Number 5 Ribbon reef
We’d just finished up a 21 day live aboard trip with our guests from Hawaii when regular Jason joined us in Cairns for his annual Cairns fishing charter for giant black marlin. We’d been fishing out wide and enjoying a pretty good bite but had been hearing some great reports coming out of the upper Ribbon Reefs, in the vicinity of Number 10 Ribbon.
So the plan was to get away early and see how far we could get up the reef…and to catch a few fish along the way!
Without a reason to stay to fish the southern end near Cairns, we got away early again and put the lures out to make better time. As is often the case in November, we had a few blue marlin bites on the way north going 2 from 3 with the 3rd an absolute beast that broke line on us!
Luke timed our return to the edge to put us coming into Number 5 just after 5pm – late bite o’clock on the reef. He was hoping to find our own fish on one of his favourite reefs and negate the reason for another day of travel. Unfortunately he was less than happy with what we found on the edge. Dirty Water!
And he let a little frustration out in my vicinity as I was keeping him company in the tower at the time.
Late Bite
I soon made myself scarce and returned to deck level where I gave our crewman Ross a pretty good rendition of Luke’s displeasure at the dirty water. Ross was facing me and the house at my back while I stood on the step and looked over his shoulder in the direction of the big bait. Mid sentence “blah blah blah dirty water” I saw a massive bite directly over his shoulder!
Dirty water indeed!
A nice fish for Jason about the 800lb mark and suddenly noone cared about the dirty water! The fish gave Ross a good tug on the leader and after a pics and high fives we had the baits out looking for another. Suddenly Luke was marking a few fish and things were looking up.
Another turn and we had another bite we missed. Luke decided to stay out a bit longer past our normal time to return to the anchorage and we were rewarded with another bite, and another good fish around the 850lb mark. What a day! 2 from 3 on blues, 2 from 3 on blacks – and two solid fish among them!
Day 3-7 Ribbon Number 5
In the end, we never left number 5 Ribbon Reef, never made it to Number 10. And just as well, we had the reef to ourselves and it sounded like the bite to the north had slowed.
We had another four fish day and added a sail on top of that.
And there were plenty of big fish among them including the giant at the top that most people will know as one of my most iconic photos. I had it in my mind I wanted to take a photo from the tower down on a black boatside. And I thought this one might be that perfect opportunity. So I diligently got everything possible out of my shot, bait rods, the two other 130 rods, even the rubbish bin and climbed the tower with my camera to join Luke. By this stage we’d been fighting for over an hour and I thought it unlikely she would jump again. Wrong! I’d been in the tower just minutes when up she popped jumping towards the boat. Doh!
Then came the mental dilemma whether to stay and shoot from the tower (I don’t really rate jump shots from up high!) or to go back to deck level in case she jumped again. Finally I decided to stick to my original intention and this photo series is the result. Pure gold!
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