The weather has gone from bad to worse to okay and back to worse again. By the consensus of word on the dock, tomorrow (Saturday's fishing) looks likely to be cancelled again while Sunday looks not too bad.

Thursday saw the wild weather come through earlier than predicted and gave us a very memorable ride home. Hopefully one not to be repeated. With our team up from Sydney stuck in traffic, we got a very late start, missed the early bite (Kekoa successfully released a double-header before 9am) and only got two hours fishing in before it all went to sh!t.

Back to Wednesday which was by far the glamour day of the season (of course being our day off in Port) boats fishing the mid-week Salamander Shores tournament found the fish back down at the original car park. Listening on the radio it was all 1-1-1 and 2-2-2 each sked. Kekoa, not fishing the tourn, and Running Bear had the best day each with four fish, while numerous boats followed up with 3 and 2.

On Wednesday Kekoa reported bait balls at the car park with Striped Marlin feeding on the surface. We saw the same again Thursday - it was a great sight to see!

And on Tuesday, T-Star had a top day with their single lady angler scooping the Ladies Day tournament releasing her first, second, third and fourth Marlin!

Back North
Ultimate Lady has been doing a spot of Blue Marlin fishing from the Gold Coast down to Yamba and released 6 from 9 on Wednesday. The overnight drift unfortunately took them a good deal away from the spot in the fast current (um... 30 miles...) and trying to work their way back there on Thursday they only managed one from three.

In NZ
Reports have been good for the Blue Marlin fishing as well, big ones at that. There was a 442kg Blue weighed on the North Island as well as another two fish over 320kg.

A Black and a Stripey.

Champion Capture Boat: Rampage from Kurri Tackle.

Champion Tag and Release Boat: Pelagic from Dobbo (with four each) then Fascination IV from a group of boats on three (including Gorilla who I still believe caught four but perhaps disqualified one?)

Day 1 cancelled due to the strong wind warning. A few boats still ventured out with just a few fish caught between them.

Day 2 glamourous weather for the run out, although the wind again picked up in the morning. Without sitting right by the radio all day it was hard to stay on top of the standings, but some of the highlights....

Ningaloo started off firing on the first sked and ending with three for the day (unfortunately having to disqualify one of these fish). Bobby Jones on Fascination IV stuck to his secret spot for a consistent three fish early. The newest Assegai Gorilla fished their maiden Interclub with gusto finishing the day with 4 tags. The Griffiths boys on Champagne managed three on skip baits. Calypso with Little Rossi (ex-Sea Baby) at the helm was on the right school tagging three from 12 they raised throughout the day.

The biggest Tiger caught was approximately 400+kgs but that pales into insignificance compared to the reported 700+kg Great White released by another boat.

On Reel Chase, Tom's 90kg Stripey came zooming down the waves like an arrow aimed at our transom only to zoom away at the last minute to almost empty the spool on 80lb, surfing down-sea. On Kekoa, the team were hooked up on an odd combination of a marlin and a Hammerhead shark but without much maneuverability in the conditions with boats in very close quarters elected after a short fight to cut off the shark and chase and tag the marlin.

Overall there were a large number of Marlin caught by the fleet of 206 boats with most of the boats fishing in the new 'car park' on the Northern grounds although the better fishing seemed to be on Southern car park South of 33 degrees latitude. Unfortunately for the small boats that endured the large swelly conditions there still seems to be no sign of small Blacks on the inshore grounds.

Back at the same spot, fortune smiled on the team on Kekoa today returning with 7 tags. Unlike the day before the bite increased as the day went on accounting for four of the seven total in the last couple of hours and the boys reluctantly left the fish biting to return to Port.

The team also marked and raised quite a number of fish that didn't bite. The full moon may have something to do with their behaviour. By all accounts, they should start to bite better as we get away from the moon.

The day started with a nice Bull Dolphin fish that weighed 21kg and tasted yummy tonight for dinner :-) The final tally comprising of 4 Blacks to 100kg and 3 Stripeys.

Down at the 'old' Car Park, boats reported catching a few fish but not in the same numbers, while the bait was good everywhere. Capt. Bob on Fascination III kept to his spot and scored another three on the downrigger. Capt. Scotty on the Freedom also came home with three tags (two Stripys and a Black) and Tsunami on a shortened day with 1 from 3.

With preparation for the tournament in full swing tomorrow not sure who will be fishing but hopefully they will be on the bite again.

We returned to the spot with Capt. Luke Wednesday to a hot morning's fishing and a cold afternoon. The weather had finally turned it on and the bait had returned but as with our trip out on Monday, the middle of the day saw a big shutdown. The crew on Tsunami persevered until after 5 o'clock in the afternoon and managed to add another Stripey to their three fish from the morning to come home with 4 tags. On Kekoa, we went 3 from 6, all before lunch including two Blacks and one Stripe.

I fought a feisty 70kg Black for 45 long minutes on 50lb stand up
- foul hooked in the pectoral fin - which reminded me why I prefer to take the pictures!


Brendan's Stripey and Black.

Scotty on Freedom just came through the heads at D'Albora Marina with 5 tag flags flying.....!

Here today, gone tomorrow. That's what happened. Everyone left Port with great expectations after Sunday's tremendous fishing however those boats that arrived on the Northern bait schools early managed a fish, which included Reel Chase catching a 60kg Black Marlin, but by 10 o'clock it had all shut down. And remained that way for the rest of the day.

Capt. Ben on Tsunami had the best day with a Black and a Stripe early before the bite shut down and managed to extract another Stripey late in the day when most boats remained fish-less.

We are now a couple of days in Port getting ready for the first weekend of the Interclub.

After Capt. Jim copped a beating from the Gold Coast to Port Stephens delivering the boat, he settled in for another couple days of rough weather once here~! Friday was trying at best. Saturday not much better. Sunday.....finally some sunshine and calmer winds. On the fishing side, things also started out slow. Luckily, it has improved with the weather. Today most of the fish turned up on queue with a number of boats releasing four and five fish. On board Reel Chase we went 3 from 5.

The good news is, whether you are a live baiter or a lure-troller, all methods seemed to work equally well. The Billfish Shootout held over the weekend was won by the boys on board Weapon with 8 billfish (including Marlin grand slams on each day of the comp [Sat/Sun - Blue, Black, Striped]) live baiting, while second place getter was Little Audrey with 7 fish including 3 Blue Marlin all caught on lures.

Luckily also, the fishing wasn't confined just to the bigger boats, with the crew on the small trailer boat Josh catching 4 yesterday on live bait as well. In fact Sam and Richie have brought their trailer boats up once again from Melbourne and have been fishing here for the past two weeks with good fish between them.

Reel Chase deckie Darren on his own boat Di Da Ke also had a great day today tagging 4 Marlin and a Mako in the same area. Hopefully this bite is just building up for the Interclub beginning next weekend.

Both Kekoa and Reel Chase are located on C Finger at D'Albora (Black Marlin Marina, Nelson Bay). If you are in the area, and need some new Pelagic Gear, please do stop by. Otherwise, always happy to share pictures and fishing reports!

Photos: Simon's Black Marlin, trailer boat battles charter boat in the rough, and 4 x stripies.

A short gem from Capt. Luke, I came across while sorting through the endless 2007 season footage....


Re: Hosting - BMFB is hosting now on www.blackmarlinfishingblog.com domain. If you made it here, no more explanations necessary. I hope everything is faster now and we don't get any outages during the season like last year.