Being the off season for marlin fishing, the captains got together and decided that a barramundi fishing expedition was the next best fishing option. So Laurie and I travelled north to the west coast of Cape York Peninsula to the small Aboriginal Community of Pormpuraaw with Captain Ross Finlayson and wife Donna and Captain Darren (Biggles) Haydon and partner Jen. We were fortunate to be armed with some preliminerary information on the fishing in the area, as Ross and Biggs had visited this area in 2007.
We set up camp just on the outskirts of this small community, at the headwaters of the Chapman River. Beautiful white sandy beaches and spectacular water view sunsets, were part of the unrestricted vista from our shady campsite.
We spent the 1st few days exploring the Chapman River and released lots of legal barra in the 60 -75 cm range and plenty of smaller barra in amongst the snags. Ross did manage to find a big barra that measure in at 108 cm, which he caught on a live bait. We were all amazed at the number of very large crocodiles in such a small river system, with many of them being a lot bigger than our 3.7m (12 foot) tinnies.
With good tides and great weather, over the next few days we ran down to the coast 8 miles to the Coleman and Mitchell Rivers. These much larger systems, consist of vast areas and lots of smaller tributaries where we trolled or lure fished. We all had great fishing, with plenty of barramundi released in the 60-85 cm range. Although we did not manage to catch any large fish, in the 1 metre plus range, we were impressed with health and consistent size of the fish we were catching.
Great times had by all and many good laughs. We are planning on making it an annual adventure.
With prime time dates filling for the forthcoming season we urge you to get in fast. Laurie has just a couple of trips left and our premium captains and boats only have a few trips left also. You can have a look at our preferred operations at: http://www.australianfishingexpeditions.com/sportsfishing_boats.html
Cairns is still the only fishing destination in the world where, every day you have the opportunity to hook into a "Grander" or better. With tag and release being the order of the day you are ensured of doing your bit for the future of these magnificient fish.
Drop us an email and we will organise your exclusive mother ship or liveaboard charter to fish the Great Barrier Reef for the Giant Black Marlin this year and for 2009. We are also taking bookings now for the 2009 Port Stephens season for February and March. They had a top season there this year and are still catching fish with striped, black and blue marlin available.
Cummins CEO Tim Solso, along with his wife, their children and their respective spouses and even a couple of grand children are exploring what Australia has to offer. After all his work commitments in Melbourne and Sydney ,Tim and Denny met the rest of the family in Cairns. The men took off (literally) for a 2 day helifishing expedition with Brazzaka from Cape York Helicopters, exploring the natural wonders of Cape York Peninsula. While all the ladies had 2 days relaxing and exploring the rainforest on a Daintree Captivations tour with Down Under by Appointment.
Now they are exploring the natural wonders of the Great Barrier Reef with a fun filled week with sister ships Ningaloo and Kekoa and their floating hotel our mothership The Boss. The coincidence being that all 3 vessels are powered by Cummins QSM 11 motors. The first day of the charter and the only report was from Kekoa with Kim Solos releasing her first black marlin estimated at 150 pounds.
Not much to report over the past couple of days at Escape Reef. Both Ningaloo & Kekoa raising a couple of small fish, but were not able to keep the hooks in them. With all the fleet heading south to avoid the rough conditions churned up by tropical Cyclone Guba (horrible name chosen by the New Guinea weather bureau) there are only a couple of boats left at Lizard Island. We are all monitoring the weather stations to see if this Category 1 cyclone deepens and where she will track too.
Day 5 of the charter and Tim, Whitney and Lynn were all granted their wish with all of them tagging and releasing their first black marlin. Tim estimated at 250 pounds, Whitney 150 pounds and Lynn also 250 pounds. Congratulations. Weather is still blustery and wet out there. We are all still monitoring the cyclone. It has intensified to Cat 3 but is along way off the North Australian coast.
