"The Usual Suspects"

The past week has been a week of great variety with most of the usual suspects showing up offshore. Spanish mackerel, large cobia, northern bluefin tuna, mack tuna and golden trevally just to name a few!  Up the creeks, barra, fingermark and grunter made up the bulk of the fish with some very large black jews thrown in. Oh, and the weather has been unbelievably flat calm!!!!!!

Two Firsts

Recently I was joined by Cairns light tackle enthusiasts, Dei and Jack Gould. You don't often get a mother and son team!!!! Also part of the team was  Gavin "Groover" New, a retired Weipa fishing guide. Being the keen offshore anglers they are, and with the recent billfish activity being what it was, a plan was hatched to fish out wide and look for a sail or marlin. After numerous chop-offs from Spanish mackerel, and a few nice ones landed, we spotted a black marlin free feeding on a mini baitball close to the the surface. We trolled over to him and after several refusals on the live bite, he finally ate a garfish on the left rigger. Not long after, 11 year old Jack had knocked over his first black marlin!!!!
The next day it was Dei's turn for a first, and after a big day of trolling with "Captain Groover" at the helm, and countless Spanish mackerel, a good size sail was hooked up and landed late in the afternoon. Two days of fishing, with two incredible firsts, a sail and black marlin!!!

Creek Crusades

The past few days have been focused on the creeks. There were some very solid fish caught, with the 112cm black Jew being the biggest. There are good numbers of threadfin salmon, with some real thumpers being pulled from the shallow snags. Thanks once again to the Mexicans for a very enjoyable few days.

Big Fish

The "Steve Turner" group, Frank, Pauly, Steve and Steve. The boys put in the hard yards this week and were rewarded with some memorable fish. We caught plenty of quality barra between 60 and 78cm. The two standouts were 2 fish that just fell just short of the metre mark - both going 99cm. Offshore, the mackerel were a little quiet compared with how they have been in previous weeks, so it was decided we would spend a day chasing sailfish instead. We had some spectacular action, landing 2 from 6 hooked!!!!

Crazy Sailfish Action

Just had an awesome day offshore, fishing for sailfish. Angler Josh Lyons landed 4, as well losing another 6 that fell off beside the boat. It was pretty busy, so wouldn't be able to say exactly how many we raised, but at one stage we did count at least 8 behind the boat chewing on teasers, and anything else we threw at them!!

Picture Perfect

Calm weather, blue skies, quality fish, does it get any better? I say it all the time, but again the fishing has been awesome, with off-shore, creeks, and beaches firing. Along the beaches, Newcastle boys, Nic and Adam, sight-casted cobia from manta rays, big queenfish, and barra. Offshore, there were a few Spanish Macks in between the numerous GTs landed. The creeks produced some good barra fishing, although we struggled to keep the hooks in them at times.

Bait Balls......

There has been some awesome bait ball action around lately. Father and son, Pete and Mitch, knocked over countless tuna on the light spin gear. I have also included some GT pics from last week's trip with the Compleat Angler boys. Doug, armed with a Saltiga, 100 pound braid and a big arse popper, made very short work of his big GT!!!!!!