Black Marlin Fishing Blog

Port Blacks and Tassie Broadbill

Kelly April 5, 2013 No Comments

Gary Ryan on Ben My Chree tells me they fished north of Broughton Island yesterday out of Port Stephens and got bites from 4 little blacks and also released a whaler shark. Ben said that he had two marlin novices on board who are no longer in the novice category.

Meanwhile the Tassie fleet was all talk yesterday of a big broadbill caught on the boat Hapuka. I hear they were trevalla fishing and were retrieving the drop when the fish followed it up to the boat (having a couple of goes on the way up). At first they thought it was a shark and threw it a bit of trace with a strip of tuna…and they were away. Angler James Smith fought the fish for about an hour on an old Penn Senator on 24kg. It eventually weighed in at 225.5kg!

Black Marlin Fishing Blog, Fishing Reports, News

Junior Marlin and PNG National Titles

Kelly April 4, 2013 No Comments

Following up from the weekend, Mark sent me a note to let me know that juniors Ebony and Connor Brown, fishing on their dad’s trailer boat Rarely In tagged and released their first black marlin each – a great Easter present! They were fishing out of Port Stephens in close to Seal Rocks on Sunday. Congratulations Ebony and Connor~!

And also, the answer to whether any little blacks were seen off Townsville over the weekend is…two. Townsville GFC reported two encounters, one off Myrmidon and the other off Lucinda (which was one from two). Could be another big year in the north as well!

PNG National Titles

PNG The 38th PNG National Titles wound up over the weekend after 10 days of fishing. In all over 200 billfish were hooked which resulted in 72 tags and 11 captures!

One of the notable fish, this 182kg Blue on 15kg line which will smash the national record once it is ratified for angler Kathy Howden on board Witchdoctor with husband Richard – after a 2.5 hour fight no less!

Gary Litz, on board their brand new 54 Hatteras Metzger, which only just completed their journey north to PNG for the titles, also scored a 12-1 capture of a 109kg blue marlin on 8kg line.

The prizes were handed out as follows:
Most Billfish Tagged/Captured: Kevin Bolton (Rocinante);

Most Species Tagged Tuhua Litz (Metzger);

Heaviest Marlin (NR pending) Kathy Howden 182kg Blue marlin on 15kg (Witchdoctor);

Heaviest Game Fish Cathy Litz 54kg Yellowfin tuna on 15kg (Jelocat);

Heaviest Shark 28.6kg on 6kg Degen Beschel (Loti);

HPS Fish Heavy Titus Ango (Tribal);

HPS Fish Medium Kathy Howden (Witchdoctor);

HPS Fish Light Gary Litz (Metzger);

HPS Fish Ultra Light Pascal Michon (Too Ezy). Well done, all.

TAGGING:

HPS Team Heavy Rocinante;

HPS Team Medium Talio 3;

HPS Team Light Drug Runner 2;

Read more →

Black Marlin Fishing Blog, Fishing Reports, Tournaments

Little Black Marlin Fire

Kelly April 1, 2013 No Comments

The little black marlin are on fire with reports all the way along the coast from Hinchinbrook to Port Stephens. And also a couple of Gold Coast blue marlin too!

From the top, Brett Ward tells me the little blacks are already showing up in the north. He trolled in the shipping channel off Hinchinbrook landing one from two hookups on little blacks (approx 6kg). Perhaps Townsville anglers Easter fishing had similar results (anyone?)

black-marlin

On Friday the Sunshine Coast fleet had a ball on the water with David Granville reporting 6 for Reel Capture (5 blacks and a sail bringing their season tally to 96!).

David reported other boats fishing nearby also did well with 5 for Monster, 5 for Big Wave Dave, 2 for Jubilado, Walk the Line, Catapult and Reel Hunter – all a mixed bag of blacks and sails.

Another great shot from David on Reel Capture left.

Off the Gold Coast, Grant Thomson and the family on Cjig enjoyed a fun Easter Sunday on the water with one black marlin and a wahoo before the chocolate sugar high took over!

