Black Marlin on the GBR, OZ

[reel fool]

A little prelude to this report. This is my first year fishing the GBR for black marlin. This is mostly a dead bait fishery, with some lure & live baiting too. The dead baits consist of scad (little bigger than a spanish mackeral), scaley mackeral (about 5-15 lbs, shaped like a king mackeral), tunas (mostly false albacore), spanish mackeral (king mackeral--called a spanish mackeral in OZ) and queenies (tough skin, thin, flat fish). The scad & queenies are rigged to swim, while the rest of the baits are generally rigged to skip. We drag them about 5.5-6.5 knots. The weather here is mostly 10-20 knots, with 3-5 ft waves common fishing weather. This report covers Oct 7-15. I am on a private boat, as deckhand (mate) with skipper Simon Carosi on the Brilliant Company, a Precision Cruiser 65.

Day 1-Sunday, left the dock about mid-day. Fished for about 3 hours on Linden Bank. The weather had laid down on Sat, the seas were flat calm. No bites, did not see a billfish. Setup on on N. Opal reef for the night.

Day 2-Monday. had our daily snorkel on Opal reef. Amazing snorkelling on the GBR. It's better than National Geographic or Discovery Channel. It's the real deal. Fished Linden Bank again, working our way north. Caught a 15 lbs yft on the bait rod, so we rigged it up. 30 minutes later, we're hooked up. 15 minute battle & we have a 400 lbs Bronze Whaler boatside. After some good footage & still shots, he's cutoff to heal his wounds so he is ready to eat our marlin next week. They are the terrors of marlin fishing. They usually don't bother the dead baits, but they'll rise in gangs to eat your marlin--a gang of 'em can finish off an 800 lbs black in 15 seconds. vicious critters. Back to dead bait fishing. The scad (swim bait) gets bit & we are hooked up to a rat black. 10 minutes and we are releasing a tagged black about 150 lbs. After a periodic wahoo bite off (the wahoo fishing here would be sick, a real slaughter), we get a huge boil & breaching black, about 900+ lbs--big girl, behind the scad. She missed it, but the next one comes in right behind her & knocks it out of the pin, but does not hook up--that one looked to be about 600 lbs. 2 big girls swimming togethter, very odd. did not see another fish, but had several more cutoffs. Monday night anchored up in South Opal reef, as the wind had picked up a little and there is better protection there.

Day 3-Tuesday. had our daily snorkel. again, another amazing morning on the GBR. You don't get tired of seeing the amazing abundance of life on the reef, including the occasional white tip or black tip reef shark--little critters about 3-5 ft long. Fishing was very slow across the fleet. A few fish caught, but we had just 2 wahoo biteoffs. Anchored in St. Crispins reef Tue night & had the spangled emporer challenge. Spangled emporers are reef fish generally found in the sand, not on the coral itself. Team BC (the captain & myself) outfished our 4 anglers, as we should, to capture the prize--bragging rights. In the fray, I hooked-up a 5 ft white tip. The rod WAS rated 4-6 kg. while the braid was 8 kg. You have to crank down a little extra pressure sometimes to keep from being broken off on the reef. Unfortunately, I broke the rod during the 45 minute war, but managed to release the white tip, for the biggest fish of the night.

Day 4-Wednesday. Started our morning with an hour of skurfing behind the tender. The seas were mirror-like. Could have shaved your face looking in the water. Had a nice hour of snorkeling as well, just inside the dropoff of the reef--little spooky since that's where the big sharks hang. Bait fishing--caught some nice baits in the morning: 4 medium (perfect bait size) scaley mackerals & 1 large scaley. While lure fishing, we managed a little revenge on the wahoos for all the bite offs so far in the week. We captured a nice 35 lbs wahoo. After filleting & releasing him, we had some nice meat for the grill later that night. We saw no marlin, but managed a few more wahoo bite offs on the dead baits. Wed night, we setup in N. Escape reef (properly known as Rachel Carson reef). We had some big cod swimming down deep in the lights, but could not get a bite from them or anything else on the bottom.

Day 5-Thursday. Had our morning snorkel, then went straight to dragging dead baits. Slow day. Had one wahoo bite off & released 1 baracuda. About 5:00, as the sun is setting & we are close to calling it a day to setup on the reef for the night, the right rigger swim bait pops out. As the line comes tight & starts pulling steady, slow drag, the dorsal & tail come out of the water. She is just sitting on top, slowly strolling away--big fish behavior. She is BIG. Black marlin have small dorsal fins, but this one has a good 2.5 feet out of the water. She takes off & we are at war. About 25 minutes into it, she comes up on leader. One pull on the leader & she is off again, making 3 spectacular jumps away to port. 20 minutes more & we get her tagged. A few good wraps on leader & I'm watching 1100 lbs of black marlin jump straight up & away, 10 ft from me. I got 3 jumps on leader b4 cutting her off & letting her go. My first grander on leader. Looking forward to the next one.

