It’s a pretty big report today! Read all the way through, you won’t be disappointed!
Cairns Marlin Season
Plenty of fish around both big and small as the Cairns giant black marlin season hits its stride. I missed a report yesterday being tied up with changeover in town so I’ll try and combine the reports.
The Big Show 2017 has started yesterday with Capt. Corey Hard’s Askari, Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles’ Levante and Capt. Randy Hodgekiss on Dreamin’ On coming together on the mothership Emerald Lady to fish the next 30 days on the reef. In the leadup Corey reported a bit of trouble with rubber hooks on the last trip but still managing 7 for the trip with only the one of the larger variety – which did all the right things and jumped all over the ocean. Sharky likewise, found a few smaller models but I heard Capt. Randy got straight into gear with a nice one yesterday.
Capt. Darren “Biggles” Haydon on Bounty Hunter tells me he’s had fishing for the last couple of days. He’s had 2 very big marlin on and pics to come from one of the fish yesterday which he says was truly giant! (photos above) Capt. Ross Finlayson’s Top Shot likewise with two yesterday including one that Ross said was very large!
On the numbers Capt. Tim Richardson’s Tradition finished up his last trip on Saturday tagging 3 more up to 500 lbs to make 12 for the week. He added 2 from 4 yesterday and pulled off a midrange one. Capt. Danial McCarthy’s Moana III fished Escape for 3 from 5 yesterday and saw a few more including a few big followers.
On Capt. Luke Fallon’s KEKOA we had the little fish and circles not playing nice on Saturday for a 1 from 4, following up nicely with a 2 from 2 yesterday with David Scott straight on in the first 30 mins of fishing, back on the reef after a big hiatus (David last fished with Dad and I on Reel Chase in ’09 I think!!) Andrew followed up a bit later with his first marlin on the 50lb stand up outfit after we switched it off the teaser for a good fun fight in wet conditions!
Capt. Daniel Klein Onsite also finished up a big trip with a big fish on the the first day that he estimated at over 1000lbs, followed by a 500, 300 and a few smaller ones during the week.
Of course there are plenty more boats fishing and catching but the woeful internet doing its part to delay reports coming through. I’ll keep updating as I hear more.
Yorkeys Knob Makaira Bullfight
Meanwhile back to the south, the Yorkey’s Knob Boating Club’s Makaira Bullfight was held over the weekend and while I don’t yet have a report, I heard from Think Big’s Sharon & Paul Poulter who participated on board with Steve Leptig and Terri Morgan.
Paul tells me that Saturday Terri hooked up to a nice 400lb fish which was her first heavy tackle marlin, but unfortunately it chafed off on the leader at the back of the boat.
On Sunday they got to the grounds around 08.00 and within less than an hour a big girl came and ate the tuna and Sharon was hooked up to a solid fish. As they were fishing 24kg stand up it never going to be an easy fight and although they had the double out of the water several times, the fish stayed just deep enough to keep the leader out of reach. As time went on Sharon got the leader on to the rod and Steve took the leader only to have it pulled from his hands . Sharon fought this fish for over 5 hours with 3 hours at sunset drag of 12kg and finally it was all looking good for that tag shot with the fish coming up and the double out of the water, the line parted at the double and they watched her swim away. Too bad Sharon after such an epic fight!! Might be happy to get back in the chair for Lizard! (photo below).
GFAA Winners
A massive congratulations to Sunshine Coast GFC members and club boat Chaos and her owner Jay Graham for taking out the big awards at the annual GFAA awards night. SCGFC won Highest Pointscoring Tag & Release GFAA club in Australian Waters with Chaos the highest point scoring boat T&R and the highest point scoring boat T&R Marlin in Australian Waters (tagging 92 marlin for the season!) King Bay GFC’s The Wench was second, while Darren Buttigieg’s Happy Hour was third.
Ben Massurit took out GFAA Small Fry Male Angler T&R Qld and GFAA Australian Champion Junior T&R while Ben Wratten was GFAA State Champion Junior Male Angler T&R. Fantastic results for the club!
Weipa Sails
The tournament fishing curse seems to be in full force over Weipa side of the gulf with the action returning to level hot since the tournament. It started with Duane and Linda Jay’s Get n Any on Friday recording a 12-6-6. Saturday more club boats fished there again with Wine Down finding the fish early tagging 3 by 9am ending up 13-10-9 . Ben Bright’ Last Cast went 14-8-7 while Gaven Roberts and Andrea Kennedy on Stripe arrived a little later for a 9-8-7.
Ben was back at it again yesterday on Last Cast taking it to the next level with 16 for the day with Ben, Pip and Jodie on board.
