Towra Point - 13-2-10

Three of us (Andrew, Stewart and I) hit the point, a spot we would've liked to have fished in the Squidgy Round the other week. But it was just a bit too far to travel with the predicted wind. We know there are some cracker fish around here over the weedbeds, so we planned to see how we'd go. Stewart brought the coffee (thanks, Stewie) and we arrived about 7am for kick off.

The water was fairly clear, even after all the rain and I started fishing in 1.5m with a shallow Jackal Chubby (pink). Stewart headed for some racks and Andrew went in close to the mangroves. Conditions were ideal and we were hoping for a good session.

I started off fairly well, landing a 28cm fork within 10 minutes. Ooh, almost as good a start as the Squidgy round. Then I landed a pike and soon after a 24cm fork bream that went back (I was only keeping comp legals in the live well).

The bite wasn't hot so I changed to a 2" shrimp (banana) rigged on a 1/32nd jighead and hopped that over the weeds. This was pounced on by a 40cm flattie and a couple of undersize bream and another two pike!

Back to the chubby I go and it's almost time for me to head in (I only had 90 minutes to fish) when I get a good whack that stays connected. This is much better and the drag sings in short sharp bursts. Into the net she goes and she's a beauty. 34cm fork length and one that'd you'd definitely want in your bag during a competition.

I land one more that 24 fork again and turn to head back in. I faintly hear a whistle though and turn to see Andrew heading towards me. Show off, he has one that goes 35cms fork so I grab a quick snapshot for him. He slips it in my livewell so I can get a photo on the mat on shore. He'd been using surface lures without much success, so he changed to a squidgy bug that he worked sub-surface and this is what did the trick. This was a top fish to pull out of the mangroves on 4lb leader, so well done, Andrew!

Later in the day I rang Stewart to see how he'd gone. I ended up with a great 3 fish bag - 2 x 34

cm fork and 1 x 35 cm fork. That'd would've weighed about 2.6 -2.7 kgs. And all caught in only 4 hours. Another 3 hours could've seen a few bigger fish landed, so the 3kg bag for 3 fish may have been cracked. So all up it was a great morning. The fish were all really healthy and I'd love to spend a few more hours around this location. Just remember that if you do head in this direction that there is a sanctuary zone up in Quibray Bay where all fishing is banned. So check the maps before you head out.

Over the weekend there was the ABT/Hobie round in Walpole, WA. Unfortunately, there were only eight participants and four of these were from interstate. (Well done to those guys for making the effort, too). I'm still hearing and reading things concerning events from yakkers along the lines of next year they'll enter, or that they forgot it was on this weekend. The facts may be that unless the tournaments get the numbers, there may not be a 'next year' to enter. There is a lot of effort and money invested by the organisers of these events and they can't justify running it for only a handful of competitors.

I know Walpole is not exactly close to Perth, but they still managed to get 34 boaters for that section, so I thought there'd be at least 15 yakkers that would enter. So for the sake of our sport, if you're keen to help it grow, put it in your diary and bite the bullet. They are great days and the camaraderie is brilliant. You'll learn heaps and maybe even take out the event and earn some cash. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid