There was plenty of billfish action over the weekend up and down the coast, and no doubt more reports to come in as the day progresses. North to south:
Fishing east of Cape Moreton on Saturday Mooloolaba GFC boat Akoya released two blue marlin at 160 and 100kg as well as a wahoo and two good sized dolphin fish. Kurt says they had another go at a nice blue on Sunday but broke it off on the 37kg on the bite. Capt. Ken Brown on Megumi fished the shelf north-east of the Cape yesterday and release a 120lb striped marlin. Ken says a second stripey followed it up and was all lit up while free swimming while they had the other on the leader. (Photo of Megumi’s striped marlin from David Granville above. Thanks David!)
On the Gold Coast, after spending the season in Cairns on Kaizen with Capt. Russell, Conor Lynch put the experience to use back on his father’s boat Lynch Mobon Saturday for a go at the blues. They finished up 2-2-2 of a blue around 140kg for Wade Mickey and a shortbill spear for Ronan Lynch (pictured above). Thanks Conor for the photo!Gold Coast boat Barco has been putting the hours in on the water again already this year and Vince tells me that over the past three trips they have released 1 from 2 on Wednesday, 1 from 2 on Friday and 2 from 6 yesterday – all blue marlin. Vince says it was hard to get them to stay stuck!
Capt. Ross McCubbin tells me he’s just spent a social weekend aboard the mothership Texas T with Mark and Stewie Morland and Lucky Strike alongside. They headed out yesterday and tagged a nice blue around the 400lb mark for Stewart east of Point Lookout yesterday .
There were also a couple more stories of lost fish over the weekend as well. The boys on board Anger Management fought a blue marlin for 7hrs before losing it on the double. Owner Pete Mathers put in the first 3 hours but when he could go on no longer, Ben Colvin was next in line. Ben says that while it wasn’t the biggest fish he’s seen or caught on the Coast before, it was certainly the most stubborn and fittest. What a big effort!!
And Rob Amos tells me they fished in 50 – 100 meters off Southport searching for the little blacks without success. However the did find some good dollies feeding on flying fish and pulled 3 off before everything disappeared , the best one was landed by Col Vietheer on 15kg tackle and went 23kg which is an excellent capture for those parts.
- The Port Macquarie BlueWater Legal Golden Lure comp is well underway. Steve tells me that Day 1 produced near perfect conditions and there were 36 fish raised resulting in approx 8 tags and 3 captures. The captures included a 182kg (402lb) blue marlin for the team on board Iona 2 (Capt. Adam Jordan tells me they went 1 from three for the day), another at 67.2 on 10kg to a female angler & a 20.4kg wahoo. Steve says that nearly all the fish are blue marlin in the 160Kg+ size. On Day 2, Iona 2 was quick on the board again with another blue that Adam put at about 300lbs. Will look out for the Day 2 results soon. Rhino has sent me another clip here.
- And there were plenty more boats fishing off Port Stephens, and further south for the Central Coast BlueWater Classic (report to come later). Out of Lake Macquarie, Andy tells me the boys on Fritto 1 fished the Carpark for only the second time this season and that it lived up to its name (as always!) with plenty of boats there. Andy says the fish were around, and hungry, but bait is still scarce and in very small patches. After a fishless morning and afternoon they eventually raised a good sized black late in the afternoon on a skipbait whilst searching for fresh bait. It turned out to be a rather large black for these parts which Steve put at around 200kg and typically it took the only 15kg setup on board and stayed deep for most of the fight. After 2 hours they managed to coax it up close to the surface and but it sounded again and at just over 3 hours the line parted with the fish way down deep. It seems like there were a few black marlin out there with Born Free releasing two and Calypso releasing one on Saturday a bit further north.
- And a top day Saturday for the Findlay brothers and team on board Murrifin out of Broken Bay. Although they weren’t fishing the comp, seems like they should have going 4 from 4. Rod says they had two double headers one of the fish was caught on 10kg, two on 15kg and the other on 24kg. Al the fish were 70-90kg stripes. Awesome stuff!
- Another report from the Ultimate fishing out of Bateman’s Bay with Capt. Ryan Clapp on Saturday. Ross tells me they were off to a great start with two stripes by lunchtime and were looking forward to more in the afternoon. But alas, that was it for the day! (Picture coming).
