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!

It seems like the summer holiday season of fishing has well and truly kicked off now with marlin reported all the way down the coast over the weekend.

Blue marlin released on Wicked Weasel yesterday

• On the Gold Coast, Vince on Barco tells me his anglers are in re-training after a less-than-ideal conversion rate on the blue marlin yesterday, 8-5-2. Vince says all the fish were seen and all were blue marlin. Don’t worry Vince, we all have those days but its great to hear there are still so many around! Another Gold Coast GFC boat Addixion fishing light tackle off Kirra also released an estimated 80kg striped marlin on 8kg line. Chad says they fought the fish for two hours to get the tag in and took home a couple of dollies as well.
• Off Coffs Harbour, the Solitary Islands GFC boats got in on the action once again. Glen reports that on his boat, Wicked Weasel, they released a 110g blue marlin from three bites while The Edgepulled off a double-header of blues. A great effort from a trailerboat with only two people on-board! They also got a 18kg wahoo.

  But top boat of the day was Triton who went three from four — two blues and a 100kg striped marlin. They then went inshore in search of a black looking for a slam for the day and hooked a billfish, but the species couldn’t be determined before it fell off! (Thanks Glen for the photo at top.)

• Off Port Stephens and Sydney boats are likewise enjoying the early start to the season with fish being seen all the way along. Darren Lewis was at the helm of Anarchy on Saturday and released two stripies from a double header on 6kg. Darren says that one of the fish was in the 70kg range. Meanwhile Rod Findlay and boys on Murrifin also released two from two yesterday, a striped marlin as well as a 120kg blue marlin. Another boat fishing off Broken Bay in 130 fathoms yesterday, Shakara, also switched and tagged a 80kg striped marlin to angler Jay Anderson. Congrats Jay and thanks for the report!
• And David also sent me a report of Port Hacking GFC boat Time To Tango fishing on the weekend who released a 100KG black marlin in 160 fathoms off Port Hacking to Angler Rob Connellan.

I’ll add in any additional reports as they come in. If you have a report from the weekend, please send it in to me at info@blackmarlinfishingblog.com.

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!