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Although we weren’t fishing the Interclub Ladies Day, there were over 40 boats who were and the ladies certainly got into the spirit of things. While the weather started dismal and cloudy, by lunch-time it had turned on another glamour day and the ladies were in their element. The ladies on the brand new Hatterascal were among the teams tagging two for the day which also included Di Da Ke. It will be interesting to hear the results on Sunday at the main presentation event. The spirits kept rising after return to port as the champagne continued to flow. It was disco on the dock at d’Albora Marina into the wee hours.Victorian trailerboat skips Sam and Richie again managed another two Striped Marlin each with a late bite on the grounds. The team on Reel Chase sent down the deep live-y only to hook up on an approximately 500lb Box Head (Tiger Shark) for over an hour before the beast cut through the mono leader. That unfortunately was it for our day. We stopped by the fads on the way home looking for a Dolphin Fish shaped field goal but no luck there either. Many of the other boats also experienced a quiet day – heres hoping the fishing picks up again for the resumption of the tournament this weekend. Photo – Tomaree Heads. Daily view in and out of Port Stephens.

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End of Day 1 standings saw Lake Macquarie GFC in the lead (tag and release) with 80,000 points and Viking II as lead boat after with 4 marlin tagged. Reel Chase and Iona followed with 3 tags. Overall, not a great number of marlin recorded on Day 1. On Day 2, that was about to change. Storming into the lead, Iona tagged another 3 marlin making a total of 6 marlin tagged thus far in the tournament. Hot on their heels was Born Free, tag free on Day 1, they made up their ground with a great day of fishing tagging 6 marlin. The team on board Reel Chase spent a rather frustrating day watching boats all round them hooking up, finally managing our 1 tagged Black Marlin for the day just after 3pm. Viking II will be following closely with another marlin tagged making their tally at total of 5. In the capture department, we don’t have any results however the entourage at the weigh station were all blown away by the 529kg Tiger Shark caught on trailer boat Tycoon.Also having a good day was Darren and the boys on Di Da Ke tagging 4 Marlin and lost another inches from the tag pole. Although the fishing slowed up North of Seal Rocks in close for the little blacks slowed for all but Tim on Born Free, the fleet out wide had a better day with a number of Wahoo and YellowFin Tuna adding to the mix. Capt. Jim talks to Channel 9′s Paul Burt at the weigh station after Day 1. Day 2, Mark fights a pelagic in his Pelagic Gear .

This post was imported into WordPress from my old Black Marlin Fishing Blog website without any accompanying photos. If you’d like to see the original post, with the accompanying photographs, go to the original Black Marlin Fishing Blog site and navigate to the post using the archive navigation links on the right-hand-side.

The sail-past did not disappoint for those of us who had heard the stories but never seen – over 200 boats jostling for position – it was definitely a great sight. As Boat Number 74, those of us aboard Reel Chase had a great view of both the boats in front and boats behind. When official start fishing was called over the radio, we all raced out to the grounds to see what the day would bring us.I’m still getting a handle on how this tournament is scored however the Lake Macquarie team should be in good standing with our team group scoring good fish. Reel Chase and Iona finished the day with three marlin tagged each (3 Black Marlin for us and 2 Black Marlin and a Striped Marlin for Iona). Inkwazi tagged a Black Marlin, Wahoo and Yellow Fin Tuna and Running Bear also tagged at least one Marlin. We couldn’t catch our other team boat Mojo on the radio though so not sure of results there. Overall, we had trouble hearing the skeds from where we were but believe that Viking II is lead boat at present with 4 Black Marlin for the day. Sail-past in front of the d’Albora Marina and Al fights his first fish. More results and photos to come as I find out more.

This post was imported into WordPress from my old Black Marlin Fishing Blog website without any accompanying photos. If you’d like to see the original post, with the accompanying photographs, go to the original Black Marlin Fishing Blog site and navigate to the post using the archive navigation links on the right-hand-side.

We’ve been so busy preparing for the tournament today we’ve been very remiss not updating yesterday’s report. I will get to that in the morning (I promise!) but in the meantime, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Grant’s fat Black comes out for a quick hello before being released. Will’s jumps all over the horizon.

This post was imported into WordPress from my old Black Marlin Fishing Blog website without any accompanying photos. If you’d like to see the original post, with the accompanying photographs, go to the original Black Marlin Fishing Blog site and navigate to the post using the archive navigation links on the right-hand-side.

With a nice sized Striped Marlin tagged and released for Claire first thing in the morning we thought we may be in for a more action-packed day. When all that we saw in the following hours was another Striped Marlin – who was enamored by our teasers, darting from one to the other and back again to make sure it was still there following us for a good five minutes, not in the least bit hungry or interested in any of the lovely bait options that were pitched his way – we could only hope for a repeat of the late strike. At 2 minutes to go, that too seemed like it might be on the cards when Capt. Jim marked another under the boat. But alas it didn’t bite – leaving us with just the one for the day.It was Claire’s first marlin and both put up a worthy fight with Claire wrestling to get the fish to just outside tagging range when it would catch sight of the boat and power off again dodging back and forth. After many repeats of the same scenario the tag was finally in and Claire was able to get a good look at her fish before he swam away.Outside Edge caught two but few reports of others were heard on what seemed to be a much quieter day all round. One consolation – the weather was picture perfect.