The bite off Port Stephens over the weekend was epic. And the conditions were exceptional. No doubt about it!  I’m sure more reports will come in throughout the day – but here is some of what I know so far. (If you have some fishing to report – please send to me at info@blackmarlinfishingblog.com).  Reports from other areas to come later as well.

• With the presentation for the Lake Macquarie Big Fish Bonanza not until next weekend, we may have to wait for a while for the list of winners and grinners, but popular opinion is that the gong went to Garry Holt’s team on Diversion who tagged ‎12 marlin, all on 15kg yesterday to take their tournament tally to 17 for the two day’s fishing!
• Flying Fisher’s 11 tags yesterday put them on 23 in the first three days of their Port season including two grand slams!  In the tourney, adding another 11 tags yesterday also put them on 17 fish for the tournament but it will come down to line class for the point scoring and with all their fish on 15kg, Diversion should be well in front. (Ben sent me a bunch of GoPro pictures from the action on Flying Fisher yesterday at bottom!)
• Capt. Tim Dean was back at the helm of Calypso on the weekend and by all reports, Tim had the best of the day yesterday with 13 tags. Tim tells me, they came back from a relatively *unlucky* day Saturday when they were only able to covert 2 from 7 to show a major touch of class on Sunday. Capt. Tim has a couple of spot available this weekend, two days marlin fishing for $750pp! This is the time to get to Port Stephens! Contact Tim on 0411 111 476.
• Brad Curtis and the team on Ningaloo added another 6 to their talley yesterday as well including another 5 for Karly putting her individual total for the comp at 9! Speaking of 9, I had heard that Amokura was having a top day out there yesterday as well. Brad tells me they did, finishing the day with 9 tags. Update: They finished with 11 in total including 8 for 14 year-old Jacinta! Brad also passed on to me that the previous day’s tournament leaders Seaka and Rocket added 6 and 5 respectively.
• Andy and the team on Fritto 1 added another 6 to their tournament tally yesterday to put them on 10 for the two days. Andy says their final day was 11-9-6 which put them on 20-15-10 for the comp. Again, Andy says it was probably one of the most memorable fishing days of his life – the fishing was stupidly good. They saw another dozen or so fish lit up free swimming at the back of the boat over the course of the day. And of course the conditions were glamour – any sent me this quick pano.

• On the capture side on Iona 2, Adam tells me that they had 9 bites yesterday and caught another on 8kg for Amanda Cromaty that went 208lb which may have also been the Heaviest Marlin of the comp – a gong they picked up last year as well.  That was it for the day again loosing a few at the back of the boat.
• Red hot fishing outside the comp – Rod tells me that Murrifin ended the day with 9 from 10 on 15kg, and had 8 of those by 11am! They left the Car Park at 2pm looking for a blue marlin to complete the slam but no luck (I heard that hardly any blues were seen yesterday compared to the previous two days).  Rod also says it’s the best day that he has seen the Car Park fish ever with some giant stripes mixed in amongst them.
• Also outside the comp, Scott Lee on Gunrunner reports 7 for the day with only 3 of them on board. Scott says  they had a couple of double hook ups which was just insane with Muzza on the wheel. They are back out again and into it today.
• Capt. Daniel Carlson was likewise out fishing with some friends on the trailer boat Chasing Tail. They tagged 5 stripies by 1pm before they headed in for the day, not fishing the comp. And Steve Baker tells me on Fly By Night, they got 4 stripies all on 15kg.
• Updated: George Trinkler on Born Free reports they also tagged 10 yesterday. And Ron tells me they tagged 12 on Shakara too!

Ben sent me a bunch of awesome Go-Pro stills from the day on Flying Fisher but also this crazy one of two guys hooked up on a trailer boat below. Ben says he doesn’t know how they ended up but at one stage they cut one of their own lines off to give them some room and wished them luck!  Some amazing stories not only about the fish caught but the number of fish seen.  At one stage Ben said they had about 20 marlin up free feeding around the boat on pencil slimies like a pod of dolphins. An amazing sight!

If you were thinking of fishing at Port Stephens this year –> Get there now!