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Yesterday, among the 15 or so boats fishing at Linden Bank, the fish gods smiled kindly on Cool Runnings who hooked up twice in the middle of the fleet releasing a 350lb-er. Later in the day they hooked a bigger fish estimated at 800lb for angler Peter, his first black marlin, but after a 50 minute fight in shallow water on top of Linden Bank the fish was lost close to the boat. A few boats also caught little fish including Gorilla but the tuna didn’t even stir until after 4 o’clock.Up the other end, on Number 10, it was Kaizen in the fish with two for the day – fighting a big one at Heartbreak at dusk. KEKOA released a 350lb-er nearby and down on Number 8, Castille III pullled the hooks on a 700lb-er. Tradition fished Day and Hicks Reefs yesterday, still seeing the fish but not making the conversions.Shell Cove Lizard Island Black Marlin ClassicThe Lizard Island tournament starts at the end of next week. We’re really excited about it, its such an awesome tournament, now in its 23rd year. I’ll be tweeting live reports daily as the tournament progresses, you can check back for those tweets here or follow me on Twitter. For anyone who has the time and is interested in fishing this wonderful event:Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles on Mauna Kea has had a late cancellation for half of his share charter for the tournament. They just need one more angler. Sharky is a past winner of the tournament and narrowly missed a hat-trick in 2007. Anyone interested, please call Sharky on 0427 572 684.Capt. Tim Richardson on Tradition also has the tournament dates available. Tradition also finished in the placings last year and took out Champion Female Angler as well. Contact Tim on 0427 758 768 or visit his website.
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.
Reel Chase’s first grander of the 2009 season yesterday and a video still of the grander candy being zeroed in on. With the calm conditions, there were a lot of boats at Linden Bank and not much action especially on the tuna front. Around 4pm a school of yellowfin popped up in front of the Reel Chase and we managed to get out feather in front of them and pick up a jellybean sized yellowfin. No sooner had we got him in the water, we started adjusting the camera and yells from in front of the TV indicated a marlin was zeroing in on him straight away. Along side us the boys on Reel Ripe also got a first hand view as the marlin took four goes to catch the tuna. It was a very tough hour long fight for racing car identity and TowCam principal John Faulkner, hauling it up and onto the leader three times (from where she was very comfortable on pole cam view sitting down beneath the boat.) We have some good tow cam and pole cam footage and photos to sort through for later.Also on the Bank, Iceman released a smaller fish as did Dealne with Capt. Tiger. Capt. Dan on Moana III was on his way back in from the sea mount and mid-conversation on the radio when we heard his crew shout the bite. They released one about 300lb at Jenny Louise just on dark.I also heard from Capt. Ross on Top Shot running in on changeover yesterday who is reporting good fishing with one or two a day, mostly mid-range fish. In the last few days he’s released a 400lb-er and 450lb-er at Number 10. Also at Number 10 yesterday, private boat Hattitude released a little one and both Tradition and KEKOA marking good fish but not keeping the hooks in. And a report from Joe Joe fishing at the top of hicks on Monday seeing 7 fish, hooking 5 and releasing – one at 200lb and one at 900lb. Capt. Barry also reports they caught a 130lb dog tooth tuna on a skipping spanish mackerel!Myrmidon Reef, Townsville Video stills from the boys on OB26 in the surrounds of Myrmidon Reef on Tuesday – thanks Mat for the pics. More from what is shaping up to be a good heavy tackle season down Townsville way as well. On Tuesday the O’Brien Boats team christened Leigh’s custom OB26 with its first big fish releasing a 500lb-er for Pete. Arriving at Myrmidon Monday, the boys were up and fishing by 7am Tuesday and got the bite around 10:30am. The boys also missed a smaller fish about 200lb later in the day. A few more boats are taking advantage of the good weather to head out today.
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Reports from the top end yesterday with Capt. Tim on Tradition releasing one about 550lbs at the top of Number 10 and Allure and the Island Boat also releasing fish. Capt. Dan on Moana has gone for a wander out to the Sea Mount taking advantage of the once again of the glorious weather to get out wide reporting bites from two big fish on the way. Ben (Notso) who will be joining us again on the reef a little later in the season has also sent me some news from some of his bluewater fishing over Weipa way. In two days he’s seen 3 sails and a 250lb black. One of sails was only 5 kg or so and only about a metre long! He caught this one (pic) on a skipping bonito, got bites from others casting soft plastics to free feeding fish. They caught a barra about an hour and a 1/4 hours after the sail. I bet not too many people have done that!We’ll be seeking out some of the same when we’re over there next year.
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Just a couple of quick reports because I’m on the road today and haven’t heard too much from the fleet. Capt. Dean on Castille III went one from three yesterday estimated at 300lb and was unlucky to loose two more close to the boat (500 and 600lb). A few more fish seen up that way. And down at Number 1, Shaka had three goes at this guy who was keen to follow for a while but not bite, finally getting him hooked and to the boat.
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The reef grapevine was alive last night after Capt. Peter B reported the first confirmed Grander+ release of the 2009 season just after 6pm at Number 10 Ribbon Reef. This is topping off a great two days for Peter and his team on Sea Baby IV. Saturday, they also released three estimated at 900, 800 and 400lb. Capt. Darren on the Allure was the first to bring me the news upon his return to Cooktown for changeover last night. Darren also gave me more details about his own four fish from Saturday, one at 800lb and three smaller fish. Unfortunately none on Sunday. The fishing seems to be good for one boat one day and for another the next, good at Lena Saturday and Number 10 Ribbon on Sunday.At Number 7 Ribbon, Capt. Dean on Castille III had a good start to the day with a fish straight off the bat but quiet for the rest of the day. At Number 2 Capt. Luke on KEKOA went one from four estimated at 300lbs and sent me this pic of one of the bites on the underwater TowCam. At Opal Ridge Capt. Tim on Reel Ripe released a 250lb-er for Canberra-based angler John Meads and reported a couple of more bites.And down at the Bank, Capt. Dan on Moana III finally had the bite from the big fish on the live yellowfin bait only to have the wire break shortly after. Turning around the team did manage to release a good fish after estimated at 650lb. Nearby Kalira went two from two, 150 and 350lb.Capt. Tim on Tradition saw a couple caught on boats at the top of Number 2 Ribbon as his team started a new trip after changeover. He’d like to mention he has the Lizard Island dates available – Oct 24-31 if anyone wants to fish.
