Capt. Darren returned to the Cairns Marlin Marina last night after a 7 day trip. Starting and ending in Cairns, he steered Allure up to the middle Ribbons and back, recording 15 bites and 6 conversions including an estimated 900lb-er at Number 5 Ribbon Reef on Sunday. The remaining fish were in the 150-400lb range.

A few more bigger fish have been seen which is good news for the season shaping up. Capt. Brian Felton on Watchdog had a bite out of a 700lb-er at Linden Bank yesterday before running back into Port Douglas. Owner Brett tells me they also missed another bigger fish (800lb) and successfully released a smaller one at 250lbs, going one from five in two days fishing. Hard to Swallow arrived in Cairns yesterday after their trip up the coast and raised a few good fish off Myrmidon Reef which is good news for those fishing the Billfish Bonanza this weekend.

Tradition fished north from Escape to Number 3 Ribbon and pulled the bait off a 400lb-er at the top of Number 2. KEKOA was fishing in the opposite direction, south from Number 3 and trolling lures off St. Crispins had a double header off good sized yellowfin, missing a bite from a smaller black immediately after the baits went back in.

A few more familiar faces are arriving on the scene. Little Audrey has arrived and is fishing. Peter B. (Wright) and the boys on Sea Baby IV are all set to head out to start their season on the weekend. And on Reel Chase we have also finished packing away the stores and are heading out to join the southern fleet tomorrow. Also in the Marlin Marina, Bob Lowe, president of the Lizard Island Gamefishing Club and his 44 Mariner Rebel which will be heading up to Lizard Island later in the month for the Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic.

KEKOA went two from four yesterday at Number 3 Ribbon estimated at 200 and 800lbs.

After 4 days on strike, Stuey was a happy man about 4pm yesterday. Two earlier bites Tuesday had already come unstuck but finally he was onto his first black marlin of the trip which was released after a short fight, estimated at 200lb.

As it turns out, Brendan's stint on strike was a fair bit shorter. Just before 5pm, Capt. Luke came across a nice school of yellowfin and worked the area. Then came the bite on the stinger and Brendan ("Big fish Brendan") was on. The 800lb-er did some nice jumps on the leader and was released in good condition in less than 15 minutes. Capt. Luke reports that the new Accurate Reels went really well!

At the Bank, Capt. Tim on Tradition pulled the hooks on a smaller fish after 20 minutes. And further south, Capt. Dan on Moana III reports that it looks real good around Jenny Louise - just waiting for the big fish to show - as the long liners confirm the bigger marlin are just starting to show up wide of Cruiser Pass with the tuna and whale sharks already aggregating.

I've also heard reports of a few more fish at Number 10 Ribbon. I'll update as more reports come in.

Thanks to Capt. Jared for keeping me in the loop. Shaka returned to port yesterday afternoon and reports there are still fish on the bank with Gorilla releasing a 600lb-er yesterday and raising another bigger fish. Also on the bank Calypso released a smaller black and a private boat from Port Douglas went two from four.

Photo from the boys on KEKOA, Dingo with a trout the boys speared for the dinner plate up on Number 5 Ribbon. Capt. Luke reports a couple of bites from smaller fish yesterday but no conversions. They are making their way back down south again today.

Tradition headed out this morning again, as did Moana III and The Iceman. Hopefully some more reports to come.

Captain/Owner Adam Jordan stepped off Iona 2 yesterday to head overseas for a holiday with the family - off the back of a good early season stint on board the boat. In 10 days at the helm, Adam raised 28 with 16 bites and released 9 black marlin, the largest at 650lb. Capt. Trent Visscher will now take over the wheel again. After an absence in 2008 due to illness, its great to have Trent back on the reef!

Also fishing in the middle Ribbons after changeover in Cooktown, Capt. Ross Finlayson on Top Shot reports the fishing is great going two from two yesterday. Askari is not marlin fishing this week but report the reef fishing is red hot. The boys on KEKOA are also enjoying the popper fishing and made it as far as Number 3 Ribbon yesterday jumping off a 350lb-er and raising another in the late afternoon.

There are still a few sailfish around. Calypso angler Stewart Englezo released this beauty at St. Crispans, his first sail. Capt. Tim Dean also reports a lot of mackerel and GTs, raising the one marlin in the afternoon.

No reports from the bank on Sunday but private boat The Bear fished Saturday raising three so the fish are still there.

Picture - Stew and his sail on Calypso at St. Crispins.

Some extra reading - first 'Marlin Season' report for Fishing World online, The Cairns Experience.

Reports overnight coming from the southern end of the reef only - but according to John on Shaka, it's looking very fishy at Linden Bank!

After a slow first day, it picked up for them yesterday with the team seeing five, getting good bites out of three and releasing two yesterday estimated at 250 and 300lbs. Also on the Bank, Cool Runnings, with Capt. Troy Dallman started their three day trip off with a 350lb black and missed another couple.

