We headed a little further afield yesterday as the winds came down, not too far as we had to return to the reef overnight, and had some fun with the dolphin fish including this one (above) for a good feed.  But another marlin free day looked likely when this little guy guzzeled the tuna and gave Tasmanian angler Jason his first black marlin to add to his blue marlin on KEKOA on the Gold Coast previously.

No luck on Day One for boats fishing the Yorkey’s Knob Makaira Bullfight.

Its just on 6am and apparently we’re already having a late start to the day. Waking up to calm 10knot breezes, Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso and Capt. Bobby Jones on Iceman, have already left the reef ahead of us.  We’re all heading out wide today to find the marlin on the tuna aggregations. Not sure if I will have internet service in the morning out there, so stay tuned for when we are back in range.

The weather is coming down today (!!) and so we’re looking forward to getting out there and do some marlin fishing for a change (I was looking for a pictures of the wind and rain but couldn’t find one to do it justice). Yesterday was light tackle fishing inside the reef for us and no other reports came in.  The Yorkey’s Knob Makaira Bullfight also starts today so I’ll be listening out for their radio skeds.

Capt. Kim Andersen is on the reef this week on New Moon and yesterday released one about 450lbs on Opal Ridge. Hopefully a sign of things to come. We’re back out again today.

And news from Weipa where a big black marlin seems to have gone astray with Lee reporting that he raised an estimated 700lb black marlin yesterday but couldn’t switch it to the live rainbow runner he had on hand.  Lee also reports catching a couple of sharky mackerels yesterday for the first time over there. Sounds a bit like Cairns doesn’t it…?!

I’ve put my video editing hat back on and put together a clip of Dougie’s 800lb-er on 50lb stand up on KEKOA above, complete with the moment when she tried to climb in the boat.

Wednesday on the reef…well I heard some funny ones.  Capt. Dan McCarthy on Moana III told me that there were a few boats booked in to the South Opal Reef movie theatre yesterday. Squally. Windy. Rainy. Lumpy.  Who could blame you if you decided to spent the day behind the reef watching movies instead of rolling around and getting wet on the edge.  Mistress did and Barry tells me [this time confirmed tongue in cheek ] that its getting to a stage where they might need to report chopoffs.  Capt. Luke did and told me the highlight of their day was their two wahoo bites!

But another who stayed behind the reef probably had the best day of all.  Capt. Ash Wallis’ Kalira with Dave Cassar and James Conway, who are on deck for a very special trip with a very special young lady (more below), stayed behind the reef at South Opal due to the weather, and managed to catch 5, yes that’s 5, bonefish!  That’s quite an achievement for this part of the world. Capt. Luke tells me he’s never heard of anyone catching that many in a day on the east coast before!

The special young lady in question, Prue, at 15 years of age, is on board with the Make A Wish Foundation to hopefully achieve her dream of catching a giant black marlin.  While she has not encountered the best of weather or conditions thus far, there are still a couple of days left and our fingers and toes are all crossed that she can achieve her dream – she has a talented captain and talented crew, now all she needs is for the marlin and the weather to cooperate!

The word is that the marlin are out wide, now we just need the weather to cooperate to be able to fish out there for them.  Bring on the weekend!

The last few days boats have experienced a stall in the bite, not dissimilar to what we experienced at the end of the Lizard Island competition. We’re expecting it to turn around in the next few days. With more boats heading out this weekend to compete in the Yorkey’s Knob Makaira Bullfight (weather depending of course – Saturday’s forecast is still quite rough though it will be coming down again from Sunday) more reports should be coming in. On the Sunshine Coast, the Mooloolaba GFC are hosting the Maritimo Billfish Bash and the CPGFA Hall of Fame Dinner will be held at the Shangri La Hotel on Saturday night.

I’m editing some more recent footage to put up today. In the meantime, a series of stills from the underwater camera of a big fish bite.