It sounds like exciting fishing for the Luhrs Billfish Shootout held last weekend, 20-21 February at Port Stephens, with 114 marlin tagged in the two days fishing. Askari was first out of the blocks at the 'Carpark' with the first tag in the first hour of fishing, but it was local private boat Born Free who quickly took control with two quick tags (a black and a stripe) soon after and ending the day in the lead with 7. Not too far behind was Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso with 5 followed by KAOS and Diversion.

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!

Port Stephens - some good fishing in the leadup to the Interclub which starts this weekend. The boys on Josh went 8-8-6 on Saturday. I hear that the bite off Bermagui has been improving as well.

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).

Saturday 13/2
Smithy reports from the local Mooloolaba grounds Reel Capture, a 7.2m Kevlacat with Dave Granville aboard (hope DG is getting lots of great pics of the action!) ended Saturday on top with 10 tagged black marlin. While Ymer released 7, Choppa and The Animal 6 and Smithy got 4 on Triton IV. Off Noosa, Bring it On went 3 from 4.

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.

When its hot, its hot! The fishing has been a little patchy but a quick report from Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso at Port Stephens indicates its back to red hot. Running in yesterday Tim reported 12 released for the day including 2 black marlin and 10 stripes. With the weather looking pretty good for most of the weekend, it'll be interesting to hear how the rest of the fleet fares. Interclub starts in two weeks!

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?

Picture on left from Capt. Adam Jordan and team on board Iona 2 who fished the Lake Macquarie Big Fish Bonanza last weekend and took out the capture division - including this 411lb blue for wife Kristy on 30lb which is a potential Australian record. Congratulations Kristy! This tops off another hot weeks fishing on board Iona 2 with Capt. Adam reporting 14 fish in 6 days fishing!

In the Tag and Release section In A Meeting won with 2 striped marlin, and the boys also lost another 400lb blue at the boat. Murrifin came in second on countback with two tags, a black and this blue (photo on right). Thanks Rod for the picture.

Pictures from the tournament including the winners on Shamwari who are off to Cabo!

Final results are in and congratulations to the team on the 32 Cabo Express Shamwari who took out Champion Team and Champion Boat with 9 black marlin tagged from Reel Capture with 9 black marlin tagged and Scalded also on 8. In the under 6.5m category, Sailfisher lead with 3 black marlin and 1 striped marlin tagged from Out Quoting with 3 black marlin.

Some of the other trophies included Champion Overall Male angler went to Ronan Lynch on Tigercat with 5 black marlin while Champion Overall Female went to Carmen McCloy on Caboom with a blue marlin tagged. The juniors also got in on the action with Ryan McKinnon taking away the Junior trophey for his 3 black marlin and wahoo capture.

Final stats were 246 strikes, 196 hookups, 102 tags or captures exceeding line class comprising, 76 black marlin, 3 blue marlin and one striped marlin. 16 wahoo, 3 mahi mahi, 2 barracuda and a cobia from 41 boats.

Congratulations to all who competed!

Results from Day 1 of the Sunshine Coast Gamefish Classic from Capt. Rob Smith. 41 boats have entered and there were 42 tags recorded on the first day. The leaderboard sees 4 boats each with 6 black marlin including Craig McCulloch's 7.2 Kevlacat Reel Capture with Dave Granville aboard, Roger Bayzand's 28 Black Watch, Peter Matthews' 32 Cabo Express and Kym Lynch's 26' Grady White.  Rob reports fish are being caught from the Gold Coast to Noosa Canyons and I hear that one boat fishing off the Gold Coast went 16-15-6 (including 5 double hookups)!

Two blue marlin were tagged at Noosa Canyons and Cape Moreton, one to the 36' Black Watch Watch Ya Problem and the 5.8 Fisher trailerboat Sailfisher.

Outside the tournament also on the Gold Coast yesterday, the current slowed and the fish showed up again with Capt. Ross McCubbin on Lucky Strike treating his guests to another great day on the water with 9 from 11 black marlin in 80m east of the Seaway between 40 and 70kg.

Lastly, did anyone see this in the Courier Mail online this morning? Underwater video footage on the GBR from some of AIMS (Australian Institute of Marine Science) short-lived 'Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations' - go here.

We just squeezed in a quick video editing session while we had KEKOA's hard drive handy to make a clip of some fantastic big eye tuna action from the end of the 2009 season when Capt. Luke and the boys fished out wide. You can check it out on You Tube here (some stills from the footage below). Also, Clayton sent me the link to the You Tube clip of his 1100lb-er on board Joe Joe during the season - here. Thanks Clayton!

A reminder that the Sunshine Coast Gamefish Classic is on this weekend with the briefing tonight at the Marina Bar at the Kawana Waters Hotel. Capt. Rob Smith reports that the Sunshine Coast season has so far been very consistent with the best day so far being 8 rom 9.

In the tournament lead up, Reel Capture released 4 little blacks on the 10 mile on Saturday while Ymer and Bite Me also got in on the action with one a piece. Boats fishing the tournament have the option to fish heavy or light tackle and with reports that Watch Ya Problem have also tagged a few blues, the tournament boats should be spread far and wide.

Photos from Eddie Jebreen on Ymer of Ben's leaping black and Smithy backing down hard on Triton IV. We're looking forward to hearing the results as they come in.