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.

Marlin fishing reports from Port Stephens indicate its going from strength to strength. Next on the tournament calendar is the NSW Interclub which kicks off with the first weekend of fishing this Saturday and Sunday.  (You can find the official Billfish Shootout Results in the post below.)  Fishing Monday, it was Capt. Dean Beech’s day with Castille III recording 7 from 13.   They are out again today and already have 1 fish on board.

Nearby Flying Fisher went 4 from 6 with Ben “Notso” Bright at the wheel relieving Capt. Scotty Thorrington up the top for the day.  Its Ben’s last day for 2012 with Scotty’s Haven Charters Terrigal Team as he heads back to Weipa and Ben leaves Scotty and Junior on 63 marlin in 2 weeks fishing.  Thanks Ben for all the great reports!

Meanwhile, on the Gold Coast Addixion had an impressive day at Mick’s Mountain yesterday going 3 from 9.  Capt. Ross McCubbin fishing on Cjig closer inside found the water cold and dirty where the bite had been the day but will still able to release a 150kg blue marlin for angler Leon.  Capt. Ken Brown on Megumi is still chipping away at them.  Brownie went 1 from 2 E/SE of Point Lookout for angler Mark Adamson on Sunday and the followed up with the same again Monday E/SE of Cape Moreton for Andrew Coronis. They were the first blue marlin for both anglers.  Ken also tells me that Peter Jenys drove Cabolito on Monday fishing nearby and went 1 from 1 for ex-cricketer Andy Bichel – his first marlin after fishing 15 days in locations all around the world without success.  Ken says that Jenno put a huge smile on his face!

Weekend Marlin Fishing Photos

Some really great photos have come in from the weekend fishing off Port Stephens – thank you to all who sent in the shots!

A black marlin in action behind Fritto 1

Jacinta Thomas mid-fight on Amokura – great photo taken by George Trinkler from Born Free

Stephen Pitchfork’s great shot of Seaka in action taken from Gale Force.

Beautiful sunrise shot Dave Finn took on the way out to the grounds Sunday morning while traveling at 27knots!

Those on the facebook feed yesterday would have noticed I shared some spectacular pics from David Granville from Port Stephens earlier this week.  David tells me that 2Cats went 5 from 8 in the three days fishing he was with them as the bite quietened a little early in the week (4 stripes and a black). But I also heard that yesterday, it was on again with several boats having a good numbers day in the leadup to the Shootout on the weekend. Good luck to all who are competing!

Following up on the recapture news from yesterday, Ben tells me that on board Flying Fisher this season (which is just over two weeks old for them now) they have re-captured four previously tagged fish – photo above of Ben retrieving the tag from a previously tagged stripe – including one that they couldn’t get the tag back from being a part of a hectic triple header. Two of the other fish were tagged by Murrifin!  (How’s the odds on that?!)  Flying Fisher went 3 from 3 yesterday but watched plenty more caught around them, that’s the way it goes!

I also heard from Capt. Daniel Carlson who tells me that he is at the wheel of the 55 Viking Everwilling for the next 3 weeks.  They went 3 from 5 at the Carpark yesterday with start fishing at 11am including the owner’s 10 year old son Ethan Henderson’s first two marlin – a black and a striped marlin – while Ethan’s 15 year old brother Erin caught a stripe.

Video from Ant on Josh from their big 10 marlin fishing day on the weekend at bottom – thank you Ant!

Solitary Islands GFC at Coffs Harbour: A report from Solitary Islands GFC’s Richard O’Farrel who reports that now that the weather has cleared after 2 months of solid rain and and the resulting dirty river water on the continental shelf of northern NSW has cleared up and the Coffs Blue Marlin season is on fire. Rick says that once again they are developing a little “Blue Marlin Carpark” out the front only 13-15 miles from the harbour in 70-100 fathoms.  Apparently the same thing happened last year in the same spot and with all the marlin fishing action happens within a 3 mile radius and sure makes for an economical day fishing.

By all reports it has been getting better and better with each day, with several boats raising and tagging blues over the last week, among them Foreign Exchange and Gamefully Employed.  Yesterday however some club boats fishing enjoyed a hot early bite.  Triton had a double hookup on blues early up, tagging one and losing the other. Kestelle arrived on the grounds at 10:30 and had one blue tagged by 11am and were hooked up again and Wicked Weasel had a rubber hooks day going 0 from 4.

