The July moon is ramping up and so is the fishing.  With 10-15 boats fishing the North Drop each day, the number of marlin bites has been increasing each day for the fleet.  One or two bites per boat turned into 2 releases per boat yesterday.  A mild tropical wave is rolling thru today ahead of the start of 50th annual July Open Billfish Tournament this weekend.  Stay tuned for a fishing report.

I might have a little spray on the lens after this catch.

A calm jumper on the leader.

The bite.  What can I say, the bite on the pitch bait is what it’s all about.

Time for another heavy tackle report from the reef. I arrived in Cairns yesterday and we met the boat in Cooktown this morning. It’s so nice to be out of what seemed like a never ending nap in an airplane seat. I’m fishing again with Stephan from Germany on his continued quest for a monster. And we are lucky enough to have the charter boat Tradition with the same crew as last season – Capt Tim and mates Carl and Steve. This time we really did get the band back together.

Day 1 – Short plane ride via Hinterland Air to Cooktown early am. We drop our gear on the boat and go get a bite to eat while the crew finishes loading a few things. Cooktown is getting very modern with a coffee shop/bakery next to the marina. The Tradition crew are turning right around after a five day trip with their last group. The weather is ugly with plenty of clouds and 15-20 knots of wind. Rumors of improving conditions help make it seem nice. Today is day four of the Lizard Island tournament and there has been some bites for the 26 boat fleet. The exciting news is the report of several big fish caught or seen each of the last few days. We are bait fishing this morning and will be fishing close today while the wind is up…

We put the heavy stuff out around 2:00 in building wind and sea conditions. Solid 25 knots and big waves. Evasive action needed every few sets to keep the cockpit from disappearing. We get a on bite on the left swimming scaley and end up catching a medium sized fish. Can’t even bring a camera out in these condition with spray going over the bridge while backing. Anchor up behind Ribbon 3 tonight.

Steamers anyone?

Day 2 – Better light this morning with the same strong breeze. After a swim to spear some dinner, we bait fish to the North all morning and put out the heavy stuff at 11:30 and troll up the reef. The sea has settled some and this tack is slightly down sea. No bites for us today.

Having a midmorning spear.  Looks like Coral Trout for dinner tonight.

Day 3 –  Calm conditions this morning.  We throw poppers in the morning along some incredible reef edges.  Just some random small stuff biting.  Working our way still further North today.  Should end up anchoring around the top of Jewel reef tonight.  Everything looks great, but the marlin fishing is no good for us.  The local fleet reports releasing three Granders down the reef today.

Another popper eating GT comes aboard for a photo.  This little one properly tail roped.

Fishing right up to the end of the day.

Day 4 –  Flat calm sea today.  I’ve never wanted to see a jumping billfish so bad as I do today in these conditions.  It wasn’t meant to be however as we didn’t even see one today.  We did however catch one of the biggest Spanish Mackerals that Tim has seen, at about 70 lbs.  Hmmm, I wonder what the boys will end up doing with this one…

Before – A giant Spanish Mackeral showing her colors.

After – Nowhere else in the world would you even consider pulling this as bait!

Day 5 – A morning chat with the crew of the famous charter boat Nomad this morning.  They specialize in all things AU reef fishing in this area.  Good tips on certain parts of the reef for catching bait and throwing poppers.  The water and the reef colors are truly amazing up here.  The variety is off the charts.  We catch plenty of scads for swim baits.  Also our fill of scaly mackerel and several big spanish.  Throw in a few Bonita and a baby Black Marlin on a bait rod for good measure.  Did I mention the small Dolphin too.  Along the outer edge we encountered small Yellowfin Tuna.   These get eaten immediately by the White Tip Sharks if you don’t wind like a madman to get them to the boat.  We sacraficed one, and caught two others whole.  Then we see a cloud of shiny fish feeding along the outer edge of the reef.  Turns out to be thousands of 20lb Milkfish.  Never one to pass up one an interesting skipping bait, Tim looks for volunteers.  Mate Carl suits up and grabs his gun.  If there ever was a time for a surgical strike.  The plan is to spend as few minutes as possible swimming in this part of the reef – just on the deep water outer edge with bleeding fish at you side.  Two quick swims results in two baits.  The sharks were really moving in when Carl climbed back aboard.

