The Donovans joined us for a day of light tackle game fishing, trekking all the way from Tasmania.
We scored a fantastic day on the water with a light breeze and slight swell. Heading out of Port Douglas just as the sun breached the horizon we were on the bait grounds in no time.
Wayne, Emilee, Jake and Sarah are no strangers to game fishing and everyone has a string of impressive captures under their belts.
They say "Fishing requires patience; and fishing with a child requires the patience of a saint. Yet the rewards are heavenly".
I have to say I didn't need any saintly virtues at all, Wayne and Emilee have done a fantastic job with these two young guns. Both were focused and well versed in in their fishing achievements and aspirations. Both could turn a handle with the best of them.
We set our spread and it was only a matter of minutes before we had our first strike on the long corner. No hook set on this one, so we continued on business as usual.
We worked the corner of a reef complex near a main channel and after a few more passes of the area where we located some bait the ratchet rattled off again, it was the short corner, we were hooked up this time a nice little black greyhounded across the surface. We pulled the hooks on this fish after a few sets of jumps.
Resetting the spread we kept working the same area, we knew there was bait here and we knew there were fish here too. It paid off after a brief period of time we had another strike and hook up off the long corner. Again the fish leaped across the surface this fish was bigger than the last and he had a bit of pull to him, again we pulled the hooks.
Deflated in the fact that we had missed 3 fish; but bouyant in knowing the fish were here we reset the spread in anticipation of what was to come next.
The long rigger snapped and the ratchet screamed off on the 8kg outfit; we were on again. We didn't take any chances this time; we kept the power on the boat a little longer and pushed the drag up to ensure we got a good hook set. Jake who is 7 years old was on strike this time, he might only be 7 but he fought this fish like an old salt. He knew when to let the fish go and when to get a turn where he could, it was awesome to watch.
Yes it is true what they say; the rewards are heavenly, here's Jake with his first ever billfish.
We ended up going 4-3-1 for the day on the little black marlin. With a massive fishing milestone for young gun Jake.
I look forward to seeing you all back next time guys; And yes Jake we will go and tackle some GT's.
