There was plenty of billfish action over the weekend up and down the coast, and no doubt more reports to come in as the day progresses. North to south:

• 
  Fishing east of Cape Moreton on Saturday Mooloolaba GFC boat Akoya released two blue marlin at 160 and 100kg as well as a wahoo and two good sized dolphin fish. Kurt says they had another go at a nice blue on Sunday but broke it off on the 37kg on the bite.  Capt. Ken Brown on Megumi fished the shelf north-east of the Cape yesterday and release a 120lb striped marlin. Ken says a second stripey followed it up and was all lit up while free swimming while they had the other on the leader. (Photo of Megumi’s striped marlin from David Granville above. Thanks David!)
• On the Gold Coast, after spending the season in Cairns on Kaizen with Capt. Russell, Conor Lynch put the experience to use back on his father’s boat Lynch Mobon Saturday for a go at the blues. They finished up 2-2-2 of a blue around 140kg for Wade Mickey and a shortbill spear for Ronan Lynch (pictured above).  Thanks Conor for the photo!Gold Coast boat Barco has been putting the hours in on the water again already this year and Vince tells me that over the past three trips they have released 1 from 2 on Wednesday, 1 from 2 on Friday and 2 from 6 yesterday – all blue marlin. Vince says it was hard to get them to stay stuck!

  Capt. Ross McCubbin tells me he’s just spent a social weekend aboard the mothership Texas T with Mark and Stewie Morland and Lucky Strike alongside.  They headed out yesterday and tagged a nice blue around the 400lb mark for Stewart east of Point Lookout yesterday .

  There were also a couple more stories of lost fish over the weekend as well. The boys on board Anger Management fought a blue marlin for 7hrs before losing it on the double.  Owner Pete Mathers put in the first 3 hours but when he could go on no longer, Ben Colvin was next in line.  Ben says that while it wasn’t the biggest fish he’s seen or caught on the Coast before, it was certainly the most stubborn and fittest. What a big effort!!

  And Rob Amos tells me they fished in 50 – 100 meters off Southport searching for the little blacks without success. However the did find some good dollies feeding on flying fish and pulled 3 off before everything disappeared , the best one was landed by Col Vietheer on 15kg tackle and went 23kg which is an excellent capture for those parts.

• The Port Macquarie BlueWater Legal Golden Lure comp is well underway. Steve tells me that Day 1 produced near perfect conditions and there were 36 fish raised resulting in approx 8 tags and 3 captures.  The captures included a 182kg (402lb) blue marlin for the team on board Iona 2 (Capt. Adam Jordan tells me they went 1 from three for the day), another at  67.2 on 10kg to a female angler & a 20.4kg wahoo. Steve says that nearly all the fish are blue marlin in the 160Kg+ size.  On Day 2, Iona 2 was quick on the board again with another blue that Adam put at about 300lbs. Will look out for the Day 2 results soon.  Rhino has sent me another clip here.
• And there were plenty more boats fishing off Port Stephens, and further south for the Central Coast BlueWater Classic (report to come later). Out of Lake Macquarie, Andy tells me the boys on Fritto 1 fished the Carpark for only the second time this season and that it lived up to its name (as always!) with plenty of boats there.  Andy says the fish were around, and hungry, but bait is still scarce and in very small patches. After a fishless morning and afternoon they eventually raised a good sized black late in the afternoon on a skipbait whilst searching for fresh bait. It turned out to be a rather large black for these parts which Steve put at around 200kg and typically it took the only 15kg setup on board and stayed deep for most of the fight.  After 2 hours they managed to coax it up close to the surface and but it sounded again and at just over 3 hours the line parted with the fish way down deep. It seems like there were a few black marlin out there with Born Free releasing two and Calypso releasing one on Saturday a bit further north.
• And a top day Saturday for the Findlay brothers and team on board Murrifin out of Broken Bay. Although they weren’t fishing the comp, seems like they should have going 4 from 4.  Rod says they had two double headers one of the fish was caught on 10kg, two on 15kg and the other on 24kg. Al the fish were 70-90kg stripes. Awesome stuff!
• Another report from the Ultimate fishing out of Bateman’s Bay with Capt. Ryan Clapp on Saturday. Ross tells me they were off to a great start with two stripes by lunchtime and were looking forward to more in the afternoon. But alas, that was it for the day! (Picture coming).

