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On the Bank, up to 14 boats watched Capt. Timmy Ryan on Reel Ripe with envy as he backed down on three fish for the day – 800, 200 and 250lb – a very enviable day. With a few exceptions, the rest of us trolled around in circles chasing schools of skipjacks from one side of the bank to the other. Capt. Brad on The New Allure also released an estimated 800lb-er, Capt. Pete on Little Audrey released a 250lb-er and Sparticus was also spied backing down on a smaller fish. Up at Number 10 reports are few but Capt. Luke on KEKOA released a 250lb-e from two bites. In AUS vs BRA there was no change in the score Saturday and even the Brazilian Team’s marlin dance couldn’t have any influence.
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.
Brazil shot to the lead on Day two of our AUS v BRA challenge with two fish on New Moon including this 500lb-er – I was able to get these shots from nearby. As you can see the weather is still awesome although the fishing however is still a little patchy with few boats each day having a good day. At the Bank, Iona released another 350lb-er before heading in early to celebrate the last couple of days fishing. Tradition released one similar size in the same spot as well.On the Ribbons the dirty water pushed the fishing out wide. Capt. Bill and team Viking topped off a mixed bag of spanish mackerel, red emperor and rosy jobfish sportfishing with a solid 950lb-er on the 4-5 mile off the reef on the second day of their trip. Capt. Luke and team KEKOA got stuck into the GT’s popper fishing again in the morning but couldn’t follow it up with the marlin fishing, also going wide to avoid the dirty water when a 700lb-er spat the bait back after a quick run.
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 fifth test between Brazil and Australia has begun and first blood to Australia! The top three sales reps for Australia and Brazil for Agrichem along with CEO and Chairman of the Board are meeting on the reef in a five day dual on Reel Chase and New Moon. And it should be a great week – they have certainly lucked out on the weather. After a late start, we headed straight out from Cairns to fish the bottom of the Bank for one tag of a smaller fish from 4 bites – but I got some great photos in the fading light. Fishing beside us on New Moon, Capt. Kim had yet to set the baits when they had the bite on the tuna but the hooks didn’t stay. Also fishing nearby was the team on Little Audrey and Capt. Pete told me they also got a little guy on what must be said was another perfect weather day on the water. Up at Number 10, Capt. Laurie and team Ningaloo also released a 250lb-er on the late bite. At Escape Reef, team Tradition jumped off a 350lb-er at the back of the boat before keeping the hooks in another estimated at 300lbs on the 50lb pitch rod. And, I just received a late report and these great pictures from John of two fish on Shaka yesterday released for angler Phil also at the Bank with CP and then Ant on the leaders. But again the day belonged to Capt. Adam on board Iona II who after a slow day Wednesday got the bite that counted on Thursday and released this one he put at over the mark! Mobile phone shots of Iona’s beauty yesterday at the bank. The gaffs came out but in the end the team decided to release.
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After a glamour day off Tuesday, Wednesday saw Ultimate Lady back on the bank with a first time angler whose previous biggest fish was a kawai (Australian samon) hooking up to an estimated 900lb-er. He was doing really well with the fish doing big jumps, boat in reverse and the boys on deck were just about to get hold of leader when…the harness broke! After that happened he was (quite understandably!) not so keen on the heavy drag….and the team fought the fish for another 20 minutes before something gave and just ended up getting back the broken leader. Capt. Tom sent me this great pic of the one that got away. Photo courtesy of NZ Fishing News.At Irene, KEKOA spent the morning popper fishing and released plenty of GTs. Later they headed back out to where they had caught the blue the previous day off Lena and had a bite as soon as they got there but no hook up. They trolled around for a bit and went back over the same spot and had a double header but neither hooked although they did give some good footage on the TowCam. The team finished the day to head into Cooktown for changeover 0 for 4. TowCam footage of two nice fish on KEKOA’s baits at Lena Reef Wednesday. —Footage of the bite (click on the link if the movie window does not appear in your browser): kekoa1.mp4 I’m not sure if this will work, but it’s worth trying – here is some mobile phone footage from Capt. Luke’s phone of the bite on TowCam. It’s pretty good though tiny, but it will give you a hint of what is to come once all the high res footage is edited.—At Number 10 Ribbon things were no different for team Ningaloo working the favourite spots and who caught several 20 kg yellowfin tuna at Heartbreak. It all looked good for black marlin fishing but only produced 2 late bites in the afternoon and unfortunately they could not managed to keep hooks in either of the fish.
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The weather has finally come good. And although the fishing turned it on a little again yesterday, it still came second to the glorious weather.On the Ribbons, word from Capt. Bill that team are still catching a fish a day, but nothing over 400lb for the last few days. The current is starting to race up there which should bring the fish in close. Capt. Bill also tells me that Capt. Brad on The New Allure got amongst two nice ones yesterday. At the top, Capt. Laurie and team Ningaloo is also still plugging away with two fish to 200lbs from three bites and relays that there are big fish being caught up there as well including one on Tuesday that Capt. Hayden boated after unfortunately losing a couple of bites to sharks – which went 1060lb. Team Viking with another 400lb-er and Capt. Luke’s blue marlin on the Pole Camera near the boat. Down the bottom Ribbons, Capt. Luke and KEKOA went wide and had a couple of bites but caught a 400lb blue marlin after coming back in to the edge and switching back to baits from lures(!) No sign of the big tuna aggregations or the hordes of big blacks that go with them. On the Bank, Adam and team Iona worked his spot for solid 900lb-er (and another great photo from Rhino) and jumped another good fish off later. Iona’s 900lb-er at Linden Bank, pic from Rhino, & the mobile bomby of trevally on Pole Cam. We fished from Jenny Louise to Euston Light for two fish at 200 and 600lbs. In the flat calm seas I spent much of the day in the tower with Capt. Jim and it was a pleasure to get some shots from above again. Nearby we saw Pirate hook up to two smaller fish later in the day and just before we were about to pull in the baits to run home a mobile bomby of trevally came up in our wake obviously being chased by something – perhaps a marlin or two – we put the TowCam Pole Camera in the water so I’ll try to put up a picture of that once I have a chance later today. We wished we could stay out because it looked good, but alas, began the run back into Cairns. We’ll be back out tomorrow. Ray’s 200lb-er and Peter’s 600lb-er at the back of Reel Chase. Look at that calm ocean! Barbara from the Cairns Bluewater GFC sent me an update from the Cummins tournament on the weekend. Although the weather wasn’t great (we noticed that too!) the fishing was pretty good with a small but enthusiastic fleet of 9 boats fishing mainly Linden Bank and Jenny Louise. Ten black marlin and one sailfish (which didn’t count for the tourn) were tagged. Three marlin over 800lbs each were unforutnately lost by anglers on Mystique, Watchdog, and Hellraiser. Russell Gray on Watchdog was so exhausted from his three hour battle with a sounding big marlin that he surrendered the rod to the deckie as he physically could not hold on any longer (many boats were fishing stand up – more points than the chair). The deckie took 20 minutes with the drag locked up before he could break the 24kg line. The champion boat was Mystique with three tags on stand-up, and their angler Terry Connolly was named champion angler. Watchdog from Port Douglas was runner-up boat with Mike Hallam runner-up angler. Congrats to all who took part!
