OUR clients this week were regulars Beau and Ying, who brought with them Beau’s daughter Kaorina and good friends Susie and Eduardo.
My old friend from Broken Bay Game Fishing Club days, Gordon Petersen, also come along for the ride. The aim of the trip was to catch some nice eating fish for dinner and after lunch hopefully release a marlin or two.
After arriving at their mothership MV Galaxy I and having lunch, we headed out east of Ribbon Reef No 3, and after trolling for one hour we were hit with a most incredible bite, first Susie was up for her first marlin – a 600lb fish which was very active – then it was Kaorina’s turn which resulted in her first marlin, a nice 200lb fish.
The next one in the chair was Beau who has caught marlin over 1000lb on previous trips, and he made short work of a 600lb fish. Then it was Eduardo who had an 800lb fish take the bait, I backed up as Eduardo retrieved line, and the fish just swam alongside the boat as if he had done it all before, and knew there was no need to fight as she would be released, which she was.
Day 2 and a coral trout was caught in the morning for dinner and after lunch we went looking for our fifth grander of the season, but it wasn’t to be. We did manage to get Suzie her second marlin which was a high jumping 250lb fish.
Day 3 and we did some snorkelling and after lunch trolled for marlin, but instead Kaorina battled a 600lb whaler which she handled like she had done it all before.
On Day 4 we attempted to gather some bait which has been scarce, so we went bottom fishing and Ying boated a red emperor and a Spanish mackerel for lunch. After a feed we had a troll and Kaorina went on to release a black marlin around 350lb.
Day 5 and gathering bait was a real problem. Three hours trolling only produced two bait fish. After lunch we had better luck with the coral trout. We trolled the last two hours for marlin but only had two lookers.
Day 6 and four hours trolling only produced four bait fish and 2 GTs. After lunch we went marlin fishing, and again Beau made short work of a 600lb fish and Eduardo a 250lb model which worked out at two black marlin per angler, two of which were their first.
Day 7 we were more successful in bait gathering and even sacrificed a Spanish mackerel as a skip bait. We trolled from 11am till 1pm and a shark heard the dinner bell and took half of the Spanish mackerel for lunch … another hours trolling and we could hear the fat lady singing, so we poured on the gas in the direction of Cooktown as our guests had a charter flight to Cairns booked.
Beau and Ying must have enjoyed the week as they have booked Viking II for another week later in November when they will return with another two friends.