Captured: Inspired by a photo sequence by Scott Kerrigan in the latest issue of Marlin magazine. I thought I would have a go at one myself. This is one of our black marlin released during the Cairns black marlin season on Number 5 Ribbon Reef in mid-October.

• It’s tournament time with two big comps kicking off today in NSW, the Central Coast BlueWater Classic and the Port Macquarie Golden Lure Tournament.  Steve tells me they have 27 boats lining up for the 2012 BlueWater Legal Golden Lure including a few from far and wide (including a team from Geelong!) Good luck to all competing!
• The marlin fishing off Port Stephens continues and it’s great to hear such a good bite from so early this year. Many boats are reporting one and two fish days but a great result for Pelagic who went 4 from 4. Gary tells me they included a first marlin for Marty O’Leary from WA and a 90kg stripe for Gary on a spinning rod which he said was a real buzz. Meanwhile Capt. Adam Jordan on Iona 2 finished up his trip on Thursday adding another two from five (4 stripes and a blue – video is here). Adam says they raised a total of 21 fish in the three days (all striped marlin and two blue marlin)! Great stuff!
• There have also been some long fights. Katie Lee and the team on Gunrunner, fresh off her recent 86.8 kg on 6kg pending Australian record, spent three hours Thursday hooked up to another potential on 3kg before the line parted ways.  And Daniel tells me on Gale Force his younger sister also lost her first marlin after a 3 hour fight on 15kg.  Daniel says unfortunately none of their usual tricks would bring the fish up and they lost it on the trace!
• Further south, an update from Capt. Ryan Clapp on the Ultimate fishing out of Batemans Bay.  Ryan says the marlin fishing has been pretty awesome down there over the last week and a half.  He raised 5 Thursday with 3 bites, and 3 each on the days before that.  Typically, the fish are eating a little funny early in the season so the conversion rate isn’t great but it will improve. Ryan also tells me that private boat Mr. Hooker down in Bermagui has tagged 9 fish for his past 3 trips on the water! Ryan sent me this photo at bottom of one of his recent striped marlin which came on board for a quick snap.  (Ryan says to check out the scar on his head that was healing, he’s not sure what could of done that but he swim of great when he went back over the side.)
• Back up on the Gold Coast, the blue bite continues out wide and the local club boat will take advantage of the great conditions this weekend to get out amongst them.  In the last two days fishing, Barry Alty’s Mistress have released 1 from 2 and 2 from 2 respectively.
• Meanwhile, Mr. Consistent, Capt. Ken Brown on Megumi also released two in the past two days. On Thursday fishing north-east of Cape Moreton he released 250lb blue and had 2 other lazy shots while Friday added another one at 400lbs in the same area. Ken says that seems to the the average up there – one from two each day.

Striped marlin on the Ultimate this week.

• Record Chase in Port Stephens: Garry Holt tells me that after successfully getting the Australian 4kg striped marlin record earlier in 2010 (82.3kg on 4kg), son James added the 3kg record to his collection on December 31 (pending above) with a 60.9kg striped marlin. Both fish qualify as 20:1 fish; the 4kg fishing making James the first on record in the country to join the 20:1 club for marlin.

  This week they are chasing the 2kg record.  Dean Bultler was on board for the 3kg record and this week Capt. Tim Dean also joins the team on Diversion and they nearly succeeded yesterday.  They also attempted to switch a blue estimated at 160kg on 3kg line.  Garry says they have some fantastic footage of the 2kg attempt yesterday. They are out again today to try again — good luck to all!