Day 6 provided horrendous conditions, (lots of wind and rain), but it proved to be a great day on board Kekoa with Margaret releasing a nice 650 pound black marlin and David one estimated at 300 pounds. The gang on Ningaloo were not so lucky. The last day of the charter and the weather did not ease up, with constant rain and blustery conditions. However it did not dampen Jason's spirits because he released the only billfish of the day. Lynn had a great day on the bait rod when she hooked up to an 80 pound GT and this fish gave her a tough 15 minute fight to get it to the boat.
The Solso family were fantastic to have on board.....lots of poker, dice and catch phrase and lots and lots of laughs. They were all extremely happy with everyone catching a black marlin (except Matt) but he has vowed to return with his Dad and try once again for his first black.
Three father and son teams, Rafael Arnal Sr and Jr, Gustavo Galdo Sr & Jr. and Ernesto and Armando Branger are here to fish the species rich waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The first day of their charter only produced small fish and the teams fishing on both Ningaloo and Calypso managed to jump the small blacks off.
The second day of the charter at number 9 Ribbon Reef and both teams had the late bite. Rafael Sr & Jr and Gustavo Sr & Jr, fishing on Ningaloo had 2 bites but managed to jump both of them off. While fishing on Calypso Armando released a 300 pounder and Ernesto one estimated at 550 pounds.
Day 3 saw plenty of action on board Ningaloo with 4 bites, but the team were unable to keep them on the hook for very long. Day 4 was a great day for Gustavo Jr., after jumping off a small fish early in the day, he was rewarded late in the afternoon with his big black marlin. After a quick fight of only 15 minutes and some great photos at the transom, Gustavo Jr released a 950 pound black. This is the experience he came to the great barrier reef for. Also need to mention that Rafael Jr. (fishing on Calypso) released his first ever black marlin, a small fish estimated at 100 pounds.
The fifth day of the charter and Ernesto (fishing on Ningaloo) had a firey black estimated at 200 pounds, that did some spectacular aerial displays on the wire. While Gustavo Sr. (on Calypso) released another small fish estimated at 150 pounds.
The last day of the charter was a little short due to the return to Cairns and the teams did not manage to stay hooked up to any of the fish they raised.
After a quick change over in Cooktown, all boats headed back out to #8 Ribbon Reef and our mothership The Boss headed for the bottom of #9. Laurie had Dan Hughes and Chuck King fishing on Ningaloo and they raised 4 small fish. One being a double header where they managed to catch a 250 pounder for Chuck and pulled the hook on the other small fish.
The reports all up and down the reef are of mostly small blacks with the occassional large fish mingled amongst them. Some of the fleet have headed off shore as the longliners reported seeing alot of marlin, along with pilot whales, in a line from the seamount to MacDermotts Banks. With the southeasterlies due to return to 15-20 knots this week, hopefully this will push the fish further in towards the reef?
Day 2 of the charter and the crews were only tempted by a couple of marlin tailing down sea as the weather whips up bigger seas. Day 3 everyone decided to move south to the middle Ribbons and Dan and Chuck fishing on Calypso had the best day releasing a 350, 750, 800 and 900 pounders. Looks like the fish are on the move again.
Day 4 and another very rough day on the GBR, but Ningaloo managed to catch John Saunders his first ever black marlin. The next day with John again fishing on Ningaloo and he had a second first, by releasing his biggest marlin ever. Being a 700 pound black. Dan and Chris on Calypso had a great day also with Dan catching a 650 pounder and Chris a small fish estimated at 150 #.
Day 6 of their charter and it was Chris Moses' turn for the big fish. Ben (captain of the Boss) was riding along for the day and spotted the big fish tailing down sea. Laurie positioned Ningaloo so that he would present the baits to her and she chose the scad. After a nice work out in the chair for over an hour Chris caught, tagged and released his biggest fish for this trip estimated at 750 pounds. The final day of the charter was quiet with Chuck and Chris on Ningaloo only seeing one tailer and could not get the fish tempted by a bait and Dan and John fishing on Calypso managed to jump a small fish off. Also the fishing was cut short as the boys had to get back to Cairns to catch their flight back to the USA. But they will be back for the 2008 season.
