Breaking: Capt. Randy Hodegekiss’ Dreaming On is back on the reef after a 3 year pandemic induced respite away from the reef returned to put owner David Keinath onto a big fish at 900lbs on the first day of their 30-day trip!

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Every year the marlin start to show up on the Ribbon Reefs in September and the fishing world starts to get excited for the reports to start rolling in. And September was straight out of the gates for Capt. Corey Hard on The Sheriff who caught a big girl in mid-September highlighting that September is a great month for heavy tackle! In early October Corey reports that the fishing has been consistently consistent for them with a lot of them around the 2 to 300 mark although the mid rangers seem to have shown up of late, just when they should! As well as a few bigger fish making themselves known as well.

Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles on Miss Nic reports pretty good fishing with some fun mid rangers and happy guests. He’s had a 4 fish day and a few 3 fish days wit pretty steady fishing including a couple of 5 to 7 bite days!

Capt. Tim Dean’s Calypso has already had a busy month and echos the sentiment that there have been lots of small ones caught each day with a few mid range fish. On Calypso the bigger fish have been seen but not caught until yesterday with the Calypso releasing two at 750 and 250 (photo at top).

Capt. Leigh O’Brien’s OB1 was into port on changeover reporting 7 on their last trip – 6 blacks and a blue – with and a nice one thrown in!  Ditto Capt. Tim Richardson’s Tradition ended a trip with regular Lydia Fayard with 2 including one better fish right at the end of the day before running in.

Capt. Brett Goetze’s Akira is also on changeover in Port and preparing to tackle the weather onslaught again tomorrow with conditions very fresh this morning. Brett says that on the last trip they had a reasonable day 3 from 5 with a half decent one.

Capt. Daniel Radcliffe’s Zulu 6 from 10 Marlin over 5 days for their first trip of the season. Capt. Daniel Klein’s Deploy reports couple of bites a day, catch them some days and not catching them the next. And Capt. Dan McCarthy on Moana III reports catching one a day on small ones and a few other bites but that things seem to be building nicely. Including the weather!

A few more of the season regulars are just starting fishing. Capt. Jason Legg’s Kiama is now fishing and Capt. Luke Fallon’s KEKOA who also started their season today.

Capt. Tim Dean reports that the water is beautiful from the mud hole south. It just needs a southerly current push to get the points working.  With the CSIRO declaring an El Nino weather pattern commencing 19 September we’re likely gearing up for more of the same weather this month. Here’s a report I wrote on the El Nino and its effects on the reef back in 2015.

Update: Capt. Darren “Biggles” Haydon on Adventum reports a good number of smaller fish on trips so far, more than 1 per day and a 650lb-er on the last trip! He’s working out of the lodge this week up the top! Capt. Rhys Younan-Wise on Hellraiser fished 5 days with their good friends from the Port Hacking Game Fishing Club and had a successful trip catching 6 marlin in 5 days with 600lb being the biggest, and a couple around the 500lb mark as well. Rhys said it was good fun and good fishing!