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!

Hi everyone, if you see this message still here when you check the blog for tomorrow’s report it means we’re out of phone/internet range. We’ll be back on Friday though if not before–hopefully with some big fish reports!

On the edge, on board KEKOA we released another feisty black marlin yesterday on standup 50lb tackle on the way out to Linden Bank (photo above), but for the fleet fishing there, it was a pretty quiet day.  We also enjoyed some really good weather which gave me a chance to put another video clip together (check it out at bottom).

From the fleet heading home: Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford and the team on Hot Shot had a great couple of hours fishing off Fraser Island going three from five on blue marlin.  Wobbles and the boys are mid-way home to Bermi and Dave says they even got Wobbles down from the bridge to wire one of the fish.  I also heard from Lachlan on Kaizen who must be approaching home on the Sunshine Coast now. Lachlan says they went two from four at Jenny Louise on their way out of town on the weekend and jumped off a blue marlin at Lady Musgrave on the way through.

For those who are wondering about Jeff’s shoulder (Little Audrey)–it’s not broken!  They did return to town to get it checked out as a precaution but Jeff says its just a bit bruised.

Also to the south, on the Sunshine Coast, I heard from Nathan with the results of the Mooloolaba Billfish Bash over the weekend.  Nathan says 15 boats and 86 anglers competed although it was a little quiet on the billfish from. Bring It On skippered by Steve Dahl were champions in the Over 7m category with two black marlin. Aquaholic won in the Under 7m category.  Seems like a few more fish showing up. Ross tells me they released a 70kg striped marlin on Fish Whisperer off Noosa Canyons on Sunday as well as a heap of dolphin fish.

On the Gold Coast, Vince on Barco released a spearfish from 5 strikes on Monday as well as a blue marlin yesterday.

And back over at Weipa, Ben says the billfish fishing has been pretty consistent.  Over the weekend Darren Lee took his partner Nicky Perriman (pictured) and her sister out and ended up with a sail and a couple of blacks.  Ben joined him yesterday with a friend Robbie Carter (who had never done any bluewater fishing before) and caught Robbie a 35kg black and 15kg sail, among numerous mackerel and a few tuna.  Lots over firsts for billfish happening in the Gulf–thanks Ben!

Video: This is a compilation video clip of some of the marlin jumps on the leader from this season on KEKOA. Hope you enjoy it!