Gold Coast

As the tournament approaches this weekend, good news for the fishos on the Gold Coast came from owner Grant Thomson on Cjig.  On a boys day out, fishing on the Tweed Canyons, the boys went 4 from 5 blue marlin yesterday (Monday).  Grant says they were all nice fish in the 130 to 180kg range and included a double header.  Great stuff!

The tournament kicks of with fishing for Ladies Day on Friday and fishing for the All Tackle All Species on Saturday and Sunday.

Coffs Harbour

Another club looking forward to their upcoming tournament on April 14, with the fishing improving week after week in the lead-up, is the Solitary Islands GFC at Coffs Harbour. Rick reports that on Saturday’s club comp day 15 blues were raised with 8 tagged by the club’s fleet of seven boats.  The bite started with a 120kg blue marlin on Foreign Exchange for angler David Poulter, who now has 4 blues to his credit just a couple of months after joining the club and starting game fishing. The best result of the day was on Steakout, which managed a spearfish early in the day, followed by a double blue marlin hookup later that afternoon, with anglers Karen Godwin (Karen’s first marlin) and Joe Davidson both getting the fish in for tagging.

Rick tells me there has been a very clear pattern emerging since the rain stopped of an early to mid-morning blue marlin bite, followed by an even hotter mid to late-afternoon bite. The afternoon bite has also seen a succession of doubles. Foreign Exchange reported a double blue hookup last Sunday, and Glen Booth’s Wicked Weasel also hooked up to a double on a mid-week fish Thursday – Glen reports they finished with 8-6-2 on Thursday on Wicked Weasel while Kanahoee went 1-1-1 and Secret Men’s Busines went 2-2-2.

Foreign Exchange also stumbled across a whale carcass floating out wide which got them a healthy dolphin fish straight up.  While they quickly tired of the smell and left to go blue marlin fishing, Rick says the carcass was last seen floating south – Port Stephens look out

Port Stephens

I added a point score update from Garry Holt on Diversion to yesterday’s report, but in case you missed it, here it is again: For NPSGFC Diversion is on 126,500 points (11 tags), BBGFC Sharaka is on 11 as well with 113,000 points (all but two caught on 24) and NPSGFC Gunrunner on 307,029 with 9 tags. James Holt, having caught all 11 of Diversion’s fish is well in the lead for Champion T&R Angler.

Yesterday was Ladies Day and Ben report that the Lizard Island GFC visiting team on Carbon Trading prevailing with 4 from 5 marlin for Maeve.

I’ve also had a couple more reports from last week of fishing – thanks to everyone for sending those in (you can email me reports at any time to info@blackmarlinfishingblog.com). Tim reports that on his Reel Diamond they fished last week for a first marlin for angler Peter Rozenauers – a black marlin – followed by a hat trick of striped marlin over the next 2 days and ended up with 10 marlin in 2.5 days – great fishing!  Danny and his team on Gale Force are representing Sydney GFC in the comp.  Danny reports that while they have managed to stay connected to the leaders with 6 fish for the weekend and are currently running equal fourth with two other boats.  Danny also said that boats fishing on Saturday were treated to the sight of  dozens of free swimming marlin, occasionally teaming up to harass a doomed bait ball on the surface.  On Sunday, Diversion and Shakara moved away from the main group of boats fishing the Carpark where they found a bunch of fish in the same area going head to head. And Andy on Fritto 1 reports adding 2-2-1 to their club’s score on Sunday which rounded out a much slower weekend for them by Port standards, but their NPSGFC T3 is on the board!

Video

This is Addixion’s 9-3-3 blue marlin from last week on the Gold Coast. Congrats guys – good stuff!

Port Stephens

The master, Al McGlashan, sent me some of the best marlin fishing photos you will likely see from his recent trips off Port Stephens with his Strikezone team.  Al says it has been insane out there – as the reports have been showing us. On Strikezone, they fished the last few pre-Interclub amongst the crowds on the carpark for 8 marlin, giving Al plenty of photo opportunities which he has kindly shared below!

Also finishing up his trip with Mark and daughter Katie in the leadup to the Interclub, Capt. Dean Beech on Castille III reports an outstanding 30 marlin in 5 days fishing.

As for the big tournament, the first two days are now done and dusted and many boats have a few days off to prepare themselves for the final two days coming up this weekend.  For the female anglers gearing up for Ladies Day today – good luck to you all!!

Interclub Day 1 and the Newcastle Port Stephens T&R team of Diversion, Born Free, Gunrunner, Anarchy and The Force (who are actually scored as NPSGFC Team 2) took a much narrow-er lead than first reported. Hot on their heals being Broken Gay GFC Team 2 consisting of Shakara, Gorilla, Avanti, Black Pete and In A Meeting.  I heard the tagging results for Day 1 for these two teams were as follows: NPSGFC Gunrunner 5, Diversion 4, The Force 3, Anarchy 2 and Born Free 1 and BBGFC Shakara 5, Gorilla 4, Avanti 3, Black Pete 2 and In A Meeting 1. Outside these two leading teams, other boats with good fishing include Lake Mac’s Ningaloo and Gametime and Sydney GFC’s Gale Force and Ambition. Scott on Gunrunner tells me they that the fishing was pretty tough amongst so many boats but they saw lots of tailing fish and bait ball action. Scott also said that they sight fished 3 of the 5 on day 1. Very cool!

