• The Sunshine Coast GFC “No Frills” Heavy Tackle Weekend starts this Friday.  Fishing starts 5pm Friday and closes 5pm Sunday and weather permitting boats will be able to stay at sea to target broadbill. SCGFC’s Brent Higgins tells me that Sunday saw quite a few boats fishing off Cape Moreton with a 5-10kt conditions although the fish were a little off their game with boats reporting bites being a little finicky. In all 8 blue marlin and one striped marlin were raised and 2 tagged. Reel Magic tagged a blue mid-afternoon and shortly followed by Brent himself releasing the first blue on his new Sea Hunt trailer boat Walk The Line that he estimated at 300lb. Congrats Brent!  (Still from the GoPro above.)
• Likewise the few boats out on the Gold Coast enjoying the mild weather Sunday also saw some afternoon action on the blues while Murphy’s Law got a spear.
• A lot of the focus down south seems to have switched to the big bluefin tuna, but I hear marlin are still being caught off Sydney.  Shane reports one from three stripes on Blue illusion in 180 fathoms inside Browns Mountain. Any more reports to share?
• Solitary Islands GFC’s Rick O’Ferrell is back from a recent trip to Vanuatu where he participated in the Port Vila GFC Easter light tackle tournament.  Unfortunately they have had a slow season over there this year and despite a few blue marlin hookups (no chance on the 6kg tackle) the tournament was decided on wahoo.  But things might be starting to turn around as the temperatures have begun to ease in the last couple of week.  The day before Rick left, Nevagivup enjoyed a great afternoon going two from two on blues, two from two on sailfish, and a clutch of wahoo all in the space of a couple of hours. A great day! Rick says similar results are now starting to come in consistently from the other boats, so it looks like the season is finally starting to light up.
• Rick also told me about another of the Port Vila club boats which hooked up an estimated 120kg blue marlin only to have it bust off and head out of sight with the lure and rig trailing from its mouth. About three hours later, another boat hooked up in the same spot, and when they got the fish to the boat, guess what they found?  The missing lure and leader all still firmly in the fish’s mouth which was returned to the original owner later that day!  That’s one for the books surely!
• I’m happy to announce that Buoy Weather has come on board as sponsor of the Black Marlin Fishing Blog.  Check out the weather links in the sidebar or head to the Buoy Weather website now to sign up for your free premium membership trial. Buoy Weather is your one stop for fish finding weather tools.

• Off Cape Moreton and Brisbane, the weather looks good and the fishing even better. Capt. Ken Brown on Megumi will be making the most of both this week and is off to a cracker of a start going 4 from 5 blue marlin yesterday at 500, 400, 350 and 280lb and pulling the hooks on  a smaller fish about 150lbs.  Yesterday’s bites all came between 12:30 and 4 pm making it a few active hours for his anglers, one of whom was Steve Russell who also fished with Ken recently on the day that they went 6 from 8.  Lucky Steve!
• Batemans Bay GFC boats have been having some more success with several releasing stripes over the weekend including Mayhem releasing another 3 from 4 on the Ulladulla Canyons on Saturday.  Off Sydney the Port Hacking 100 Tournament was held over the weekend. Rod Findlay’s Murrifin went 2 from 2 on Saturday and one from two on Sunday.  And Alistair McGlashan fished Jervis Bay on Friday for 3 from 5 including a ripper stripie at 120kg.
• Back in the Gulf, Ben on Last Cast went two from two sails on Wednesday and raised another while catching the second fish.  Ben also tells us one of the other guides found a marlin swimming around in a bait ball in only 20 feet of water off the Red Cliffs on the weekend.
• Meanwhile over in Broome, reports from last week that Jo from Tackleworld caught 25 sails in 5 days. And on the day he had to work, his team went 9 from 9!

• Although the forecast for wind, rain and rough conditions did not put a dampener on Mooloolaba GFC’s 20th Anniversary Billfish Bonanza on the weekend, the fish were for the most part MIA with only two billfish tagged over the two days fishing.   The local bite has been pretty good with both black marlin and sails being caught in close to Mooloolaba so hopefully that will turn around again after the bad weather has blown through (hopefully by the weekend).  Liberty III released the first billfish of the comp, an estimated 90kg blue marlin to angler Troy Tinslay, which was enough to give them the Champion Boat over 7m award.  And local MGFC boat Kokomo tagged a sailfish of around 40kg on 8kg for owner Ken Summeril being the only other billfish.  More opportunities were missed on the billfish and Bev Fennel fishing on Aquasition caught a pending QLD and Australian record mahi mahi at 14kg on 8kg line.  Thanks to MGFC President Nathan Douglas for the report and congrats to all for another great event!
• Newsletter subscribers will already know that Capt. Ken Brown on Megumi went two from three blue marlin off the Cape on Good Friday. Ken says one of the fish was about 380lb, a first marlin for his 81 year old angler Graham Cochrane who has dreamed of catching a marlin for years!  The other, 400lb for Greg Platt. Capt. Ken says they also hooked up on an animal fish late this afternoon that he put at 800lb plus. It tore off the line and did one jump before the hook pulled.
• On the Gold Coast GCGFC club boats fishing on Good Friday who also had a good run on the blue marlin. The boys on board Larva sent me this link of underwater footage from their estimated 400lb blue with Sea Pace and Adios also releasing blues.
• Issue 85 of BlueWater Magazine goes on Sale on May 4 next week while subscribers should be receiving their copies very soon.

