Thinking of fishing this fabulous fishery? The following members of the BMFB Boat Directory have late cancellations/availability still remaining for this 2010 Giant Black Marlin Season:

Amokura November 30 – December 4.

Hot Shot November 22-28

Joe Joe November 18-23.

Moana III November 9-11 and November 29~

Sea Baby IV November 22-27 and November 29-December 2.

Tradition November 22-December 8.

There are lots of big fish still waiting to be caught!

Also, don’t forget if you are in the town, the Cairns Professional Game Fishing Association’s Hall of Fame Dinner will be held on November 27 at the Shangri-La Hotel at the Cairns Pier.

Join us for an historic night of entertainment and giant marlin celebrations.  Rub shoulders with the very cream of the world’s most famous marlin fishery.

Share a sumptuous dinner and mix with legendary captains, crews, anglers and Cairns Hall of Fame members.  Watch in awe as a stunning procession of private photography and film clips are screened for this exclusive audience.   Hear intimate anecdotes from the experiences of the Cairns fishing elite.

This is your chance to be included as we toast and celebrate the 2 new special inductees, Dr Julian Pepperell and Sir Garrick Agnew.

Also, there are many tournaments coming up this month including the Yorkey’s Knob Makaira Bullfight later in the month. Check out the tournament calendar for more details.

Thursday’s fishing report to come.

After two days off and almost fully rested, we’re about to head back out into 20knots…awesome!  But on the actually awesome side, some big fish reports have been filtering in since last night.

At Lena Reef, Capt. Adam on Iona 2 added grander number 12 to the 2010 fleet tally with a fish they brought alongside after 7pm after fighting two and a half hours! (Picture above) Congrats to Adam and his Floridian angler!  Fishing Linden Bank, Capt. Sharky on Sea Baby IV‘s run of big fish continues with two fish including a 950lb-er for angler Mike and a 400lb-er for Brian.  And Capt. Corey Hard on Askari also released two including a big girl at 900lbs for Jeff and 350lb-er for Hardcore regular PC.  I know that Kim has been getting some more great footage but they are having internet troubles so we’ll have to wait to see that.

Although we haven’t heard too much from him, when we do hear, we can expect it to be good–Capt. Ross McCubbin on Cjig released a 950lb+ fish from two at the top.  Capt. Tim on Tradition also released a 300lb-er from what sounds like a quieter day in the middle.

Some catch up reports from Capt. Brett Thomas on Gorilla. They fished Escape Reef on Sunday/Monday and caught a 600lb-er Sunday and jumped two small ones off on Monday and raised really nice one that wouldn’t eat.  Also Capt. Tim Ryan on Joe Joe who released a 700lb-er and 800lb-er on Monday/Tuesday.

And a big thank you to the fleet from the guys on Dreamin’ On who have wound up the GBR leg of their world tour – although they will do some more giant black fishing as they head towards Townsville and target blue marlin at SEQ before their appointment with Dockwise for their trip back to the US early next year.  I got some stats from Capt. Simon Carossi who helped out on deck with Capt. Randy.  In 36 days fishing they released 30 black marlin including 2 at 700lb, 2 at 800lb and 2 over 900lb! Very impressive results.

We’re in town on a day off and I’m away from my computer so I’ll keep this brief and add the photos later. Just a few reports from Tuesday’s fishing which are: Calypso with one from two, a nice 750lb-er which Capt. Tim Dean said was a hot fish.  Their guests from Texas must be having an absolute ball already following up from their three to 700lb the day before. Hot Shot also had another nice solid 500lb-er on the Bank nearby.  Iona 2 did battle with the small fish with the one as well.  And Tradition also released a 300lb-er late at 6pm.  Capt. Tim Richardson said they also had some late bites on Monday jumping three off..all after 6 then as well!

There was a bit of rain out there yesterday and by the looks of it in here, a little more is on its way today!

I had a brief chat to Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles on Sea Baby IV this morning before they headed back out to chase the big girls.  Sharky gave me some awesome photos (below) from their recent trip from the helicopter taken as they fought an estimated 400lb-er for angler Warren Kienath they released on Saturday as well as a shot of the 1177lb-er weighed on Sunday.

Some more information about this fish which was Sharky’s first grander weighed in his 18 years fishing the reef (although he’s certainly released lots of big fish!) and was caught on a circle hook after a 20 minute fight: the measurements were 12 foot 1 inch short length, 6 foot 6 girth and 22.5 inch tail. Angler Eric “the Viking” has traveled the world chasing marlin and this is his fifth grander now.

Sharky tells me they did indeed have some very good fishing over those days the rest of us were fighting the Lizard Island Tournament which is quite typical really as Sharky always has a good Lizard Island Tournament whether he’s fishing it or not!!

Thanks Sharky – congratulations to you and Bevan and Daniel on deck and of course Eric ‘the Viking’. And to Steve for the helicopter pics!

There was a bit of a lull in the fishing yesterday – perhaps quite expected – but still a few standouts. Capt. Dan on Moana III released another three from three, including another big fish at 950lbs, the others in the 250 and 450lb range.  That’s six in two days for the boys including a 950lb-er and the other that Dan put at 1100lb!  Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso released three from five bites at 250, 450 and 700lbs. Tim says they missed the bite from the big one and jumped off a sailfish to boot!

Jye on Cool Runnings back in Cairns on changeover tells me that on their weekend overnighter, they released one at 200lbs on Saturday and added a 200 and nice 800lb-er yesterday. Capt. Adam on Iona also released two around the 550lb mark for Texan Jim before getting the early mark in for changeover in Cairns. I snapped this picture of their first fish of the day from almost nearby and Rhino sent me some more pictures as well, below.

Capt. Ian Ford on Hot Shot reported another 600lb-er and Castille III also released another 200lb-er for Eddie.  And Capt. Trent on the other Iona added another small fish in the middle as well.

We finished up our trip with Jason and Scooter with 6 fish in the 6 days including the two 750 and 800lbs.  Jason’s happy to regain his title with the biggest fish of the trip.  More photos from the trip below.

Blue Marlin: I also had a report from Tim Hiscoe who has spent the last three days off Moreton Island on board Chris Herbert’s 54 Bertram ABSOLUTE. They fish Saturday for 3 nice blues from 4 bites with the best about 280kg (600lb) and the others about 150kg and 200. They also lost another around the 200kg mark. Sunday was really hot fishing with about 10 bites, but they only managed to convert 2 of them into tags. All were quality fish again with a couple pushing 300kg. Monday was bit quieter with 1 fish of 200kg from 3 bites finishing the trip with 6 blues released from 17 bites over 3 days on beautiful calm seas.  Tim reports it was stunning fishing by any account and with gorgeous weather it was just perfect!  Thanks Tim!

Did I miss anyone today?