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We caught up to Capt. Dean Beech on Castille III as we hit the final reef for a bait fish on the way to Cairns as he was in the middle of catching a sailfish on a laser pro. So Capt. Luke on KEKOA decided to mosey on over and raised another straight away on the teaser, pitched a garfish to it, and the result being Number 2 Dean’s first sail.On the reef, Capt. Tim Ryan reports from Reel Ripe going 1 from 2 yesterday for Melbourne angler Michael White estimated at 450lbs. The team also had a marlin eat a striped tuna they had on the bait rod but jumped it off. Kianja is also venturing north up the ribbons and yesterday released their first black of the season at Lena Reef estimated at 400lbs. Shaka is heading out today. Allure and Tradition head out tomorrow. Most of the fleet is now in Cairns (and crews decided to hit the new Salt House bar/restaurant at the Marlin Marina last night for a big catch up. There are some very sore heads wandering around this morning!)Left: Photo from Dingo of Dean in action on KEKOA. Right: Pat’s sail on board Castille III.
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.
A report from Corey and Shane on board the brand new 55ft Assegai Askari who have begun their season off Cairns. Over the last couple of days they’ve seen 8, had two bites and christened the new boat with its first black marlin at 350lbs. Kalira, the new 50ft Maritimo, ran back to Cairns from the Hinchinbrook comp and released a 400lb-er on the edge before heading in. It seems there are a few more boats heading out now and all reports are good!Back to the south approaching Cairns, some of us were hard at work bait fishing (and having some big wins there) while the boys on KEKOA got a little distracted and decided to catch a marlin instead. Trolling a couple of teasers around as a change of pace they switched two blacks, jumped one off and released the other with Dingo on the rod for a change. Meanwhile, the weather has been fantastic. Photo: After a hard days bait fishing, Dave relaxes with a beer on deck and another beautiful sunset over the horizon.
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.
OB26 ventured out with the family and dog in tow for a day on the water wide of Magnetic Island for a mackerel fish yesterday and came up with a sailfish instead – their first sailfish on board. We should have been fishing that close for the Townsville Tournament! We are out bait fishing for the next couple of days with limited telephone and internet access and so Hinchinbrook results are a little sketchy. 12 boats finished with 1 fish each (2 fish on the final day) and so the winning boat is victorious on a count-back with their fish being the first released on Day 1 being Plan B followed by Moonshine.Last night we shared our reef anchorage with KEKOA and Calypso; with Castille III passing us earlier in the day. Today the remaining fleet who fished Hinchinbrook will also be making their way back up to Cairns and so the scad between here and Cairns should be very scared. Bait fishing aside, the sportfishing has been particularly good this year. Spanish mackerel and giant trevally, hard to avoid and quite a bit of fun along with yellowfin tuna and a few trout for the dinner plate.
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.
Maris Naish (skipper of Blackhawk in Port Lincoln and Halcyon Five in Cairns) sent me a note yesterday about a possible blue marlin or swordfish stuck in the marina at Port Lincoln. The follow up photo courtesy of Rolf Czabayski (Sparticus) and Janet Forster (Long Shot), taken from Janet’s front lawn of their house at the marina, reveals that its obviously a swordfish terrorizing the local bream population. And a large one at that. Maris says you couldn’t get a park in the marina for all the spectators. NB – anyone contemplating fishing this weekend in Port Lincoln better go the heavy tackle 
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.
Having finished our last day light tackle fishing in Townsville now, we leave in the morning to bait fish our way to Cairns and if you’ve been watching the Twitter Feed, you’ll know that things are just starting to heat up. Adam has steered Iona2 back to his regular 2008 haunt, the Bus Stop on Linden Bank. Thursday they released their first heavy tackle fish of the season, a nice (!) start at 650lbs (left). Adam also reports they pulled the baits from another bigger fish, had another one up and came across a tail-er later in the day as well. Certainly sounds promising. Reports also from the long-liners who are fishing east of the marine park in the Coral Sea where SeaSurface.com shows a pool of red hot water already around 27 degrees centigrade. Its no surprise then that as with most of Australia’s East Coast this year, they are already kicking goals with yellowfin and big eye tuna. With the full moon due on October 4th, there’s a good chance this year’s season could start as last year’s ended with big packs of marlin hunting the feeding tuna aggregation on the eastern edge of the marine park wide of Cairns. —The last light tackle comp of the northern season at Hinchinbrook is underway with 7 tags on Day 1. The tournament ends Sunday so the entire fleet should be in residence in the Marlin Marina in Cairns by Tuesday when we arrive.
