The bite off Port Stephens over the weekend was epic. And the conditions were exceptional. No doubt about it! I’m sure more reports will come in throughout the day – but here is some of what I know so far. (If you have some fishing to report – please send to me at info@blackmarlinfishingblog.com). Reports from other areas to come later as well.
- With the presentation for the Lake Macquarie Big Fish Bonanza not until next weekend, we may have to wait for a while for the list of winners and grinners, but popular opinion is that the gong went to Garry Holt’s team on Diversion who tagged 12 marlin, all on 15kg yesterday to take their tournament tally to 17 for the two day’s fishing!
- Flying Fisher’s 11 tags yesterday put them on 23 in the first three days of their Port season including two grand slams! In the tourney, adding another 11 tags yesterday also put them on 17 fish for the tournament but it will come down to line class for the point scoring and with all their fish on 15kg, Diversion should be well in front. (Ben sent me a bunch of GoPro pictures from the action on Flying Fisher yesterday at bottom!)
- Capt. Tim Dean was back at the helm of Calypso on the weekend and by all reports, Tim had the best of the day yesterday with 13 tags. Tim tells me, they came back from a relatively *unlucky* day Saturday when they were only able to covert 2 from 7 to show a major touch of class on Sunday. Capt. Tim has a couple of spot available this weekend, two days marlin fishing for $750pp! This is the time to get to Port Stephens! Contact Tim on 0411 111 476.
- Brad Curtis and the team on Ningaloo added another 6 to their talley yesterday as well including another 5 for Karly putting her individual total for the comp at 9! Speaking of 9, I had heard that Amokura was having a top day out there yesterday as well. Brad tells me they did, finishing the day with 9 tags. Update: They finished with 11 in total including 8 for 14 year-old Jacinta! Brad also passed on to me that the previous day’s tournament leaders Seaka and Rocket added 6 and 5 respectively.
- Andy and the team on Fritto 1 added another 6 to their tournament tally yesterday to put them on 10 for the two days. Andy says their final day was 11-9-6 which put them on 20-15-10 for the comp. Again, Andy says it was probably one of the most memorable fishing days of his life – the fishing was stupidly good. They saw another dozen or so fish lit up free swimming at the back of the boat over the course of the day. And of course the conditions were glamour – any sent me this quick pano.
- On the capture side on Iona 2, Adam tells me that they had 9 bites yesterday and caught another on 8kg for Amanda Cromaty that went 208lb which may have also been the Heaviest Marlin of the comp – a gong they picked up last year as well. That was it for the day again loosing a few at the back of the boat.
- Red hot fishing outside the comp – Rod tells me that Murrifin ended the day with 9 from 10 on 15kg, and had 8 of those by 11am! They left the Car Park at 2pm looking for a blue marlin to complete the slam but no luck (I heard that hardly any blues were seen yesterday compared to the previous two days). Rod also says it’s the best day that he has seen the Car Park fish ever with some giant stripes mixed in amongst them.
- Also outside the comp, Scott Lee on Gunrunner reports 7 for the day with only 3 of them on board. Scott says they had a couple of double hook ups which was just insane with Muzza on the wheel. They are back out again and into it today.
- Capt. Daniel Carlson was likewise out fishing with some friends on the trailer boat Chasing Tail. They tagged 5 stripies by 1pm before they headed in for the day, not fishing the comp. And Steve Baker tells me on Fly By Night, they got 4 stripies all on 15kg.
- Updated: George Trinkler on Born Free reports they also tagged 10 yesterday. And Ron tells me they tagged 12 on Shakara too!
Ben sent me a bunch of awesome Go-Pro stills from the day on Flying Fisher but also this crazy one of two guys hooked up on a trailer boat below. Ben says he doesn’t know how they ended up but at one stage they cut one of their own lines off to give them some room and wished them luck! Some amazing stories not only about the fish caught but the number of fish seen. At one stage Ben said they had about 20 marlin up free feeding around the boat on pencil slimies like a pod of dolphins. An amazing sight!
If you were thinking of fishing at Port Stephens this year –> Get there now!
Some marlin fishing reports from the weekend on the southern NSW coast:
Bateman’s Bay:
The Tollgate Classic is over for another year. The weather was kind and there were a few fish around to be caught for the 50 odd boats entered (though the marlin fishing over the tournament was slower than recent years overall). Travis, on deck of BBGAC president Dennis Lucardie’s boat Hardaraddit, tells me they took out the tournament with 7 striped marlin tags as well as Champion Angler for Brian Schofield and Champion Female for Denis’ daughter Tegan.
Young Brock Lazzaro from Bermagui fished on Mr Hooker and took out Champion Junior Angler with 2 striped marlin tagged. Most fish were caught south around the Tuross Canyons which should be good for the Bermagui Bluewater Classic this weekend.
