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Game Time has held off a determined fleet to win the 26th Annual Townsville Gilbert Group Billfish Challenge with a total of 16 tags from Kekoa. In the under 8m category, Mojo blew the other teams out of the water with 9 tags over just three days fishing. There are more results to be had but I will save them for a post tomorrow and keep some surprises for tonight’s presentation at the Casino. I personally am looking forward to the footage we’ll see tonight (Win TV does a composite each year of their own footage as well as that from boats fishing the tourn) in particular, Mat Fallon’s footage above and below water on Kekoa.
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.
Ultimate Lady:
Captain Tom sends an update from Vanuatu and reports some reasonable fishing of late. A local charter boat tagged an estimated 750lb blue and most boats have been getting a couple of bites each day. On trips earlier this week, the
Ultimate Lady team caught a good mixed bag of wahoo, yellow fin and dolphin fish as well as spear fish and a 400lb blue marlin. The next day, they raised two other blues before the baits were attacked by a pack of sails, releasing two, before jumping off another blue.
Seems the fishing is so good that we won’t see them on the GBR this year until late October. Looking forward to seeing the big blue boat appear on the horizon.
Viking II:
Captain Bill reports they are doing a spot of bait fishing off Cairns that the fish have arrived! Running a laser pro out the back for mackerel the team released a 450-500lb-er Captain Bill spotted tailing down sea. Good to see this early in the season!
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Despite our thoughts on Mark Parkes sanity cruising out to the spit in the dark on Monday night after a break down kept him out of fishing on Day 3, his early start on Tuesday proved very fruitful with 4 tags (4-4-4) for Mojo on the first sked – in what was generally thought to be very slow fishing. Game Time and Kekoa continue their tussle at the top of the leader board (12 tags) with everyone else trying hard to catch up (but not making much of an impression). Sweat N Tears the closest contender with 9 tags. In the under 8 metre category, Mojo is on top with 8 tags.
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 annual Norship Marine Light Tackle Slam game at Yorkeys Knob Boat Club was held over this weekend – postphoned due to the weather from the original dates in August (the weather not exactly cooperating this time either). Although with 29 boats turning out for the event, it didn’t deter anyone! Scott “Bat” Taunton, skippering the smallest boat in the fleet Valhalla, took out the tournament in a clean sweep – winning Champion Boat overall, Champion Boat under 7.5m, First Marlin Tagged and Champion Angler (for Ben Walker) with 4 marlin tagged. Runner-up boat was Good as Gold with three marlin tagged. Congratulations also to Paul Massy on Razerline who christened his boat with 3 marlin tagged.
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.
On Day 3, Kekoa and Game Time continued to go fish for fish with two each for the day bringing their totals to 11 so far in the tournament. Top dog for Day 3 was Sea Baby IV with 4 tags for the day, including the last released during the final sked, bringing them into third place with 8 tags. Reel Chase made some ground with three releases, bringing them on par with Rose Red and Sweat N Tears who were both fish-less on Day three – with all three boats sitting on 7 tags and Castille just behind with 6 tags.Boats on 5 tags include: Calypso (Mango) and Little Utopia. Boats on 4 tags include: G’d Up, Mauna Kea, Moana, Nail It, Reef & Beef.[Again, my results are based entirely on the information I have heard on the skeds and are in no way official results. No official update has been given.] Picture: Mat has been putting the new underwater camera system to the test on board Kekoa during the tournament – and the results are pretty spectacular. This is the still frame of a perfectly captured tag shot.
