Before I get to the reef, I should mention that Gold Coast boat Barco went 2 from 2 blue marlin on the Gold Coast yesterday. The blues are certainly putting in a good showing down there. It seems like they have been caught every month this year since we were fishing for them and had some great days in January!

Ribbon Reefs

Another great day on the water with some great weather thrown in for good measure. On KEKOA, we started our new trip with the boys from New Caledonia on board. This is Eric’s second trip with us and he is joined by Jacques, Eric2 and Kevin who are all keen and experienced blue marlin anglers. After stocking up on bait on the trip out, we trolled lures along the outside to get us into prime position and it wasn’t long before we got our first strike of the day, an energetic smaller fish for Eric2 that gave us some more photo time in the air at the back of the boat. (Above – greenhorn deckie for 2011 Braden has been getting some excellent tutelage from Dingo!)

Just over an hour later we had another great bite on the big bait (got it on the tow camera again) and Kevin was on to a stocky 700lb fish that did some great greyhound jumps away from the boat. After he got her in close, she decided under the boat was the best place to be and it took a coaxing from Dingo to get her up again and released. Late in the day we had another great bite on the big bait but unfortunately this larger fish messed it up and did not come back for another go. Still 2 from 3 is a good day! (I’m going to put some of the underwater vision into the daily digest.)

Also fishing Number 10 Ribbon, the Island boat Fascination with Capt. Craig “Brutus” Newbold, on their first day heavy tackle since the Black Marlin Classic. Brutus said they had barely time to get the bait in the rigger before they were on to a nice solid 800lb-er which was released after a good fight.

There are three boats fishing out wide at Osprey Reef enjoying the good weather – Game Over, Reel Chase and Castille III. With the northerly winds, we could hear them plain as day on the radio and it sounds like they were getting into the wahoo and raising a pack of sails.

The long awaited wind direction change (typically the captains don’t like northerlies for fishing or anchoring in the south-easterly protected anchorages for that matter) comes through today. We’re looking forward to seeing what that brings!

Well the Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic for 2011 has drawn to a close and tournament winners Askari, who romped away from the rest of the fleet with three days to go, can be forgiven for starting the celebrations early reporting their Persons On Board for Day 7 as “7 hangovers”. Adding one final fish on Day 7 at 450lbs to Ray, they could not be beat with a total of 16 tags altogether, the highest number of tags for a winning team for many years (since 2001? anyone?), and this fish also cemented the Champion Male Angler award to Ray Camilleri with 11 tags for him personally.

Little Audrey survived a last minute fish from the team on Top Shot to hold onto the runner-up trophy with 10 tags. This is a great effort for the 23 year-old skipper and his team. Upon reviewing their footage, they have upgraded the size of one of their fish and submitted an application to the Lizard Island Thousand Pound Club for Ken Klein. Interestingly, the Klein family had a hand in both the victory and the runner-up awards. Daniel Klein, who is a bit of a big fish magnet if you ask me (!) on deck for Capt. Corey Hard on Askari and father Ken, angling on Little Audrey. Congrats guys — great effort!

Tournament regular Tomonori Omi, made a late run but were just pipped into third place on Top Shot. They were followed by Kanahoee on 9, with Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles making his usual late charge at the leaders. All their nine tags were to Champion Female Angler Amanda Thompson and included two spectacular fish for her at 950 and 850lbs. Hellraiser overcame their day 1 handicap to take 5th place with 8 tags and made it a family affair, 4 for Larry Curtis, 2 for Danny Curtis, 1 for Brad Curtis (leaving us to wonder just who was working on deck!?!) and one for John Smith.

Viking II’s Junior Angler Connor Craven tagged all 8 of their tags to put them into 6th place and giving him second runner up Champion Angler. Capt. Tim Dean’s Calypso came in 7th with 8 tags for the tournament for first time Lizard anglers Craig and Robert and listen to the size of them…1100, 950, 700, 600, 500, 250 250, 200…!! What a week!

The top 10 standings were rounded out by Hot Shot in 8th place with 7 tags, Spartacus (photo) in 9th also with 7 and Hattitude on 5. Tradition finished in 11th with a runner up for Lydie who I’m sure is still glowing after her 1103lb black marlin outside of tournament hours Friday night. Lydie has released over 40 marlin over the past 6 years fishing the reef, a great lady angler!

There are many big fish stories from the week still to come so more stories and reports should trickle in.  Stay tuned.

Day 7 saw only 8 fish tagged for the shorter day’s fishing (11-4pm only on the final day). A shoutout to the team on Reely Black who tagged two on the final day to give them the daily award.  They had been fishing in the same area as Askari for many days and were the self-proclaimed champions of ‘watching Askari catch fish’ but although they had many chances during the week, couldn’t keep the hooks in. They made up for it yesterday for the daily!

Gold Coast

Team Larva fished a half-day session off the Gold Coast Saturday.  With the Larva Lures smoking behind, they hooked up early to a big blue marlin. 1.5 hours later, the fish, estimated at a massive 800lbs was tagged and brought alongside for these photos before the release. (Caught on a 12″ Larva Tongariki Ash with an aqua skirt colour and a flat head attached, using a single hook rig Jobu hook.)

Gold Coast locals will know that conditions yesterday morning were less than ideal with a big storm sending the kids and pets alike running into the big bed with mum and dad all along the coast in the early morning. Angler Ron did a great job with the storm raging on around him complete with lightening!

