Big marlin north of Cairns, big tuna run (and marlin) off Goldy

Well its official, the big fish are here!

Two more big fish reports came in yesterday, and there will only be more from here on in as more of the fleet ‘hit the water’.

Returning from a 5-day bait fishing trip all the way north to Number 9 Ribbon and back yesterday, Capt. Chris ‘Sharky’ Miles, on Levante this season, was the first to report some big girl encounters. Although mostly bait fishing over the 5 days, they did spend some time on the marlin jumping two off earlier in the trip (600 and 450) before converting two more nice ones – an 800lb-er on Sunday, and a 700lb-er yesterday for Cairns angler Rowan Cross.

I also heard from Hellraiser’s Capt. Steve Ahlers yesterday who is fishing a bit higher up out of Cooktown.

Steve reports a one from one on Sunday at 200lbs for Mitch McDonald, and another big fish yesterday at 800lbs in a one from two for angler Guy Carter!

(I’m trying to get some larger versions of these shots on left… Update: which I have now at top!)

It’s great to be hearing these reports already!

Meanwhile, its been very fishy off the Gold Coast as well. Last week Gavin Woodbury’s guests on board Sea Probe Fishing Charters scored this solid black marlin which popped up at the back of the boat looking for a feed while they were bottom fishing!

jugs And while the boats went wide looking for blue marlin on the weekend, its yellowfin they found and good numbers and size too! Matt Caelli on Jugs tells me they got 4 nice ones (photo) and left them biting (and the first one was caught on the Stella jigging outfit!)

Nearby Molokai enjoyed double and triple hookups putting 6 on board and donating 2 to the team on Adios fishing beside them which was enough to turn their luck catching a pending Queensland Record fish weighing in a massive 85kg.

Update: More details about the fish via Ashleigh Haigh. It was caught by angler Jason A Ebbett with crew Darren Malaquin, Ashleigh Haigh and Russell humbler on Sunday. This fish is a pending Qld record on 37Kg stand up which beats the existing record by 20kg! (was 65kg) Photo of the monster below!