We were targeting the extreme size Black Marlin.  I guess we forgot to be specific as to which end of the extreme scale.

Just enough left overs for a bit of sashimi tonight.  Please wind faster.

I’ve never before seen a Milkfish.  Has traits of a Bonefish and a Mullet, but is much larger.  And makes a great looking skip bait.

Day 6 –  The plan is to head back South from here.  We get an early start to take advantage of the morning high tide.  The popper fishing should be good in some of the passes.  Sure enough, Tim puts us on some world class GT fishing.  Then we run down to the Cod hole for a swim and some lunch on the hook.  Back offshore to finish the day with the big baits out.

Throwing poppers along the reef can result in some big bites.  This 80lb Giant Trevally “GT” made a huge splash.  This was one of several monster GT’s for this morning.

This smaller GT fell for a stick bait.

Day 7 – Not much to it today.  A nice swim at Secret Garden and some bait catching down the inside.  Then we fished our way down to finish the day working in front of number 3.  No sightings, no bites.  Very quiet for all the boats … except for this one bite on the Release.  I know that being close doesn’t count when fishing, but when captain Tim puts me right in front of the action, it counted for me and the camera today.  Nobody dared to put a weight on this one, but it made the grade for the locals to call it a “real nice one”, “a giant”, and “a monster”.  Ended up pulling the hook near the boat.

Day 8 – Today’s action started out with the vibrant colors of a Bluefin Trevally.  These critters always make for a pretty photo.  Then the afternoon spent offshore resulted in only one bite.  This was from a small fish that ate the swimming scad bait.  A few quick jumps and a clean tag and release.

Day 9 – An early start today.  The action sounds better back down the reef so we are headed there today.  Bait fish down the inside all morning and then put out some lures and continue south.  Arrive at Linden Bank around 2:00 and switch over to baits.  We end up with 3 bites when the whistle blows.  One pulls off a few yards and goes away.  Another gets all wrapped up in the leader on the bite and quickly jumps off.  And the third one stays on for a tag and release.  A late afternoon sky full of Aussie dust makes for a most incredible sunset.  Everything was dipped in gold.

The most ideal swimming bait in all the land – the Queenie.  We called him Sir Queenie.

Working late in the office.

Local gameboat.

Black Gold

Day 10 – Nothing for us today.  We had one bite on the swimming Scad that looked great.  Pulled drag and came off.  About a 500lb fish that got wrapped up in the wire leader and spooked.  Crazy red sunset again today.

Day 11 – A morning spear on some inside patch reefs comes up with a large Coral Trout.  Thrown in the boat just in time as the Bronze Whaler sharks were onto it fast.  We spend out day above Linden Bank and get no bites.  Only at 5:00 pm did we see any action as the Kekoa hooks a 400lb fish and we make a few photo passes.

Some rainy day time spent in front of the computer this morning and I came up with this. This sequence comes from the Venezuela archive and was always a favorite of mine. It was taken just after sunset on a very gray and cloudy day. This late in the day the ISO gets cranked up and the shutter speed rolls down and I usually cross my fingers too. Everything came together with this fish as I prefocused on the distance I thought we had to go and hoped the flash batteries could keep up if I got lucky. It all came together with this sequence and I was reminded to never give up when the light fades and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Marlin Mag just leaked this photo on FaceBook.  The next cover has been selected and is off to the printer.  I shot this jumper while covering the USVI July Open earlier this summer.  This fish is one caught by Sarge aboard the Black Gold that helped his team win the tournament again this year.  Also pretty cool sepia treatment to the background splash.

Here we are on the North Drop, in the waters off the British Virgin Islands.  This 90″ clip is the final moments of a catch and release.  It’s performed by a team who have caught plenty of fish, and do it as well as anyone on the drop.

If you are unable to view this video by clicking on the photo below, try this link to Vimeo.

