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If you live in, or are visiting South East Queensland, you’d have to be hiding under a big dark rock not to have heard about the hot black marlin bite. Most fish are in the 15-30kg range and hopefully they will stick around through the Gold Coast Light Tackle comp 16-17 January before they head further south (we’ll catch up with them again as slightly bigger models at Port Stephens in Feb/March when we are chasing the stripeys). On the whole, the Sunshine Coast seems the more consistent, with cleaner water. But there are still magic days to be had on the Goldy as well and so close to shore, as you can see from my picture above – a little black on Sunday jumping off the Miami shoreline. We’ve seen 4.5 metre Quintrex Hornets with bow mounted electric motors more suited to bream fishing the Broadwater getting amongst the marlin!On the Sunshine Coast – Capt Dave on Cabolito’s perfect run came to an end just today. Dave and his anglers had a 100% conversion rate with 12 from 12 until today when they went 4 from 6, and still tied up in time for lunch. That amounts to 16 from 18 bites in five days (one miscellaneous sailfish in that bunch as well as three blues). Great fishing – most fish a first marlin for the anglers. No doubt they are now hooked like the rest of us. Dave says Cabolito seems to be making the right noises as it is certainly raising them! Also off Mooloolaba, Smithy on Triton IV has been plucking away at the marlin too even on bottom fishing trips averaging one a day. Smithy also reports many other Sunshine Coast boats getting in on the action, including Keneka going 7 from 7 and 9 from 11 on recent trips. Smithy ventured down our way on Monday and can attest that our water is not as good as what they are fishing in up there. Maybe when the pumping South East-ers come through next week they’ll push some clean water through. On the Gold Coast, while some days you may come home with just one or two like we did on Sunday, other days it’s firing. One boat off Burleigh had more than 10 up on Saturday but Sunday was slow. Then Monday fired again a little further wide with Capt Ross on Lucky Strike reporting 10 from 10 – another great day’s fishing! All of above average size and including one who managed to get himself caught and released twice in the one day. Boats that have been fishing for blues have also been rewarded with some action.We are taking off again for the New Year for some more fresh water fishing fun – keep the reports coming in, I’ll catch up when we are back. Have a happy and safe New Year – see you in 09!

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 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 team on KEKOA travelled home to the Gold Coast on Monday evening, finally home after a very long season away. Capt. Luke saw a couple of little blacks swimming on the surface at Point Lookout on the way through so decided to throw a couple of baits at them and went two from two. After hitting the coast at 6pm and listening to the action reports for the Gold Coast area (including a tinny who went 8 or 9 Monday!) I was able to talk Capt. Luke and Dingo in to getting up early one more time and by 6 am, we were back on the water. We trolled up, we trolled back, with two from two bites and raising another two, and back in the marina by 10 for the much dreaded Christmas shopping.Also enjoying a fabulous weather day on the Gold Coast was the Gold Coast (or just about the whole of the Gold Coast – boats big and small everywhere – it was wonderful!) and boats also home from the season now including Reel Chase, Mistress and Castille. Some photos from Dingo and myself of the fish we switched and we switched roles behind the camera/rod. Plenty of fish still around. Apparently the afternoon bite Tuesday was red hot. Hopefully, many more opportunities to enjoy the action over the rest of the holiday break. For our Southern readers, get ready, the little blacks are on their way! Back up on the Sunshine Coast, DG once again braved the 25kt winds on the weekend for the first day light tackle fishing on the Cabolito Sunday going four from four on little blacks. And home in time for lunch. Fishing just 8 mile off Mooloolaba, Dave was able to find marlins for the four guys on board that had never caught a marlin before – now they have!

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.

Steve sent me this picture of a 362kg (816lb) blue marlin weighed at Coffs Harbour yesterday on a 32ft Cabo called Matador on 80lb.This is a pretty significant catch. There haven’t been any fish this size caught for several years (with the exception of Ultimate Lady’s fish which was caught more than 550 miles off the Australian coast). So far it seems there has been blue marlin caught off South East Queensland and Northern NSW for every month this year. It’s a very good sign that its shaping up to a good summer season for the blue marlin, as well as the juvenile blacks!

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.

Dave Granville sent a note to say that he finally got to christen Gotimon yesterday with a couple of solo blacks. He went two for two – one being a solid 60kg fish which gave him a real workout on the spinning rod. This is the beauty of the summer with the little blacks on the Sunshine and Gold Coasts, they are so accessible and you don’t need a big boat (or a crew for that matter) to catch them!Look at the pic – one hand on the rod, one on the wheel. Dave is an awesome photographer, but I have no idea how he managed to get this great action shot together. We’re looking forward to a solo blue marlin photo in a year Dave! Update: Dave tells me that this picture was taken by Brent Higgins from his new 4.5m tinny Kartika. Brent has also been taking advantage of the great fishing close to Mooloolaba and in the two trips last week he caught 5 blacks and a sail from 8 bites.