What a season this is for the Cairns black marlin fleet. The run of large black marlin has been phenomenal, with the fleet still catching good fish every day. To date there has only been one fish weighed and that was this week when Ultimate Lady had a fish come up dead which weighed 1058Lbs. There were 10 fish estimated to be over the magic 1,000 pound mark tagged and released during the Lizard Island tournament alone. Captain Tim on Calypso and Captain Luke on Kekoa both reporting captures of plenty of fish over the 900# mark with Luke releasing one in excess of 1,200#. At the moment most of the fleet are fishing down at the bottom of the reef around Linden Bank and Jenny Louise Shoal. Quite a few boats have gone wide out to the tuna aggregation in the Coral Sea with reports of lot's of black's along with yellowfin and big eye tuna to 150#.
Luke, "Dingo" and Dean on Kekoa, Tim, Davo and Muzza on Calypso, Jarad, John, Ant and Andy on Shaka have done a great job this season with all their guests having some of the best fishing in years. It is a tribute to their dedication and professionalism that everyone wants to come back. Captain Brett on our exclusive mother ship Pure Adrenalin absolutely spoilt our guests and chef Darren put on a spread that was exceptional, that guy can sure cook.
Our preferred sportsfishing boats and mother ship are all filling up fast for 2010 so give Julie or myself a call and we will plan your next expedition to Cairns or elsewhere. There are still a couple of vacancies on the new 56 foot Kekoa for their Barramundi adventure to the West coast of Cape York. If you haven't already caught one of these great sport fish you should make the effort as you will become addicted. Watch this space for a new barra lodge opening up next year on a true "big barra" river.
After making that epic flight across the pacific, joining us this week from the USA are George Matthews, Stan Struder and Mark Barrett. They are fishing on board Kekoa with Capt Luke and Capt Laurie and enjoying the luxury and fine service offered by our mothership Pure Adrenalin.
After a leisurely departure from the Cairns Marlin Marina, both vessels headed north. After raising several fish at Linden Bank, but only getting a bite out of a small black. This one was released by Stan and was estimated at 175 pounds. Plenty of action was going on all around, with Reel Ripe fishing close by, releasing 2 fish estimated at 750 and 900 lbs and Calypso chasing another big one.
After a decision to move north on Day 2, the crew put the lures out so that Kekoa could make up some ground whilst fishing. This proved a fruitful choice with a hook up at 9.45am just off St Crispin Reef, resulting in a release of a 600 pound black for Mark. So the decision to move north, was very quickly changed. They stayed in the area and raised 4 smaller fish and had 2 bites, but pulled the hooks at the back of the boat for George's first fish.
Day 3 was a rough and blustery one, with plenty of rain squalls. Stan released another small fish in adverse conditions, a product of the late afternoon bite.
As a black marlin mother ship or for a cruise along the Great Barrier Reef you will be treated like royalty. "Pure Adrenalin" will be in the Cairns region from late September till late November and we still have a couple of available time slots for trips aboard this state of the art catermaran. Service and congeniality are second to none with their onboard chef serving five star meals using the freshest seafood and local produce. We have some special deals going so give us a call and we will put a package together for you.
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Laurie and I arrived in Cooktown on November 1st, to join John, Jared, Ant and Andy on board "Shaka" for a few days fishing.
With a steady southeasterly wind giving us a rock and roll ride out to the edge, we finally put the baits in the water around mid afternoon. We managed to raise one marlin and only got a half hearted bite out of this small black. Day 2 looked very promising. The winds still producing a good rolling sea, with 20-25 knot winds, perfecting for spotting those tailing fish trucking down sea. We raised one small black early and tagged and release this fish. With fresh baits back out in the water we were anticipating more and looking for her larger partner. We raised 4 more fish that afternoon, but unfortunately no bites out of any of these window shoppers.
The wind finally started to abate on the 3rd day and came down to a comfortable 15 knots. We raised only one fish and after many attempts to get her to eat, she faded off into the deep. The next day after a very successful scaley mackeral bait fish, we put the baits into the water at approximately 11am and waited until 4.30pm to raise this black (photo opposite). She came up on the big bait and John fed her perfectly to get the hook up. After a 15 minute fight, and some great action on the wire by Andy, we released this 450 pounder.