Finally back from a fun filled week, where I was fortunate enough to be able to join Laurie, John and Gary for a weeks fishing on board Ningaloo & Calypso and our great mothership The Boss. We departed Cairns on Mon 22nd Oct and had the long run to the Ribbon Reefs from Cairns where we met up with Capt Tim on Calypso. Weather was still 15-20 knots, but not uncomfortable.
With John and Gary rotating boats daily between fishing on Ningaloo with Capt Laurie and Calypso with Capt Tim. The first 2 days we saw lots of small blacks and both boats raised double and triple headers. The frustrating part was that sometimes there was a big black mingling amongst the smaller males, but not particularly interested in eating.
I joined John on the 3rd day of the charter and we spent the day on Calypso. The weather had finally dropped to a pleasurable 10 knots NE. Had a couple of bites out of tiny little blacks (one Tim and I actually nicknamed a Mahoo as it was only about 60 pounds and looked more like a wahoo than a marlin) and managed to catch one. Then we spotted a nice fish (800 pounder) tailing down sea (how I do miss a tower) and managed to get the fish to take the scalley mackeral big bait. She just lay there in indigo blue water lit up and munched down the bait. All looked good, but something spooked her and she took off all fouled up in the leader and managed to disentangler herself after a few text book jumps. The team on Ningaloo also raised a couple of small blacks and had a really nice fish (well over the 1000) hangin around the little males. Had her up behind the baits for about 2 minutes until she lost interested and faded away into the depths.
Day 4 was non existent with neither gameboat even seeing a fish. Day 5 and Gary and John both caught small fish and John had a long fight on Calypso with another 800 pound black that was foul hooked. After a couple of hours of hauling her up from the depths they pulled the hook at the back of the boat. Day 6 and more small fish and again John had another chance a nice black, this time on Ningaloo, but pulled the hook after a few jumps. The last day of the charter and again both boats raised small blacks and Gary managed to release one estimated at 150 pounds.
The best fishing story for the week was from the Bossettes (hostesses Sam and Jo) whom went fishing during the day on the little tender to the Boss and managed to keep both Ningaloo & Calypso in big baits for the week. Large scaley mackerals, bonitos, mack tunas and spanish mackeral. Even managed to catch fish when the mothership was moving house from one Ribbon Reef to another with Ben and Dave crewing as their deckies. Great work..
Photo thanks to Dingo (again)
Fishing buddies, John Gill and Gary Douglas return down under for another weeks fishing with Ningaloo and Calypso, rafting up nightly to our big comfortable mothership The Boss.
For those of you tuning in on a regular basis for our fishing reports, you will have to wait until the end of the week for the results. I am heading out to the reef to join the gang for a fun filled fishing trip. Cannot wait to get out there amongst them. Hopefully I will come back armed with tall stories and some great photos.
Stay tuned.
Photo courtesy of Dingo Productions
His first adventure fishing the Great Barrier Reef and american angler Richard Benn had been set the challenge of Australia's east coast howling southeasterlies. But he realised that the long journey to get the Land Down Under, proved to be everyhting he envisaged. Late in the afternoon of the first day of his charter and he hooked up to fiery 700 pound black marlin. After a 20 minute fight and tonnes of jumps and aerial leaps behind the boat, the crew tagged and released Richards first marlin.
With the fleet fishing the Lizard Island Tournament and most of the gameboats dispersed along the Ribbon Reefs, the two 47 O'Briens Ningaloo & Kekoa enjoyed having the fish to themselves again. Fishing south from Pearl Reef down to Escape Reef, Laurie found the smaller fish and caught 2 wirey blacks out of 4 bites. One each for Richard Benn and Ben Moses. Whilst Luke, fishing light tackle specialist Gary Carter, raised a nice 700 pound black on 16 pound test line just as they entered the pass at Esape Reef. After some explosive manoeuvring, they jumped this marlin off right at the boat.
