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Photo of the team on Castille III who may have taken out Champion Fancy Dress, just pipping the team on Spartacus. Or perhaps the other way around! Congratulations to the team on board Mauna Kea who took out Champion Boat with 11 tags from Spartacus on 9 tags and Joe Joe on 8. There were 10 ‘granders’ successfully tagged and released and quite a number of big battles. Kanahoee released the final grander of the tournament at 30 minutes to cease fishing on Day 7. Joe Joe released two at 1100lb and KEKOA released the largest at 1200lb (below). In total, 125 black marlin were released. Daily winners:Day 1 – Three tags, CastilleDay 2 – Three tags, SpartacusDay 3 – Three tags, Mauna KeaDay 4 – Three tags, Hart ThrobDay 5 – Three tags, KaizenDay 6 – Four tags, Mauna KeaDay 7 – One tag, WatchdogChampion Male Angler was Daryl Mosley on board Mauna Kea with 11 tags with Mike Dobbins on Hattitude runner up with 7 tags. The Champion Female Angler Karen Weaver on Maitai with 2 tags. Stills from the video of KEKOA’s big fish on Day 6. The video in full of the 1200lb-er is online now here . Outside the tournament, there are also still being big fish being caught. On the other end of the reef at Linden Bank on Saturday, Cool Runnings released an estimated 1100lb-er as well!—And on the Gold Coast, TowCam’s John Faulkner released a 400lb blue marlin on his boat Five Star yesterday for Bruce Keown – and go vision of both the switch and strike on both towcams. Another balmy day out wide down there while we are rocking and rolling up here.

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.

Captain Chris “Sharky” Miles staged another come from behind burst on Day 6 to jump to the lead. He added four tags on Day 6 (100, 400, 600, 850) to bring Mauna Kea’s total to 10 with one day to go also rocketing his angler, Daryl Mosley to the front in the Champion Male Angler category as well. Spartacus added another big fish (850lb) to bring their total to 9 and in clear second place. Behind them on 8 are Joe Joe, Viking and Hart Throb on countback in that order. But the story of the day belonged to KEKOA who not only called in the first fish of the day, but called it big. Capt. Luke calling it a massive 1200lbs for angler John Wildberger. The boys on KEKOA are enjoying some big fish action this week with four fish over 800lb in the last four days.Click on the picture on the left to go to the YouTube video of the fish. (Edit – this is the actual footage. It has now replaced the original iPhone video copy.) Awesome stuff!Some more notable fish on Day 6 included this one (below right 850lbs) for Jeff Murphy on Reel Chase which was one of a group of fish tailing downsea in the notably rougher swells. All three boats in the area hooked up within minutes of each other, us, Calypso and Mauna Kea. Calypso released one yesterday (500lbs) and are still in the running with 6 tags for the tournament thus far. On Reel Chase; Alan’s fish charges toward the boat (500lb) and Jeff’s on the leader (850lb) Tough luck to the boys on Iona who were 2 from 4 and congratulations to the team on Dealne who got on the scoreboard yesterday with two fish at 300 and 350lbs.The rough weather has brought the tailing fish in once again. It will be interesting to see what today brings – the final day of the 2009 Shell Cove Lizard Island Black Marlin classic (Halloween themed fancy dress at the presentation tonight, I’ll try and get photos of that too).And lastly, Capt. Ashley Wallis on Kalira sent me these video stills from their giant black marlin on Day 5 – 1050lbs. I’ll have to check with Ashley but I think this may be the first grander for the new boat. Congratulations guys awesome fish! Kalira’s 1050lb black marlin from Day 5, Thursday on the leader.