Onsite weighed a 256kg blue marlin on the Saturday and a few boats finished the tournament with two marlin tags. Travis says another Bermagui boat Panlicker had a shot at the runner-up trophy but failed to hand in their third tag card on the last day.
I also heard the smallfry and junior anglers had a great time and were very competitive tagging their striped tuna and received compliments on their radio skill from the sked master! Thanks to Travis and Gail for the reports!
Read on after the jump for the full results.
Bermagui:
Fishing with Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford on Hot Shot, Dave tells me they had a good weekend with an estimated 80kg striped marlin for Sharon Garbutt on 10kg, as well as a 75kg striped marlin for 13 year-old Michael on 8kg. With Wobbles at the wheel and Dave on the deck, 11 year-old Tyler Wright also caught his first marlin at 66.8kg on 15.
The Bermagui Bluewater Classic is this weekend.
Read the rest of this entry »
Weekend marlin fishing reports – this report was started on Sunday and you can see the updates from this monrning (Monday) in bold.
Port Stephens
- I had a good catch up chat to Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso this morning who’s reporting some really good fishing out of Port Stephens right now. Tim says the water is 24 degrees with little or no current and the fact that we’ve had no floods so far this year (touch wood) means that the water is clean. Tim caught a 100kg blue marlin 3 miles off Cabbage Tree yesterday in just 40 fathoms of water and missed another blue and striped marlin. The day before they tagged four and the day before that, three. So far this morning fishing they already have two stripes on the board! Update: I just heard from Capt. Tim again who’s on his way in – 5 striped marlin for the day and heading in for the early mark. Great day!
- I also heard from Grant Morley on his boat Kahlua fishing just wide of the Car park area on Thursday who went an awesome 7-5-5. Grant says they were all striped marlin and they caught one on a skip bait as they were approaching the spot, and the rest on livies.
- Little Audrey’s Capt. Daniel Carlson fished on a mate’s boat yesterday for a 120kg stripe from 3. He was also on board Diversion with Garry Holt earlier in this week when James again potentially broke his own pending 3kg striped marlin record with a fish weighing in a 63.5kg. Update: I heard that James caught a 2kg pending Australian record at 62kg yesterday.
Sydney
- Updated: Rob tells me that Ambition tagged a 140kg black and raised a few others while Hoodlum raised 5 small stripes but couldn’t convert and Blue Illusion got a 110kg stripe as well.
Port Macquarie
- Port Macquarie’s Golden Lure Tournament is over for another year and while I don’t have the official tournament results yet, I do know that Iona 2 took out the Capture section. Day 3 was cancelled due to the weather but Day 4 went ahead and Adam says they fought an estimated 600lb blue for 3 and half hours before losing the fish right beside the boat an hour after stop fishing and more than 11 miles over the edge. Adam reported they raised 10 blues altogether in the 4 days they fished (including Ladies/Juniors Day). Congrats to the team!
Gold Coast
- Plenty of action on the Gold Coast yesterday with a few big blues still being caught and encountered. Capt. Ross McCubbin on Lucky Strike says he heard of 7 or 8 fish tagged yesterday alone. Capt. Ross put Gerry from Canada onto her first marlin, a 220kg blue (485lbs) which gave her a tough 1 hour fight on 130. They also had a couple more shots on blues and caught a nice dolphin fish for dinner.
- Conor Lynch also reported from on board Lynch Mob yesterday. They fought a big blue for an hour and a half before eventually getting it alongside for the release and put the fish at 800lbs+ with a short measurement of 10ft 8 for angler Andrew. They also caught an estimated 80kg mako ending the day with 2-2-2.
- Vince on Barco tells me they went 1 from 1 on Friday and 1 from 3 yesterday (blue marlin). Vince also said yesterday afternoon’s fish was another definitely bigger than the Gold Coast industry average.
- Craig Summerville’s Tsunami is likewise plugging away and added another blue in the 100kg range (220lb) yesterday and I heard that Andrew Morley’s Express tagged one as well. That’s five..!
Sunshine Coast
- Only the one encounter reported from the Sunshine Coast so far with MGFC boat Akoya going 1-1-0 off Cape Moreton on Friday with a blue on a midday bite.
A Gold Coast fishing update from Surfers Paradise GSFC members fishing on Wednesday as well as some fantastic photos from Anthony Goulding (who was along to work the deck and document the trip in photos).
The new owners of Num Nuts have successfully christened the 40 Precision with a 2-2-2 on blue marlin on Wednesday. Club president Mat Stehmann tells me that the fish were approximately 100kg each for both first time anglers Ben Timmis and Drew Gessner. They also raised another that didn’t eat.
Another club boat Gemma 3 also tagged one and Hoodlum also went 2-1-1.
Beautiful photos Anthony – the conditions look spectacular!
