Capt. Luke found some nice weather this week and ventured to the shelf off the Gold Coast for some Blue Marlin fishing action. Reports on the Coast from the weekend to early in the week were promising. Local boats Mistress and Pacemaker had some success with 4 fish from over 10 bites between them on the Sunday/Public Holiday Monday. Mistress also lost a fish estimated at over 800lbs.

Steve and son Damien, back for a Blue Marlin after notching up a Black on their trip last year, certainly picked the day for good weather. A nice bull Dolphin Fish took care of dinner early and shortly after raising a small Blue that didn't bite, Capt. Luke worked the area to produce another bite from a 300lb-er. The energetic fish was successfully released after some standard Blue Marlin antics - jumping all over the ocean and peeling off a heap of line!

We have just one week now before our departure for Port Stephens and the fishing is still looking really good down there. Capt. Darren back at the helm of his own Di Da Ke got himself a Grand Slam with a difference over the weekend - a Black Marlin, a Striped Marlin and a 100mm teeny weeny Broadbill. (Dr. Julian is investigating but at this stage believes that is what it is). One of the crew spotted what looked like a tiny billfish swimming at the back of the boat so they netted it ;-)

That comes after a successful day on the water for the Diversion family who on Friday captured a potential Austrlian Mens Record for James with an approx 84kg Striped Marlin. Congrats James!

Time to get back into blogging!!

An extremely restful holiday period has recharged the batteries after the tough season up North. And a month of bad weather here on the Gold Coast has meant no fishing.

Capt. Luke and I snuck away for a spot of Dam fishing in the last week and missed the annual Gold Coast Riviera Masters where the fishing was tough - 12 billfish for the 57 boats and three days fishing. Tough going guys!

But it's not all bad news as reports from down South have given us something to get excited about. Capt. Ross on Broadbill scored 8 from 10 Stripies yesterday. This follows weekend reports that the team on one of the local private boats had a great run of fish with 6 from close to 40 strikes and Capt. Tim's reports that boats are catching up to 6-8 fish per trip.

The fish have arrived!!

Reel Chase and Kekoa leave for the Port Stephens Season on February 9 so all we can say is save some fish for us guys!! Regular reports should begin again then. If you want to join us, drop us a line .

Some photos from 2007 to get you in the mood!

Back closer to home Kiwi boat Ultimate Lady, now calling Gold Coast home-base during the summer season, has been fishing out wide from Cape Moreton to Coffs Harbour finding a few fish all along the shelf but nothing red hot.

Some photos from our final reef trip of the year. The weather was glorious though not so since our arrival home. Both Reel Chase and Kekoa have been marina bound by the near cyclonic winds that have been plaguing the Gold Coast region since Christmas and have had to cancel all trips out.

We hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year and enjoy the rest of the holiday season. We can't wait for things to fine up here so we can get out on the water again. And, it's not long now until the Port Stephens season kicks off either. Look forward to seeing everyone down there in Feb/Mar.