A little further north on Opal Ridge, Capt. Tim Ryan on Reel Ripe reports another successful day trip to the reef from Port Douglas with one from one for angler Paul Olive from South Australia, estimated at 250lbs at Opal Ridge. And further up again the last report for Capt. Tim Richardson on Tradition - a quiet day with just a 500lb-er raised at Escape.

Photo: John in the chair on Shaka - Capt. Jared handy in the tower to get this shot in while backing down!

Some SMS snaps from Iona 2 yesterday. Rhino and the boys look like they're having too much fun!

The dust storm hit Cairns yesterday and it was quite a bit hazy and gusty in town and according to the boats fishing Linden Bank, not terribly comfortable out there either - the downsea troll to the anchorage at Opal being a welcome relief at the end of the day. Not much action on the bank excepting the weather.

It all seemed to be happening at the northern end of the Ribbons although reports are sketchy. Seems like there is the odd bite all the way along with Number 10 being the pick. Capt. Adam steered Iona 2 up the Ribbons from changeover in Cooktown and went two from four at 150 and 400lbs and raised another two that didn't eat.

We caught up to Capt. Dean Beech on Castille III as we hit the final reef for a bait fish on the way to Cairns as he was in the middle of catching a sailfish on a laser pro. So Capt. Luke on KEKOA decided to mosey on over and raised another straight away on the teaser, pitched a garfish to it, and the result being Number 2 Dean's first sail.

On the reef, Capt. Tim Ryan reports from Reel Ripe going 1 from 2 yesterday for Melbourne angler Michael White estimated at 450lbs. The team also had a marlin eat a striped tuna they had on the bait rod but jumped it off. Kianja is also venturing north up the ribbons and yesterday released their first black of the season at Lena Reef estimated at 400lbs. Shaka is heading out today. Allure and Tradition head out tomorrow. Most of the fleet is now in Cairns (and crews decided to hit the new Salt House bar/restaurant at the Marlin Marina last night for a big catch up. There are some very sore heads wandering around this morning!)

Left: Photo from Dingo of Dean in action on KEKOA. Right: Pat's sail on board Castille III.

A report from Corey and Shane on board the brand new 55ft Assegai Askari who have begun their season off Cairns. Over the last couple of days they've seen 8, had two bites and christened the new boat with its first black marlin at 350lbs.

Kalira, the new 50ft Maritimo, ran back to Cairns from the Hinchinbrook comp and released a 400lb-er on the edge before heading in. It seems there are a few more boats heading out now and all reports are good!

Back to the south approaching Cairns, some of us were hard at work bait fishing (and having some big wins there) while the boys on KEKOA got a little distracted and decided to catch a marlin instead. Trolling a couple of teasers around as a change of pace they switched two blacks, jumped one off and released the other with Dingo on the rod for a change.

Meanwhile, the weather has been fantastic.
Photo: After a hard days bait fishing, Dave relaxes with a beer on deck and another beautiful sunset over the horizon.

OB26 ventured out with the family and dog in tow for a day on the water wide of Magnetic Island for a mackerel fish yesterday and came up with a sailfish instead - their first sailfish on board. We should have been fishing that close for the Townsville Tournament!

We are out bait fishing for the next couple of days with limited telephone and internet access and so Hinchinbrook results are a little sketchy. 12 boats finished with 1 fish each (2 fish on the final day) and so the winning boat is victorious on a count-back with their fish being the first released on Day 1 being Plan B followed by Moonshine.

Last night we shared our reef anchorage with KEKOA and Calypso; with Castille III passing us earlier in the day. Today the remaining fleet who fished Hinchinbrook will also be making their way back up to Cairns and so the scad between here and Cairns should be very scared. Bait fishing aside, the sportfishing has been particularly good this year. Spanish mackerel and giant trevally, hard to avoid and quite a bit of fun along with yellowfin tuna and a few trout for the dinner plate.

Maris Naish (skipper of Blackhawk in Port Lincoln and Halcyon Five in Cairns) sent me a note yesterday about a possible blue marlin or swordfish stuck in the marina at Port Lincoln. The follow up photo courtesy of Rolf Czabayski (Sparticus) and Janet Forster (Long Shot), taken from Janet's front lawn of their house at the marina, reveals that its obviously a swordfish terrorizing the local bream population. And a large one at that. Maris says you couldn’t get a park in the marina for all the spectators. NB - anyone contemplating fishing this weekend in Port Lincoln better go the heavy tackle ;-)

Having finished our last day light tackle fishing in Townsville now, we leave in the morning to bait fish our way to Cairns and if you've been watching the Twitter Feed, you'll know that things are just starting to heat up. Adam has steered Iona2 back to his regular 2008 haunt, the Bus Stop on Linden Bank. Thursday they released their first heavy tackle fish of the season, a nice (!) start at 650lbs (left). Adam also reports they pulled the baits from another bigger fish, had another one up and came across a tail-er later in the day as well. Certainly sounds promising.

