On the east coast, North Queensland, we have been lamenting a slower than expected (hoped) light tackle marlin season which culminated again with the pick of the weekly weather on Friday / Saturday allowing some of the local fleet to explore the previous week’s tournament grounds without the previous week’s number of boats. Unfortunately the fish didn’t really come to the party.

There were a few caught including this one for Greg Davison fishing on a private boat our of Bluewater who showed some dedication to the ‘release’ part of catch and release fishing jumping in to grab the little fella again after the first release to swim the fish for another 10 minutes along side and allowing it to truly regain colour and energy to swim off properly the second time (photo).

On the heave tackle side, Capt. Brett Goetze’s Amokura also finished up a trip with the boys from Pure Fishing, and managed to sneak Saturday for a look and see if there were some marlin on the edge. They went 1 from 2 up to 120lb, not big but hopefully a good sign of things to come.

Coastal Coverings’ Paul Gibson also found one on Kaching for an early father’s day release on Saturday as well.

In Townsville with a few of the local club boats also took advantage of the better weather down there. Trevor Albrey was unlucky going 0 from 3 while the Nicolosi family’s Zuri found a couple.

Meanwhile in the west, they aren’t lamenting anything. Just getting on with business and catching as the fish have shown up both in Exmouth and Broome. Capt. Eddy Lawler’s Peak Sport Fishing has been ever consistent over the last few days with a 7-5-4 black marlin on Saturday following up with another three yesterday.

In Broome, Makaira Game Fishing’s Capt. Jeda Ellens went 5-3-3 sailfish and 1-1-1 black marlin yesterday as well.

Maybe we should quit lamenting and start considering a move west! :-)