Some good reports of fishing down south:

• Capt. Dave Cassar on Slammer reported that the bite was pretty hot down at Bermagui over the weekend. Dave says there were fish caught from 08 all the way down to Tathra.  Dave went 2 from 4 striped marlin on Saturday with more raised and followed up with 1 from 1 on Sunday.Boats fishing the Bermagui BlueWater Classic, which ends today, have also been getting into the fish.  Day 1 (Saturday), Bill Collector sped to the lead with 6 on a day 39 fish were tagged amongst the 53 competing boats.  Bermagui Bait & Tackle’s Scotty Bradley says that a great deal more were raised but wouldn’t bite for the vast majority trolling lures.  Day 2 (Sunday) was a bit slower for the fleet with 23 tags.  Day 3 (Monday) the weather came through to put a dampener on things.
• Off Port Stephens, Iona 2 went none from three on Saturday missing two blue marlin and a stripe and had another blue up. On Sunday, they redeemed themselves with two from two a blue (about 400lb) and a stripe. Rhino took some great pics again but I heard the camera got a bit wet in the action. I know how that feels!I also heard from Mickey Altmann down at Port who told me that Rob Curry’s Marquis (Botany Bay GFC) which is at Port for the next 4 weeks, went 8-8-4 over the weekend with 3 blues and 1 stripe.  Rob said that one of the blues they lost was a 350kg+ model.  And they got a wahoo which says something about the hot water. Interesting that more blues are being caught than stripes at the moment but probably due to the smoking south current.
• On the Goldy, noone fished the weekend because of the weather, but we made it out on KEKOA yesterday for 0-3 (blues).  The bites were pretty ordinary, just bill whacking the lures before swimming off.  Even the dolphin fish bites were lame.  The current was smoking 2knots to the south here too. We’re out again later this week with some more of the fleet so hopefully the fish find their appetites again.

Photo share: Adam sent me one of Rhino’s photos from Iona’s stripey the other day speeding across the surface above.  And Eddie’s put a pic up on the BMFB Facebook page of his solo marlin at Ningaloo Reef (WA). Thanks guys!

Unrelated, Capt. Laurie shared this video with us and I laughed so hard I had to share it here:

[video type="snotr" id="5987" width="400" height="330"]

I’m not sure if it’s a set up or not, but if you can survive the first few scenes of the more ‘obvious’ bloopers and the terrible soundtrack, it has us in stitches!  Bill Dance needs a helmet with face mask and full body suit!

• It’s sounding good at Bermagui – Capt. Dave Cassar on Slammer reported three from three stripies yesterday out off Tuross Canyons.  He also saw another three free jumpers. One of the fish was weighed at 108kg for Dennis Lucardie on 50lb spinning gear.
• Likewise, Capt. Daniel Carlson on Little Audrey had a good day to mark their first marlin trip for 2011 with one from three – a blue marlin about 350lb on 50lb.  Daniel says they lost another blue about 400lbs and a stripey and raised another stripey as well.  And he also reported that the water looked great and the bait stacked up high.
• Capt. Adam Jordan on Iona 2 tells me the water hasn’t looked so crash hot off Port Stephens of late but he still managed one from one on the stripes.
• The January Newsletter went out to subscribers yesterday, or you can read it online here.

Some quick reports have come in including one from Capt. Dave Cassar on Slammer who inducted another newbie into the marlin club Tuesday with a striped marlin for 14 year old angler William Cook on Tuross Canyon off Bermagui (picture).  Congrats William – look forward to a lifetime of addition!

Meanwhile on the Gold Coast, the blue marlin showed their finicky nature after the team USA on Dreamin’ On added four more to their Australian marlin tally going four from six blues on Monday…by staging a temporary disappearing act Tuesday.  The boys caught two good sized tuna but were zero for martians.  They’re heading back out to try again today.  Capt. Ross McCubbin on Lucky Strike was a bit luckier with a 300lb (140kg) blue on 24kg not long after putting his lines in on the spot.  He also got three nice dolphin fish for his guests.