• Meanwhile, Capt. Adam Jordan on Iona 2 tells me it was a quieter day on the water yesterday with just the one fish. But they are already out there and into it today with 1 from 3 already this morning!  View the footage from yesterday from Rhino here.
• Back on the Gold Coast, the Morley brothers Steve and Andrew fished the Tweed Canyons for 15 dollies for the day (!!) with 13 tagged and two for the table as well as a little blue marlin at 140kg.  They also hooked and lost a bigger blue. I also saw that Peter Pakula also released a blue yesterday that he put at 650lbs.  Nice to see some more big fish out there!
• Spending a couple of weeks on the Sunshine Coast with Megumi, Capt. Ken Brown fished the Noosa Canyon’s yesterday for 1 from 2 blue marlin. Ken says it was the industry standard size for the area about 250-300lbs.
• A Coffs Harbour catch up report from fishing on Monday: Rick tells me that after the blow over the New Year, Solitary Islands GFC club boats made it out on Monday and were greeted by some sensational conditions. And while some boats found a sweet spot, others couldn’t get a strike. Foreign Exchange found a big area of surface bait and raised three fish on the one spot, including a blue marlin that took the look corner lure in a vertical leap before falling off.  They finished the day with three blue marlin, all around the 90kg mark with one caught in only 60 fathoms. Two fish for angler David Poutler and one for Ib Mortensen.  Rick tells me they also raised 5 little blacks mixed in with the blues but alas did not want to eat the big blue marlin lures.  Still, three fish is a great result!
• From Port Macquarie in the lead up to the Golden Lure Tournament which starts this weekend:  Steve tells me that a few boats ventured out on Sunday for a bit of a pre-fish.  The water temp is a solid 24+ and cobalt blue but only three fish were raised.  Me & Dad released an estimated 200kg blue and Purple Haze fought a black marlin on 8kg which was unfortunately lost. Good luck to all the boats competing this weekend!

• If you’ve been watching the FB feed over the holidays you’ll know that the reports from Port Stephens have been coming in since before Christmas. Rob Danckert reported that Blue Illusion fished Sydney up to Port Stephens on Christmas Eve for a 5.3.3.  Two striped marlin at 70kg and 30kg as well as a 150kg blue marlin. They followed up the next day with another stripe for Christmas.
• Yesterday, welcoming the New Year on board Iona 2, Capt. Adam Jordan with guests from the US finished with 3 from 10 striped marlin and one blue marlin.  Adam says they also  jumped off two double headers at the back of the boat, making for plenty of excitement. Although the weather is not playing too nice, they are fishing two more days before heading up to Port Macquarie for the Golden Lure Tournament on the weekend.  (Rhino’s youtube clip is at bottom – thanks Rhino!)
• Also fishing off Swansea yesterday, Rick tells me that he and Capt. Dave on Addiction put two novice marlin fisherman Johno and Clay onto their first fish each with a striped marlin each in the 90-95kg range. Rick says the smiles were ear to ear and that he also heard of a number of other boats finding the fish including a few some nice blues.
• Daniel tells me that the fishing over the New Year period has also been good off Sydney and Broken Bay.   Gale Force tagged one from two striped marlin in 30 fathoms on a social afternoon out off Broken Bay. Daniel says it was a family affair with his mother even having a go backing down on the fish.  Go Mrs. Kirby!
• On the Gold Coast, its been another quiet summer for the little black marlin with just the few reported (although the blues are more than making up for it). Capt. Ross McCubbin on Lucky Strike one of the few reporting success with an estimate 80kg black in 80m just before the New Year. Ross says there was plenty of bait and beside the marlin they took home 3 dollies up to 15kg before they were chased in early by the storm.
• And the blue marlin run continues out wide with Barry Alty’s Mistress adding another to their season tally yesterday. And Steve also tells me that Surfers Paradise GSFC boats Murphy’s Law and Sea Eagle went 1-1-1 blue marlin and a few dollies, and 2-2-1  blue marlin respectively yesterday as well.
• And back down at Bermagui, Capt. Dave Cassar on Slammer reported his first day out of the season on New Year’s Eve resulted in a 120kg striped (cracking way to end 2011!) and Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford’s Hot Shot tells me that the fish has been pretty good since with most boats getting 4 or 5 bites a day, mostly from the striped marlin although there are the odd blue around as well.  They released a nice blue around the 600lb mark a couple of days ago and will be fishing pretty solidly all the way through January. Looking forward to hearing how they go!
  

I hope everyone has been enjoying the holiday break as much as I have!

The blog will be back and reporting again in earnest from early next week. And so if you’ve been getting in some good holiday fishing, please don’t forget to send through your reports.

The 2011 Cairns Giant Black Marlin Season photo galley is also coming together very nicely. If you have any images from the season to add, you can send them to me by email.

A preview of the 2011 season is also included in the next issue of BlueWater Magazine which goes on sale on January 6. The cover shot (above) is one of the crazy marlin air jump shots that I took on Number 10 Ribbon Reef earlier in the season and the issue also includes the Lizard Island Tournament report — so look out for that in your local news agency very soon!