While southeast Queensland's inshore grounds deliver top sailfish and black marlin fishing, it's easy to forget that there's a world-class blue marlin fishery also within reach. So if you fancy a battle with a big blue, take David Granville's advice - leave the light tackle at home and head to the 200m line or beyond

The southeast Queensland ports of Mooloolaba, Bribie Island and the Gold Coast are well known for their often prolific numbers of sailfish and juvenile black marlin inhabiting the near-shore waters. But the world-class blue marlin fishery that is also on the doorstep of these ports has not received the attention it deserves.

Most gameboats that fish from these ports are aware of the great blue marlin fishing on the shelf and beyond, but they are often reluctant to make the 30-odd-mile run to the productive grounds when they can have double-digit days of sails and blacks just a few miles from home.

You can't blame them really - catching those small fish on light tackle is a bunch of fun. But if you want to do battle with a big blue, leave the light tackle at home and head to the 200m line or beyond.

We have known about this blue marlin fishery for some time. Capt Bill Edwards first fished the grounds wide of Moreton Island in 1976 in search of the big blacks that were being caught off Cairns at the time. Edwards didn't find any giant blacks but he sure found the blues.

He had six bites on his first day out there including a blue over 500lb. Despite Bill's success, he found it difficult to convince gamefishers of the day to go blue-marlin fishing. According to Edwards, this was mainly due to the lack of big boats and the great inshore fishing being had.

The fleet did grow, though, and from the mid to late 1980s there were several gamefishing charterboats running out of the Brisbane bayside suburb of Manly. Boats skippered by the likes of Geoff Ferguson, Spike Kirkby, Ken Brown and of course Bill Edwards would make the long run across Moreton Bay then head a further 15–20nm east of Moreton Island in search of the mighty blue.

These skippers were certainly rewarded for their efforts and experienced some awesome heavy-tackle fishing in those early days. There were many big blue marlin caught and lost, and plenty of striped marlin and yellowfin tuna to keep the rods bent as well.

A couple of notable captures from the late '80s include a 370kg blue marlin taken by Graham Deanshaw on 37kg tackle in February '89 and a 260kg blue caught by Marie McCormack on 24kg tackle in July of the same year.

Capt Bill Edwards recalls the 1988/89 season as one of the best on record. "It was a 'La-Nina' year and we were averaging between 15 and 18 shots a day on blue marlin," he says. "There were also some big fish around. We got spooled by a blue I estimated at 1200lb in about 40 seconds flat."

MANLY PURSUITS
By the mid 1990s most of the charterboats had left Manly, with Mooloolaba and the Gold Coast becoming the more popular billfishing ports. However due to the excellent inshore light-tackle fishing, once again many boats lost interest in chasing blues.

In 1996 I started driving the 38ft Dominator Moet and the owner Klaus Gross loved heavy-tackle fishing. Although we caught our fair share of juvenile blacks on the inshore grounds, we loved nothing more than heading to the shelf and chasing blues.

Most days we had the ocean to ourselves out there, although occasionally we would be accompanied by Gold Coast charterboat Lucky Strike or the 50ft Pleysier Broadbill owned by gamefishing legend Johnno Johnston.

While we never had any red-hot days during the late '90s, we averaged two or three shots a day on blues generally between 350 and 500lb, which was enough to keep us happy.

In 2004 the heavy-tackle fishing off southeast Queensland is in full swing, with plenty of private vessels prepared to make the 30-mile run to catch a blue. That might have something to do with the fact that we are right in the middle of the blue-marlin bite from hell.

MARCH MADNESS
During January and February '04, I did five trips to the shelf and caught a blue marlin every trip. Consistent, but nothing special. But the first weekend in March everything went ballistic.
I was at the NSW Interclub tournament in Port Stephens when the news of a red-hot blue bite off the Gold Coast filtered south.

Rumours that Gold Coast boat Mistress had tagged nine blues and a stripe on March 7 from 16 bites was soon confirmed, as was the rumour that Colorado went none from ten the day before. From March 7 to March 13 the Gold Coast grounds were absolutely going off, with most boats averaging between six and 10 bites a day on blues. The most I heard of that week was from Gold Coast charterboat Lucky Strike, skippered by Ross McCubbin, who had 21 bites in one day.

On March 14 the bite moved slightly north and the boats running out of Bribie Island and Mooloolaba to the Cape Moreton grounds saw most of the action. Sunday March 14 saw the Riviera 36 Keneka tag four blues from 13 bites and the 43 O'Brien Palagero tag four from ten. Palagero lost an estimated 700-pounder when it snapped an 11/O hook that day.

On Monday March 15, I was fortunate enough to join the Palagero crew and it was one of the most amazing days heavy-tackle fishing I have ever had.

We arrived at the grounds approximately 20nm northeast of Cape Moreton at 9am. Keneka had already been there for half an hour and when we called the crew on the radio it was promising to hear that they had already tagged a blue, broke one off and had two other bites.

JUMPING THE GUN
It took about half an hour before we got our first bite, but it came in predictably spectacular blue-marlin fashion, crashing the shotgun then charging the boat in a series of raging bounds. Just as quickly as the blue arrived it was gone - the lure went flying from its mouth.

We didn't have to wait long for the next bite and it was almost a repeat of the first – turning the surface of the water to foam before once again throwing the hooks.

This wasn't exactly the start we were looking for but I guess lure fishing for blue marlin can be pretty frustrating at times. Our next bite was from a small black marlin that ate the short corner. As we were clearing the gear a nice blue ate the long rigger so we now had a doubleheader. Everyone on the boat was having a wind and the second fish that ate was the skipper's, so I went up and drove.

The little black jumped off but we finally got a tag in a blue about 150kg. The next blue ate the shotgun again and this time it was a copybook tag and release in fairly quick time, and another nice fish around the 130kg mark.

By late morning we were two from six and not particularly happy with our conversion rate - but we didn't feel so bad when we heard that Keneka was on two from 10.

During the afternoon our conversion rate got a lot better after a few tactical changes. We ran the drags a bit lighter and also mixed the pattern up with a few baits. It was an awesome afternoon of fishing and the non-stop action saw us tag six from seven.

FINAL FLURRY
The last fish of the day was the biggest and probably the most memorable. Fred had his stand-up outfit out all day and it hadn't been touched. At around 5pm he swapped the swimbait over to a skipping garfish (ballyhoo) and at 5:15pm it got inhaled by a really nice blue.

As the light was too poor for photography by this stage I was up having a drive, and when the fish first launched itself out of the water I called it over 400lb. It was a tough fish on stand-up gear and Fred had the reel on sunset for most of the fight. Forty-five minutes later we tagged the fish and on closer inspection it was more like 500lb than 400. It was a really nice way to finish the day.

Our tally for the day was eight from 13, while Keneka saw an incredible 24 fish for the day and tagged seven. Other boats out that day were Hard n Up, which tagged three from 13 including a fish that measured out at 325kg; and Nightmare, which had a late start and tagged two from four.

These statistics show that the blue-marlin fishery off southeast Queensland is truly world class. I'm sure that if more boats spent more time on the wide grounds, we would see figures like these more often.