ANOTHER SEASON OF EXTREMES --------- JUST DIFFERENT EXTREMES

* There were no fish around in September. One well performed boat did 29 days for 3 fish!

* The weather was either very good (less than 10 knots) or very ordinary ( 20/25 or 25/30 knots). None of the 10/15 or 15/20 which we would regard as being more normal.

* The fish were either very small or very big. Nothing in the middle. In the Lizard Island Tournament 57% of the fish tagged were 200lbs or under.This mirrors our own experience;
59% of our fish were 300lbs or less
36% of our fish were 800lbs or more

Whatever happened to all the mid sized fish no-one knows. But just like last season they weren`t there.

*Water temperatures were about 2 Degrees centigrade higher than they have been in the past 7 years. This is obviously indicative of a current change. Some would say "Global Warming"

*There was a marked absence of Wahoo. We hardly had a bait touched by a Wahoo,but on the negative side the water was full of Barracouta.

*Swimming Scads were a terrible bait this year. We rigged 127 Scad to catch 7 Marlin with an average weight of 154lbs. The rest of the baits either washed out or were damaged by Couta`s. Marlin just did not seem to be eating Scad and a miniscule average weight of 154lbs is not what people come to Cairns for. Rigging 127 Scad is also an awful lot of Crew work for very little result.

We started fishing in the last week of September and having heard how other boats had been going up to that time we were ecstatic when we got 4 in the first 5 days including an 800 and a 900.We basked in the glory of being the hot boat for a few days, then we came back to field.

The fishing was very tough all season. No location "Fired" for any period of time.There would be a small group of fish come in somewhere;a lucky boat or boats who just happened to be there would catch a few,but the following day no-one would see anything in this very same spot. The fish would be somewhere else? We had an experience that tipified this one day. We got to the top of #8 Ribbon about 3.30pm one day and had 2 shots out of at least 7 fish that at various stages followed baits. We thought this is good,we were the only boat there (Top of #8 has a relatively small fishable area and 4 boats is a crowd) and we`ll give this a good flogging all by ourselves the next day. Well we didn`t talk to anyone but because there had been nothing happening in the Middle ( Ribbons#4 5 6) 10 boats arrived at #8 the next day and none of us got anything. It was like that almost all season. There was never a point where in our post fishing evening discussions we were dead certain where we had to be the following day. Each day was like a lottery, for no particular reason you either guessed right and caught fish, or guessed wrong. All in all this was very frustrating for everyone.

The Lizard Tournament was fished in rough weather and there weren`t a lot of fish around.42 boats tagged 142 for the week. It was however the most exciting Lizard in years as going into the last day there were at least 8 boats, including "Mistress" in the running to take it out.As events unfolded the winning boat got 9 and we and 4 other boats finished on 8. In a countback we came 5th on time, but we got the daily on the last day, and also tagged one about 1100lb; since verified by the LIGFC Committee, thus joining the Lizard Island 1000lb. Club See www.Lizardislandgfc.assn.au for full results and commentary. .Next Years Lizard is from Oct 4 to Oct 11.

We had our highs and lows during the season. One of our lows was to experience our first ever fishless charter. We did 3 days with a great angler from the Netherlands and although we had 2 shots we didn`t catch anything. Whilst there is always a first, it`s bitterly dissappointing especially when your charterer is areally great guy who has travelled such a long way.

Another low was to have to cancel 5 days of our charter with Pam Basco (Trustee and Treasurer of the IGFA) and Richard Richardson ( The Marlin Man and recipient of the Gil Keech Award for Outstanding Heavy Tackle Angling Achievement) Cyclone Guba was forming to the north of us and we were facing an immediate forecast of 45 knots.We and virtually the whole fleet headed for safety and the proximity of a river so we could get up into the mangroves if the Cyclone hit. Thankfully it dissipated out at sea.

Obviously the Lizard was a high. All in all we hooked 4 fish over the magic 1000lb. We got the one during the Lizard. Mark Curtis from Sydney tagged his first. Another member of Marks party had one sharked at the back of the boat, But it was boated and measured over a Grand. I also broke one off after 1 1/2 on Sunset. The fish was too good. no silly confused stuff. Jumped once and then swam east. we finally got it out of it`s pattern and I was maybe 10./15 minutes of getting it when the 550lb Momoi XL leader broke. The fish deserved to win.

Markku Rapala and his fishing companion Jarmo Orpana also caught some nice fish during their charter with the best being a 900 caught by Markku.

Our average weight for the season was 446lb, which is down on last years 538.6 but is still very respectable given the number of small fish around.

Till next year tight lines and best wishes for the Festive Season and for the new year.