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!

Tags flags on Fritto 1

Some very hot marlin fishing action was recorded on Day 1 on the Lake Macquarie Big Fish Bonanza.  This is only a snapshot of the day’s action – the tournament finishes today:

Seaka, skippered by Geoff Thompson has streaked to the lead with 9 tags on day 1, followed by Rocket on … Rocket with 7.  Scotty Thorington’s Flying Fisher had a second grand slam in a row with another 6 marlin – 3 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin and 1 black marlin.  Garry Holt’s Diversion added a late fish to end up on 5, all on 15kg.  Andy tells me that on Fritto 1 they raised 9 marlin, hooked 6 and tagged 4.  While Karly Curtis was doing it for the ladies on board Ningaloo with brother Brad at the wheel. Karly tagged 4 from 6, all striped marlin in the 80-95kg range (decent sized stripes) with one on 15kg and the rest on 24kg.

On the Capture side of the tournament, Capt. Adam Jordan’s Iona 2 tells me they had 11 bites fishing with Kristy weighing a 58kg stripe on 8kg.  They also weighed another at 84kg on 15kg and tagged a third stripe on 15kg.

Line classes come into play significantly for point scoring so this is not an indication of the leaderboard!

Part of the marlin fishing grand slam caught off Port Stephens on Flying Fisher yesterday

Lake Macquarie Big Fish Tournament

Starts today with some hot marlin fishing going on yesterday indicating this might be a good one!  Capt. Scotty Thorington’s Flying Fisher 1 had a grand slam day with 6 from 6 – 4 striped marlin, 1 blue marlin and 1 black marlin. Ben “Notso” Bright who joined Scotty for his annual Port Stephens cameo on the first day of their Port season yesterday tells me that The Force caught 5 and a few trailer boats caught a few as well.  On Flying Fisher they were switch baiting in the morning and trolled skip baits in the afternoon hooking up on their final fish 5 miles in on the way home.  Ben says there is a lot of life out there with flying fish, tunas etc.

54 odd boats are fishing the comp from today. Good luck to all who are competing!

Sunshine Coast Game Fishing Club Classic

Day 1 yesterday saw Reel Capture take the lead with 2 black marlin and 1 sailfish.  Other boats with fish on Day 1 include Out Quoting with a sailfish, No Name (yes that’s the boat name) with 2 blue marlin, Reelaxin with 1 blue marlin, Blue Reela with 1 blue marlin and Galaxy 2 with two black marlin.  A great start~!  Good luck to all again today and thanks Tony for the update!

Jess Sams Tournament in Ulladulla

Fishing began yesterday for Jess Sam at Ulladulla as well but I don’t have any reports yet (anyone?)

Cairns Marlin Season Footage

Jordan has finished the Cairns Giant Black Marlin fishing season 2011 highlights on board Castille III, you can check out Part 1, 2 and 3 here.  Likewise, I have finished our KEKOA season DVD and have uploaded three new highlight clips to YouTube here.

Tommy Wright in action on board Hot Shot.

63 boats competed over the three days of the tournament with good weather conditions prevailing as well as a solid run of fish.

As it had been pre-BluWater Classic during the Tollgates Tournament the weekend before, the best bite continued to north of the Tuross Canyons.  Overall there were 80 marlin tagged as well as 4 captured – the best capture a 132 kg blue marlin to Lee Duffield.

The most marlin tagged by a boat over 6.5m went to Mr Hooker with 9 fish. In second place was the team on Hot Shot with 8 fish.

The most marlin tagged by a boat under 6.5m went to Blue Yonder with 4 fish. The Heaviest Shark was a 184 kg tiger to Jason Sinclair. The Highest Point Scoring Male Angler was Paul Baker with 43,000 points. The Highest Point Scoring Female Angler was Belinda Hawke with 24000 points.

Junior Thomas Wright on Hot Shot scored 87,000 points to give him the Junior Award. The Runner Up Junior was Brock Lazaro with 77,500 points. The Small Fry prize went to Jackson Hatton with 10,000 points. Great to see the young anglers doing so well!!

Many boats are enjoying some great marlin fishing early in the season out of Bermagui – hopefully it continues!

Bermagui

• The tournament report is still to come but I heard that Mr. Hooker took out the three day event. One fish behind was the team on Hot Shot with their junior angler Tom Wright taking out Champion Junior Angler with 8 tags.

Port Stephens

• While the marlin fishing has been slower mid-week, the fishing fired up in time for the weekend once again. On Saturday, Calypso (with Capt. Ross Finlayson at the wheel) released five while Blue Illusion got three stipes and spearfish.  Fritto 1, braved the 25 knot North-Easters yesterday for a 2-2-2 on the first two baits that hit the water. Andy tells me there were  a lot less boats on the water due to the weather.  Brent Hancock’s Tacklworld is also reporting 5 for Seaka at the Carpark, including a marlin grand slam, and four for Shelby, while Brent and the team on Born Free fished further to the south for two good stripes.  Brad Curis on Ningaloo tells me the fishing has been pretty consistent since the start of the year with 1 or two a day, and more on the good days. He released an estimated 300lb blue marlin on their last trip out on Friday and a stripe the day before, with their best day fish the week before with 5 stripes.
• More record hunting is also going on for the crews of Diversion and Gunnrunner.  Lone Wolf also got in on the act with a pending Australian Small Fry Record for Nathan Plunket – a 72.6kg black marlin on 15kg line. That’s Nathan in the black visor – great going for the young fella!
  

Upcoming Tournaments

• The Jess Sams Tourny at Ulladulla, Lake Macquarie Big Fish Bonanza and the Sunshine Coast GFC Classic are all on this weekend. Check out the tournament calendar for more details.