Black Marlin on the GBR Oct 27-Nov 3

[reel fool]

OK, with the likes of the BOX & Josh Temple roaming the internet, with all their wit and colorful writing, I did my best to be more dramatic. Alot of work for me. It doesn't just come rolling off the keyboard like for the few. Enjoy

Day 1-Saturday-left Cairns & turned left into a 5 knot headwind, heading north towards legendary Lizard Island. We dragged lures outwide (1000+ meters depth) for about 6 hours, covering about 50 nm, seeing nothing-not a bite. We put the dead baits in the water as we approached ribbon reef #2 (simply known as #2). We dragged dead baits for about 2 hours, managing a few bite offs, but no marlin. We overnighted in #3.


Day 2-Sunday-We had our usual morning snorkel, visibility markedly reduced--a bit spooky as the big whalers can occasionally be inside the edge. We captured one scalley mackeral while bait fishing then went straight to dead baits. Having several cutoffs had me thinkin' wez gonna git a bite. Anticipation lingering and the action elusive, I battled with the afternoon sun to stay focused--she was trying to lure me to sleep. Head bobbing, the right rigger came snapping down, but did not come tight. Another bite off. Rerigged & hanging, it soon came snapping down again--yet another bite off. Frustrating to see your arsenal of well rigged, swimming scad get anniahlated in rapid succession. Out goes another scad & it too soon comes crashing down. This one comes down in a hurry. The line goes slack in my hands as I am retrieving it by hand, then gets ripped from my grip, nearly giving me that throbbing burn you get from mono being snatched from your finger tips--if you've had it, you know what I mean. The reel begins to sing that sweet serenade & up she comes, showing off her sleek black shoulders and off she goes, peeling 400+ yds off the reel in the short time it takes to clear the other bait. After a grueling 50 minute battle without seeing her, with some topshelf boat handling by Capt Simon, the double is coming up. She doesn't like us very much & swims along steady for almost 10 minutes (an eternity) with the double near the rod tip and leader just out of reach. Now our angler is a Dane on his first marlin trip ever--he did a brilliant job of keeping steady pressure on the fish & steadily retrieving line--all this with minimal coaching, a real natural. With a little more coaxing, the leader is now up & I am pinching her up to the wire trace. Just as the wire is in hand, she takes off with 2 spectacular leaps away from the boat & down she goes again. She won't budge now. She is planing down that massive head & keeping all 900 pounds of her well out of our reach. She has probably played this game before & reminds us that she does not like it. She is sealing her own fate as big red marks soon appear on the depthfinder. Her motions become more erratic, chaning direction, accelerating against 45 lbs of drag (after 75 minute battle). We are backing down hard, retrieving some line, when her massive head gives a few good shakes & she breaks free. We are sick thinking that we just fed our beautiful black marlin to the sharks. We circled the area, dragging baits, for the next 15 minutes, but did not see the tell-tale signs (a massive slick) of any carnage. We are relieved to believe that our big girl got away alive. Unfortunately, we did not capture a single photo of the action. 1 for 1, we overnighted in #4.

Day 3-Monday. First to awake, our host scampered off with the tender to go morning fishing. After battling 2 nice blue travally & a queenie, he returns to gather the other 2 guys & off they go. They return with stories of red coral trout & more travallies. So, Capt Simon joins them with the spear gun & they go off for a snorkel & to retrieve tonights dinner. They returned with great memories of a nice morning snorkel, but no fish. Off to big game fishing. The first encounter came around 11 am. The right rigger comes down easy, like a bite off. Our host is driving and the capt is in the pit with me. So, Simon begins retrieving line by hand. When the bait is about 25 ft from the boat, the marlin comes from the outside & from deep to take another shot. He snatches the bait, Simon gives a drop back & locks up-but no fish. San cocho. We redeploy & wait. About 12:30, I'm thinking its slow-not even bite offs, nothing is eating out here. Over the next 20-30 minutes, conditions changed. More birds appeared, doing their "I found something to eat" dance along the water, more fliers coming up. The tower alarm begins to sound "LEFT RIGGA". I drop the bait I am rigging & rush to the 130 as the clip pops. There's a volcanic erruption of white water wherer the scalley mackeral once was. A good drop back and she comes tight. Line begins to peel off and the other 2 baits are cleared.

We're now coming back in calm seas on our second big fish of the week. Although the bite has improved over the past week & a half that we were nailed to the dock, most boats are still seeing only 1 to 3 big fish per week, with some seeing only smaller fish, 500 lbs & under. That's small! Our angler is the other guest of our host, another Dane, his father-in-law, so its important to catch this one. Again, another great job by a novice--steady pressure, no jerking motions & steady gains when the fish allows. Good angling. After 15-20 minutes the double is coming up & I get a leader shot.