Josh‘s 10 fish day:

Photo of Scotty Thorington’s Flying Fisher on a fish from the Friday before the tournament.

Lake Macquarie boat Blue Blooded on a stripe. 

Dave sent me these great action shots to accompany last week’s Lake Mac tournament report but I missed them because I’ve been away for a few days. Thanks Dave, they are great shots.  And now that I’m back, plenty of marlin fishing over the last few days to catch up on! I’m still working through but here is a report in-progress:

Port Stephens

Saturday seemed the pick of the days for many with the boys on Rob Powell’s trailerboat Josh finishing with 10 from 12 (more to come.)  Capt. Tim Dean’s Calypso got 6 stripes and Capt. Scotty Thorington’s Flying Fisher made up for a slow start – originally heading north in the morning, they made it back south by 12:30 to go 6 from 6 in four hours in the afternoon.  George Trinkler skippered Born Free to 7 from 12, while the Lee family on Gunrunner tagged 6.  First day on the water off Port, Dan Smith’s Sunshine Coast based Game Plan released 6 – Conor tells me they were 5 stripes and a black marlin.

On Saturday, the ladies had a bit of a fun and successful girls day on Amokura going 4 from 6 which included a mother/daughter double hookup for Rebecca and Jacinta. That’s the ladies in action hooked up above!

Sunday, was a bit more hit and miss with boats who found success the day before, finding the going much tougher. Still there were a number of good catches with Gunrunner, Diversion and Flying Fisher all recording 5 each.  On Gunrunner Scott tells me that Sunday was pretty tough fish-wise althought there were plenty of boats (he counted over 80 boats in the one area!) One fish dragged them through the entire fleet and it was a crazy 20 mins! And how are these stats to put the last week and a half of fishing in perspective?  Ben tells me that on Flying Fisher they are now up to 48 fish in 9 days fishing, comprising of: 55 bites, 51 hookups for 13 black marlin, 3 blue marlin and 32 striped marlin!

Gold Coast

Murphy’s Law went 3 from 3 on blue marlin on Saturday including the estimated 300lb blue marlin pictured above for Larva Lure‘s Daniel Burke. Barco went 2 from 4 on the blues on Saturday as well, and then 1 from 2 on Sunday. Vince tells me that boats returning to where they caught fish Saturday on Sunday found little.  Capt. Ross McCubbin fished Lucky Strike yesterday for 2 blues – a 150kg for Mark Moreland and a 200kg fish for David Green.  Ross is back out there today and has already had one up this morning. Update: 9am and Ross has already released two!

Cape Moreton / Sunny Coast

Capt. Ken Brown’s Megumi fished Saturday for 1 from 3 blue marlin on the shelf east of Cape Moreton.  And on Sunday he went 3 from 3 – all blues between 250 and 350lbs.  Mooloolaba GFC boat Akoya also fished Saturday for 1 from 2 on blues. Kurt tells me they hooked up on a pod of dolphins along a spawn line and also caught an 18kg dolphin fish. And MGFC Club President Nathan Douglass also tells me that on board Luna they also went 2-2-2 blue marlin for Nathan and Michael Wrack around the 2-250lb mark. Nathan says it was a club rally day topped off by dinner at the Mooloolaba Yatch Club for all club boats.

Meanwhile David Trask’s Big Business also went 5-4-3 on blues off the Cape Sunday as well.

There have been reports of the little blacks showing up off Point Lookout (North Straddie), just in time for the Little Ships Tournament this weekend.  More to come!

Shellharbour

They Shellharbour Open Tournament on the weekend was won (T&R) by Craig Murphy’s Dadsboat with 3 from 4 tags including first the first marlin gong. Congratulations Craig and team – report to come!

A three shot compilation of some of my marlin photos from the Cairns Giant Black Marlin Season 2011.

The latest wallpaper is now available for your personal use. One-size download (right click to save to your computer and choose “scale to fit” when applying as your wallpaper) here:

• Wallpaper 1
• Wallpaper 2
• Wallpaper 3
• Wallpaper 4
• Wallpaper 5
• Wallpaper 6
• Wallpaper 7
• *LATEST: Wallpaper 8*