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Giant black marlin in Cairns AUZ

6K views 12 replies 9 participants last post by  Wiseguy 
#1 ·
Well, i'm all booked to go to Auz from nov7 to dec2, travelling to perth, melbourne, sydney, and Cairns. I have booked a 3 day liveaboard(shared with the owner) on a 50foot marlin boat called the misstress for $1500 a day plus plus, november is primo time for giant black marlin, 1000# plus. I am super stoked about this trip of a lifetime. wondering about what # fly rod to take with me for the down time( these big monsters require BIG GAME tackle) I would have to buy a 12 weight setup, I have a 9 ocean set up. dont forget I will only fly fish when the boat is anchored just for fun and maybe dinner lol. will give a good report with pics, video when I return. Tight lines....
 
#8 · (Edited)
Jamie..you'll enjoy the hell out of it, and likely want to stay on.

We fished "The Ribbons" in N. Queensland, and this is a great time of year for it.
All those boats are rigged with several cameras all over the lot, so you'll get some great footage.

Best of luck...hope you can locate a cold beer or three!
 
#9 ·
well Auz was a blast, went all over, highlight was getting the boat in Cairns. well first off, the origonal boat I booked blew her engines, and i was to share this boat, well trying to find another share was impossible, so the 1500 a day tuned into 3000 a day, it was a smaller boat(34ft) but, nontheless had all the right gear for fighting BIG fish.
Day 1
We travel about 4 hrs from cairns, approx 80miles offshore, to near the Great Barrier Reef..(GBR), , there was four aboard, captain, and 2 fist mates, and myself, the angler. Captain said we needed 2 mates as we were going for giant fish( safety thing). baits varied in size, from 20lb mackeral to 3-5lb queenies, but mostly 10-12lb tuna, man what a prep for the bait, catch them, gutted, gills out, eyes out, then sew back up with morticians thread, loop comming out the eye holes, then a very big( size of my hand) circle hook. Marlin have no teeth, so they swallow their prey whole, then the digestive system takes over, (captain told me they have one of the worlds greatest digestive systems known to man) which would explain the stainless steel hooks turning to powder in about 3 days he told me. Now this is a patience fishery, Captain is up top watching intently, I am on deck, getting custom fitted to the chair, I took a Scotty camera rail mount with me, as the first boat had 3 cameras running, but this boat had none, so then I fitted camera on a rail above the chair, below the capt; I showed the mate how to use my camera, so all is well there??. about 3 hrs later Fish on!!!!!, organized chaos, let me tell ya, I jump in the chair, and was handed this stiff big game rod, with the biggest reel I ever saw( same as on wicked tuna), strapped in away i go , with instructions comming thick and fast from all angles, then about 15 mins into the fight fish jumps, capt; shouts small fish about 200lb, anyways get it near the boat after a rather agitated black marlin takes me in all directions for about another 15mins, about 200ft from the boat, WHAM, a pack of sharks had been chasing this "smaller" male, they just devoured him in about 2 mins flat, there must have been about a dozen of them(tiger sharks), quite large some of them(500-600lb), a massive sea of red right in front of my eyes. all we retrieved was some of the 750lb leader. still I was pumped, my first black under my belt, i have caught stripers and blues before. No more big fish bites the rest of the day,I check the camera, and the mount had not been tightened enuf, so all I got was video of the boat deck. I endevoured to fix it again, and show the mate how to turn on the video. so we go to base, the GBR, anchor in about 30ft of pristine waters, about an hour left of sunlight, out comes the HDO's and the great aussie shiraz and beers, had some snacks, then capt; and mates make dinner, lamb chops of course. set up my salt 9wt Echo, with my Islander fr2, but didnt get to use it that night, as it was more socialising that night. slept like a log on the boat.

DAY 2

up at 6am, cooked brekky( bacon and eggs) and i ask capt; to pull the rigging poles up so i can toss a, fly( I purchased my flies in Auz), second cast, wham, flash of silver, and a small jack tuna is on board 10mins later(bait), caught a few more smaller strange ocean fish,coral trout, sweet lip, and sea perch, so back they went( cant use them all for bait), then we go trolling for bait fish. about an hour into it I land a beauty of a mackeral (Spanish), capt; says keep that for dinner, beer battered fish'n'chips. about 2 hrs total fishing for baitfish with smaller rods and reels and basically plugs, then onto big game fishing the rest of the day. around 5 hours later BIG FISH ON!!!, again panic stations all around, we saw this fish almost straight away, capt' shouts big, and barks his orders to the mates, who do this and that with lighting speed, well this fish does all the right things, jumps about 6-8 times, twice right beside the boat, man i'll never forget the mother of pearl belly on that fish, was around 700lbs, took about 45 mins to the boat, now i horsed that fish in in lieu of my sturgeon experience,that and i didnt want to lose this fish to the sharks!!, although i tell ya, it was like handling a winch, but i was like jelly after that. I shout to the mate to keep the beast beside the boat as i want some stills with it , I fumble with the camera, the 1 mate is holding the leader the other cuts the leader, and he shouts to me hurry with the camera, but he couldnt hold that fish any longer and off it went. checked the camera for video, and the mate did not press the F****** button hard enough, man i wasnt happy about that, as that was a big fish to the boat. a couple more bites, most likley wahoo( which bite the line clean), but nothing giant. Well back to base, great dinner,cast the fly for about an hour, caught some snappers,had too much vino, and early to bunk.

DAY 3

pretty similar to day 2 in the am, brekky, bait fishing, then get the big rods out. now we didnt get a bite for nearly 8 hours, but when it came...WHAM!, capt; shouts big big fish, organized chaos ensues, had this fish on for about 5 mins and it jumps, way in the distance, but its much bigger than yesterdays fish. but no sooner that 5 mins later the fish was gone. that was it for the rest of the day. we headed back to the GBR, but this time tied up to a mother ship, and was invited abord the big boat for dinner. met other anglers there, had a good thai fish dinner there, then to sleep on our smaller boat.

DAY 4, up at 8am, brekky , we did about 3 hours of hunting for giant marlin, but to no avail. then we headed in for a 2-3hr trip back to the dock. so 10,000 for 3 days, was it worth it?, yes I always wanted to do it.
 
#10 ·
Wow---bummer about the troubles on the original boat, and camera woes, but looks like you made it work.
Sounds like you had to pay for the boat you didn't get on? Why double the cost? From $1500 to $3000?
An adventure for sure.
Great post Jamie---thanks.
 
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