The juvenile black marlin fishing in Queensland’s south east has gone from strength to strength. After Sea Probe on the Gold Coast reported 10 fish in a day earlier in the week, it was the Sunshine Coast’s time to shine. Or knock it out of the park!
And for the Mooloolaba GFC Douglass family team on board their 35ft Bertram Luna, Friday was one of those days that don’t come along very often and will be remembered for a long time. With Wayne and Nathan Douglass sharing the wheel duties for anglers Sue and Lauren Douglas and Scott Marks and Ronan Lynch, and Conor Lynch joining Nathan on deck, they released 23 from 33 black marlin, all on 8kg!
On Saturday, they set out to do it again and recorded another top day with 10 from 15. That brings their two day total to 33 (from 48 fish) which equals the previous Mooloolaba Ports record of 23 fish in a day which was on Cervantes, skippered by Geoff Shorthouse on 15kg line more a decade ago.
Nathan tells me it was certainly a trip of a lifetime for him (and he has spent a season or two up in Cairns) in his 20 plus years of light tackle fishing out of Bribie/Mooloolaba!
But Luna was not the only MGFC boat in on the action, fishing nearby with only two on board, Nathan tells me that the Dahl family’s 38ft Executive Bring It On also tagged 13 on Friday and another 7 yesterday with Steve and Debbie Dahl sharing the angling and skippering duties!
Those are certainly not the only reports with plenty of boats reporting 2’3 and 3’s, all holiday season fun, from the Sunshine Coast south to the Tweed. Although unfortunately the blue marlin bite has suffered. On the Sunshine Coast, fishing and photog maestro David Granville who is responsible for the awesome action shot at top, headed wide for blues but came back in for a consolation black. David said that water looked good on Noosa Canyons but they didn’t see a fish. They had a quick troll over the light tackle grounds on the way home and got this little black for Robbie Wells.
Same on the Gold Coast for Ben Currell and Andy Bagnall who are seeking a blue in Ben’s barra boat Vision Sportfishing, and who are finding the water against them (hot water and current raging). They also switched to the little blacks with a 3-3-3 on Christmas morning before calling it quits early to join in with the Christmas indulgence!
