I don’t know where to start – so much happened yesterday. We were marking fish left, right and centre and getting hounded by little fish that wouldn’t bite or wouldn’t bite properly. And while its quiet on the radio, you start to think that maybe its just ON on your baits? But then the chatter started and it was obvious that there was a pretty hot bite going on all up and down the reef.

And big fish too! 10 fish over 750lb by my count. This is why the Great Barrier Reef is such an awesome place to fish!

So maybe its easier to just tell you what I know (and hopefully I don’t leave anything out). 

For the last few days there has been action a-plenty with the Askari, Dreamin’ On and Sea Baby IV group on the mothership Emerald Lady. On Saturday they had a helicopter out taking footage of their fish. But what a pity it missed what happened on Sunday. Word soon filtered that Capt. Chris ‘Sharky’ Miles on Sea Baby IV had put a fish on the deck and was heading in to weigh it on Atlantic Princess.  The fish went 1,177lb, the first grander weighed in 2010. Well done to Sharky, Bevan and Daniel, and their anglers of course! I think I called it yesterday when I mentioned Sharky’s been having some good fishing, and he has!

But there were also fish caught very early in the day that I didn’t hear about until later.  Capt. Tim Richardson on Tradition released another big fish he called 950lb at noon (main picture above – what a shot!), eventually going three from four with two more about the 300lb mark.  Likewise, Capt. Jared Weir on Shaka was straight into the big fish.  He caught their first, estimated at 900lb almost immediately after putting the baits in.  Then it got even better, they released a bigger fish for John that Capt. Jared put at 1050lb (photos below).  Capt. Dan McCarthy also released three fish, 250lb, 500lb and another monster he put at 1100lb!

Capt. Brad Craft on Reelistic fought a fish he said was the ‘biggest he’s ever caught’ putting it over the grand mark and Capt. Chris Jolly on Amokura followed up from their big fish the other day with one they put over the mark for angler John Howard (no, not our ex-PM – hi John!) from Lake Macquarie.  Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford on Hot Shot had a top day too with three fish including an 800lb-er that gave the newly arrived Dave Cassar a good pull on the wire.  Gavin “Groover” New put on his deckie hat for a day out on the Pirate with Capt. Rob Bonser.  Their lady angler Marie Eribo, on a birthday trip from her husband, released her first marlin estimated at 850lbs (picture below) that she fought for an hour and a half.

Capt. “Too Nice” Tim Ryan on Joe Joe came marlin fishing for a welcome change converting the one bite into a nice release, but a tough fight, almost two hours, at 750lb.  A late bite for Capt. Trent Visscher on the blue Iona saw him going two from three in the middle.  And Capt. Ashley Wallis on Kalira added another to his trip tally at 400lb.

And there was some ‘almosts’ as well.  Capt. Dean Beech on Castille III put Eddie Shi on a grander class fish he fought for over two hours but they couldn’t quite get her up.  We went one from seven (!) on KEKOA, mostly small fish (frustrating bites had the boys pulling at their hair) except for the big girl on the camera (picture below) who piled onto the scaly. (And messed it up too!)  Capt. Adam on Iona 2 also hooked a big one but broke the line!

More coming if I hear more.

Happy Birthday to Capt. Tim Dean!