From September through to December, the largest black marlin in the world – many of them “granders” of over a thousand pounds, migrate to the 150 mile stretch of the Great Barrier Reef between the North Eastern coastal city of Cairns and the exclusive five star resort of Lizard island. This is unquestionably the best giant marlin location in the world, and if you are a serious big game angler, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

The black marlin fishing begins in early September when the large female fish move into the breeding area stretching from Cairns, north to Lizard Island (240kms). The marlin then tend to move away from this area and the Australian coast during the mid to latter part of December.

Over the years captains and crews have discovered that generally the best fishing comes in the late afternoon, from 2.00 pm onwards (not always a hard and fast rule) and most boats fish to as late as 6.30 pm, depending on the location and the degree of difficulty getting back into the anchorage. The fishery here is predominantly a bait fishery with usually two rods at one time trolled from the outriggers and up to 4 rods trolled using lures. Favourite baits used by the crews on top game boats include scad (Cairns NO. 1 swimming bait), bonito, scaly mackerel, Spanish mackerel, yellowfin tuna, queenfish and rainbow runners.

These baits can be as large as 15 kg (30lbs) though preferred size being 8 to 12 lb for the skip baits and 1 to 5lb for the swimming scads.

The crews rig these baits on both J hooks and circle hooks which are trolled just under and on the surface at speeds varying between 5 to 6 knots. They utilize short drop backs, knowing that these always give the best percentage of mouth-hooked fish. Circle hooks have come into vogue over the last few years and the crew have found that they also have provide good results.

During the marlin season, the game boats can be scattered right across the whole length of reef (a stretch of approximately 250kms), from Lizard Island North, down to the Southern fishing grounds off Cairns. Depending on the fishing at the time, live aboard game boats will depart from either Cairns, Lizard Island or Cooktown and this is often not determined until nearer to your departure. Cooktown and Lizard Island are short charter flights away from Cairns (60 min aprox) and position you very closely to the marlin fishing grounds.

Travelling time from either Cairns, Port Douglas or Cooktown to the fishing grounds is approximately 2.5 – 3.5 hours, 30-50 nautical miles offshore.