WHILE most of the southern fleet prepare to head home, we still have a couple of charters left to finish the Cairns season.
Last week we were joined by George Food and his father Jeff in Cairns before setting a course east. We arrived off Jenny Louise shoal east of Cairns, and trolled until 5pm with the only excitement coming from the razor gang, (barracuda and Spanish mackerel), and I was doubting my decision, when the right ‘rigger went off. I saw the bite and it looked like a nice sized fish, but there was no hook-up. Almost immediately though, the big fish jumped on to the scaly mackerel being trolled from the stinger and we were hooked to a solid marlin. George did a great job on the fish, and had it in close range in short time. We took the opportunity and released George’s first Cairns marlin around 900lb – which led to a very pleasant night of celebrations behind Flynn Reef.
Day 2 of our two day charter began with a snorkel around some bomboras and reefs behind Flynn Reef. Again the marlin action did not start till late in the day when the scad bait on the right ‘rigger got the attention of a small black marlin about 250lbs. George’s dad Jeff was hooked up to a very active fish and as the fish was released his smile said it all.
I first met George Food when he did one of my workshops some years ago at Port Stephens. I run these workshops on the Gold Coast in December and January and Port Stephens in February, March and April.
Day 1 is spent on board Viking II at the marina, covering switch baiting techniques, tackle preparation, bait and lure rigging, tackle and equipment, boat handling skills, fish finder set up and tuning and how to read the ocean.
Day 2 is spent at sea on borad Viking II putting what we learnt on Day 1 into practice.
More info at: www.australianmarlin.com
