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After an uneventful trip to the South, we returned to Jenny Louise yesterday. We enjoyed a morning swim and some bait fishing and popper casting as we made our way north again from overnight at Noggin Reef, side by side with Kekoa we both dropped the baits in just on lunchtime and that is where our luck diverged for the rest of the day. While we trolled and marked several fish, they did not come up for us. Meanwhile, the boys on Kekoa were on fire. Within minutes of putting the baits in were hooked up on a double header and successfully released a 350lb-er while a much bigger fish got away. And not too long after, another bite saw frisky 150lb-er released as well. Also fishing right next to us was Ultimate Lady who released 3 from 3 for the second day in a row at the shoal.Very happy the fish are still here for our last few trips. Hopefully, as we get away from the moon they start to bite better. Dan’s Yellowfin off Noggin and a beautiful sunrise at Flynn Reef this morning.
This post was imported into WordPress from my old Black Marlin Fishing Blog website without any accompanying photos. If you’d like to see the original post, with the accompanying photographs, go to the original Black Marlin Fishing Blog site and navigate to the post using the archive navigation links on the right-hand-side.
Capt. Luke found this little guy in the stomach of a Scad caught for bait at Baines Patches over the weekend and suspects that it is a baby billfish. It is a little worse for wear and slightly digested but still has the makings of a bill and dorsal.So we have sent a photo on to the learned Dr. Julian so that he can hopefully identify it for us.Wouldn’t that be poetic justice?Marlin eat Scad. Scad eat Marlin.The rest of the fishing on the weekend was a bit hit and miss. There were some big fish caught late at Jenny Louise on Saturday with both Release and Allure reporting fish over 900lbs. Sunday, another glamour day in the weather department was quite a bit slower. Kekoa fought a big fish that Capt. Luke estimated at over a grand for 15 minutes before pulling the hook while we did the same on a smaller fish on board Reel Chase with Angler Dan in the chair. Capt. Deano on Castillle headed both wide and then South and found some big fish in the area around Pith Reef releasing an 850lb-er and loosing bigger fish a little bit later on. Both Kekoa and Reel Chase are trying their luck a further south today. Internet prevailing will still be able to report as per usual tomorrow.
This post was imported into WordPress from my old Black Marlin Fishing Blog website without any accompanying photos. If you’d like to see the original post, with the accompanying photographs, go to the original Black Marlin Fishing Blog site and navigate to the post using the archive navigation links on the right-hand-side.
Everyone has a lucky day and we had one yesterday. Three fish that didn’t total the 1120lbs of Shaka’s fish the day before but we were very happy to mark our return from the cyclone induced break. Three from three on an otherwise slow day at Linden Bank ranging from 200 to 350 lb. Rod and mates from Victoria also caught three fish on their first day last year – setting themselves up for a good tradition. Gary’s fish jumps towards Shaka and then Neil’s fish jumps in front of Ningaloo. Rod’s fish, gave us some nice aerial displays including jumping over the corner of the transom! Top Shot and Ningaloo also both released a fish nearby us at the Bank.Meanwhile at Jenny Louise, Chamois Free released a Sailfish and Allure, Marlin Blue, Maritimo and Little Audrey all released a Marlin in what seemed to be a more steady bite.
This post was imported into WordPress from my old Black Marlin Fishing Blog website without any accompanying photos. If you’d like to see the original post, with the accompanying photographs, go to the original Black Marlin Fishing Blog site and navigate to the post using the archive navigation links on the right-hand-side.
This fish shown in the two photos was released on Reel Chase on the 28th of October, 2005 at Number 6 Ribbon Reef by Townsville Angler Jan Parkes. It was a spectacular fight and she was perfectly hooked with the circle hook in the corner of the jaw. And, on the 31st of October this year, she swam back to the Ribbon Reefs and was hooked by anglers on In Ya Dreams with Capt. Brian Felton. Unfortunately, this time she didn’t survive the fight and died on the line and was weighed at Number 5 Ribbon on the Ultimate Lady at 782lbs.This fish is one of very few that have been re-captured in the heavy tackle fishery. Due to the fact that a lot of boats don’t bother tagging any more and also because the tags are very hard to spot and recover. NSW Fisheries who administer the tagging program in Australia are very excited about this re-capture because to some extent it bucks the trend of this size fish putting on enormous weights in a short space of time. As you can see from the photos, we quite correctly called the fish 750lb. For the fish to only gain approximately 50lb in two years is in quite contrast to one of our fish tagged at Day Reef in 1988 which we also called 750lb and was recaptured by Capt. Greg Edwards 366 days later also at Day Reef and weighed in at 992lb. The consistency in both these catches is the strong indication of returning to exactly the same area 12 months apart.With the weather dropping out over most Queensland waters in the last 24 hours, the fish have come back on the bite with a number of larger fish seen at Linden Bank yesterday (where we are heading today). Reports are of a large fish boated by Shaka last night, more information to come today. Iona also reported a big one. Kekoa released a 400lb-er and lost another estimated at 600lbs.
This post was imported into WordPress from my old Black Marlin Fishing Blog website without any accompanying photos. If you’d like to see the original post, with the accompanying photographs, go to the original Black Marlin Fishing Blog site and navigate to the post using the archive navigation links on the right-hand-side.
I’m heading back up to Cairns tomorrow and back on board Reel Chase on Friday. After a week’s break, I’m ready to get back into it. Capt. Luke tells me the weather is yet to drop but by all forecasts that is happening tomorrow (touch wood) in the meantime he has been slogging it out on the Bank with a good number of other boats. Joining the team on board Kekoa are Andrew and Paul who I had the pleasure to join on board last year. Paul and Andrew are keeping things consistent – last year they experienced some of the worst weather of the season as well!! But there were fish, and they have started on the right note this trip with a 250lb-er for Paul on day 1. Other boats reporting a fish each on Tuesday were Allure, Mistress, Release and Ningaloo with a big sail.Wednesday, more bad weather – short choppy and lots of current – Capt. Luke saw two tailers and raised on that didn’t bite with just reports of a fish each on Calypso and Lanakai.Lest you think that I have been lazing around through the break – I have some still shots from the hours of video footage I have been diligently dubbing onto the computer. (I still have hours to go!) But some of the shots for you below. Mike, Brian, Joe, Dave, Stephen and Tony in that order. The girl invariably in the pictures with the camera around her neck will speak volumes to you as to why my still shots are better than the video footage – I’m always in the way!