With a lull in the SE winds, (in between to big high cells moving across the Australian continent) on the 3rd day of the charter the Ningaloo crew managed to hook up to a nice 400 pound black for Ben Moses. Dingo and Dave had the cameras wizzing on the aerial acrobatics of the fish on the wire and hopefully I can post some of these on the web site next week. Tomorrow should be very interesting with the new high moving into the Tasman Sea and winds predicted up to 30 knots....Just as well Richard and Benn are seasoned anglers.
Well the gusty 30 knot winds did not phase the guys from the Carolinas. Plenty of small fish around at the bottom end of the reef and on the 4th day of their charter, Richard managed to tag and release a firey 150 pounder out of 3 bites. With conditions not easing even for the last day of the charter, They raised a couple of small blacks and released another rat. Not including the weather, a great fishing trip was had by all.
After 10 marlin seasons of fishing with us, firstly coming to the Great Barrier Reef to chase world record black marlin on fly, Tony Hedley releases his biggest fish to-date at an estimated 1,100 pounder plus. After Air New Zealand lost his baggage somewhere between LAX and Cairns, nothing could daunt Tony's spirits and Day 1 fishing at No 3 Ribbon Reef proved to delight.
At approximately 4 pm today Tony tagged and released his biggest black ever. Caught on a scaley mackeral in the corner of the mouth on a circle hook, after a text book 10 minute fight and numerous jumps she lay beside the boat for the perfect photo shoot. To be tagged and released, heathly to live another day and perhaps be caught again in the not too distant future.
The Texan members joining Tony's fishing party also had a great day fishing on board Kekoa with Captain Luke (sister ship to Ningaloo), with John Murray tagging and releasing his 1st black marlin , estimated at 800 pounds. Both fish were caught, tagged and released at # 3 Ribbon reef with many other boats reporting great fishing. The team on Tradition were still fighting a nice fish well after dark.
Day 2 was totally different........ no one saw a fish. Ningaloo & Kekoa both had a completely different day. Reports from Capt Tim on Calypso said that the fishing was exactly the same at # 10 Ribbon Reef.
The third day of the charter and no luck for Tony and John fishing on Ningaloo, however the the team fishing on Kekoa managed to tagged and release a spectacular 900 pound black marlin for Heffner Appling, after a 10 minute fight. This is a record catch for Heff and his first black marlin. With most of the fleet positoned in the middle ribbons, there has been patching fishing, but the marlin caught have all been big fish.
Today again was a completely different day. Heff and John Murray fishing on board Kekoa had only one bite, but Capt Luke reported marking plenty of fish, but just could not raise them to the baits. Whilst Ninagaloo had a bite out of small fish early, but it was not until that infamous late bite that the team managed to catch and release a 600 pound marlin for angler John Waldrup. Caught on the scaley mackeral with a circle hook, the fish was released at 6.15 pm just in time to celebrate with a signature cocktail on board our hospitable mothership Sheer Delight.
Day 5 & 6 of the charter has been hot, sultry and slick calm, and has therefore only produced some small fish that have either been marked on the sounder or have just looked uninterestingly at the baits. A change in weather conditions with the winds predicted to increase to 20-25 knots with a southeasterly change, will hopefully bring the big fish back to edge.
Sunday Oct 13 is the start of the Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic. Good luck to all anglers and crews participating.
Day 7 and the final day of the charter. The southeasterlies ran true to form with the winds blowing 20-25 knots, but who cares when it brings in the big fish. Ningaloo with Tony Hedley first up in the fighting chair, tagged and released another fabulous 850 pounder. It was a 45 minute fight and the big black towed them around to within stones throw of the outer barrier reef and into depths of 30 metres of water. Spectacular jumps were captured by every video camera on board.
