Happy New Year to you all!

As a goodbye to 2010 and to ring in the new year I’ve created another free desktop wallpaper.  This fourth one features my Season 10 covershot for the upcoming BlueWater Issue 83 including a calendar to see us through February 2011.

If none of the dimensions below fit your screen, use your image editor to refine the dimensions or choose “Stretch to fit”.

Read on for instructions and links for download.
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• David Cox sent me some more information from the Gove tournament where he fished with the team that came second in the billfish section with 6 sailfish and one marlin. David said that conditions were perfect this year–under 5 knots and glassy seas–which is great as most anglers fish in trailer boats under 7m. The average size during the comp for sails was 15-30kg and 20-120kg range for blacks. David confirms the reports of marlin jumping into boats. You can see the first on on YouTube here. And he also sent a video from the winning team 4Play (3 blacks and 1 sailfish). During the comp, for the second time this year, they put 4 PSAT tags into 3 sails and 1 black marlin with help from CSIRO. Earlier this year in February club members put 5 PSAT tags in 5 sailfish and should have the report of the data gathered from those fish next year. Above is a photo of the marlin Dave’s team tagged, caught by Barry Pickering a sponsor of the tournament who caught his first sailfish and black marlin during the comp. Thanks for all the info David!
• More reports from boats heading south from the season.  Spartacus, which will be spending time on the Gold Coast this summer, caught a blue south of Lady Musgrave and dropped another half way down Fraser.  A few fish reports from the coast itself: Michael Russell fished from the Gold Coast on Sunday and released a blue on the edge.  And Honey Badger‘s Capt. Brent James had a 60kg black up first thing off the water tower on Saturday.
• For those who are not subscribers, you can see last weeks newsletter here.
• And, if you are on Facebook, you’ll know that I’ve started a “Photo A Day” project.  365 days of marlin photos, one per day.  I’ll bring those across to the blog every couple of weeks so look out for that after Christmas.
• Lastly, all the best for the holiday season to everyone!

Kelly’s first magazine covershot – BlueWater Issue 83 on sale Jan 5

Just when we thought it was all over for black marlin, I had a report from Askari owner Shane who tells me that Corey has arrived on the Gold Coast after the trip down and had some good….black marlin fishing off Lady Musgrave. No blues, just blacks.  They fished 5 days out of the island and finished with a 300lb, 500lbs, 800lb and one that they put at well over the mark!  Interestingly the blue bite seems to have slowed over the past few days but, blues are like that – they’ll be back.  In SEQ it seems like they have been catching them all the way through to the edge off the Gold Coast.  Glen Booth told me a similar tale off Coffs, its seems like a temporary lull down there as well.  With the 26 degree water and good south current, Capt. Luke assures me they’ll be back. (Glen says the water was 28 degrees and purpley blue outside 60 fathoms, pumping hard to the south at three knots off Coffs).

Capt. Jim was telling me about a report on Big Fish with Scott Levi about fishing in Gove and their recent XXXX GOLD Gove Game Classic (Dec 1 – 6).  Apparently for the first time black marlin numbers seen have almost equaled sailfish (previously almost a 100% sailfishery) and he knows of two instances of black marlin jumping into boats in the last week or so. The first guys were floating a pilchard out from the back of their tinny in 4m of water when a 60kg marlin had a go at it and ended up in their boat instead.  The second one, the guys were bottom fishing when a very excited marlin chasing live bait also ended up in their boat!  Who needs hooks?!

The tournament results were, 24 teams and 83 anglers tagging 47 sails and 13 marlin.  This highlights a recent topic of conversation among the North Queensland fleet about where all the baby marlin have gone this year.  Maybe they turned left (west).

BlueWater Issue 83 – On Sale Jan 5

Featuring the 2010 Cairns season recap – it’s not out for a little while yet but put this magazine on your wish list. I’m pretty excited about it myself, not only because of the feature, but because this is my first cover.  Picture taken on a gorgeous, flat calm day late in season 2010 on board KEKOA of a fish for Glen, Tasmania’s best publican.  Other features include ‘They Call The Shots’ with Capt. Brad Philipps, Glen Booth’s ‘A day to remember’, Dr. Julian Pepperell explains what makes the white marlin so special and a product review of the new and highly talked about fast trolling Sebile Lures.

Jeff from Little Audrey shared this video on facebook yesterday and has been kind enough to put it up on Youtube for all to see. It feature’s Jeff’s brother Mike’s first black marlin aboard Little Audrey this year with Capt. Daniel Carlson. What a great first fish that the boys put at 800lbs!

Jeff’s also working on a compilation of their entire 2010 season footage. We’re looking forward to seeing that!

• As many of the fleet head to home ports for Christmas, they are fishing their way down the coast.  Mistress has had some more good fishing with a 700lb black marlin off Myrmidon Reef, Townsville and then a 200lb blue off Musgrave Island at the top of Fraser (UPDATE: Barry tells me they caught another going 2 from 3 blues at the northern end of Breaksea Spit.)  Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford on Hot Shot also had three bites from blues on the way down Fraser Island.  They released one and jumped the other two off.  We’ll be looking forward to hearing from Capt. Wobbles as Bermi starts to fire early in the new year!
• KEKOA heads through the blues zone in the next couple of days on its way to the Goldy (although I am already here having the task of driving the jeep home!) Hopefully they’ll get some action on the way through as well although I hear the weather has caused some plan changes.  Its been stormy down here, again!
• Capt. Tim Richardson on Tradition is still in the North, sportfishing and spearing, as is Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso who is making his way to the Whitsundays.  Likewise, we’ll be looking forward to hearing reports from Capt. Tim (Dean) from Port Stephens in 2011. I’ve been hearing whispers that the stripies are already showing up there out on the inside of the shelf (anyone?)
• All this blue marlin talk reminded me of this:
  
  I will try to re-upload that clip because its a little grainy.
• Apart from the blue marlin bite out wide, things are pretty quiet on the billfish front on both the Sunshine and Gold Coasts. Lets hope that despite their absence in the north in 2010, some little blacks find their way down here in early 2011.
• If you are on the subscriber list, look out for the latest Black Marlin Fishing Blog newsletter into your inbox tomorrow.