Day 6-Friday. Skipped morning snorkel, went straight to bait fishing. While bait fishing, we had a mini black marlin, about 50-60 lbs, eat a bait lure, but jumped 'em off. After dragging baits for 3 hours, it was hot & no bites so we went back in on the reef & went for a snorkel for an hour. While setting up, saw a few giant trevallys about 40 yards from the boat but they swam off b4 we could get in the water. Saw my first giant clam--saw 3 actually. If you swim down to them & tickle their edge, they close. Pretty cool. Back to fishing and the wind is picking up a bit. It started to blow 10-15 knots S. We get a knockdown on the swimming scad, but did not come tight. About an hour later, had a fish come up on the scad & rip it off. While making an effort at a quick change on the scad, she came back up and attacked the large scaley skip bait. A long drop back & we're hooked up. She came up for 2 full breaches and the scaley was flopping on her back. She pulled the hook. She was about 600 lbs. The bait came back whole, basically undamaged and reusable. Back to fishing & an hour later, we had a pull on the second swim bait (a queenie) we were dragging. Did not pull the clip, but upon inspection, it was clear that it was a marlin bite. We're now 0 for 4--glad to be seeing fish, but dissappointed in not catching. Had one more up late in the day, but would not take a bait. Saw 5, had 4 bites, caught 0. Ouch. What a follow up to a spectacular fish the day b4.

Day 7-Saturday. Did some morning bottom fishing. One of the guys caught a nice red bass, which we released. The bottom fishing is closed about 10 days per month, to reduce fishing pressure. This entire week was the closure. We can fish, but can not keep. Skipped the morning snorkel & went straight to dead bait fishing. Began working our way south, back towards the dock. After 3 wahoo biteoffs, we switched over to lures to cover more ground. We raised a small black on the black/purple softhead, but no bite. After about 3 hours of lure fishing, we switch over to dead baits again. Shortly, we raise a nice fish on the scad. Ripped off the scad then faded to the tuna, took a sniff, but no bite, and faded out. She was easily 500 lbs. 5 Minutes later, with a new scad out, we get a small black up on the swimming scad. Knockdown & we're hooked up. Lackluster battle, no jumps, not even on leader. Tagged and a 200 lbs black swims away strong. About 2 hours later, we get a spectacular bite on the skipping scaley mackeral. Fish comes in hot, grabs the scaley & sucks it right down immediately. When they do this, their mouth is wide open as it swims down, so it leaves a nice white tube as it goes down. This is the same large scaley that came out of a 600 lbs black on Friday. This fish is smaller, so after a long drop back, we are hooked up. She comes up jumping, no scaley in sight. 20 minute battle with a few small jumps & we have a nice 350 lbs black tagged & on leader. This one went a little wild on leader, nearly scratching the boat, but I managed to coerce her into behaving & a clean release. We setup on S. Opal reef for the night, catching some more bottom critters at night & in the next morning, including a nice red coral trout (excellent eating) that got eaten by the sharks 10 ft. from the boat.

Day 8-Sunday. We dragged dead baits for about 4-5 hours, then headed for the barn. Raised one small black, but did not get a bite. It was rough as a cob on Sunday & we were all glad to wrap it up early. Some of the boats were fishing down sea (north) and turning inside the reef to beat up sea (south) with 25 knot winds & 6-7 ft waves. Even the Shaka (65 ft. Assegai) had a rough go of it.

Finished the week with 4 blacks tagged--150 lbs, 200 lbs, 350 lbs & 1100 lbs. Overall the fleet did about the same or less, so we were glad to get what we did. The report now is that the action has picked up significantly the past 2 days, since we have been at the dock. Heard that on Monday the Kekoa caught 5. If you have ever thought of fishing the GBR for black marlin, do it. Book the trip, buy the plane ticket & kidnap your friends. See you on the reef.

Tight lines
Capt Jeff Kirby

P.S. I accepted a job running a boat in Costa Rica starting in Dec, after I leave OZ. Will give you more details soon. It's a charter operation.

[SeaBiscuit]

Wow capt. Jeff! What a report! Thank you for taking the time to share your slice of paradise with the rest of us fools. You are living the dream and we love being along for the ride.
Keep catching and posting!
SeaBiscuit

[shoefish]

I guess that it's true- big baits = big fish! Looks like a slice of heaven over there...and I don't think that "reel fool" is accurate judging by your accomplishments. Thanks for sharing!

[#1Gaffman]

Bad azz man.

NIce report.

[OffTheHookB&T]

Great report!!
Someday I'll get to OZ, but for now thanks fro sharing

[costaricasportfishing]

Awesome Dude!! Good on ya!! Hopefully next season I'll be there!!! Looking forward to fishing with you in Costa Rica! Keep the pics coming!! I love Black Marlin!!

[Dylan]

Dude.. Awesome photos! You made sure that kingfish wasnt coming off the bridle. Ha.. Go big or go home! G'luck in Pura vida land!

[paul708]

great report and pics . thanks for sharing

[flatbottom]

awesome report and pics

Thanks for the great read. I would like to experience that once in my life. Top shelf man

[capt jeremy oc]

Jeff are you coming back to home b4 you head to Costa Rica?? Congrats on the grander. All you need is to catch a bigeye then you can retire.