IN the last five days we have only released three nice and active marlin; one of these was a blue marlin, taken between No. 10 Ribbon Reef and Linden Bank.
At No.10 the water and current was all wrong, so with a combination of lure and bait fishing we arrived at Linden Bank to find that the few large marlin that were around having a bite had shutdown as we arrived…
The big marlin are still here as I have been marking them on the sounder; it just gets so frustrating running above these huge fish and not being able to get a bite. I know from past experience that these marlin are large spawning females, and things will change as it always does. These large fish will have to eat, it’s just a matter of time.
Yesterday we thought that time had come. In the first five minutes of putting the baits in the water we were hooked onto a 400lb active black marlin, which was a bit hard on our client on board, Phil, who was still recovering from a little party on board the night before.
Unfortunately after the initial bite it wasn’t to be, as for the rest of the day I just watched the big black breeding females on the sounder doing their thing.
Most of the marlin fleet are currently at Opal Ridge and Linden Bank experiencing the same as us, just scoring the odd marlin.
The good news is the weather is fabulous during the day with flat seas, topped off by balmy nights.