More early Christmas presents in the form of marlin in South-East Queensland. What better way to spend the holiday!

• On the Gold Coast, Capt. Dean Beach on Castille III hit the blue marlin for the first time since the boat’s return from the season up north.  They released two blues at 300 and 400lb and a nice dolphin fish. He’s out again today and already has a 200lb striped marlin on the board!
• Steve tells me that brother Andrew Morely on Express, a 6.5 m trailer boat from the Surfers Paradise GSFC fished the Tweed Canyons yesterday as well and went 3-3-2 on blue marlin and topped the day off with some blue-eye on a deep drop.
• Meanwhile, Vince on Barco fished Tuesday for zeros but found them yesterday as well with a 1 from 2 blue. Vince also says there’s a lot of dolphin fish out there (which would be great on the table for Christmas!)
• A late report from David Granville on the Sunshine Coast who tells me Reel Capture finally got its first juvenile black marlin of the season Tuesday with owner Craig McCulloch finding himself with a rod in his hand instead of a steering wheel. Craig threw out a live bait on 4kg while the rest were still jigging bait and of course it got eaten. It was a small fish about 25kg but nice to finally get off the mark as it has been a slow start on the Sunnie Coast for the small blacks. Unfortunately that was the only bite for the day apart from a couple of snapper on plastics!