This week was the 7 day Shell Cove Lizard Island Tournament and many of the 27 boats fishing the tournament have had their fair share of big fish. Kekoa released 4 fish in 4 days (all over 800 pounds) with big Jules showing up on Saturday and was released at an estimated 1200 pounds. Captain Tim on Calypso has been see-sawing back an forth in the leaders contention also with plenty of big fish for his anglers.
Congratulations to Mauna Kea on their win with a total on 11 tags for the 7 day tournament.
Julie and I are heading out to the reef for the next 5 days as guests on board Shaka and we will be able to give you the up-to-date reports from the reef. Tight lines.
The "roaring 30's" southeast winds over the past week have definitely stirred the big fish up. The later part of last week has seen Captain Tim on Calypso release or have a big black on the line daily, with reports of several in the 950 pound range. Yesterday they released a 600 pounder at #10 Ribbon Reef.
Shaka, fishing the middle ribbons yesterday, also reported a release of a 950 pounder for John after a fiesty 20 minute fight. (See video photo over courtesey of Ant).
With most of the fleet congregating at Lizard Island for the start of the 2009 Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic, we should get to see how many big blacks are starting to move into the Ribbon Reefs.
The Alabama trio of Vince Kilborn, his son Douglas and son-in-law Steve, have returned to the GBR for their annual assault on the big black marlin. This year fishing with Captain Luke on Kekoa and using the luxurious mothership Pure Adrenalin, Day one saw only one shot resulting in Vince releasing a 350 pounder. The weather has been picture book perfect with slight seas and afternoon sea breezes, but the fishing has been patchey. A case of being in the right place at the right time.
Reports all up and down the reef have been the same, Captain Tim on Calypso reported a release of a 950 pounder plus at #10 Ribbon Reef and was pleased to tell Captain Laurie that it was caught on one of his circle hook rigs.
Sunday evening saw a change in the weather, resulting in the strenghtening of the southeasterly winds. Captain Luke reported the sighting of heaps of marlin tailing down sea. After raising several fish and getting bites out of 3, the team managed to tag and release 2 estimated at 250 and 350 pounds respectively. The crew on board Pure Adrenalin would of made sure plenty of chilled martini's were waiting for them, to celebrated the days events.
Looks like "the Bank" was the place to be. Yesterday's report from Capt Tim on Calypso was of beautiful "November type" weather and the release of a 400 black marlin. John Hendry on Shaka watched a little trailer boat fishing close by, hook up to an estimated 650 lber, but unfortunately they were not able to hold onto it for a release. Not to be out done, Capt Jared found a nice fish for their angler Dave Tuthill and after a 35 minute fight, Ant wired and released this fabulous 950 lber. Photo courtesy of John Hendry.
Capt Luke on Kekoa also found the pod of big fish, but somehow pulled the hooks on a fish they estimated to be around 750 pound. Another of the Cairns boats was fishing right along side Kekoa and released another great black around 800 lbs.
Reports from the lower Ribbon reefs have been patchy and the boats fishing further north have been reporting plenty of sightings of fish tailing down sea.
Most of the gameboats have departed the marina and the 2009 black marlin season has begun. The long liners have confirmed the bigger marlin are just starting to show up wide of John on Shaka has started their season off going 2 from 5 on Linden Bank, both reported to be in the 200-300 lb range. Kekoa went 2 from 4 on day 4 of their charter at Number 3 Ribbon. Brendan was on strike for the late bite, when Capt. Luke came across a nice school of yellowfin. "Big fish Brendan” tagged and released a 800lb-er that did some nice jumps on the leader and was released in good condition in less than 15 minutes. Capt. Luke reports that the new Accurate Reels went really well!
Proving that there are still a few sailfish around, Calypso angler Stewart Englezo released his first sailfish on the weekend at St. Crispen. Capt. Tim reports a lot of mackerel and GTs, raising the one marlin in the afternoon. Ross on Top Shot reports the fishing in the middle Ribbons this week is going great.
The brand new 56 foot "Kekoa" will be based out of Weipa on the West coast of Cape York for the 2010 Barramundi season. She will be there from April till June and we are now booking 5 and 6 day trips to pristine Barramundi rivers. Trips are based on 4 person share and everything is provided. We have a few trips left so get in early to avoid disappointment.
