Yesterday Reel Chase left Cooktown with their new charter and headed for Number 1 Ribbon where most of the Northern fleet were discussing how to anchor for the night with 20 knot NW winds. They sailed down sea and shortly after lunch Capt. Jim nearly fell off his perch at the sight of 2 marlin fighting over the little Queenfish. Lucky for the team, the bigger one snatched the prize and they were on for a 40 minute battle for Tony from Melbourne whose previous bigest fish was a 1 kg flathead. A 900lb Cairns Black Marlin was tagged to fight another day.

Later in the day as Reel Chase approached St Crispins Reef, Gary quickly tagged a smaller 200lber and had bites from 2 other small fish that failed to hookup.

Capt Ben on the Wild Turkey tagged 2 on Linden Bank in what was fast becoming a horrible day with NW winds hitting 25knots and short sharp choppy seas, Brian on INYA Dreams released another big fish on Number 1 along with Seababy and Allure who completed the action at sea before all the action at anchor. Reel Chase stayed behind North Opal but were afforded little protection from the reef and suffered one of the worst nights at anchor this season. Bring on Cairns tonight.

Meanwhile Kekoa is heading out today with Paul and Andrew from SE Qld (and me!) on board. Will let you know how we go.