring Bowen
November 06, 2009, 03:59:16 PM
more pic














This was not from this trip but thought i would also include  was caught using 20lb braid
40lb leader and a little halco rooster popper, he chewed the popper to pieces and somehow
never managed to touch the leader







Tom Grubb

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Re: Exploring Bowen
November 06, 2009, 06:48:58 PM
thats fishing, gota love it.. :-) whats wrong with your big boat john? i recently went on a trip to haypoint coal jetty(mackay) as i have heard reports of GT's larger than the 1.5m wide pillers swimming around!! sign states you cant be within 50m of the jetty, we were 50-70m off only to be reported by security and asked to leave.. 4 hour drive for 20min fishing.. sounds like you had a ball with the mack tuna.. they are thick this year i reakon. any cast that accurate deserves a fish, if only it was in water :-)
PoPpInG mAd

Travis Heaps

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Re: Exploring Bowen
November 06, 2009, 08:09:25 PM
Nice one, love a good exploratory trip! Island sounds fishy, lack of gts at usual jetty haunt suggests it might have just been one of those days-good excuse to go back and try again! Shame about the Jack, would have made an interesting catch. Tom, 50m restricted zone shouldnt be an issue with an ok cast ;)

John Campbell

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Re: Exploring Bowen
November 06, 2009, 10:40:12 PM


Hi Tom  i am getting a new gps chartplotter put in and my dash is one big open area with wires everywhere, apparently i didnt spend enough for the dealer to install it in 2 weeks !!! >:(
yeah i have heard some impressive stories about hay point, not sure how long ago you went there
but since green peace carried on like pork chops and protested there a few months ago they have been really strict on recreational vessels, the tuna were going nuts, even just out from the last
marker at the marina they were busting up, i could nt believe the popper fit in there if it was 2 cm either way it would have bounced off

hey travis we were pretty amazed about seeing the jack but then again they are called a cubera snapper in panama i believe ? and we were using a nomad 150 cubera  :) will definately be going there again and those islands will be worth another look

Nathan Cefai

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Re: Exploring Bowen
November 07, 2009, 01:42:46 PM
nice works boys!!thats a big barra!

Scott Maybury

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Re: Exploring Bowen
November 07, 2009, 02:21:05 PM
John is being very kind about the bet, the cast was of course a total freak accident, misjudged the distance by about 2 feet and in she went, could not believe it! The only bet was whether it would come back out and I lost, it didn't

was great to get out hadn't been fishing for nearly 8 weeks and hadn't thrown a popper in much longer so just to get out was great and to get some string pulled was fantastic. Landed one more GT than I would have in my office

those tuna were mental if that were in Sydney we would have been fighting a dozen boats for them!

Thanks for the effort John hope to catch up again soon

Tom Grubb

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Re: Exploring Bowen
November 07, 2009, 06:24:24 PM
yes 50m restriction zone shouldnt be a worry with good casting.. funny you bring up the green peace, we were there the day after they got them off the jettys. i think it may have had a factor in security gettin rid of us, haha! give it a few months and they may have settled down again.

2 weeks to fit it your new gps/plotter, is that sent to brissy and back :-)

Any trip is 100x better than office work scott :-)
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Jay Burgess

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Re: Exploring Bowen
November 07, 2009, 06:40:21 PM
yes 50m restriction zone shouldnt be a worry with good casting..

yep 50m on our iron ore wharves over here... only a matter of time before I have a crack - I've seen 50kg+ fish while I've been at work!  :o

John Campbell

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Re: Exploring Bowen
November 09, 2009, 11:18:36 PM


 Hey scott was happy to make the effort, i had a day out of the office too  ;)
 Hope you had a less eventful trip home than you did on the way up mate
 and will have to catch up again soon

 These jettys hold some massive fish, although i am led to believe that abbott point
 is getting fished fairly regularly these days from a resort and new charter operation
 that has opened up on a nearby island, not sure how if that is making the GT a bit hook shy
 will have to get back and have another crack soon  :)

 Hey Tom next time you think about going to hay point we should get 3 or 4 boats together
 and make an assault, will keep security busy  ;D