Fisho's ad man scores 800-pounder

A run of black marlin off Cairns appears to be ramping up, with some good catches reported amongst a growing fleet of marlin boats in recent days.

Fishing World's national advertising sales manager Chris Yu was amongst the lucky captors of big blacks this week. Fishing aboard Reub Hayes' Bertram, In A Meeting, Yu lucked out during the first session of the boat's outing to Linden Bank, around four nautical miles off the Great Barrier Reef.

Only an hour into the initial session a trolled 5kg mackerel tuna skipbait was reportedly crashed side-on , resulting in an immediate hookup for man on strike, Chris Yu - and a big black marlin greyhounding across a messy Coral Sea, the result of constant 20 knot plus winds.

The big black - conservatively estimated at 800lbs by the boat's experienced big game crew - was amazingly released after only a 15 minute bout on 130lb chair tackle.

"I don't think it knew it was hooked!" said a still excited Yu when contacted by the Fisho office this morning.

The boat reportedly raised another two black marlin to skipbaits the following day, with one of those estimated to be around 500lb; the other appeared even bigger than the 800lb black caught & released on In A Meeting's first day.

Stay tuned for more updates on the big marlin season as they come to hand. For more on the marlin fishing out of Cairns check out Kelly Dalling's posts in Reports.