Cairns: A catch up report from fishing out wide over the past two days. On KEKOA we returned from an overnight trip to Holmes Reef (it was almost like a fly-by!) and while the trip out was pretty quiet, we released three from four on the trip back in with two blue marlin and one black marlin, all on lures.  Congratulations to angler Bevan, who, as a double amputee, put in the hard yards to achieve his dream of catching a marlin. But it was very worth it in the end as the fish gave us a fabulous display as blues like to do.  Likewsie, Capt. Tim Richardson on Tradition returned to port on Tuesday from fishing near Holmes and Flora Reefs via the seamount and released a blue on the way in to wrap up his season.  Capt. Craig “Sparra” Denham on Square Bear is also fishing out there at the moment and we look forward to hearing how he goes upon his return.  It seems like Valykyrie had the pick of the days on the seamount earlier in the week as there hasn’t been too much to it since.

That’s it for our regular season now too save a 4 day trip late next week.  I know that more of the southern fleet have made it home over the past couple of days, after encountering some bad weather on the trip down the coast, and I’m sure they are looking forward to catching up on some R&R as much as I am.  I have received some videos to share which I will do over the next few days after I’ve caught up on some sleep.  (Holmes Reef is a looong way for an overnighter!)

Coffs Harbour: A report from Glen Booth who tells me there are a few stripes and blues around. They tagged this striped marlin on the way home on Sunday on Wicked Weasel, and The Edge tagged a monster striped of 140 kgs just over the shelf. Last week the blues were in quite shallow, with Foreign Exchange tagging one from two bites in 55 fathoms, and losing another out in 85 fathoms.

On the Gold Coast there are whispers that some of the little black marlin are showing up in close. With the blues still being caught, it sounds like it might be a great summer season on the Coast!  And I also heard from Jay Housham who was on Haulin yesterday and released a 1-1-1 striped marlin off Newcastle yesterday as well.

Millimetres that is!

Photo of a 1290mm short length black marlin that Ben “Nosto” Bright and partner Kristy Philliskirk released on Ben’s boat Last Cast yesterday.  Photo by Fish Philliskirk from nearby making it look much bigger than it was. Ben estimates it was around the 12kg mark.

Good news on the marlin fishing Cairns front with the big boat Valkyrie returning to port overnight. They fished the seamount yesterday going 4 from 7 — 2 black marlin and 2 blue marlin – the largest a blue estimated at 500lbs.

We head out wide overnight today and so no blog in the morning until we’re back in phone range!

Square Bear released a 350lb blue marlin. Capt. Craig “Sparra” Denham said it was half of a potential double header with the other fish, a smaller marlin up at the same time. The clean water appears to be pushing closer to the edge.  Good luck to the boats fishing today!

And congratulations go out to the winners of the Ladies Ribbons Tournament for 2011. Although no billfish were recorded, there were a good number of gamefish weighed. Champion Boat was indeed Askari with owner Shane’s wife Simone taking out Champion Angler as well. Runner up boat went to Jimmy. And I strongly suspect that our angler on KEKOA, Kelly Barnes from Mooloolaba GFC may have caught the heaviest gamefish for the second year running!  (I’m having a hard time confirming the results because we are still at sea…anyone?)

Here’s a link to the write up in the Cairns Post Newspaper.

The presentation for the Ladies Ribbons tournament is tonight so I can’t give you any results yet sorry. Unfortunately though there were no billfish tagged amongst 40 boats competing and so the placings will be fought out among the other gamefish species weighed (of which there were plenty! Capt. Corey Hard on Askari got plenty of mackerel for his lady anglers so must surely be among the placings!) As usual the dress up for the sailpast was spectacular. It will be all shown on Channel 10 at a date to be advised.

The fishing slow down is certainly courtesy of some dirty water which moved in to the edge early last week brought south with the current.  Although there are now some signs the the nice water is coming in closer behind it.  Of the fleet still fishing the edge, Capt. Craig “Sparra” Denham took Square Bear a bit wider yesterday and found some nice water only about 5 miles from the edge and found a patch with a couple of nice yellowfin and wahoos. They also had coupe of bites out of a black about 700lbs but no hookup.  Sparra is fishing the edge for today and tomorrow and will head out wider on Tuesday. Likewise, we are fishing a little further to the south today on KEKOA and will return to port tomorrow night before heading out wide with Square Bear on Tuesday.  Capt. Tim Richardson on Tradition is taking advantage of the better than predicted weather today to head wide this morning.

As the season winds down now, and the boats head further afield, I think its fair to say that daily reporting for the season is over, but I will report any fish that I hear so do check back And as the crew get home and have a chance to wind down, hopefully they’ll start to produce some more season videos for us to watch like this one below from Jay who spends most of his time with Capt. Scotty Thorington on board Flying Fisher but also spent some time on the reef with Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso this year.  Great video and photos–thanks Jay!

With fishing distinctly slower on the edge of the reef, the fleet who are still fishing are looking for opportunities to head wide. The weather is clearing again in a few days and so we expect more to head out then. On KEKOA, we just came back from a couple of days where we did fly-by visits to Bougainville and Holmes Reef for 3 blue marlin and 1 black marlin (all smaller fish) bringing our total for the 6 day trip to 9 marlin.  We came across Valkyrie at Holmes yesterday who traveled to the seamount for a 450lb blue marlin.

On the edge, the only report of fish was from Capt. Ross McCubbin on Cjig who begin their trip home to the Gold Coast today. They released a 500lb black on Wednesday.  Capt. Daniel Carlson on Little Audrey found a few more fish on two days at Myrmidon. Dan says they went 2 from 5 at 200 and 850lbs.  Dan says they missed a 400lb-er on a double header with the bigger fish which jumped over the top and jumped two more small ones off.

Wednesday report from Vince on Barco on the Gold Coast who released a 400lb blue marlin.

We’re fishing the Ladies Ribbons today so look out for a report tomorrow!