The Cairns season is almost upon us and it’s my job to get you all excited about that and looking forward to your daily dose of big marlin fishing reports!

For that reason I’m starting a series (starting today) of a 5 question interview anglers, skippers and crew who will be fishing the Cairns season in some way or another in 2014. Don’t forget there is still some availability (while perhaps not these exact dates still, this will give you an idea). You can contact members of the fleet directly through the BMFB Boat Directory.

The first interview is with Captain Tom Francis, who is the skipper of the big blue boat Ultimate Lady, and is making a return to the Great Barrier Reef this season.

Can you give us a brief description of the Ultimate Lady’s operations?
The Ultimate Lady is a 90 foot wave piercing catamaran, designed by Craig Loomes of “Lomocean” in Auckland, New Zealand.  She was designed and built specifically for the current owner as a long range sport fishing vessel.  The owner is a passionate marlin fisherman and enjoys exploring new destinations, fishing 120 days per year on average.

Can you remind us of the last time the Ultimate Lady fished Cairns?
The 2009 heavy tackle season was the last season we fished in Cairns.  We had fished the previous 5 seasons leading up to that.

What has the boat been doing since then?
Since 2009, the operation has been based in Tahiti, French Polynesia, where, for the last 4 and half years we have been exploring Polynesia’s diverse island and atoll chains.

What was your best memory of your last Cairns season?
Our last trip for the 2009 season would rank as probably the best fishing myself and the crew had experienced.  We planned to fish the aggregation which was a days trolling away.  Instead, it took us 2.5 days to get there.  In the 6 days, we weighed one fish over a grand, let another over go and fought yet another for 7.5 hrs, before breaking line.  We also caught 2 fish over 900 in a day, 3 or 4 around 800lb and a bunch of small ones as well as a blue.

We finished the trip on November 22nd and a week later, we departed for Tahiti and I was left wondering why we were leaving the best place on earth!

When can we expect to see you here and how long are you staying?
7th of October is our ETA in Cairns and we will be fishing right through the season.  For me, the date can’t come soon enough!

Me either! Click here to read some of UL’s reports from last time they were here.