Cairns/Cooktown/Lizard Island Black Marlin Season

There are plenty of fish showing up in good time in the lead up to next week’s Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic. And there were a few more big fish – giant black marlin – reported yesterday as well (more to come).

One was on board Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles’ Levante who has been keeping a low profile so far ;-) with Bevan and Jason on deck. Bevan tells me the fish was caught Number 8 from a 4 o’clock bite on mac tuna in short. The angler was Gary Primm, who at 74 years old, has been coming to the reef for ten years trying to weigh a grander.  And it took him only 10 minutes in the end weighing 1,016lbs (11foot 9 long, 6 foot 4 girth and 20 inch tail). Well done Gary and the crew!

Update 2: A report from Glanville who is spending the next couple of weeks on deck on board Capt. Bill Billson’s Viking II and who has hit the deck running with two granders in the last two days of fishing. Glanville tells that the first one was one of three fish and Bill called it over 1000lb on Sunday. The other from yesterday that he called knocking on 1200lb. Its been a great trip for them so far, slaying the reds in the morning and the marlin in the afternoon! Awesome fishing! A shot of the 1200 at top and the 1000lb-er below with a shot from my angle as well fishing nearby.

Update: Report just in from Capt. Damian Colette on Saltaire on a day trip out of Port Douglas yesterday and caught an 800lb-er on the Bank. Damian says that he also saw Live Wire catch one next him and reports that he saw 3 smaller male marlin free swimming together and was lucky enough to raise the female and get her to bite! And also a report from Capt. Tim Dean’s Calypso who went 2 from 3 at 10 to 500lb.

Capt. Brett Goetze’s Amokura finished their trip with one fish on the last day to put them on 10 from 11 for the entire trip. On Capt. Luke’s KEKOA, we release two from three bites and saw a few more. And Capt. Tim Richardson’s Tradition released one from three as well for Lydie.

Catching up from the day before, Capt. Steve Ahlers’ Hellraiser released a nice fish that Steve put at 800lbs for Sarah Jackson before heading into Cooktown on changeover.

And another catch up – I have a photo and video from Capt. Adam Jordan on Iona’s grander black marlin for Alicia from Saturday. The photo is a video still. Click on the still to watch the video on Youtube.

Yeppoon Little Blacks

A report from Scotty from Bite Me Marlin Charters in Yeppoon who christened their new Blackwatch 40′ Amphibious Raids over the weekend with a hand full of little black up to 20kg to get his charter season off with a bang.  Scotty says that he’s also hearing from people getting in amongst them from the inshore grounds to the 50nm reefs and shoals out of Yeppoon from Goodwin shoal down to Heron Island so there seems like there are several around.

Coffs Harbour/Solitary Coast Stripes

Solitary Islands Game Fishing Club boats continue to find the striped marlin off Coffs Harbour, with Alcatraz going three from six on Friday, including a triple header with just Club president James McGinty and Pete Mallia on-board. Fortunately in some ways, this was reduced to a single fish, but the bites kept coming during the afternoon.

Hemingway fished wide and found the yellowfin they were looking for. Although the two caught weren’t quite big enough to make the grade on 37 kilo, the 90 kilo blue marlin was a nice bonus.

Back on the water after a refit, Better Than Vegas had a frustrating day. They went north and wide, pulling the hooks on a blue, then came down to where the action was off Sawtell, watched Alcatraz catch two, and lost two themselves, one on a Rapala minnow.

Foreign Exchange fished Saturday and found the stripes were still there, but couldn’t get one to stick before the weather forced them home.

Sounds like plenty of action!
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Hopefully some tourney reports to come as well soon from the comps held over the weekend!