More early Christmas presents in the form of marlin in South-East Queensland. What better way to spend the holiday!

• On the Gold Coast, Capt. Dean Beach on Castille III hit the blue marlin for the first time since the boat’s return from the season up north.  They released two blues at 300 and 400lb and a nice dolphin fish. He’s out again today and already has a 200lb striped marlin on the board!
• Steve tells me that brother Andrew Morely on Express, a 6.5 m trailer boat from the Surfers Paradise GSFC fished the Tweed Canyons yesterday as well and went 3-3-2 on blue marlin and topped the day off with some blue-eye on a deep drop.
• Meanwhile, Vince on Barco fished Tuesday for zeros but found them yesterday as well with a 1 from 2 blue. Vince also says there’s a lot of dolphin fish out there (which would be great on the table for Christmas!)
• A late report from David Granville on the Sunshine Coast who tells me Reel Capture finally got its first juvenile black of the season Tuesday with owner Craig McCulloch finding himself with a rod in his hand instead of a steering wheel. Craig threw out a live bait on 4kg while the rest were still jigging bait and of course it got eaten. It was a small fish about 25kg but nice to finally get off the mark as it has been a slow start on the Sunnie Coast for the small blacks. Unfortunately that was the only bite for the day apart from a couple of snapper on plastics!

Yet more reports to add to the sked. It’s so great to hear so much fishing is going on in the leadup to the holidays:

• Barry Alty’s Mistress is now up to 5 blue marlin in 4 days fishing at home on the Gold Coast. Barry says what is interesting is that 3 of them have been respectively; 450, 450 and 550lbs which is quite unusual. Most of the blues they get on the Goldy are in the 300lb range with the occasional one a bit smaller and the occasional one a bit bigger, but seldom any over 400lbs. There seems to be a different class of fish around at the moment. Barry predicts this may be the year of the grander blue!
• Daniel sent me a report and photo (below) from the Sydney GFC boat Gale Force on the weekend. On Sunday, they released 2 striped marlin east of the 12 mile. The first fish was hooked on a lure, the second fish was hooked on a skip bait and was one of at least 2 very small marlin (45Kg max) following the teasers. Daniel said once the fish felt it was hooked up, it went crazy in the spread and ended up cutting off their favourite rigger teaser! I know how painful it is to lose your favourite teaser! Thanks Daniel!

A couple of more reports to add into yesterday’s sked:

• Another blue marlin report from the Gold Coast yesterday with Craig Summerville’s Tsunami releasing two from two blue marlin at 400 and 250lbs.
• Also a very late season Cairns black marlin for us on KEKOA yesterday on Opal Ridge for Frank who is visiting from the UK with his two sons. It looked so good on the Bank yesterday with yellowfin busting all over, if it was a month earlier, the fishing would be going off! Also fishing a late season day trip on fly on Thursday, Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles on Kanahoee tagged a sailfish (on fly) at Jenny Louise Shoal.

Catch up video: This is a youtube clip made by Lyndsay Dunn of Chris Caron’s 850lb-er which was tagged with a satellite tag during the Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic this year on Number 10 Ribbon Reef.  Energetic fish!

Report from Megumi‘s Capt. Ken “Brownie” Brown who fished the canyons E/SE of Point Lookout and went 2 from 3 on blue marlin. Ken says one was about 350-400 for angler Ross Skerman and the other about 250-300 for Peter Mitchell.  Ken also says they had a bite from an absolute animal just after putting the lines back in after the 2nd fish, and although they didn’t hook up, he got a good look at it as it swam across the the back of the wake. Ken says it was the biggest fish he’s seen in many years of fishing for blues off SE Queensland!  They did a bunch of circles around the area and raised it again with it coming up under the short rigger, pecs all lit up, but once again, wouldn’t eat.  Then, it cruised over to the long flat line and did the same thing.   What a shame!

Ken says the big fish are definitely out there its only a matter of time before someone will put one on the scales that’s over the mark!

Also a video to share from Ben “Notso” Bright from his day solo fishing from a few weeks ago, where he went 2 from 4 sailfish, all on fly, off Weipa.  Good stuff Ben!

On the Sunshine Coast, the Sunshine Coast GFC’s Tony Cross sent me this picture of Russell Wright and his very first black marlin caught on Saturday on Out Quoting, which was also the first black marlin caught at the 8 mile off Mooloolaba for the season. Its been a slow start, but maybe things will be taking off now. Tony said this fish was caught in 42m of water on a skipping gar off a small school of pillies. On Sunday, they found some good yak schools and raised another which spat the bait (and potentially had a bite out of another on the bait jig).

While reports indicate some of the smaller blacks showing up on the Gold Coast as well, the blue marlin fishing remains too good to turn down. Mistress fished its first day yesterday since returning home to the Gold Coast from the northern black marlin season 2 blue marlin at 200 and 325lbs. Barry said they also boated two yellowfin around the 40kg mark.

Also, a blast from the past: Moose sent me this footage from an old Toohey’s commercial that is well worth the share. It was filmed up north with Rex Mossop, the angler in the chair.  You can see Brazakka coming down from the tower (in the white singlet) towards the end. Moose said they didn’t actually catch anything of the day fishing so the fish footage is a bit of stock footage and a mash-up from different fish.

Feel like a Toohey’s now…!