Winding down another good marlin season on the Great Barrier Reef. The fish showed up in decent numbers throughout most of the season with the usual quiet periods alongside the good times. The Western Pacific has been in a La Nina weather pattern all year which showed in the form of warmer water temps especially so in September and October. The usually dependable Eastern Australian Currrent was only sporadic in showing good Southerly current - if you could find the good water you generally could find the fish.
November started off with a bang with excellent quality big fsh around and most boats getting action. Hiroshi had some great fishing catching back to back 800 & 900lbers and other excellent quality fish from 700 down to 300lbs. We then fished Simon, Steve and Mo for 12 days, having good fishing in the beginning of the trip, catching some good quality up to 800lbs and missing a few others of that size and possibly bigger as well. A highlight early on was catching a double header, a first for the guys. The fishing slowed to 1-2 bites a day though we did cap it off with Sue Ahlers catching a nice 700lb fish at Lindenbank.
We had a good time fishing with Richard Luscombe and the boys, getting off to a good start catching a marlin on the first day but then having to settle for tough fishing amongst the deteriorating weather conditions catching dolphin fish, yellowfin tuna and mactunas. It was enough to give the boys a taste to come back next year to do some more time on the reef.
Overall, we'd consider 2010 as a solid average season. Big fish were around every month and the GBR once again proved to be the best Big Fish location in the world. 2 fish were weighed at 1177lbs and 1027lbs along with several estimated granders released, plus the many 700-900lbers also.
Throughout December and January the Top Shot continues to fish both heavy tackle for black and blue marlin and also light tackle for smaller marlin. sailfish, tunas, mackerel, mahi mahi etc.