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Well its all happening at the top of the leaderboard, and mostly all happening at the top of the reef as well with over half the day’s fish were released on the top end.Spartacus and Joe Joe continued their tussell adding another fish a peice on Day 5. This time Spartacus got in first, tagging and releasing an 800lb-er for Ralph Czabayski and have taken the lead with 8 tags overall. Joe Joe followed soon after with a smaller fish also bringing them to 8. Viking also added another fish to their tally on Day 5, and with their fish tagged after cease fishing on Day 4 also now counted, they are in third place with 7 tags from Castille III. On six tags on countback Hattitude is ahead of Hart Throb, Mauna Kea and Top Shot.Notably, the sunshine coast team on board Kaizen took out Day 5 honours with three fish including a 550lb-er for David Trask. Kanahoee also released 3 fish on Day 5 in the 150-200lb range. Both Kaizen and Kanahoee are in contention on 5 tags on countback behind Calypso .Notable fish on Day 5 include a whopping 1050lb-er for Kalira for Geoff Lindrea, a 900lb-er for Mauna Kea and a 700lb-er for Think Big to put them on the scoreboard for the first time. 25 of 27 boats are now on the scoreboard. Outside the tournament: Not great photo quality but you get the idea, some shots from Adam on Iona 2 who has just wrapped up three days fishing on Linden Bank with three more on Wednesday at 1200(!), 300 and 150lbs and broke the double on another estimated at 400lbs. No need to ask where Adam was fishing – the Bus Stop of course.

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What a day of fishing!On Day 4 there were periods of hot bites up and down the reef and once again, there were a number of big fish amongst the mix. Capt. Trent on the original Iona kicked it all off with a grander black marlin (1050lb) less than an hour after start fishing at Number 7 Ribbon Reef. That was shortly followed by another (1000lb) for Jim Wild on Viking at Linden Bank.Bill Collector tagged their first and second black marlin of the tournament on Day 4, the second going 950lbs to angler Dave Warner. And Kaizen also made it on the scoreboard with two fish up the top including one at 930lb (as per Bob). Kalira made it onto the board as well. KEKOA released another big girl, this 800lb-er (below right) at Number 5 and there were a few big fish dropped as well. Calypso on a big fish they unfortunately broke of on the leader & KEKOA with John’s 800lb-er. As of cease fishing there were 23 tags for the day and three boats still hooked up including Hart Throb who unfortunately lost their battle with one well over the mark last night. They still finished on top with three fish for Day 4 to bring their total to 5 for the tournament.On the leaderboard, Joe Joe has taken over the number 1 spot adding another 2 fish on Day 4 to bring their total to 7 tags. Spartacus follows hot on their heels also adding another two to bring them also to 7 on countback. There are a couple of boats on six being Castille III and Hattitude.

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.

Another great photo of a team in action this time on Day 3 of the competition from Muzza on Calypso which shows KEKOA backing down on their first fish for Day 3 estimated at 900lbs for angler Jason Hassett from Melbourne. Its was a good short fight for Jason who has had his share of much longer battles (in 2008 he fought for a fish for 7 hours that Capt. Luke estimated at well over the mark before the line parted ways.) KEKOA finished with two for the day for the tournament (900 & 400) and added another (250) to their personal tally just after cease fishing. Calypso also released two nearby bringing their total to three.Also in the big fish on Day 3, again, Hattitude released a 1,000lb-er for owner/angler Mike Dobbins. Joe Joe fought a monster through cease fishing once again and reported this morning that it was another grander, the second for the team this comp! And Castille III got back into the action with this 700lb-er for Parke. Parke’s 700lb black marlin on Castille on Day three, you can see LIzard Island behind on the right. In all, there were 21 black marlin tagged on Day 3. Some more big fish amongst the mix which is very good to see.Taking the lead is the team on Spartacus with 5 tags adding one fish to their tally on Day 3 leading from Joe Joe also on 5 now on countback. They are followed by Top Shot on four fish and Hattitude, Castille III and Mai Tai also on 4 in countback order.Very important, the fleet needs your help. Australian citizens please consider urgently joining the Australian Lifestyle and Fishing Party. We need 70 more members within the next week to ensure we have a voice. Please read here for more details from Cairns Professional Game Fishing Association President Dan McCarthy. — Outside the tournament, Iona 2 has kept on big fish alert (original Iona is fishing the tournament with Capt. Trent and released one yesterday). Capt. Adam recorded his second grander on the new boat at Linden Bank (photo left – a video still) with a fish they called 1100lbs released. They also released a smaller fish at 350lb and jumped 4 off, had another one up and jumped a sailfish off!On Tradition, the crew fish is running red hot as well. Fishing north of Jewell, they saw 7, had double header of 120lb dogtooth and a marlin on the 50lb pitch bait – the doggie stole the scad form the marlin on the camera. Later, they pulled off one about 700 or so and let one go about 900 on top of Jewell just before dark.