From the reports/pages of the Black Marlin Blog

It was straight out of the blocks for the Cairns marlin season 2019 for the fleet with several big models accounted for the last week of September.

But at the start of October the weather went wild and the fishing turned off! It wasn’t until mid October that things started to really pick up again. And it wasn’t until October 16 that we received the first report of a grander black (although there had already been several close to the mark previously) on board private boat Serendipity.

This was the start of a week of big fish which included two big ones in two days on Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles’ Katana and one that Capt. Luke Fallon on KEKOA put right up there for regular Foridan guest Bart, on the same day Capt. Ross Finlayson on finished up his trip with a real nice one before heading into Cooktown on changeover.

Just days later, Capt. Casey Dent’s Zulu started off their 7 day trip with a big one while Capt. Ashley Matthew’s Reel Easy had both size and numbers releasing 5 fish including one that he put at 900lbs for his 79 year old angler from England.

Filming for the CPGFA documentary (filmmaker Nick Jones) went on for the bulk of October and the running joke among the fleet was that the camera was jinx, until the big fish filming hoodoo was broken with a 900lber filmed on board Capt. Tim Richardson’s Tradition.

Capt. Brett Goetze’s Amokura put German angler Stephan Kreupl onto his much awaited grander black marlin at 1032lbs in a hot day of fishing with 4 from 6. Adding the grander black marlin makes him the only person in the world to have weighed all 3 over 1000lb as a angler which is a great achievement.

Finally in November the fishing caught up with expectations with good numbers of fish showing up all along the reef. Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso caught both numbers and size with 5 fish to 900lbs up the top. Capt. Daniel McCarthy on Moana III hosted regular Japanese angler and IGFA rep Ichiro Takahashi for his 950th the day before putting him onto three fish in a single day that he put at over a grand.

Late November brought some more big fish. Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles on Katana had another big fish day with two fish he put at 900 and 1000lbs +.