I've been talking with Jeff in Broome quite a bit of late in the leadup to their tournament - Broome Billfish Classic on Aug 12-21. And he's been telling me some stories of insane sailfish action.

Jeff says that he's never seen anything like it. In Jeff's words "You can be towing the teasers and have a pod of fish pop up and ball up bait right next to the boat, then as you move past that pod waiting for them to come on to the teasers, another completely different pod shows up on the other side of the boat. Awesome. When the bite came on last Sunday we were in constant action for about 5 hours. Most of the time we did not know where to look. At the teasers, on the bow, at the spinning vortex of budgies and ducks, at the tinny's with multiple hookups and impending clusters, at the free jumpers, or fish feeding next to the boat".

On Sunday about 18 boats fished, including nine under 4.5m, and everyone got a piece of the action although the conversion rate was not the best. But redeeming themselves, a lot of the boats were in the double digits for Monday with Billistic leading the tally. Jeff says that today and tomorrow should be the best days as the tide starts to move off the dead neap and bait becomes separated from the big balls. Quite a pity for those with a weekday gig or on the other side of the country....!

Thanks for the report and picture Jeff!

With a huge thank you to Bo Dreisig (Blue Bolt Media and part of the Win TV crew who regularly film us in Townsville), we have finally finished the DVD of the 07/08 Giant Black Marlin Seasons. Footage from both Reel Chase and KEKOA has been merged to make three short but fast-paced, action-packed and high-quality clips:
1. Highlights
2. Slow Motion Marlin
3. Underwater TowCam Clips

If you are interested in getting a copy, as sponsor of both crews, Pelagic Gear has produced the DVD and has it available free with $7.50 P&H in the Pelagic online store. [Clients email Capt. Jim or Capt. Luke with your address and they'll send you a copy.]

My personal opinion, its awesome. I've watched, oh, something like 171 times. Definitely something to get you in the mood for season 09 ahead.

In fishing news, a few of the Gold Coast boats have ventured out to the Sea Mount for a couple of days. Hopefully they are doing well and will have a report for us upon their return.

I'm not sure if Sam has been trying to keep this a secret, so I may be in trouble for busting him on this, but it seems like the bluefin tuna off Eaglehawk Neck have been going off. Another good day yesterday saw Sam and team net these beauties at 88, 96, 104 and 113kgs!!

Sam's on the BMFB Flickr group and these are some of the results from his trip the same time last year. On ya Sam! (And thanks Brendan for the pics.)

In other news, the GC weather has thwarted most attempts at blue marlin fishing. Things will slow down for the blog over the winter, but you may have noticed the new twitter feed on the right here - so keep an eye on it, or follow me on twitter for mini updates. I'm looking forward to tweeting from the boat at Cairns this year. Can you imagine answering the question "What are you doing?" with a real time, "Fighting a grander black marlin"?

Recent tweets: the 147kg bluefin at Tassie and Sydney's 361kg blue marlin on Saturday.

Also in the boat directory, Watchdog Charters has a new website I finished last week.

Fortunately for the 22 boats fishing, the weather forecasters got it wrong, for Friday at least. A glamour day on the water.

Unfortunately, the fish did not cooperate. Day 1 saw just the three fish, a stripe and a blue released as well as this blue marlin weighed by the team on board Mistress at 200kg on the dot - no doubt seeing the team take out the heaviest marlin gong.

Day 2 saw the weather come up in the morning and many of the smaller fleet head for home. For the bigger boats who stuck it out, the fishing did not improve with just the two more blues added to the tally including a potential Queensland womens record blue marlin for Carmen on Caboom.

Final results - first boat on the scoreboard took out the honours - Yvonne (spl?) with one striped marlin.

On the other side of the big ditch - has everyone heard about the big blue weighed at Hohoura, North Island, NZ on Thursday?

It is the biggest marlin ever weighed out of NZ waters at 483.4kg = 1063lbs. (The previous biggest being a black at 473kg = 1040lb.) Apparently the beast was caught on Harlequin with John Douglas by first time marlin angler Ross Jameson. They've been having a cracker of a season and this is just an awesome catch.

The Gold Coast Heavy Tackle Tournament starts tomorrow with the briefing this evening. The weather is refusing to cooperate and so we'll be interested to hear if fishing goes ahead (tomorrows forecast 15-20 and increasing, Saturday 20-25 increasing). Writing from my sickbed, I won't be participating regardless this year :-(

Watchdog was one of the few boats who braved the bad weather in the leadup to go one from two blues on Sunday and none from two Monday indicating the fish are there just waiting for us to go and catch them. Brett tells me their lost fish Monday peeled line like he's never seen before.

Meanwhile, Port Stephens continues its late run with reports of steady fishing. Capt. Bat also reports the odd black showing up on the light tackle grounds in Cairns and the mackerel fishing red hot.

Pic: this is the only fishing we've been getting into thanks to the ongoing bad weather offshore.

Well the Gold Coast (and in fact, much of the east coast)'s weather has been pretty dismal of late, not allowing for much fishing. (Although perhaps plenty of boating in residential streets in flooded areas such as Coffs Harbour!) And while the Gold Coast GFC Heavy Tackle Tournament is fast approaching, none of us have been able to get out wide in advance of it.

So my project for the past week has been an overhaul of the Reel Chase website. I've used over 200 photos from anglers and crew alike. It has 8 slideshows and 5 video so far - including some footage from Ben's hatcam during the Griffiths trip in 05 that I came across going through the files. Its well worth a look - you'll think you're there and cop a wave in the face for your pleasure!

www.reelchase.com - taking bookings now for the Cairn Heavy Tackle Black Marlin Season 09.

Now if you can't use your own website to give yourself a plug, what else is there to do?

I create/design/overhaul websites. Anyone in want of a website, I'm your girl. I'm fast, budget friendly and I have great ideas ready to go for your site now. Give me a call on 0434 520 343 or email me.