• The weather has claimed another victim with Yorkey’s Knob Fishing Club canceling their weekend comp due to the 30+knot winds.
• The world has been watching the grander count as reports filter in that Bermuda weighed their third grander of the season last week.  While 2009 was a great year for grander black marlin on the Great Barrier Reef (search “grander” in the search-bar to read 2009 reports), July 2010 has been a great MONTH for grander blue marlin in Bermuda with 1012lbs for Playmate on July 12, 1005lbs for C Ya on July 21 followed by another 1005lbs for Que Mas on July 22.  Just a short couple of months now until the Cairns Giant Black Marlin season kicks off once again in September.

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Something different to inspire you for your fishing and the seasons ahead, a free desktop wallpaper, this first one celebrating the start of the little black marlin season.

The wallpaper includes a calendar to see us through the season. (Isn’t it easier to check your fabulous desktop wallpaper calendar instead of launching some application?)  Look out for more wallpapers to come – the next one will of course be celebrating NQ’s Giant Black Marlin season’s start in September.  If none of the below fit your screen, use your image editor to refine its dimensions or choose “Stretch to fit”.

Read on for instructions and links for download.

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Photos and report courtesy of Jeff Cooper, President of the Broome Fishing Club:

The recent Kingswood Marine Broome Billfish Classic was held in what was has been described by all competitors as the most atrocious weather possible for the event. Howling wind, torrential rain, and freezing cold conditions ‘blessed’ the competitors–extremely unseasonal weather for Broome during this time of year. Despite the conditions, the 19 teams stuck it out for the six days of endurance event to finish with a total of 128 billfish tagged.

Interestingly the sailfish numbers were down about a third on last year, but marlin tagged numbers were about double. There were some big marlin in amongst them too with an estimated 180kg model giving 13 year old Bryce Marinis a run for his money on 10kg.

The final stats were:
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• The first Black Marlin Fishing Blog monthly email newsletter is out now. If you’d like to subscribe to the newsletter, you can do so here.
• A story from Towcam’s John Faulkner that he’d like to call–”Shut up and listen!” John took his boat Five Star out from the Gold Coast seaway with just him and a mate on board for their usual Sunday, to get some towcam vision.  John reports “Calm crisp weather, the SST charts showing good water temp at 80m we arrived to find good bait mid-water. After a quick drop and just one huge slimy, we decided to pull lures. (After listening to GCGFC guest speaker Capt. Ross McCubbin recently on striped marlin techniques.)  We scanned with the 360deg sonar for bigger schools, found a good patch of bait stacked up high in the water and marked a few large fish so we pulled up and let the lures sink and pulled them into the bait. Double hook up striped marlin!
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• On the West Coast: The Broome Billfish Classic is over and Broome GFC president Jeff Cooper reports that they had their challenges with the weather.  Over 106mm of rain fell during the week’s competition and on one day the temperature barely reached 18 degrees (not quite the warm sunshine competitors are used to!) As for the fishing, sailfish numbers were down a third but they raised twice as many marlin. Significant catches include a 180kg range black marlin on 10kg for a junior angler which was tagged and released.  Full report to come.
• On the East Coast: the upcoming Townsville Billfish Bonanza and Yorkey’s Knob Light Tackle Tournament (members only) should finally give us some indication if the little black marlin have arrived in the north.  Read more about these tournaments on the new Tournament Calendar page.

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