And off Port Stephens, Capt. Scotty Thorrington’s Haven Charters (Freedom) may have been skeptical of reaching his 100 billfish for the season this Port season – but thankfully, an awesome run of fish has put him back in the hunt. Scotty has reported 49 in 7 day’s fishing including one of the best day’s fishing on the water this year with 20 from 25 little blacks on Thursday. Tackleworld Port Stephens is also reporting other boats notching up between 3 and 6 a day.

Back on the Gold Coast, and the week after the Surfers Paradise All Tackle All Species and Capt. Ross McCubbin put Brad Job and Mark Moreland on a blue marlin a-piece yesterday. Fishing out wide Ross said both were caught on the high tide and he put them at 220 and 150kg respectively.

Speaking of the Surfers Paradise All Tackle All Species Tournament – the wrap up report is here – including the Lady Fishers Classic. Read on for full details.

fishing photos, Fishing Reports

Triple Tourneys and Hot Light Tackle

Kelly March 26, 2013 No Comments

Sunshine Coast Light Tackle

How’s this for a hot shot taken on the fly?!

Fantastic David Granville shot taken with one hand on the leader and one hand on the camera. David was fishing with the boys on Reel Capture and with only the three on board was multi-tasking.

They had another top day ending up with 7 blacks and this sail. David said that all the fish were small in the 20-25kg range. Kajiki was fishing nearby and although I’m not sure their final numbers, they would have been in on the same action.

Fishing Sydney

And while the fishing off Sydney has been a little hit and miss this year, Mick Altman sent me a note about some better fishing from the last week. Botany Bay G.F.C boat Marquis lost a good blue marlin on 130lbs on the southern canyons which they called for 200 plus kilos.

Last Sunday some of Sydneys top marlin boats and crews were out chasing fish including Marquis, Lockout, Nic-Nat, Razorback, Spindrift, No Rules, Unwind, Casey, Gorilla, Wahoo, Pisces…just to name a few! Botany Bay boat Spindrift went 1-1-1 on a small striped marlin just south of Browns Mountain. In on the closer grounds just outside the ‘Plonk Hole’ on board Botany GFC’s No Rules skippered by Eddy Rostirolla, Mickey said they also converted a stripe about 70kg for Steve Spinks. Mickey hear of a blue tagged as well as plenty having fun on small dollys and rat yellowfin on some floating debris.

Broken Bay Invitational

The official results from last week’s Broken Bay Invitational are up – and you can read the full report here. 48 boats and 180 anglers put to sea on a great weather forecast Day 1, but unfortunately the weather put an early end to the comp with Day 2 cancelled due to gale force winds. With the shorted comp, the Heaviest Blue Marlin award was not won and jackpots for the 2014 tournament. Tenacious had a great afternoon’s fishing tagging a black marlin and swag of yellowfin tuna to take out Champion Boat Tag and Release. And Katana took out Champion Boat Capture with a 292.5kg Tiger hooked with only 2 minutes to cease fishing propelling them into the lead (photos).

brokenbay

Solitary Island Heavy Tackle Challenge

The Solitary Islands GFC’s Heavy Tackle Challenge was held over the weekend just gone. Champion boat with a black and blue marlin and a yellowfin tagged was Kikino, with Foreign Exchange coming in second with a big blue and three yellowfins. Highest point scoring boat blue marlin was won by No Frills on a countback.

Glen Booth tells me that all up, there were four blue marlin (one disqualified when it tangled in two lines), six black marlin, five yellowfin and two wahoo tagged. No fish were weighed and twenty boats competed.
The Kikino crew of Steve and Ryan Marshall and Shane Panton also collected a cool $3000 first prize plus $3575 in Calcutta winnings. The club’s nominated charity, the Leukaemia Foundation, also benefited to the tune of $718 from the raffling of a mahi mahi mount donated by Scott Ward of SW Fish Mounts. This was won by Mike Shadbolt, owner of Kestelle.

Ulladulla Jess Sams Tournament

And the rescheduled (and then lost two days to weather again) Ulladulla GFC Jess Sams comp results are also now available in full here. Tough fishing this year and the weather playing no favours either!