• 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!
  

More of the fleet are making their way north to Cairns for the impending start of the Giant Black Marlin Season for 2011.

• Amokura left the Gold Coast on Wednesday on their way north and released a 200lb blue marlin off the Sunshine Coast on their way past (on 10kg line!)  The boys are fishing off Fraser Island for a few days before making their way to Hamilton Island for a stop before completing the trip north.
• On Little Audrey the boys have been enjoying some great spear fishing since they left the waters off Townsville this week. Yesterday they decided to put the baits in for a couple of hours off Houston Light and were hit almost straight away by a small black.  Unfortunately no hookup but less than an hour later another strike and they released a 200lb black for first-time marlin angler AJ.  Capt. Daniel Carlson tells me they’ll have another quick fish today before heading into the marlin marina tonight.

Some quick news for this Friday:

• Boats fishing this weekend’s Mike Carney Toyota Townsville Billfish Challenge will be aware that the committee confirmed at the meeting last night that teams will be able to nominate their fishing days at tonight’s briefing.  Due to the weather forecast for this weekend, they may choose to fish Sunday through Wednesday instead of the original Saturday through Tuesday.  Teams that do fish on Saturday will still be required to call in their skeds but without a grid reference. 

  The sailpast and shot-gun start will still go ahead on Saturday morning so look forward to some photos as we will be among the fleet returning to the marina on Saturday and plan to fish the Sunday to Wednesday option.


• A reminder that the Innisfail Billfish Tournament follows soon after — its being held on the 23th – 25th September, with the briefing night on Thursday 22rd.  Ben sent me a pic to get you in the mood!
• Lastly, next week BlueWater Magazine Issue 87 goes on sale. Here’s a sneak peak of the cover and what you’ll find inside.

  A feature from Pelagic Pro Team Captain Josh Temple and a journey to the realm of the biggest yellowfin tuna on the plane as well as a look at Cairns’ Giant Black Marlin and much more.

  Issue 87 on sale September 7.
  
  

Another light tackle report has also come in today from Capt. Rob Wood who tells me that the sails have arrived off the spit at Fraser Island. Rob tagged one while passing through the shallow water last week and reports that there is plenty of bait in the area with some good size fish spotted on the sounder.

Black marlin have also turned up at 1770, within 3 km of the coast. Rob says the arrival of the small blacks in August usually coincides with a good years game fishing in the area so we’re looking forward to hearing more!

Meanwhile, boats in the south are making the most of an awesome bluefin tuna bite wide of Sydney.  Mark Curtis tells me that fish to 90kg were weighed on Saturday. On Sunday Ivan Bennett on Ambition got a 60kg fish and then weighed another 130.5kg!! Mark predicts the weather will probably shut it all down tomorrow but in the meantime, boats in numbers are getting great quality fish.

After a week of pretty blowy weather in the north, the next few days forecast is for glamour conditions. And so hopefully some of the fleet will be fishing and reporting back with more little black marlin releases.  The Yorkey’s Knob Light Tackle Slam, due to be held over the weekend, had been postponed to August 20th.

Square Bear braved the weather to fish on the weekend and raised two little blacks as well as catching a bunch more mackerel.  Tara reports that they boated 3 spotted mackerel and released 5 undersized Spanish.  On Saturday they raised a little black (20kg) that did not eat in the paddock.  On Sunday they caught 19 Spaniards and raised a 30+kg black on the long rigger but ended up pulling the hooks.

There have also been reports of a blue marlin on the Gold Coast, as well as more striped marlin seen, and yellowfin out wide.

On another note – technology moves fast (in the rest of the world – if not in Australia…the NBN will never reach the reef!) Starting today, SportFisherman.com are live streaming the White Marlin Open which runs August 8-12. Live streaming!! You can check it out via the link below – if you are in need of an office distraction today!

http://stream.sportfishermen.com/2011-white-marlin-open.html

They also live stream a bunch of other tournaments, you can check it out on their website at www.sportfisherman.com