A late season hurrah in Cairns was enjoyed by some of the fleet yesterday with some smaller fish making for an enjoyable calm day on the water.
Capt. Tim Richardson on Tradition topped off his last day of the Cairns season with two fish before heading in. Tim travels to Hamilton Island next week for a trip down the coast.
And Capt. Craig “Sparra” Denham on Hot Shot likewise enjoyed the day going three from three with pic from Tara at bottom.
And Capt. Corey Hard’s Askari is back in Cairns on changeover after another successful trip. Corey says they had 10 bites over the last 6 days and caught 6. Corey reports that two of the fish were of the larger variety one being a wild 700lb-er on a lure which did some spectacular vertical jumps right beside the boat. The other was big one is very hard to put a size on as it did not jump.
Corey says the bite was by far the best lure bite he has seen from a giant marlin, missing the short rigger twice and fading back to pile on the center rigger. The fish unfortunately got wrapped up and they found themselves in a 5 hour battle with the leader wrapped around its peck fin.
After 3 attempts on leader and a major amount of drag the fish won its freedom. They say everything happens for a reason and Corey says the fact that he got his favourite lure back, given to him by a good friend in Kona is a blessing in disguise :-)
Jason on Marlin Brando also sent me a catch up from mid-week. Jason says he’s been laid up for 2~3 weeks because of hull cracks and finally got back on the water yesterday for a test run out to Linden Bank. While it seemed a bit slow he hooked one reasonable fish, but says the curse of fishing solo got him again and lost the fish after a few minutes while clearing the second line!
Coffs Blue Marlin
Rick O’Ferrall reports that the weather on the Coffs Coast/Solitary Islands has been sensational, but almost entirely marlin free despite excellent water. Or so they thought until they found a nice 350lb (measured) blue marlin yesterday on Foreign Exchange.
John Stafford was on the rod, and did a great job on a fish that was only bill-wrapped with just the point of a hook stuck in its bill – it fell out when they got it alongside and took the pressure off the line! (photo at top!)