And Strikezone guru Al McGlashan’s been getting his feet wet too swimming with all sorts of critters of late and getting some great half-in/half-out shots.  Last week he added some pictures from a recent trip to Jervis Bay and was kind enough to send them along to share.  Absolutely gorgeous! Al tells me he plans to jump in with a big black up north this year. Can’t wait to see those shots too!

• BATEMANS BAY: Craig Murphy sent me an update from Tollgates Tournament on the South Coast over the weekend. Craig reports that Day 1 fishing on Friday was challenging for the smaller boats with 20-25knots from the North East.  Gary Cairns’ 43 Cabo Apothecary (yep, Gary is a chemist!) tagged three striped marlin to race to the lead, followed by Don Goswell (NSWGFA President) in his 1970’s Hatteras, Freedom, with two striped marlin.  There were a few boats on one fish for the day.  On board his 40’ Caribbean Dadsboat, Craig’s team also enjoyed some good action seeing 7 and but only tagging 1 on lures (damn finicky stripes).Saturday dawned a glamour day with the wind not getting up to 10 knots all day but the fishing was a little quieter.  Most fish were caught to the North of Batemans Bay between the Brush Island Canyons and the Northern Boundary at Cape St George (Jervis Bay).  Paul Blacka’s 36 BlackWatch, Mr Hooker (yep………real estate agent!) tagged three for the day, two to juniors and one to a small fry, to join the leaders Apothecary who didn’t see a fish for the day.  Dadsboat again only tagged one from two bites, managing to tease and switch the fish as the weather was a lot kinder!  They also hooked and lost a 200+kg mako on mono and a circle after the greedy bugger nabbed a live slimey.

  On Sunday Dadsboat switched a stripe within the first ten minutes of fishing and tagged it about 20 minutes later putting them on three fish too.  It was a tense day for the leaders all fishing the same water, watching intently what the other was doing.  Dadsboat missed a bite before lunch and then watched Mr Hooker chase a hot fish around the ocean only to have it fall off before the tag shot.  Finally, Mr Hooker broke the stalemate tagging their fourth stripe half an hour before cease fishing.

  On the capture side, Team Dominator got a blue marlin and Angie 2 a stripe on the final day. There was also a 96kg stripe on Day 1.

  Overall Craig reports the hot bite they saw last week has slowed a fair bit.  There is some nice bait stacking up on the edge and the water is pretty patchy but still holding fish.  The tide is running downhill at about 1 knot.  Thanks Craig!

• GOLD COAST: Despite the weather during the Gold Coast GFC Light Tackle Masters being not as good as hoped, 16 boats competed over three days of fishing, with Amigo coming in as Champion Boat for the overall competition with two blues from Mistress and Ocean Dream respectively.  Kevin Ballantine on Amigo was Champion Angler with both blues.There were two possible Australian Records caught by club secretary Alisa Schofield fishing on board Mistress (go Alisa!) including a short nosed spearfish (15kg on 8kg) and a 16kg dolphin fish (also on 8k)g. Alisa also tagged another 4 dollies, a yellowfin and wahoo to take out Champion Female.  Also congratulations and commiserations go out to junior angler Alexander Berry on board Kingsley Young’s boat Cabolero for his exceptional effort in capturing a 145kg blue marlin in a 3 hour 10 min fight.  Unfortunately during capture the fish was cut by the propellers and disqualified, but what an outstanding effort on 8kg line.

  Thanks Barry and Alisa!

• BERMAGUI: I heard from Dave Cassar on Slammer who has his Captains hat back on and it raring to get back out on the water this week.  Dave says that the fish are there and that all three boats fishing Tuross Canyon had fish up (one went 6-3-1 on stripes) and on Slammer they also had a bite out of a 500lb blue last week.
• PORT STEPHENS: Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso reports that the water is hot and running hard to the south. The fishing has been tough but the bait has shown up now.  Craig also told me that Andrew Tonini, owner of 45 Rampage Grommet fished Sunday well wide and tagged a nice blue 150-180kg.
• PORT MACQUARIE: Still waiting for the final report from the Golden Lure although I hear the entire week was a battle with the weather.