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Some pictures from Shaka’s recent light tackle trip which ended with 6 released. John on the rod and Ant on the leader. Also word from Tradition, one of the fish they released in the last couple of days was previously tagged during the Townsville Tournament by Eddie Shi on board Castille – proving the fish not only hang around the same area but that they are quite readily feeding again only a week later. During the tournament itself, four fish were observed with previous tags but owing to the delicate nature of the small fish, all proved too hard to remove.

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.

We came upon Shaka doing some light tackle fishing off Fitzroy Island and in the middle of a hot bite. Finishing with 4 little blacks for a couple hours fishing – not a bad effort. We decided to give it a quick go ourselves on the way through and released this little guy. Back at Bowling Green, a few boats are still enjoying some light tackle action down there. Capt. Russell on Too Easy releasing five for the day, while Tradition picked up another two.But up in Cairns, our light tackle gear is now packed securely away as our attention turns to the heavy tackle action. There are some whispers going around the marlin marina that Capt. Haydon has already released an 800lb-er on the middle Ribbons.

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.

On the way up yesterday on board Reel Chase, we encountered this hammerhead in our spread. Not at all interested in what we had to offer – we had to watch the footage several times to make sure he was even alive! (A few small beats of the tail at the end gave it away – perhaps he was asleep?) We also came across a couple of marlin tailing down sea. Heading in the right direction!The Phantom, who have been on the same track as us for the last couple of days, sharing anchorage at Gilbey’s and Noggin last night, jumped off another black on a lazer pro on the way to the bait spot. Tradition is at Cape Bowling Green getting their share of the juvie black marlin action with 2 from ‘several’ yesterday. But the best news comes from Viking fishing Linden Bank who went 3 from 5 on the larger blacks indicating an early start to the season. Capt. Bill reports that one of the fish was about 650lb and had a group of small ones with her all lit up doing their thing.Now that the Innisfail tournament is finished there should be a lot more heavy tackle activity in the coming week.

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.

On board Reel Chase we are bait fishing our way to Cairns via some of the outlying reefs. Word on the radio is that some solid fish have been sighted again today at Linden Bank so we can’t wait to get there. But you don’t need to be at the bank to be getting the marlin bites. We went one from two on the bait jig. This frisky 200lb-er giving greenhorn deckie Ashley a work out and giving us some good footage to play with on the underwater camera set up. In the first picture (not terribly clear sorry as are video stills) – you can see the marlin regurgitate a previously eaten scad just before it rocketed out of the water for a series of jumps. And later, just coasting along down sea seemingly without a care and unaffected by the drag.Tradition is also making their way north via the Swains Reef, heading next from where we came, Cape Bowling Green and released a nice 450lb blue on the way up. In other news, some of the fleet are currently fishing the Innisfail Bilfish Comp which ends Monday. Fishing has been a little slow, but Mauna Kea has been making some headway with the first fish tagged for both Day 1 and Day 2.

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.