In Search of the Black Marlin

After 10 flights, 2 train rides, a 4 day boat tour, 1 ferry ride, 1 helicopter ride and assorted car and cab transfers in a 10 day period, I can safely say that I don't want to go anywhere else for a while. That was the tally of the transportation effort that went into the Great Australian Deep-Sea Fishing expedition that I recently returned from. Having said that, it was well worth the effort to finally meet Jaimies Aussie exchange family, the Thomas's, and get to experience some world class marlin fishing on the Great Barrier Reef.

Backing up a step, Andrew Thomas invited me back in May to join him and two friends for a live-aboard fishing trip on the 50 foot fishing vessel Kanahoee. After calculating costs for a couple of days I realized I would probably never get this opportunity again so I tossed economics to the wind, and I signed on.

Getting there is half the battle as flights are not short, cheap, or very direct. I also had heard horrible tales of high heat, and humidity (not to mention heavy drinking, and bar brawls) but hey... that's what adventures are all about. I was pleasantly surprised to find the weather in Sydney was only in the low to mid 80's, and we only got into one pub fight the first nite:) Andrew picked me up at the airport gave me the scenic tour on the way home passing through Cronulla (one of their nearby beach areas). Day two was spent in Sydney sightseeing with Andrew and youngest daughter Emma. Emma and I got a scenic helicopter tour of Sydney harbor, and a deluxe seafood lunch at Doyles afterward.

Day three was spent traveling up to Cooktown in northern Queensland. Cooktown is kind of a one road town in a fairly remote part of the country. If you look at a map you will see that there are no direct roads in, and if you come from the south it requires a fair bit is dirt and 4-wheel drive. Small plane charters are the best option for a quick in and out when your main purpose is to get to the premier bill fishing region of Australia. We met up with Mark Jones and son Daniel in Cairns on the way up to Cooktown. Come to find out that our boat, the Kanahoee, recently won the prestigious Lizard Island Marlin Fishing Tournament in late October. (Be sure to visit this link where you can check out our catch for Nov 2, and 3 with a picture of yours truely, and a nice side shot of Candace Meyer's over-stuffed bikini. The best boobs money can buy...or so I've been told.) Perhaps this last information requires some elaboration. Candace and husband Jay are an American husband and wife fishing team that had recently been on the Kanahoee before us...not with us. She is currently the womens blue marlin record holder with a catch off the coast of Ghana so, despite being a bit top heavy, she can apparently reel them in.

The weather was a bit rough on the way out to the # 2 Ribbon Reef, and it wasn't long before I was refunding my bacon and eggs breakfast. I don't usually get seasick, but at 30 knots into a 50 knot wind, white cap seas all around, and waves buffeting the sides of the boat I was unprepared. Despite that I was able to drag myself upright a few times to catch bait fish. Here's my first Giant Trevally. We caught a bunch of these alone the reef. Catching one is kind of like reeling in a bag of wet sand. They don't fight real hard, but they pull until you think you snagged the bottom. The other typical catches were tuna, spanish mackerel, other mackerel, and on one occasion Andrew brought in a Coral Trout. Yummy!

Luckily the weather continued to improve each day.We usually spend the mornings trolling for the smaller bait fish, and afternoons trolling for marlin. Evening we anchored for the night inside the relatively protected reefs. First day on the boat Mark was in the marlin chair first and reeled in about a 100 black marlin. Next day I was up and snagged a 150 lb marlin. Andrew brought in a 100 pounder, and then 12 year old Daniel landed a 300 pounder to put the rest of us to shame. Third day out Mark landed the only marlin and this one went a whopping 700 lb. The other nice catch that day went to me landing the only sailfish of the trip...about 100 lber. Marlins were never brought on board (sizes were estimated by the crew), but for some reason the crew decided to bring the sailfish into the boat. After a few hero photos it was released good as new. The forth day on board we concentrated only on marlin fishing, but to no avail. I guess we must have caught them all 'cause not one fish was landed that day.

Well that pretty much wrapped up the trip except for more plane rides back to Sydney. At the Cooktown air strip I took this interesting photo of two frogs sitting on fan behind the ticket counter. Thought they were plastic initially but you could see they were breathing when you looked close. Guess they like the heat from the motor.

Thanks Andrew for hosting the trip! Look forward to seeing you over here in February. -Cheers