While results are still filtering in from Day 2, it seems like Diversion and Shakara have really taken the competition to another level with 7 and 6 respectively, and with teammates like Gunrunner who added another 4 on Day 2, NPSGFC Team 2 are still well in front – more to come!  I’ve also heard plenty of stories of lost fish. On the capture side, Dave Tucker told me a funny story (not so funny for him I guess) of just what happens when you tempt the fish gods.  Dave was at the wheel of NPSGFC Team 1 Catpure boat Turfed Out and took a break from the bridge for a turn on deck when he offered to fight in his undies if they hooked up within the next 10 minutes.  4.5 hours on 8kg and a good case of sunburn later, they lost the blue marlin on the gaffs!  Later in the day they added a 97.6 kg stripe on 10 for angler Andrew Tucksford.  Some big tigers were also weighed including a couple knocking on the 1000lb mark – and one over at 531kg (1170lbs) on No Excuse.

Outside the comp again, I also heard from ex-Sunshine Coast GFC-er Myles Weston on his boat 2Cats returning from a stint off Port to home base at Empire Bay who released a 55kg striped marlin SOLO on the 33 Bertram.  Miles says that he fought it from the bridge until he got the double up and then went down the ladder to leader it and get his lure back.  What a great effort – congrats Miles!

Lakes Entrance, VIC

There’s also been lots of talk over the last couple of days of what may be the first blue marlin caught (ever!) in Victoria at 210kg off Lake’s Entrance near the oil rigs. Ross tells me that there have been a few fought and lost but that they are seeing fish daily and also that several stripes have been caught.   They are fishing only 35-40 miles out and Ross says the shelf looks really good out there with plenty of kinks and canyons. Hopefully this will be the first of many!

The biggest weekend on the Port Stephen’s tournament calendar is about to start with Day 1 fishing of the NSW Interclub on tomorrow.  And the marlin fishing over the last few days has been no less than outstanding.  Capt. Dean Beech on Castille III has had a fantastic run this week tagging 21 stripies in three days fishing (7 on Monday, 8 on Tuesday and 6 on Wednesday).

Yesterday they added a marlin grand slam to that total with a black marlin, then a blue marlin and finally a striped marlin, all before lunch!! This was angler Mark’s first grand slam and the team also added another stripey to make it four for the day. Interestingly they have been fishing in the same spot all week and had caught all stripies there until the black and blue yesterday.

Calypso also had a red hot day’s fishing yesterday with 8 tags and the Cairns boys visiting tell me they went 4 from 5!

Andy sent me this beautiful shot taken on Fritto 1 that kind of sums up how its been down there.  Bait shimmying on the surface, birds everywhere and marlin jumping non stop!

Good luck to everyone competing!

BlueWater Magazine Editor Tim Simpson has announced the 2012 Reader’s Trip to Canada to catch grander bluefin tuna.  If you are interested in what might very well be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, read on for more information.

Imagine—in just a few months time:

• stepping up for the battle of your life, with these muscle-bound missiles stripping hundreds of metres from even 60kg tackle.  Experience the power!
• watching awestruck as tuna, perhaps more than 500kg, casually slurp herring right beside the boat—almost within touching distance.
• having the time of your life, on one of the world’s most extraordinary gamefishing experiences.

The trip will be conducted with professional captains, Jamie and Troy Bruce, fishing aboard their boats out of North Lake on Prince Edward Island.

Weather permitting, you will enjoy six full days of fishing for giant bluefin tuna, in this quiet countryside location which is one of the most beautiful parts of Canada.

There is some urgency to confirm numbers, however, as the boats and accommodation are currently being held for you and 11 other participants.  So, to avoid disappointment, confirm your participation early. We can take only 12 lucky fishermen on this trip of a lifetime.

Read the full details of the trip and contact Tim if you have any questions.

Tim Simpson
Editor/General Manager, BlueWater Boats and Sportsfishing magazine
(07) 5501 5410

Issue 90 – On Sale Feb 29

This issue contains my 2011 Cairns Giant Black Marlin Season recap, another reason to look out for that in your mailbox or newsagent soon.

Anthony’s shot of marlin mid-flight taken from on board Tonlu II

Capt. Dean Beech on Castille III continues his hot run of fish in the last few days with another 8 marlin tagged yesterday off Port Stephens.  Deano said conditions were a fair bit rougher yesterday and they were one of only a few boats marlin fishing.  They were hooked up on their first within minutes of lines in and saw about 20 fish all up for the day.

Ed Johnson on Jervis Bay boat Sniper skippered by Craig Wilson, also gave me an update of their stats at Port.  Ed says they have just completed a an impressive 2 week stint with 53 marlin tagged & released – mostly striped marlin with a few blacks to 150kg and one blue to top it off.  Congrats to Craig & his interchangeable crew – Ed, Trevor, Josh, Dave, Kurt, Arnold and Craig’s daughter Gabrielle!

Below is a wonderful selection of marlin action photos taken by Peter Teys who was social fishing with some mates over the weekend amongst the tournament boats – as well as  a great marlin jump shot from the weekend before from Team Okuma’s Anthony Raco above.  Thanks so much for sending these in – and a shout out if anyone has a photo of The Package from either tournament, David would be very grateful for a shot!

Peter Teys shot of Diversion hooked up.

Stripie making its way through the fleet – Peter Teys shot.