It’s that time of year again the juvenile black marlin get caught in the fish trap that we call Hervey Bay. Typically these are 1-2 year old fish that are migrating south for the first time. I commented on them and the trip I would take up there in the last thread I made about lady musgrave island.
http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=386697
Being as it’s the right time of year, a full moon on the 2nd of Nov and two weeks off I had a look at the forecast and this past Wednesday/Thursday looked acceptable.
The 7 year old didn’t want to make the trip as he had an ear infection that hadn’t gone away yet but the 5 year old was chomping at the bit.
Thursday morning I loaded up and we were off.
We got to the boat ramp after an uneventful drive.
It’s about a 60km run out to the grounds, once we hit wathumba creek we stopped and to put out a six lure spread and started hunting. On the run up we found a bust up of longtail tuna but couldn’t get a hit on the slugs or soft plastics we threw at them.
Back to trolling, we struck out for the most part with five marlin strikes on skipping gar (ballyhoo for those of you who’ve fished the Caribbean) but I couldn’t stick a 7/0 circle hook into ones mouth.
In hindsight I didn’t wait long enough but I was giving them 6-8 seconds after they popped the clip off the outrigger which I thought was enough. We did manage one little spotted mackerel for dinner.
Then we popped in to check out one of the many sets of turtles we saw who seem to be displaying some mating behaviour.
The we stepped onto the island for a look around.
We trolled around as the sun went down without any success.
Due to some fires on the island and the smoke we had to anchor up in a less then ideal location but we stopped for the night, set out a few lines and cooked supper. At that point my phone died and I found out my charging cable was cactus. Luckily I had a gopro with me but it’s less handy to get pictures and videos with then my iPhone. As we went to sleep my little man told me not to worry, the second day is always more successful...