Hervey Bay, Australia – We had always heard about the great fishing in Hervey Bay and Fraser Island, but it wasn’t really until the last couple years we really started to take notice. Like a lot of fisheries in Australia, the Great Barrier Reed tends to dominate the news with headlines of Granders, but for you light tackle and Fly Fishermen, you need to take notice. There are not many places in the world, where you can have 5+ chances in a day on Black Marlin, especially in shallow water. But, this is exactly what is going on in Hervey Bay.

Fishing buddies Andrew Morley and Sean Gilbert fishing on Morley’s boat Express  just returned from a trip where they fished both offshore for Blue Marlin and inshore for Black Marlin. They went 3-9 on Blue Marlin on the troll and then went into shallow waters to target the Black Marlin and ended up going 3-4 on a morning trip. In all, they spent a day and a half fishing, releasing 3 Blue Marlin and 4 Black Marlin. 

Capt. Andrew Chorley of Hervey Bay Fly & Sportfishing routinely targets Black Marlin on both spinning tackle and fly in the shallow water. In these same waters, he can catches Longtail Tuna, Giant Trevally and Queenfish as well as a number of other species. Scott Mitchell of Fishing with Scotto is constantly targeting these juvenile Black Marlin recently releasing 6 on his last trip in addition to mackeral, longtail tuna and giant herring. There is tremendous variety on more “traditional” inshore species with the added bonus of a Black Marlin.

There are a lot of unique fisheries in Australia, but this has to be on your list for any light tackle enthusiasts. Almost too good to believe!