After a couple of days of nice flat calm weather, Wednesday started with a tropical thunderstorm rolling through the anchorage at 2am, and the clouds and rain still lingered by morning… But what a day it turned out to be. By lunchtime, the sky had cleared to blue and the wind had dropped right back.
On KEKOA, we trolled south over the Bank and in towards Spur Reef and picked up two energetic flying blacks in the 200-250lb range for Adrian and Blake before taking an early mark back into port. That put us a five for the three days. We’re out again late this afternoon and fishing tomorrow.
Capt. Tim on Tradition reports it was a bit quieter on Number 8 yesterday. He headed up to Number 10 Ribbon Reef and released one from three on Second Corner before heading into Lizard Island. I also spoke to deckie Brad on Iona who also came in for changeover from their latest trip ending with 6 in 7 days including the 950lb-er at Escape Reef and another in the 500lb range. Brad tells me they also had a ball spearfishing and fishing for bait in the mornings.
More photos from yesterday:
Ben on the leader for another nice fish for Adrian on board KEKOA.
Tradition started their 2010 campaign out of Cooktown Tuesday heading north towards the rock with Lester and Liz from New York on board. Enjoying the calm 10 knots, Tim reports the fish cooperated as well as they went two from four with a real nice 750lb-er for Lester and tough 300lb-er for Liz a little later. A great start. Late addition – At Escape Reef, Capt. Trent Vischer on Iona released two as well including a great fish Trent called 950lb (mobile photo at bottom – click to enlarge).
Further south at Linden Bank, it was a much quieter day with boats reporting very few seen. On board KEKOA we were lucky to hook both fish we raised for the day starting with a nice little guy for 12 year old junior angler Blake, who quickly brought in and released his very first marlin. Later, dad Adrian put the lesson he learned in his big fight yesterday to use with a nice 600lb black (photo).
Phantom returned to port after their first four day trip and raised 7, hooked 3 and tagged a healthy 450lb black and 500lb whaler. They also had a ball reef fishing and Daniel managed to land a bat fish behind the reef on 6kg mono.
It was also nice to see Capt. Jim (Dalling) back on the reef with a camo appearance at the wheel of Amokura. South Australian’s Jimmy and son Nathan are back with Capt. Jim this week and heading north today.
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Caption: Christening the new KEKOA with a nice fish on the first day of our heavy tackle season 2010.
A few more of the fleet started their season yesterday including ourselves on KEKOA as well as Askari who, fresh from their third place at Innisfail Sunday, made it to Cairns overnight and resupplied to join us on the Bank in the afternoon.
Our angler Adrian has come to Cairns to chase his dream of a big marlin. And he found her on Day 1 with the 850lb-er giving him a tough, almost 2 hour fight. Adrian spent the rest of the afternoon recuperating but assures us he’s ready to get another today. Alongside we saw Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso go for his second from two at 200lbs (click to enlarge pictures below) capping off another successful early season trip with 4 in two days.
Big ship Little Audrey also arrived in Cairns yesterday and spent a couple of hours in the vicinity of Houston Light bait fishing also releasing one Capt. Dan put at 120lbs.
Simon sent this photo of their little guy on Dreamin’ On on Saturday trying to jump into the boat.
On Sunday, Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford and the team on Hot Shot began their heavy tackle season with a 600lb-er at the bottom of the bank. Calypso added another couple of small fish to their tally and there were a few more bites around mostly from smaller fish.
Sunday was also the final day of the Innisfail Billfish Tournament and a much slower day than the previous two. Only the one sail was tagged by Peter Friel on Jimmy who also snuck from behind to grab the gong as Champion Overall Boat with 2 sails and gamefish weighed ahead of Moana III and Askari also on two sails each with gamefish. In the end five boats finished with 2 sails tagged each–a total of 16 sailfish for the three days and 80 gamefish weighed. (Update: A very reliable birdy tells me that Jimmy actually was champion boat in the small boat category and Moana and Askari place first and second in the big boats section.)
Champion Male Angler was Peter Friel on Jimmy, Champion Female went to Caz Martin and Champion Junior to (the other;-) Michael Bolton. Congrats to all, and to the Innisfail GFC who have put on another great competition!
Another 8 sails were tagged on Day 2 but the tournament leaders did not add to their tally so there are now four boats vying for the lead on two tags each with only other gamefish to separate them. It was a day for potential records on the other gamefish. Junior Michael Bolton caught a 22.25kg spanish mackerel, a potential Queensland junior record. Brenda Peel fishing on On Strike had another with a 17.5kg trevally and on Manana, Shanti Broersen caught a potential women’s world record with a massive 34kg spanish.
Back in Cairns, as Simon reports, Dreamin’ On opened their Australian account yesterday at Linden Bank with three from three – 200, 300 and 700lb. Think Big also spent the day at the Bank, raising four, hooking three, but only managing to get the tags into one before heading back in behind the reef to chase mackerel. Philip Dry reports that he and his brother Randall had a awesome day on the water on Saturday thanks to Capt. Troy Dallman and Jye Clayton on Cool Runnings. The brothers from Tumby Bay had the highlight of their trip to Cairns when Randal hooked up to a 300lb black marlin. The fish was released after a 15 min fight and Randal enjoyed a well earned cold one!
And news from Iona at Number 5 Ribbon Reef via Bali where Capt. Adam (Iona 2) is enjoying his annual break. Capt. Trent Visscher released two on Saturday at 120 and 500lbs.