I’ve taken to the skies with my latest advertising client.  The global aeronautic company Embraer has picked a nice jumping Blue Marlin for their new ad campaign.  This campaign features the Phenom 300.  An executive jet that is unparalleled in it’s class – range 1,971 NM, max speed Mach 0.78, max operating altitude 45,000 feet, and an interior design by BMW designworksUSA.  And you thought a fishing boat was a cool toy…

 
 
After some bait catching this morning, Tim put us on some select spots of the reef where the conditions look good for casting. Prime Giant Trevally spots are places where no boater would ever intentionally maneuver their boat. Lucky for us, Tim has mad boat handling skills. And the Tradition handles like a sports car.
 
 
One of the bigger GT’s we’ve seen yet. But still a baby as far as GT’s go.
 
 
Our one bite today really had us all going. Late in the day the big skip bait disappeared and this fish stayed deep and pulled really hard for 30 minutes. It had all the right moves. The crew snapped on the gaffs just in case. About 100′ from the boat the hook pulled. Never did see how big she was.
 
 
Ended our day anchoring down in the tranquil bay of the famous Lizard Island with a few other gameboats. Very cool place. So much fishing history here.
 
 

Times are a changing. The postcard weather that we have been enjoying up to now is officially over. The trades have filled in with a vengeance. Fishing for us remains very frustrating. We aren’t getting many bites, and those few are all small fish. There is still some time however.
 
 
We have been fishing some great areas well to the North, offshore of Lizard Island. One benefit is getting to watch the neighbors catch a nice one.
 
 
So far the rumor has proven it self to be true – all Black Marlin jump at or near the boat.
 
 
Healthy, colorful, but oh so small.
 
 
The edge of patch reef is easy to see in these conditions.
 
 
More bites for the neighbors as they disappear in the trough.
 
 
Another small jumper puts on quite a show near the boat.
 
 

You never know what will take the bait on your morning troll along the reef edge. This small Permit surprised us today.
 
 

Conditions remain calm today. Although, according to Buoyweather, that is about to change to a more typical pattern for October here on the reef – breezy with lots of bites!
 
 

So we made the best of what we were dealt, and caught a few small fish.
 
 
This small Black had a cluster of papasites on his shoulder. Tim says it’s quite common with these fish. Didn’t seem to slow him down at all.
 
 
I love it when they jump in the late afternoon sunlight.
 
 
Everyone enjoys a nice sunset. Especially when there is a Black Marlin blocking your view.
 
 

After spending some time recently in the cold waters of the North Atlantic, I thought I would warm things up a bit, like maybe the Coral Sea. This months adventure has me at 15º South Latitude, on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). I was invited to document the Black Marlin quest of angler Stephan Kreupl of Bluewater Fishing. Our ride for this trip would be the charter boat Tradition run by veteran Aussie captain Tim Richardson. After a series of crazy long flights and layovers to get here, we finally meet the boat and head offshore. The deckies on the Tradition are Steve Hall and Carl Copeland. Both multi year GBR veterans.
 
 

300Km North of Cairns is the city of Cooktown, and pictured above is the Fisherman’s Wharf. This is the end of road in NE Australia and the jump off spot for most of the gameboat operations fishing the GBR. Folklore has Cooktown populated by as many Crocodiles as locals. I didn’t see any during my brief time on the ground, but I plan on looking some up on my return pass thru town.
 
 
 

On our way out to deep water we spent some time in the inner reef catching fresh bait. Large swimming plugs are the norm for this. Steve flips a nice one over the covering board. This one is headed for the rigging table.
 
 
 

When the Scads and Scaleys aren’t biting, a welcomed bycatch is this Giant Trevally.
 
 
 

Add some poppers and spin rods to the bait catching chore and it becomes light tackle game fishing!
 

It didn’t take long for me to notice that everything is bigger over here. And the rigged bait is no exception. I can’t wait to see the animal that thinks of this as a snack…
 
 
And then we had a bite.
 
Our first billfish of the trip, and our only bite of the day.
 

 
Carl and Steve make short work of the tag and release of this fish. They called her around 500lbs. This angle and lens combo make this fish look very small.