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Sorry, internet related delays again!Kanahoee made up for their late start to the season with an outstanding day at Number 10 Ribbon. 5 tags to take them right to the front. Elsewhere the action was sporadic with some boats having a good day and others not seeing any on the same reefs. We hooked up early for Brian on an estimated 600lb-er only to have her spit the bait out at the back of the boat with the leader out of the water. The North and South boats, the 28 Bertram Hellraiser at Day Reef and Shaka at Pearl boat successfully released 900lb-ers and Fascination II in the middle at Number 6 released one at 650lbs. Results for Day 2: Kanahoee with 5 tags, Jag with 3, Little Audrey, Iona and Fascination II with 2 tags and boats with 1 including Tradition who started off the day, Shaka, Joe-Joe, Hard to Swallow, Hellraiser, Calypso (at 3:09pm!), Game Over and Moana. This should bring standings to Kanahoee in the lead with 5 followed by Jag, and Fascination with 3 each. My disclaimer today being that the radio skeds were, as usual, so ‘interesting’ that it was actually hard to follow at times – and so I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies. An example: Moana III: I have a relay for Broadbill who are fishing on Number 3 Ribbon with 5 POB.Tournament Base: Roger, I have you tagged. I didn’t even know you were hooked up! For boats not fishing the tournament, Kekoa has renowned light tackle angler Gary Carter on board this week doing the hard yards in this weather. Nearby us at Number 3 Ningaloo fought another big fish on the late bite and Broadbill who are making their way into Cairns with a generator problem also hooked up after cease fishing.
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.
The internet is playing up again hence weekend radio silence..It was an interesting night at the briefing on Saturday where the 42 boats registered for the tournament enjoyed the seafood buffet (and thanks to the boys on the brand new Maratimo 55, we did too!) While the weather had held in for a glamour trip to the rock on Saturday, Sunday was a different story. It was as rough as any day we’ve had this year. From the shotgun, we headed south down to the inside 9 and started fishing at Number 8 where we soon took a green wave over the front woke us up and then some! As for the fishing, I counted 8 fish on Day 1 for Calypso (with the first fish for the tournament), Billfish, Longshot, Fascination II, Maratimo, Think Big and ourselves with the boats spread from Hicks Reef all the way down to Number 3. After a slow start and some clear-screen repairs on the bridge our first fish was a 200lb-er for Robert who had eyes much bigger than his stomach jumping on the 20lb scaley mackerel. The second, even smaller fish, was hooked and tagged for Brian within a minute giving us the lead on Day 1 as the only boat with two fish. We had a chance not long after for a third but unfortunately, the bait was again too big or the fish too small!For boats not fishing the tournament the action was pretty intense with the big fish hiding out in the lower Ribbons and further south. Iceman had 5 fish on during the day and Kekoa finished the day with two including another 900lb fish. Brilliant Company also got at least another big girl too. Hopefully if the tournament fleet is able to get further south today we’ll be in amongst the big fish action too!
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.
The action nearby yesterday, Moana on a good sized fish and Kianja on the first of two for the day. Another glamourous day weather-wise on the Reef but fishing as patchy as ever. For the good number of boats fishing in the area it is really a matter of hit or miss. Hopefully all this will change next week when the tournament starts and the weather is expected to go back to the big wind (20-25 knots) big fish scenario. We raised two fish for the day but neither was particularly hungry. Nearby we saw Moana hookup on another good sized fish and Kianja on a smaller one at the same time. Later in the day we heard that both Kianja and Wild Turkey had hooked up on bigger fish while private boat, Brilliant Company also released a fish over a grand at Ruby Reef on their way north. Ningaloo, after a reasonably quiet day, won the late bite with an estimated 600lb fish released after 6 o’clock.
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.
Another day, another couple of big fish but unfortunately you had to be in the right place to get one! There still aren’t a lot of fish around but the odd big one keeps the fleet on the spot trying. With a few more boats showing up from down South, Number 3 Ribbon is starting to resemble the Car Park at Pt. Stephens. While we had our bite early releasing another smaller Black for Angler Chris, Moana had a top day with two fish including one over a grand. Allure, Kekoa and Reel Ripe also releasing big fish in the area. Photo: Kekoa’s fish, an estimated 900lb-er on the bite captured by the underwater camera rig towed in front of the Scad. Later in the day, we again saw two fishing jumping at the back of Reel Ripe, a double header, but unfortunately with no success. The influx of 27 degree water over the last couple of days has also brought out the bities however with a great deal of luck, using mono on a circle hook, this Wahoo is out of the population and into the freezer. Reports from further afield show the odd fish now showing up on Number 10 where Shaka released an estimated 400lb-er.
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.
If we’d left 5 minutes earlier, we would have missed this beauty!Capt. Jim said we were going to be the last boat behind the reef and we were. Seconds away from winding in the lines just after 6 o’clock, a hole appeared where the Scaley was. A great active fight on the surface and 5 minutes later, Chris’s biggest Marlin to date was tagged – a nice 800lb-er which gave us plenty of photo opportunities on dusk.The day started flat calm with a beautiful snorkel on the edge and then a lot of trolling an waiting. Fishing on Monday had a 30 minute flurry of big fish – which unfortunately we missed – and for Viking II, Ningaloo, Kekoa and Iceman resulted in big fish released. Meanwhile Tradition fought a four hour tussle only to break the leader in the dark. As a result, the boats on Ribbon Number 3 & 4 on Tuesday were out in force trying to get a bit of the big girl action for themselves. The monotony was broken at 3 o’clock when a 200lb-er grabbed the Scad as we followed up a school of Skipjack and a quick tag and release put angler Chris on the board. Unfortunately for most the fleet, the previous day’s action was not to be repeated although a couple of big fish were hooked (but not landed) except for Ultimate Lady who entertained us all with a big of hot action in the afternoon.As the countdown to the Lizard Island Tournament begins (Sunday) we hope that the big fish continue to arrive.
