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We had an experience yesterday that reminded Capt. Jim of seasons past when Capt. Luke worked the deck for him on Jac-Kel. That day, it was glass calm and they were trolling along with not much happening when Luke went to the transom and looked down to see the tail of a fish swimming underneath the boat, mesmerized by the propellers. They brought the scad in, but couldn’t tempt him away from the propellers towing it at the transom. For a good five minutes this continued until they walked the scad up the side of the boat and fed it into the water from the bow. They got the bite and caught him. The bite of our lettuce leaves fish. So yesterday, I was making lunch and threw the outside lettuce leaves over the back. And suddenly a marlin that had been hiding under the boat, swimming merrily along, swirled on the lettuce leaves and as they floated back, brought his attention to our scad. Unfortunately, after a shotgun malfunction we lost him, but coming around again on our lettuce leaves mark, we had another bite. After a short but energetic fight, Jeff had released his very first marlin. Jeff’s first marlin, on board Reel Chase at Linden Bank. Capt. Tom on Ultimate Lady, fishing next to us, tells me he sacrificed two lettuces for two marlin to 250lb. Mistress didn’t need lettuce for their two little fish. Capt. Luke on KEKOA came across a nice fish tailing and managed to get a bait in front of it, releasing a feisty 800lb-er for Brendan. WatchDog had five bites and released one, also losing a big fish after two hours fight. And further south, Top Shot pulled the late bite out of the hat for a solid 900lb-er on their final day just minutes before running in. Also pulling out another late bite before the run into Cairns was team Viking with a 750lb-er right on knock off ending their 7 day charter with America clients Doug, Terry, and Ron with 11 fish including 5 over the 750 mark. There are a few more boats out here this weekend with a tournament on. Fishing the tournament is Wild Turkey with Greg back at the helm and having a pretty good day releasing three to 300lb. Up on the Ribbons, Ningaloo converted their only bite of the day – which was well worth it and the right bite to get – at 950lbs. And Shaka managed a late bite at 6:20pm for angler Craig after a quiet few days releasing this 300lb-er (below left). Shaka’s releases a 300lb-er for angler Craig on the Ribbons and John sent me this TowCam shot of Grinner’s blue marlin on the Gold Coast.