They also backed it up with two nice big yellowfin tuna (estimated at 75 and 45kg) and were still home for lunch as planned. What a day!

Sunshine Coast

Thanks to Capt. Rob “Smithy” Smith on Triton IV for the tournament report from the Sunshine Coast GFC’s Spring Shootout.

President Brent Higgins held on to win from his 20′ centre console Seahunt Walk The Line who tagged a 250lb blue marlin on Day 1 Friday.  Brent’s fatehr Barry Higgins was angler and Peter Bain came out of retirement to tag the fish.  Brent used to crew for Pete  on Pacemaker and had a lot of tournament success together in SEQ so it was very good to see the old team back together and still winning!

Brett and Gary Barton’s Grady White Spot On as sponsor boat with the Kawana Telstra Shop boys aboard weighed in three line class longtail tuna to claim second place, one being 19kg on 8kg line class for Cameron George.  Capricorn came third with a weighed spanish mackerel for junior angler Ryan McKinnon.

It was unfortunately very quiet on the billfish front with only a couple of other blue marlin seen and some missed bites light tackle with non line class tuna the main species being caught all weekend.  The bait was starting to form up after the big storm went through Saturday morning so hopefully it all happens in the next week or so.

Update: We just trolled past Capt. Tim Dean and the film crew on board Calypso and, what do you know, it seems like I missed the “fishflash” yesterday. Congratulations to the boys and Paul Worsteling and the IFISH crew on board who topped off their 650lb-er the day before with a grander black marlin yesterday!  It was only on a recent episode we watched them have a mad days fishing on Calypso off Port Stephens and now they’ve done it again!

Burls fish on KEKOA yesterday – later afternoon bite.  His first marlin.
Yesterday was probably the best weather we’ve had yet this season (although not forecasted to hang around for long) and the calm seas combined with the run in tide all afternoon meant that we could expect a late afternoon bite, and we did.  It was just before five when we got our first bite on KEKOA ending up with two from three  for Dean and Burls – pulling the bait out of the mouth of the final larger fish for Mr. X just on dusk.

Fishing up at 10, Capt. Tim on Tradition also released the two at 300 and 400lbs.  Tim reports marking plenty.  On Number 3, Little Audrey and Capt. Dan Carlson’s luck turned around and they released the days big fish at 850lb for American angler Mike Hudson, his first black marlin.  Dan reports she has another fish swimming with her through the whole fight.

Iona 2 released a 200lb-er and Capt. Adam also reports that Trent on the blue Iona at Number 10 had the bite out of another big fish.  I also heard from Capt. Dan McCarthy on Moana III who is making his way north for the Lizard Island tournament, with his son Dougie catching his first yellowfin tuna yesterday. Congrats Dougie!

The latest issue of BlueWater Magazine will hit newstands in the New Year (Jan 6) and for those eagerly anticipating my 2009 Cairns Season Recap (recapping on the season for the professional charter fleet), you’ll find it within. There are plenty of big fish photos included as well.

“Each year from September to December, the grounds between Cairns and Lizard Island, along the outer edge of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, provide your very best chance to catch a marlin of over 1000lb. The 2009 season was a good one for the professional charter fleet and many anglers caught the fish of their dreams.”

On a separate note I wanted to mention that while we were still up north, Dr. Julian Pepperell released his labour of love titled “Fishes of the Open Ocean” (and illustrated by Guy Harvey), perfect for your family fisherman’s Christmas stocking. Annie’s Books on Perergian has signed copies for sale at $59.95, also available online from various other retailers. I got my copy this week for a certain someone for Christmas and I can’t wait for Christmas Day for him to unwrap it again so I can have another (longer) look through!

We first met Julian many years ago when he was the head of the tagging program and travelled around to the different tournaments to promote it. He is now one of Australia’s best known marine biologists and a world-wide authority on large oceanic fishes. More recently been heavily involved in the pop-up satellite tags, collecting very valuable data from those. Julian has always maintained close contact and a great rapport with the fleet and we wish him the very best with the book!

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If anyone is wondering where the marlin fleet is today, I know. They are anchored at Opal Reef. I count 17 boats including the couple already out bait fishing.Unfortunately the fishing didn’t turn it on yesterday for those fishing the ridge up to Linden Bank – although the rain certainly kept things interesting. Watchdog released one estimated at 250lbs for very happy angler Steve, his first marlin. Capt. Darren Haydon on Allure who had the same day as the rest of the southern fleet Thursday had a better day Wednesday hooking two from four for his angler on 50lb and fighting an 800lb-er until the lines parted. Capt. Darren tells me that Capt. Chris Miles on Mauna Kea is fishing with Mike Lovett on board – ultra light tackle and had a couple of bites yesterday.Further north on Escape KEKOA also released a smaller fish. In the middle, Captain Peter B Wright on Sea Baby went one from two on 30lbs. I also heard from Shane who’s back on board Askari. The boys have spent the last 10 days after the Lizard Island Tournament fishing inshore and crabbing and reached a new milstone of catching 25 different species of fish in one day! On the heavy tackle fishing side, yesterday they went two from two on Number 4 Ribbon. One fish at 300lbs and the other at 1100lbs+. A good mate of Shane’s from Sydney fishing his first day on the GBR lands a Grander! Gongrats guys!