Thanks to Nick and a little elbow grease, my new tinny had finally been serviced and was ready to hit the water. Yes, we’d given it a few quick runs while working on it, but nobody had caught a fish off of it yet.
Thankfully, that all changed on Sunday morning when my sister and I headed out for a quick fish on Cowan Creek. We’d originally decided to give it a miss due to recent heavy rains and strong winds, but conditions were better than expected in the morning and so we made a last minute call to head out. We boiled a few eggs, made a flask of coffee (which we forgot), packed the rods, and headed for Apple Tree Bay.
We had the boat in the water by 9:30am, and immediately headed north in search of some cleaner water. Not wanting to go too far on it’s first run, we settled on Smith’s Creek, fishing the bays and the edges. It was slow going until we noticed some baitfish being chased around a bay. As we approached I spotted a school of tailor and quickly flicked my soft plastic out towards them. Kerry meanwhile faced a unique challenge; we’d just put up and bimini and she found herself caged and unable to cast. I meanwhile hooked into a decent 30cm tailer while she grumbled and tried to find a way to cast around the frame. And then, as quickly as it had started, things went quiet. We lowered the bimini in case the fish returned, but that was the last we saw of them.
Having finally caught a fish off the boat, I was feeling happy as and decided to do some exploring. We took the boat up a small creek into some mangroves, and then I had a quick swim. From their we fished our way back, flicking smaller prawn lures into structure along the edges. A white-bellied sea-eagle flew over us while we were fishing, so close that I could almost touch it. And then a lone prawn swam up to the boat as if to confirm our lure choice.
The trip back proved more successful. Kerry landed a small snapper, while I got one more tailor and a another small snapper.
After getting the boat back onto the trailer we stopped off at the Bobbin Inn Cafe for an iced coffee, and then headed home to relax the afternoon away. Cowan Creek is an interesting venue, it can be great when things turn on, but I haven’t really worked it out otherwise. I think a few more trips are in order.