# Back to Bowen QLD



## juliandm (Feb 6, 2014)

So after spending the summer on the Gold Coast, I returned to Bowen. This time with a kayak and ready to catch some fish! With Cyclone Ita arriving a day after me I decided to keep the kayak on the roof of the car for a little bit as I didn't fancy being at sea when it arrived. With the calm before the storm and a high tide around 8pm I hit my favourite rock to see what was swimming, after a few casts I landed a nice 48cm Mangrove jack on a little metal jig and remembered how much different the fishing is up here!










Lots of splashes all around the rocks and all of a sudden a little stingray the size of a teacup leaps out of the water up onto the rock I'm on with a good 20kg spanish mack on its tail! As soon as it happended the mack shot off and the lucky little stingray swam off. Who would have thought that a Spaniard would go after a stingray! All in broad daylight in 2m of crystal clear water!!

Anyway, put a popper on and after about 30 casts of failed hookups, I was into a tarpon! First I've caught of the Australian variety and lots of fun!










Once night fell, the jacks came hard on the chew with another 2 fish in the 40cm bracket and then I hook up with a weird fish, jack like run for cover, then a long run then nothing but a bit of weight... hmmm something was up and then I saw the reason! Sharked! Decided to call it a day and wait for the cyclone to arrive.










Anyways... to the kayak fishing. After the cyclone passed I decided to have a shot in the cloudy and debris ridden waters the cyclone left us with. Without much hope of a fish but with a new sounder to test I launched around lunchtime and cruised out to a bommie and a known mack hotspot. After a few trolls around the island my little x-rap 10 goes whizzing off faster that I've ever heard it go. A quick run in one direction followed by a change of direction and this time a serious run, about 150m of 20lb braid line peels off my little 4000 reel and seconds later, nothing. I reeled in expecting to have been reefed but it turns out it had snapped the trebles clean in half (I even thought I better change the flimsy looking trebles before I left but I forgot!) Some big longtails caught recently but I'll never know what it was.

After that event I decided to make another pass going close to the rocks and against the current as fast as I could which then got me a 60cm GT which in comparison felt like nothing! Next attempt was to cast a big poppers where the GT came from which go absolutely smashed! After a few runs I could feel that thumping feeling down the line of a big trevor. After a good 25 min fight, I was with my PB and first Bludger? Trevally which went 9.5kg.










Decided to take him home as he was rather spent after such a long fight. Whilst the locals say they're only good for the crab pots I think they just dont know how to cook! He was delicious and i'll be the first to say a fresh fillet of bled and iced trevally is always going to be better than a frozen fillet of mistreated coral trout.










All in all a great first outing up in the tropical North, can't wait for the water to clear up and the blue water to come back!

One thing that I wasn't sure about was whether my sounder was installed properly. I installed the sounder with Selleys all clear and was careful to not get bubbles but I'm not sure if I was successful. There are lots of little bubbles in the allclear that got squashed up between the foam ring and the transducer when I installed it. Anyway, the settings on the sounder are on full auto so my question is really; is this a normal amount of clutter on the surface or should I rip the transducer out and start again? It holds bottom fine and I can see reef and boulders etc but having never had a sounder before I don't know what to expect!


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Nice Trevally! I think how good they taste comes down to personal preference alng with a big dose of perception. Dad loves them, Mum hates them, all my murri neighbours love them, my wife hates them. The local pros seem to have no trouble selling the stuff when it's sold fresh as "mixed estuary" fillets!

Good to read a "local" report for a change, I've been wondering what the fishing has been like lately....I've been out of the loop a long time!


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## kaseydog (Apr 13, 2013)

Great report , Love those Jack


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

Well done JD, fun times, u r in Gods country M8 enjoy.


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

Stippy said:


> Nice fish mate, thanks for posting. I can only dream of getting fish like that down here in Sydney.
> 
> I'm sure someone will chirp in with some advice re the sounder shortly, I'm afraid I've got no idea.


Looks like 'noise' on the sounder. I would suggest playing with you signal strength settings rather than relying on auto. Once you start playing with it, you should be able to adjust that surface clutter out.

Kev


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## krustayshen (Oct 14, 2013)

Well done on the Trev's , it is a goal of mine to catch one from the kayak.


juliandm said:


> One thing that I wasn't sure about was whether my sounder was installed properly. I installed the sounder with Selleys all clear and was careful to not get bubbles but I'm not sure if I was successful. There are lots of little bubbles in the allclear that got squashed up between the foam ring and the transducer when I installed it. Anyway, the settings on the sounder are on full auto so my question is really; is this a normal amount of clutter on the surface or should I rip the transducer out and start again? It holds bottom fine and I can see reef and boulders etc but having never had a sounder before I don't know what to expect!


With the sounder if trying different settings does not work, I would mount it through one of the scupper holes. Lowrance has a you tube clip that goes through the installation using a Lowrance scupper mount on a Hobie Revo.

If you have to re-do your through hull mount try Sika-flex self leveling sealant. Cut your foam ring bigger than the transducer, stick it to the hull and fill the ring with the self leveling sealant and place the transducer in the solution. It will take 48 hours to cure. Because this sealant is self leveling there is less chance of getting bubbles.
This method of installation is currently working fine for me.

Cheers Greg


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## clarkey (Jan 13, 2009)

Awesome trev mate,love the thumping feeling of trevally as they circle below.


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## gonetroppo (Jan 29, 2011)

FYI your sharked fish looks like a golden snapper or fingermark, looks like its spot on its back got taken by the shark, same family as jacks. On the sounder, adjusting the settings helps but some days I think it can just be stuff in the water giving weak returns.


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## juliandm (Feb 6, 2014)

Thanks guys, decided to just pull the transducer out and stick it back in again, hopefully that'll sort it out. Lots of wind forecast so won't be using the yak anyway. 
@gonetroppo, the pics gold colour is pretty misleading. It's just the crappy iPhone flash that made it look gold. It was very red in real life!

@krustayshen, turns out bowen doesn't have that levelling sikaflex so just had to use allclear again but this time I heated it so it was much runnier which should help.


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## giblet (Sep 1, 2013)

Nice fish mate, would of been a mint session  I love the taste of trevs and maccies. I'd be more inclined to throw back the reefies than a pelagic. I have the same sounder as you and I've always wounded if it was installed right as I get pretty good reading going over bombies and reefs but all that clutter on the screen never looked right. Let me on how your latest install went when you get a chance.


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