Next up in the chair was John Waldrup who hooked up to a feisty 350 pounder just as the GBR Helicopter (whom had been filming the daily events of the Lizard Island Tournament boats) flew over Ningaloo when they hooked up at the bottom end of #4 Ribbon Reef. So pilot Chris circled around and got some excellent footage of the total fight... all situated about 50 foot from the flybridge. Laurie's ears will be throbbing for days.
Not too be out done, fishing on Kekoa with Luke, Heffner Appling tagged and released a spectacular 900 pounder and John Murray also caught, tagged and released a 400 pound black. Great fishing had by all.
With the southeasterlies expected to blow for at least another 4-5 days, I am sure we will see the big fish tailing down sea.
Photo courtsey of Dingo
Vince Kilborn, along with his son Douglas and friends Jeff Sport and Pat James started out on day 1 of the week charter with Vince releasing a 900 pound black marlin.
Lots of activity in the blustery 20 knot winds on the great barrier reef, with the guys also releasing a large bull shark and plenty of action amongst the yellow fin tunas.
Day 2 they managed to raise 2 fish but could not get either fish to take a bait. Day 3 the fishing had slowed on the Bank with most boats reporting not even seeing a fish. The gang had to stay at the bottom end of the reef due to refrigeration problems on Ningaloo, and they waited for Rossi on Top Shot to deliver out a deep freeze so that they could keep the precious scad chilled / frozen that they need for bait.
Day 4 they decided to make ground and lure fished there way north to try to reach the Ribbon Reefs and find the big fish. Jeff managed to release a nice 200 pounder on a purple and black senior wide ranger lure.
Photo courtesey of Dingo
Fishing in 20-25 knot winds the team on "Ningaloo" took out the Cairns Professional Game Fishing Association one day black marlin jackpot tournament with a nice 300# fish for angler John Philips. There were five fish caught in total with Captain Laurie winning the day on countback. The team on "Release" caught a fish estimated at 1,100# after four hours.
Laurie and the crew on "Ningaloo" will be out on the reef again tomorrow with Vince and Douglas Kilborn, Jeff Sport and Pat James from Alabama looking for the big one. Vince and Douglas are regular visitors to the reef with Laurie and are keen to find a few fish. Our mother ship, "Sheer Delight" is already out there and Captain Peter, Emma, Anna and Bec will be ready to welcome the boys onboard tomorrow evening with the compulsory martini for Vince.
More bling than Tiffany's......................David and Doug Nilsen and Ben Secrest from Accurate Reels in California and their Australian distributor, Gary Howard rode along with us on our annual bait fishing excursion to Cairns following on after the Port Hinchinbrook fishing classic. It was pretty bright with 15 plus beautiful silver reels on board. We used the Accurate Boss 665 wides as our bait reels all last season and they stood up to the test of a professional crews bait reel on the reef admirably. We tried a new 2-speed version on the trip up and these were awesome winding in a medium planing board and a string of scad with ease.
It was also a great opportunity to test out their small jigging reels and the new 12# and 20# Twin spin reels catching coral trout, rosey jobfish, all manner of GT's and trevally, scaley mackeral, longtail tuna and yellowfin tuna and spanish mackeral as well as a host of other species. Not once did any of the reels let us down and it was full on debrief at the end of the days fishing on what could be done to improve the reels. From what I saw there isn't much improvement needed but David and Doug are always looking to make their product even better.
We ran the big 130# two speeds for a few hours on our last day before coming back to Cairns to make sure Dave and Dingo had everything ready for our heavy tackle season starting next week and David caught his first Aussie black of 250#, well done David. The boys were suitably impressed by the GBR and the fishing and are definately coming back for another testing session before to long.
Have a look at the Accurate home page at www.accuratefishing.com for a few more photo's.
Today is the start of the Port Hinchinbrook Fishing Classic. This year the girls (Alva, Ruth, Jenny and Sandy) are back again and determined to win this tournament. After being pipped at the post the last 2 years in a row, the team are determined that 2007 is going to be their year.
