On day 2, Born Free released their first fish of the day within 12 minutes of start fishing, leaving the rest of the field with a lot of work to do to catch up. And they did, with Calypso giving them a thrilling run for their 10K prize money finishing just one fish behind at cease fishing at 3pm. Born Free took the winners cheque with 11 marlin tagged, Calypso finished second with 10 and KAOS in third.

Unfortunately on the capture side, no qualifying fish were weighed and so the awards went unclaimed (and will jackpot next year!) Shayne Wilson on The Force fought a blue for 5 hours on 24kg before the fish won its freedom when the trace broke and Cool Runnings broke a rod 2 hours into the fight on another nice blue!

Congratulations to all who competed. Luhrs will be back to sponsor the event again next year which will be held 19-20 February 2011. Thank you to Australian Luhrs Distributor Tony Poole for the report.

The Interclub starts tomorrow – can’t wait to hear how it all goes. Wishing we were there but someone decided to get married instead Thanks to all for your congratulations!

On the Sunshine Coast, Smithy released another 4 from 8 on Triton IV yesterday. And a message from Ian Bladin, LSGFC Tournament Director: The Little Ship Game Fish Club Haines Group Classic has been postponed due to the adverse weather conditions and will now be held on March 19-21 (owing to other commitments they were unable to gain access to the Little Ship Club facilities on North Stradbroke until these dates).

Sunday 14/2
Another great day on the Sunshine Coast. Cameron O’May steered his mates onto 7 yesterday in their trailerboat. On Triton IV, Smithy released 6 and a wahoo, Outrageous released 5, Roger Bayzand who took these photos got 3 solo again (two days in a row in his 28′ Black Watch!) and Simple Plan got a couple as well. There were just as many fish but overall less boats fishing with the northerly coming through at lunch time and chasing a lot home.

David (Granville) posted some footage from his new GoPro HD Hatcam on YouTube. The first from 10 on Saturday as well as one of his solo marlin from his centre console. I think someone will be investing in one of these before the Cairns season! Good stuff David!

Tuesday
Triton IV released another 3 and a wahoo on the troll bringing their total to 21 blacks in 6 days. Chris Yeh went 5 from 6 in his centre console live baiting, the Lees on their trailerboat Misty were 4 from 5 and BJ Tompkins in his centre console Sailfisher ended up with 4 tagged blacks, 3 wahoo and a mahi mahi on the troll.

Just a quick note: I’m taking a few days off and away from the blog – back next week.

The Sunshine Coast has also been in the midst of a good bite. Smithy reports Sunshine Coast trailerboat Misty went 6 from 7. Mooloolaba GFC boat Kajiki with Bobby Forbes on deck got 6, David Granville this time with the boys on Nuvatu got 5 and Jeff Oats on his centre console tagged four in the morning before heading off to work. Luna released 3 and Shamwari were 3 from 4 trolling out wide. On Triton IV with his guests yesterday Smithy released two blacks and took home 2 wahoo and dolphin fish. Smithy reports it was a crazy day on the water with huge numbers of bites.

The Little Ship Game Fish Club are holding the Haines Group Gamefish Classic next weekend (February 19-21) and with fishing grounds from Noosa all the way to Tweed Heads, teams should get in on the action. (Check out the tournament brochure here.)

In the strange but true category (?), did anyone see this article about a marlin in a creek north of Yeppoon?