A few wraps on the leader & she comes up, up and up--getting all of her 800 lbs out of the water, on leader. I changed my shorts AFTER releasing her!


She's tagged but no one is there to cut her off, so I dump her to keep her out of the boat--our party of five is enough, don't need a sixth. A few minutes later she is up on leader & safely cutoff, swimming away strong to fight another day.

Baits back out & high-fives all around. The day is quickly coming to a close & I am thinking "It's over man. The sun is almost down and no one has hooked up in 3 hours around us. Let's go". I go inside to get an apple to eat and return to watch the baits. About half an apple later, the right rigger comes snapping down hard & comes tight immediately. Line peels off, the other bait is retrieved & we are coming back hard on our second fish of the day.

The seas have dropped out even more & it's nearly slick calm. Same angler for the day & he does another good job of getting the leader to us in 15 minutes. The fish is quickly tagged & cutoff--250 lbs of black marlin swims away. 2 for 3 on the day, we setup behind #4 again for the night.

Day 4-Tuesday. We skip the morning snorkel & go straight to bait fishing. After 3 bites & only 1 cuda to show for it, we switch over to dead baits-no lures today. The morning greeted us with a quick cutoff....then nothing, until 12:45. The wind was picking up, seas building to 3 ft, The scad comes down, but not tight. Our host gives a dropback & the fish comes tight. In the chair he goes & up comes 300 lbs of anger.

Little ******* dragged us around like he thought he was a grander. Back down this way, run around in front of 'em, back down, down he goes, up he comes, covered half the GBR catching this one.

Double is up, grab the wind-on & he's out of the water and off again. Few minutes later & he's on leader, off to the port side, there's no cutoff. I flip him on leader & he's heading for the boat. B4 he can do any damage, I dump the leader & he swims under the port corner. Up to leader quickly & we're backing down to keep up with him along the starboard side.

NO CUTOFF AGAIN. FINALLY, the person charged with cutting off leader cuts me off & the fish darts away, green as he was on the bite. My hand crushed & bruised, we go back to fishing. The scad comes crashing down hard in 3 minutes, but the fish did not come back. As we were heading towards the inside of the reef, we captured a 35 lbs yellowfin tuna--nice bonus for the day. 1 for 2 for the day, we overnight in #8.

Day 5-Wednesday. Day of the big uns. Big waves, Big fish. Around 11 am, through 25 knot winds, 4-5 ft building seas, the scad comes ripping from the right rigger & comes tight immediately, b4 I could even get to the reel. Drag is ripping off, up she comes for 2 jumps & a round of head shakes, then she is headed for the horizon. Our host is in the chair again & we're turned to chase this one. We're making big gains when she turns her head down again, changes direction & takes all the line back. We turn again & run the line down, putting it back on the reel. In position to back down & pull her up, we take a few good ones over the corner & we have a newly installed swimming pool.

The cooler slides across the deck, into the man steering the chair & knocks him over. I help him up & here comes the cooler again--WHAM into the chair pedastal & overturns, spilling its guts. Now we have 50+ soda/beer cans & bottles floating around the pool.

The in-deck live well will not close from all the beverages blocking its way. We pull ahead to clear some water & gather the beverages. 5 minutes later, the mayhem subdued, we're coming back again. We get the double up & down she goes again. This scene plays out several more times b4 I have the leader in hand. Up comes 800+ lbs of raging anger, and I let the leader slide a little. Swwwiisshhhhhhh, she's gone. I let the dacron wind-on slide into my hand, releasing its grip on the mono--it parted, no tag in the fish, but a healthy fish swims away. Again, no good photos of the fish. Back to dragging dead baits for about 30 minutes, when CRACK, fwip, & zzzzzz another blackie on the scad. Quick to turn & run her down, the call from the tower is "It's a smaller fish".

We're straight up/down on the fish & the call again is "We're gonna get a shot soon, it's a small one". Our host is driving & Capt Simon is on the deck with me. The double is up in 12-15 mintues & out from under the starboard corner comes a donkey, her head pointed up, with one touch of the leader SWISHHHHH, she's fully out of the water, 900 lbs of anger & a big splash, she's still right there. A big head shake & we back up to the leader. Tight on leader now, pulling, up she comes, another full breach, away from us this time, I dump leader to stay IN the boat & she throws the hook.

No tag, but she swims off strong, biggest fish we've seen since the 1100 pounder 2 weeks ago. We called it 900, but after looking at the photos, maybe over the mark. Either way, a real beauty.
*Look closely at the picture, lower right corner. You will see the hook hitting the water & the leader in the air above it*
Being Halloween & there being a party on Lizard Island, we pick up a little early & run the rest of the way & overnight there. The party dissappointed. But there were 50-100 lbs GTs & 7-9 ft lemon sharks swimming around the boat. Lizard Island is a green zone so the fish are spectacular but there's no fishing allowed.

