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!