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Captain Laurie Wright joined Dan Hughes, his sons, D.A. Will in Port Stephens to fish with Captain Tim Dean on board “Calypso”. It is the Texan boys Spring Break vacation.
The first night in Port Stephens saw a weather front move through, so the first morning of their charter started out windy and fairly cool and they had no bites or sightings for the morning. The sun came out about lunch time and the wind calmed down and they started marking lots of bait, but it was deep on the bottom. In the afternoon the bait started coming up and about 3:00 they had a pack of stripe marlin in the spread. Dan caught the first one and they missed another bite. As they were letting the first bait back out after they released Dan’s fish, they got another bite and Will was on the rod and caught another stripe. They came in
the first day about 4:30pm and the bait was just getting to the surface. So the plan of attack for day 2 was to go out later (9am) and fish later. All good plans can change and the weather changed again and they only had one stripey come up and look at the baits, but no hook up.
Day 3 and they found bait late and caught 2 striped marlin, jumped another off and also broke one off. Day 4 and they found the fish again, and releasing 2 more. Day 5 and the last day of the fishing trip and as they say” save the best for last”, with the black marlin showing up. Dan released a 300 # black and Will another estimated at 200#. Not bad for 5 days fishing with 7 stripe marlin and 2 black marlin.
Dan Hughes and his sons head back for
Here are all the fishing stories and highlights from the Great Barrier Reef for 2008.
The 2008 marlin season marked the 30th season on the reef for Captain Laurie Wright. Joining him again on the deck were the two best crew, being David (Davo) Cassar and Jared (Dingo) Boshammer.
Also to top the year off, Captain Laurie Wright was inducted into the Cairns Hall of Fame. A great year saw the return of many friends and regular clients and some amazing weather conditions and some fabulous fishing.
» Highlights from the 2008 marlin season
After an epic 30 hour flight, Laurie and I, and our good friend Barry Kyte, arrived in Anchorage Alaska. An overnight stay at the Captain Cook Hotel, and we were up and ready for our 8 day stay at Kvichak (pronouced Kwee-jak) Lodge. We meet our group of 12 anglers and boarded the Super DC-3 for a 50 minute flight down to the local village of Iguigig situated on the opposite side of the Kvichak River from the lodge. A short jet boat ride and were docking at the front door (literally) of the lodge. Here we finally met the owner Mike "Slim" McDowell and his fantastic staff. After a refreshing lunch and the group was keen and eager to get on the River and chase the famous sockeye salmon.
With the salmon running 8-10 deep up the river, it took us no time at all to perfect the "sockeye swing". It was a never ending snag and jag and hang on. The sockeye gave us a good run and some great thrills with their aerial acrobatics and with an 8 knot current running down river, if they got out in the current it was mayhem. After releasing 100's of salmon, we did not take much convincing from our guide, Scott "Bama" Wilkerson, to try some deep trolling for rainbow trout. We had some awesome afternoons, releasing 20 plus "bows" with Laurie releasing the biggest at 24 inches. The next treat was fly fishing for grayling on dry flies in the shallows on the Kvichak. It is an amazing river system that supports so much fish life and variety.
Slim flew us over to the Katmai National Park (south of the Kvichak) in his float plane, where we got up close and personal with heaps of brown bears....check out the bear photos....watching them hunt and feed on the salmon was spectacular.
After 8 fun filled days with plenty of fish and lots of laughs, Slim flew us back to Anchorage by float plane. This was truely the highlight of the whole expedition. Flying through Lake Clark pass, where the mountains reach for the sky and the glaciers are as tall as skyscrapers, was a vista that Laurie and I will never forget. We are definitely going to make another visit to this amazing part of the world in the not too distant future. If you would like to join us on the next expedition, please drop us an email at julie@australianfishingexpeditions.com
A special thanks to Slim, Bama, Jarod, John & Mary and Barbara.
» Bears and more bears
» Alaska fishing photo album
Here are all the highlights and fishing stories from the Great Barrier Reef 2007 marlin fishing season. Please take the time to read the stories and look at the the great photos.
Thanks to Dave and Dingo for being the best crew on the Reef and especially thanks to Dingo for supply us with some of the great fishing photos used for the web newspage.
» 2007 marlin season