Day 6-Thursday. The weather forecast was for it to lay down. Turns out that the guy who forecasts weather in the US has an aussie cousin here--who also gets the forecast wrong--alot. We skip the morning swim & go bait fishing. We captured a few nice, smaller scalley mackeral, snatching them from 4-5 foot seas INSIDE the reef. Boy, can't wait to see what pleasure awaits us OUTSIDE the reef. Wind was supposed to lay out, but IT HAS PICKED UP! We make our way to the world famous cod hole. We tie up to a mooring & the fish are behind the boat b4 I make it back to the cockpit--red bass, coral trout, travallies, other critters and of course, the uninvited guests--sharks. White tips & eventually, 3 whalers. Not to be left out are the fish we came to see, the namesake--cod, big uns too. Not to be out foxed, we decide to snorkel with the fish anyways. Full of macho bravado, we get in the water. 60 seconds later, we are all standing on the deck congratulating ourselves for our devilish courage, brass balls & nerves of steel. Seriously, some of us got in the water, but the whalers are a real threat--they will attack. When you hear of a marlin getting sharked, its usually whalers. We did not stay in long. Back to dead bait fishing. Long day in nasty weather. Dragged all day through 5-7 ft seas, but never had a marlin bite. A few critter bites, but nothing to show for the flogging we took. We overnighted in #7.

Day 7-Friday. Seas raged on, but started to finally lay down some after noon. We went bait fishing in the morning, but even the bait fish were not biting. We dragged dead baits in front of #7, #6 and back to #7, with not much going on all around the reef. Later in the day we heard that the bite had moved back north & that the better action was around #10, near Lizard Island. We had a smaller fish come up on the scad, knock it out of the pin & fade out. We overnighted behind #7 again.

Day 8-Saturday. We had to be on the dock in Cooktown by 2:00 to drop off some of the anglers to catch their flights, so we fished a half day. The guys did a quick swim/snorkel and we went straight to dragging dead baits. This is a bit out of the norm here. Many boats do not start heavy tackle fishing until 10 or 11 am, 11 being the usual for us. But, we were short on time, so we started dead bait fishing early. Starting early, I was expecting many cutoffs, but they did not come as expected. We were to head in to Cooktown from infront of #5, but instead, found ourselves in front of #4--turned out to be cudatown that day. They started hacking at the scads, then even turned on the bigger baits, taking out 3 scalley mackeral, which were at a premium for us--scalley fishing has been slow for us. At the end of the half day, we had no more scalleys left. With about 30 minutes left to fish, the tower alarm sounds "Right rigga!". I'm at the reel, ready. I see nothing. From the tower "I don't see it. It faded out"........."There she is, there's 2 of 'em and one's a nice one". Now, I'm focused, intense & waiting. Again, from the tower "THERE'S 4 FISH THERE. COME ON, ONE OF YOU BASTARDS EAT". I see 2 of them, one is nice & the other is even NICER! The biggest fish of the group snatches the scad from the pin and turns immediately. Our chosed method with this rig is to give the fish & the rod holder the first shot. It has not failed us on the big fish....until now. She snaps off the bait & the pack of 'em fade out. Our day is over & we head in to Cooktown.

Total for the week---6 black marlin caught, 4 of them over 800 lbs with one maybe making the mark--grander, maybe. We had 2 good shots at fish--1 smaller fish & 1 big one on Day 8 that I think we should have caught. But then, in hind sight, you can always figure how you should have caught that fish you missed. An enjoyable week, despite the 2 1/2 days of miserable weather. One night it blew steady 25 knots all night. But on the bright side, 2 days in a row, we got an overnight rain rinse on the boat.

IF you have never done this, make plans for next year & make it happen. Overall, the fishing has been slower than average, but the big girls are here. There have beeen a few fish weighed, including a few granders. We have had a bit of unusually good luck. 5 out of 10 fish caught in 2 full weeks of fishing have been 800+ lbs. That is a great percentage. We have a few more weeks left & I will try to get out the reports as they happen.
Tight Lines

[Wild Life Management]

Those are some great photos. Simply amazing.

[costaricasportfishing]

CAN'T WAIT UNTIL NEXT SEASON!!!

[Reveille75]

Absolutely amazing text and photos. You really put us there.
david

[vinnie myers]

WOW.....very nice......great photo reference....HANA PA'A....VVV

[Ace1st]

Awesome!! Just awesome!!

[bigeasy]

keep posting.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Good on ya, Jeff! Brings back memories that have me shaking in my boots, right now!

Thanks.

[carom]

great report and pics. keep em' coming!

[CanyonDreams 2]

Jeff,

Thanks for the report and pixs. I felt like I was there. Keep them coming.