We got Reg to brave the conditions & his green gills & we headed outside No 10 ribbon reef & Reg’s courage was rewarded with a 300lb black marlin. Brad Godden followed up his strike giving him a 150lb black marlin.
Great start to the season for Capt AJ!
Iona Game Fishing Blog
Posts Tagged ‘Iona II’
Ribbon No.10 & 2 black marlin!
Sunday, September 5th, 2010First fish of season 550lb!!
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
550lb for Daron Congrats!
Off to visit the Rock!
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010Departed Cooktown this morning heading to Lizard Island with very important guests on board the infamous Reg Flannery & one of NSW police commission “grand poh bah” Jeff (Lowey) & Brad Godden. As poor Reg gets a bit green about the gills and the weather isn’t that favourable we hope to at least get some marlin fishing in! The next 6 days will more than likely involve a fair bit of bottom fishing & light tackle fishing behind the reef but Capt AJ is determined to get Reg out there hooked up to a nice girl to help him forget about gills!!!!
700lb Bite 3rd day of season!!!
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010Yesterday we only had the baits in for 10 minutes & a very nice girl estimated at 700lb took a swipe at our bait got spooked took off and came back for another go, unfortunately we didn’t hook her but its got us excited about the season!!!
Our first fish for the season!!!!
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010Capt AJ headed out from a very dismal looking Cairns on Sunday, we could hardly see the leads! On board the Iona II Daron Gheblikian & mates battled the rain & enjoyed their first day mucking around with some light tackle & we caught some tuna & reef fish the boys had fun!
But Monday was the day!!! Fishing our way up to Cooktown to meet our next clients we hooked a very nice 550lb black marlin. After a short fight lucky Daron brought her to the boat. What a great start to the season! 1 on the board on our 2nd day of charter. Congrats to Daron!
Heading North to Cairns!!!
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010Capt AJ & crew along with Jason Younan & mates departed Hamilton Island on board the Iona II on Sunday and heading for Cairns. We are all keen to get the rods out & baits in the water.
We start our season on Sunday 29th August nice early start and hopefully we can get amoungst the little blacks straight off, will keep you tuned. We still have 7 days available the last week of September on board the Iona II with Capt Trent Visscher but they are the ony days we have available for the season on board the Iona & Iona II. We are looking forward to a cracker of a season both Capt AJ & Capt Trent chomping at the bit to get amoungst the big girls. We will keep you updated again this season with our daily successes, great pics by Rhino & great stories!!! Stay tuned……
We get our reef fix!
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010Well we have been working hard in Airlie & Mackay in the aftermath of cyclone Uli, we have a load of work on so we haven’t had much time for fishing. We have been itching to throw the lines in so much so we caught the barramundi that has been hanging around the back of the boat in the marina! Dicko was most impressed with his catch. See the pic!
However we put down the tools and took the opportunity on the weekend as the weather was glamour and the Iona II needed a good run so we headed out to the Great Barrier Reef and had an awesome weekend. We did a bit of light tackle fishing and caught a nice Spanish mackerel and a lot of reef fishing for red emperor, coral trout & nannygai and caught a heap. On board was one of our big builders Dave and we’re assured his weekend on the Iona II was one to remember.
The Cairns Giant Black Marlin season is approaching fast and we are heavily booked but have some time still available so get in quick for our very competitive rates on board the Iona & Iona II.
Scafflink on tour Airlie/Mackay!
Lake Macquarie Tournament
Sunday, February 7th, 2010This weekend we are fishing in the Lake Macquarie Tournament, a 2 day tournament. We were going to fish tag & release but an opportunity arose yesterday that we couldn’t resist! We caught a 411lb blue marlin on 30lb tackle in 3 minutes and put her on the deck. We are in the lead in the capture division lets see what today brings.
Capt Adam is on fire, in the last 7 days he has raised 22 marlin, had 15 bites and tagged & released 10 and caught 1 blue marlin. What a week!
During the week we had Robbie Green & friends for a 2 day charter, the first day was slow but the second day saved us as Capt Adam raised 7 had 3 on and caught 1. It certainly made up for the slow first day.
Stay tuned for the Lake Macquarie Tournament results.
9 from 11 & a Grand Slam what a day!
Sunday, January 31st, 2010Yesterday Capt Adam took 6 American clients out from Newcastle and fished his regular haunt (the Newcastle Bus Stop we’re calling it) and it paid off well! What a cracker of day we raised 11 and caught 9. 7 striped marlin, 1 nice blue marlin and a black marlin. All three billfish species in the one day, a Grand Slam, the first one for the Port Stephens/Newcastle Season. Well done Capt AJ.
We will be out again on Tuesday so hopefully it will still be firing.
Golden Lure Tournament Wrap Up
Monday, January 18th, 2010Unfortunately we weren’t successful in taking out the capture division of the Gold Lure Tournament in Port MacQuarie. We were placed 4th.
Carnage won the capture division with 2 marlin weighed, 1 blue marlin and a striped marlin. Followed by Fitzy on Wave Rider.
Renegade took out the tag & release division.
We had heaps of fun during the tournament raising 13 blues, we only managed to hook 5 and caught the one blue at 138kg on 30lb tackle. We had a nice striped marlin on 20lb but unfortunately broke the line during the fight. On the last day of the tournament we had a blue marlin on estimated at 150kg on 20lb but we couldn’t set the hook.
Rhino in transit with the Iona II from Port MacQuarie to Newcastle pulled out the big guns, the 130lb outfits and hooked 2 from 3 blue marlin proving that when the line class is increased you have a lot more opportunities to set the hooks.
17 marlin raised in 5 days it proves the Iona II is the fish raising machine!
We are out tomorrow with friends and business acquaintances Noel Dowd from Newcastle and Al Wright from the Gold Coast.
Should be a cracker of a trip, stay tuned.