On the first day of the tournament, Ruth had a mammoth fight on 12# test with a fiesty 90# black marlin and after 4 and 1/2 hours she broke the line. Several other boats also lost their fights with the tough little blacks.
The second day of the tournament and Sandy released a small black marlin approximately 60 pounds and Ruth caught a large sailfish in record time. Much appreciated after her mammoth fight with a small black the day before.
Even though the weather has been absolutely perfect (10-15 knots) days 3 and 4 of the tournament produced no fish.
Congralutaions goes to the Collins brothers. A well deserved win after fishing the light tackle tournaments for the past 30 odd years and having never won one. Just goes to show persistance pays off.
For those of you who have not heard, "Sir Reel" has had a change of ownership and a change of name. She has been re-christened "Ningaloo". The name may of changed, but the 47" O'Brien is still the wonderful fishing boat that most of you had the chance to fish on last year.
We also have the same gang back for the 2007 marlin season. Laurie and our 2 top crewman, Dave Cassar and Jarad (Dingo) Boshammer.
Everyone is anticipating a fantastic season and another year of big fish.
We have arrived home intact after 6 weeks away and 9,000 kms travelled. The barramundi expedition to the topend of Australia (the Northern Territory) was a great success.
We arrived in Darwin in late April and called into Reidys Lure factory on the way into town. A must on all anglers itinerary for all the local information and the right lures for the topend. At the factory we bumped into John & Jennifer Mondora (from Cairns) who were on their way west to the Daly River to fish the Barra Nationals with fellow angler and friend, Ian Leighton. We headed east into Kakadu National Park to fish the mighty South Alligator River. Met up with Libby and Dean Shaw, who gave us some invaluable local knowledge on the river and where the fish had been biting. Everyone had been hoping to experience the "runoff", where the vast flood plains drain back into the South Alligator River after the wet season floods. But this only happened for a couple of days and did not produce the excellent barra fishing that it is renowned for.
We had some magic early mornings fishing the mouth of Nourlangie Creek on the tide changes, where we had barras boofing all around us in a feeding frenzy like we have never seen before. It was a real quandry as to which one to try to entice with a lure. We were fishing up to 95 kilometres up stream from the mouth of South Alligator River and still felt the influences of the big 7 metres tides even that far up the river. Trolling up stream produced some big fish whith Laurie releasing a big salt water barra of 95 cms. We put in some long, hot days on the river in the 3 weeks that we were there, hopeing to experience that hot bite that every fisherman longs for. But it really did not happen this year. Oh well thats fishing.
We played tourists on the days the tides were not congenial (too much run) and experienced the beauty and the wild life that Kakadu National Park offers. Some wonderful walks through the escapement country to view ancient aboriginal rock art and some wonderful fresh water swims under cascading waterfalls in Litchfield National Park.
We both really enjoyed fishing the Rockhole and Corroboree Billabong for the abundant bird life and pictureque water lily flood plains. We had an early morning confrontation with a big crocodile who had killed a water buffalo just prior to our arrival on the billabong and he had no intention of sharing his domain with our boat. So we observed him from a distance. Laurie had excellent barramundi fishing on the billabong, but I was fast becoming the catfish queen.
We spent 5 days in the city of Darwin and had some wonderful dinners with many long time friends. It is one of Australia's great cities and we were both very impressed by the gardens and walkways around the beaches and the bays that surround Darwin.
On our way home we decided to take a slight deviation and visit the Daly River region and have one last pitch at some good barramundi fishing. So once again after some great local information we set off to explore the Daly. We found one of the many rock bars and trolled the area as Laurie had been marking lots of fish on the sounder and managed to catch 13 barras, including a 97cm, 96cm, 92cm, 93cm and 80's & 70's. and lost many more. We would of loved to stay longer and fish the Daly, but our expedition was drawing to an end and we were due home by the end of May. However we do intend to visit this region again and explore further what it has to offer.