The weather is the big news once again on the gamefishing front.

Light winds lined up with the odd weekend here and there, but the action was better off the Gold Coast and Cape Moreton than off the Sunshine Coast. This is probably a reflection on the slightly better weather the Gold Coast experienced during this period, as well as more fishing effort put in down there.

Barry Alty’s custom 49’ charter boat, Mistress, proved to be the picture of consistency when it came to blue marlin fishing off the Gold Coast. When not on charter, Barry fishes with his son Brett, who skippers the boat, and the pair have been smashing the marlin at the moment.

George Rehua from Reelax, is getting out in his new second-hand classic Pleysier, Pacemaker, quite a bit and tagging a few fish. Danny Simons’ 36’ Black Watch, Fair Game, alsogot in on the action one day getting one from two strikes. In Deep, the new Deep V also tagged a couple. Mark Ripper’s new 47’ Obrien, Castille, had a good strike rate on the same weekend going two from two on blue marlin.

Many of the Gold Coast charter boats are fishing the NSW Interclub at Port Stephens near Newcastle at the moment. Captain Luke Fallon skippered Kekoa to Champion Visiting Team tag and release honours with seven fish. Captain Jim Dalling’s Reel Chase is also at Port Stephens and will be returning soon to make the most of our autumn weather and hopefully good fishing.

The only Queensland tournament to not be postponed during the month was the Bribie Island Tournament of Champions. Once again Animal, the 30’ Black Watch, took it out with one fish tagged on count back for the first day of the tournament. That is two in a row for Stephen and Kellie Jensen.

A striped marlin was also tagged on the second day wide of Cape Moreton. Striped marlin are a bit of an unusual catch in South East Queensland inshore waters over summer. But to prove the one during the tournament wasn’t a fluke, two others were caught around the same time in the same area. Frank Oostenbroek had brothers, Navi and Vin Naidoo, aboard his 685 Cruise Craft for Navi’s first marlin, which was around 100kg. Liberty, the Southport Boatworks racy US jumbo centre console, got one around 30kg.