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Persistence paid off for Mark with a nice 400lb-er yesterday. His very first marlin and he certainly got to experience the exhilaration of fighting a big fish.The rest of the fleet are either in Cooktown gearing up for the tournament or already arrived to secure an early poll position in the bay at Lizard Island. There were already in excess 10 boats here when we arrived yesterday. Today is a day of chores and rest as we gear up for the comp. Briefing this evening, fishing starts tomorrow.Update from Capt Bill who finished three days with close friend and 24 year client Paul Kelly. Paul has always brought luck with him and this year was no exception releasing 8 fish in the 3 days. Not bad for a guy who won’t go marlin fishing till after a fresh fish lunch and a bottle of his favourite wine! Good luck to all in the Lizard Island tournament.

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.

Here they come!With the Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic briefing Saturday evening, Cooktown is already over run with boats on change over.Our trip north proved unsuccessful other than a bite from a small fish at Number 5. However upon reaching Number 8 Ribbon, we found a number of the fleeting hiding out including KEKOA, Allure, Castille III, Release and Tradition. Two quick bites in half an hour, one from a reasonable fish raised our hopes but not our average. KEKOA finished with two fish to 500lbs. Tradition with two to 350lb and Castille with one from a number of bites. Castille having just returned from a trip wide to Osprey Reef where they reported huge numbers of sailfish, dogtooth and wahoo eager to jump on anything.Down the other end, Mistress following the same path we did yesterday, managed a fish on Ruby and another on Number 1 Ribbon to 400lbs. And an update from Capt. Bill from Wednesday who went 4 from 4 on small males in the middle and tagging another Thursday as well.Photo from Castille’s Towcam of one of the many many sails.

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.

As John tells us, there may be some dodgy banks in the US and Europe, but here on the great Barrier Reef, one bank is really firing. Yesterday, again the “Linden Bank” produced the deposits that most gamefisherman expect after years of loyal service. And those on the good ship Shaka started their 2008 campaign where they left off in 2007 – ar$e deep in the big fish!After watching the action behind other boats on Tuesday, as we did, Shaka finished day two Wednesday with a 2-2-2 – including this one at 950lbs. She crashed and jumped all over the ocean during the 25 minute fight. And, with number one Charles ‘CP’ Perry still in transit, deckie Ant Griffiths did a great job steering the chair, tagging and wiring the fish on his lonesome. With only the three on board, John in the chair and Capt. Jared at the wheel, I’m assuming somewhere in the midst of all that he managed to take this shot as well. Great going guys! Here’s hoping there are plenty more where she came from.While Shaka stuck it out at the bank, with a solid 20 knots blowing for most of the day, many choose the down-sea troll to a much quieter day. With a shorter day for the team on board Reel Chase, after diving at the Argincourts in the AM, we started our down-sea troll at South Escape after lunch. We spotted a few fish early and jumped off a little 200lb-er, and that was our day. Ending at the top of Lena Reef. At Number 9, Capt. Luke on KEKOA, seeing just the one fish, caught it at an estimated 250lbs. And that’s all folks! And back to the Towcam pictures from Tuesday:That innocent looking little face belongs to a wahoo, not a tuna. This particular wahoo in fact. And the shot on the left is indeed the camera inside his mouth. We could see all the way to his tail on the inside! Fortunately, he soon spat it out (and we got the camera back undamaged) and then proceeded to eat the scad. And, after a short fight Mark had him on deck. Last night’s menu was crispy pan-fried wahoo on a bed of greens with Asian sauce. He was yummy!

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.

It was a glamour start weather-wise, but unless you were one of the lucky few, it was a quiet, albeit very nice, day. On the Bank, Ningaloo opened their 2008 season with three for the day including this guy on the left (above). Team Port Stepehens/Lake Macquarie had a great day fishing on Calypso also with two, including a big fish for racing identity Gary Holt. Mistress, added to their tally with another 350lb-er bringing their total to 4 from 3 days. The rest of us, didn’t lose any, enjoying the day.Up on number 10, Tradition released a 350lb-er to round out the day’s reports. Anyone care to guess what the picture on the left is? Hint, it has something to do with the picture on the right. (Still from Towcam. Also a great lure