Monday 22nd

[boattart]

What a difference a couple of days make.We found a trap on the shelf loaded with Mahi around 75cm but left them to find better water. It was green and 24.5 with lots of coral spore all the way to Browns and only a little current running east to west until around 450 fathoms the temp kicked up quite quickly to 26 then eventually 27 degrees and blue water and the current picked up to 2-3 knots from the North. We trolled out to Heatons for zeros before swing south and a couple of miles later had a very small Blue take the short rigger. At around 60-70kg what he lacked in size he made up for in attitude but was reasonably quickly brought to the boat and tagged. Being 35 mile out with the Nor easter starting to blow we worked our way in and in 62 fm had the regulation Black Marlin bite that refused to hook up and that was it for the day.

[DTROJAN]

Good work mate ! You might have to delay the fishing gear sale for a while. 3 blues from 2 trips and 4 for the season so far is pretty impressive.

[boattart]

Thanks Pete. Still haven't seen a striped and can't hook those Blacks.

[DTROJAN]

Those blacks are frustrating me a bit too. Missed the last 3 in a row……… About time one sticks I reckon or my gear will be up for sale lol

[oz_brett]

We went as far as browns apparently a marlin was one free jumping there but I didn't see it myself, trolled back to FAD21 just as we pulled in the spread a marlin fin about 30m off the back of the boat, only sighting for the day.

Brett

[The President]

Boattart I regularly read your post which I enjoy and praise your results, especially on blue marlin. You often state you change the spread to larger lures when going out wider. May I ask what lure size do you use for blues, larger than 12inch. And is there a particular favourite ?

Cheers.

[boattart]

HI Pres...Generally when we get past 80fm I change over from the smaller lures. Not because I want a larger lure but my small lures are on 200-300lb trace and if I'm chasing blues I want 500-650lb for when we find the big ones and the heavy trace just restricts a smaller lure. These days I mainly troll Koya Lures but Crampton's, Marlin Magic and Joe Yee's sometimes fit in. Generally 12-14 inch lures are my favourites but I do have a couple of 16inch screamers that get a run too and the 10 inch Koya Poi dog Makes more wash than most bigger lures of other brands. If you want to see what I run send me a message and I'll make a time to catch up or maybe come out for a run.