More reports from along the reef from fishing yesterday with the black marlin making themselves known along the reef.

Capt. Simon Carosi had the late bite on Afishionado at Linden Bank releasing a 600lb black marlin just on dark.  Grant Thomson is also back out there for a couple of days on his boat, Cjig and released a 300lb-er on his first day.  Likewise, Revive is back on the water after a short time-out in Port Douglas. Raffi says that they fished the Bank and released a 350lb0er for the owners son Will Vautin Jnr, his first black marlin. Late in the day they also jumped second fish, on a bibless minnow intended for a wahoo, that skipper Leigh Bradshaw had seen free jumping.

Nearby, Capt. Damien Collette on Saltaire also released one around the 500lb mark.

Further to the north, Capt. Brett Alty on Mistress released his 3rd 700lb range fish in three days.  And I spoke to Capt. Haydon Bell on Release who was in Cooktown on changeover last night. Haydon’s been fishing for several weeks now and tells me he had some great fishing at the end of September although it slowed considerably over the moon. The recent weather stirred them up again and he’s had another great run with 10 marlin released in the first 3 days of his last trip, although it was a harder slog over the past few days he finished 11 for the week.

A catch up report from Tuesday from Reel Chase who started a trip with regular guests from Tasmania and released a fish around 250lbs at Hicks Reef right up the top.

We’re out there starting from today too and so hopefully from here on in, I’ll have plenty more pics to go with the reports.

Mission Beach Annual Challenge

Tournament report from the weekend, with thanks to Barbara: Better weather conditions on Sunday although the only two marlin tagged for the tournament were caught on Saturday in the rough.  The overall winners were The Edge from Spanish Dancer (the boats that tagged black marlin on Saturday). Cameron Humphreys took out Champion Male Angler and Carla Grieve was Champion Female.  There were plenty of good game fish weighed and Donna Stark on Maverick won the chest freezer for the heaviest Spanish mackerel.