Reports also from the long-liners who are fishing east of the marine park in the Coral Sea where SeaSurface.com shows a pool of red hot water already around 27 degrees centigrade. Its no surprise then that as with most of Australia's East Coast this year, they are already kicking goals with yellowfin and big eye tuna. With the full moon due on October 4th, there's a good chance this year's season could start as last year's ended with big packs of marlin hunting the feeding tuna aggregation on the eastern edge of the marine park wide of Cairns.

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The last light tackle comp of the northern season at Hinchinbrook is underway with 7 tags on Day 1. The tournament ends Sunday so the entire fleet should be in residence in the Marlin Marina in Cairns by Tuesday when we arrive.

I don't have much to report from the weekend so I'll keep it short (please keep an eye on the Twitter feed between posts):

Innisfail Light Tackle Billfish Comp report from Capt. Tim Ryan - fishing still slow as with Townsville. At the end of Day 2, only 3 billfish tags reported (I believe two sails and one marlin). Fishing finishes today. Castille III has been out exploring post-Townsville tournament, getting Steph her first sail from a large pod on Friday (her first after 9 years trying - congrats!) but spent much of the bad weather for the rest of the weekend sheltered on the reef.

Capt. Ross on Top Shot finshed his first heavy tackle trip of the season yesterday and reports that the Bank is loaded with bait, scad, runners, skipjacks and yellowfin -- looking all set to fire. On Saturday they went one from three smaller fish (to 200lb) in the rough conditions.

Now that the Townsville comp is over, most of the remaining fleet will be making their way to Cairns for the upcoming start of the heavy tackle season (with a few stopping off in Innisfail for their light tackle comp). We expect that boats will be making their first heavy tackle trips within the next few weeks. News from Watchdog who fished through Linden Bank yesterday, jumping two blacks off to 300lbs and also reporting another boat on the Ribbons with a 450lb-er.

The scad should be getting very nervous about now ;-)

Congratulations to the teams on Sea Baby IV and Oi Bud who took out the Over 8m and under 8m categories respectively. Just 20 fish were tagged for the tournament which was a marked decrease from last year, perhaps even one the lowest number tournaments since the inaugural event in 1983 when the fleet ventured no farther afield than just wide of Cape Cleveland (due to the weather and also because the juvenile black marlin grounds off Cape Bowling Green had not yet been 'discovered').

Just one more week for us in our light tackle season before we head up to Cairns to gear up for the big girls!

Day3 = slow. Northerly trumps the full moon.

Castille III had lady luck on their side yesterday with the only fish of the tournament on Day 3 - a sailfish for angler Eddie Shi. Enjoying a raft-up with the team on KEKOA last night, we benefited from a POB history lesson. Peter perhaps the only to have fished all 27 Townsville Tournaments, and with one day's fishing to go, this may be his first without him turning a reel. Capt. Jim suggests the lack of juvenile black marlin seems do with the lack of baby marlin from last year's spawning as the number of returned fish (2+ years old) seems to be consistent with previous years. (The fish we lost was in this larger category). Also, the percentage of sailfish in the catch is touching on 50% which it hasn't done for a long, long time.

As always, there has been a number of the larger 'reef marlin' seen during the tournament although 6kg is a hard task, including the est. 300lb-er the boys on Reel Ripe fought at Rib Reef yesterday for over 1.5 hours and hampered by gearbox problems (no reverse).

Day 1 and 2 delivered some of the best weather we have ever experienced during the Townsville Tournament. Unfortunately, the fishing has failed to keep up its side of the bargain. On Day 1, Utopia tagged the first fish, a black marlin just after 2pm - right on the low tide. Within minutes, this was followed by blacks for both Bad Company and Sea Baby IV. And that was it for Day 1 (although on Reel Chase we had hopes of joining the few with fish until we jumped off our black shortly after.)

Day 2 saw an increase in the number of fish tagged, as we move further away from the full moon - by my count 14 in total for the day with the first marlin of the day going to Mates Rates and the first sailfish of the tournament not long after to Oi Bud all before the first sked at 11am this time. Oi Bud followed up soon after with a black marlin to put them in the lead in the under 8m section with two tags and Sea Baby tagged their second black marlin to put them in the lead in the Over 8m section.

Lining up for the shotgun start and Mojo on their black marlin on Day 2.

With the bait being a lot more consistent throughout the whole day today, the fishing, although still slow, was spread out over the whole day. This pattern should continue over the next couple of days.

Correcting my Twitter, Bad company is still on one fish due to calling their accumulated tags at the skeds. And apologies for the delayed updates as we had no internet service overnight. Apparently we have some antennas to sort out before the heavy tackle season starts!

We're all in town now for the start of the tournament in the morning. Keep an eye on the Twitter Feed for updates during the day. With the fishing a little quiet of late, the report of a couple of boats finding a few on their way into port yesterday has given us some hope.

On their way to Innisfail, Iona released a couple of blacks around the reef. Heading in for the comp, Capt. Tim Ryan on Reel Ripe released another between Davies Reeef and Bowling Green. Pictures from the boys on Iona.