  In this issue, Capt. Peter Bristow gives insight into how to catch a grander blue marlin while WA’s Rowely Shoals surprises editor Tim Simpson with the sailfish and other large billfish on offer.

  And Iceman’s Capt. Bob Jones’  is interviewed in this issue’s ‘They Call The Shots’.
  

• Not too many reports from down South although Ange Stama tells me that he and his brother Peter Stamos fished Ulladulla on the shelf at 35’28″ for 2-2-1. Ange says the marlin were feeding with the seals which was an awesome sight and also tells me that Nathan Kearnes on Enticer had all the luck going 6-4-3 on lures fishing the same bait ball – live baiting wasn’t an option with no less than 50 seals on the bait ball as well.
• @BroomeFC is also reporting that the sails have moved in to off Barred Creek in numbers and “eating bait about 1 inch in size. Convincing then to take a hook is hard! There were pods of them feeding on the surface everywhere. We put the teasers away and just went pitching into the bait balls.”

Just a quick sked today because reports are few and far between over a bad weather weekend – plus I’m heading out fishing.

• More fun and games with the black marlin in the Gulf this week.  Where a couple of weeks ago there were sails, this week they were almost exclusively black marlin in the 50-80kg range.  Due to the presence of a large, ferocious and relentless razor gang (though plenty of Spanish in the freezer now) we run teasers and pitch a deadbait when they come up. Unfortunately, the gars meant for the sails were a little too small to entice some of the bigger marlin and converting was tough.  On KEKOA we eventually went 1 from 7 all up with a 60kg model released and jumping another couple off.  Yesterday, Ben “Nosto” Bright on Last Cast out of Weipa went one from three for his lady angler who toughed it out for two hours on a 80kg model.  And another local guide Lee Hodgetts, released a sail yesterday as well.
• Out of Brisbane, Capt. Ken Brown on Megumi fished Saturday for a 250lb blue marlin for angler Simon Marshall. Unfortunately, the weather does not look too friendly for this coming weekend either (and the MGFC Billfish Bonanza) but boats should be out during the week once again with a few more sailfish and black marlin of various sizes being caught on the inshore grounds.

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• Port Stephens – more hot hot hot fishing as Flying Fisher added 9 from 11 marlin yesterday to their season tally to bring them to 103 for the season.  7 striped marlin and 2 black marlin was the breakdown.  Fishing nearby, Tsunami also released 10 and the next generation of marlin fishermen and women had a great day on board Ningaloo with Capt. Brad Curtis.  9-year-old Conner caught his first and second marlin (both black marlin) while his 11-year-old brother Isaac caught his first and second striped marlin.  Not to be outdone by the boys, their 12-year-old sister Ebony caught her second and third marlin (both striped) bringing their total to 6 from 11 for the day – what a top result for the juniors!
• Gold Coast – results from the weekend’s Gold Coast CABO Yachts & Bruce Lynton Land Rover Blue Marlin Classic:  14 boats comprising of 45 anglers and 17 crew competed but unfortunately the fishing were in hiding. Only three blue marlin were tagged over the two days . The winning boat, Kiwi, representing the Solitary Islands GFC took it out on countback from Gold Coast GFC boats Larva and Zeus, each with one blue marlin tag.Time Out were unlucky to hook up and tag a blue just after cease fishing and the boys on Larva lost a potentially tournament winning blue at the back of the boat. The Gold Coast GFC Light Tackle dates next year are the 12th – 15th January 2012 for those wanting to get along to the Gold Coast for a fish and a great three days out on the water. (Read about the Larva team in today’s Gold Coast Bulletin.)
• Sunshine Coast – Some more sailfish reports filtering in as they start to turn up on the close grounds off Mooloolaba. Over the weekend Reel Capture got two, Sailfisher got two and Walk the Line got one. SCGFC President David Granville tells me the pilchard schools are starting to congregate again so hopefully the packs of sails aren’t too far behind.  And fitting to end with a report showing that the seniors can do it just as well as the juniors, Capt. Robert “Smithy” Smith fishing with his 85 years young angler Ed Martin on Triton IV went 1-1-1 sailfish yesterday as well.