A three shot compilation of some of my marlin photos from the Cairns Giant Black Marlin Season 2011.

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Jeppesen Marine 25th Bill Heyward Memorial Anniversary Tournament

Held over the weekend, the tournament was a great success with 41 boats and 158 anglers fishing. A total of 13 marlin were tagged with another 2 marlin weighed, and 6 sharks tagged with another 5 weighed.  There were also 3 other game fish tagged and released.

Day 1:  Saturday started out with fantastic conditions with smooth seas and lots of fish being fought. On the marlin fishing side of the competiion, the Towcam.com.au first marlin award went Botany Bay GFC boat Sirocco, and also won first marlin tagged by a junior in the tournament with the same fish.

There were also some very good captures on Day 1 as well with Sydney GFC boat Blood n Guts weighing a 396kg tiger shark and Botany Bay GFC boat Sniper, a 288kg tiger shark. Ungry weighed a 95.5kg black marlin

Day 2: Sunday started out very much the opposite to Saturday with gusty southeastly winds up to 25 knots which stopped a lot of the smaller boats from going to sea. Boats that did venture out got into the action again with Blood n Guts weighing another tiger shark of 267.5kg. Home Strait from the Base Strait GFC weighed a 373.00kg Mako, Outcast weighed a 180.5kg tiger, Sniper weighed a 85.5kg Mako and Smart Bill weighed a 88kg striped marlin.

The Bill Heyward Trophy was won by Ungry from Sydney GFC,

Other awards went to:

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The GCGFC Inc. Light Tackle Masters 2012 was held over the weekend with 36 boats, 151 anglers and crew tagging 19 marlin over the 3 days.

Jugs, skippered by Ross McCubbin cleaned up winning Champion Boat Overall, Champion Boat over 8m, Champion Boat Heavy Tackle, Champion Female (Danielle Caelli), & Champion Male (Ben Caelli) with 4 blue marlin tagged taking home a total prize pool in excess of $17K.  Additionally they have gained entry to the 2012 IGFA Offshore World Champion Event in Cabo San Lucas.

In the Light Tackle section, Fire Up skippered by Brett Smith took out Champion Boat Light Tackle with a huge number of other gamefish species tagged during the tournament.

Congratulations goes to all who competed in the adverse weather conditions!

Full tournament round-up:

The tournament committee made the right call to include a heavy tackle component in the competition in the leadup (with the small black marlin fishing on the inshore grounds slow again this year).  And the weather forecasters also got it right, unfortunately, with the conditions less than ideal for all three days of fishing.

Teams and boats from as far off as New Zealand, Coffs Harbour, Mooloolaba, Townsville as well as a good number from the Surfers Paradise club ensured that we all made many new friends and the social side on the dock was pleasant.  World-class, multimillion dollar boats such as Shaka, Kiwi, Mistress and Castille III were competing against trailer boats of all sizes, the smallest being Carona, a 5.4 metre vessel that toughed it out for all 3 days. (Update: Mick tells me the actual smallest boat of the comp was in fact the 5.2mtr Kevla Cat Team Garmin who slogged it out for the three days and tagged a blue marlin to just miss out on the Under 8m prize on countback.)

Day 1:  36 boats headed out into the 2 to 3 metre swells and some consistent strong wind, and despite the conditions Reel Screamer skippered by Scott Watson called in the first marlin only an hour after lines in, a nice blue on heavy tackle. Soon after they were hooked up again successfully tagging another blue.  Ross McCubbin skippering Jugs then got into the action with another 2 blues in 2 hours while Brett Alty skippering Mistress tagged one. The rough conditions saw many other hook-ups lost.  (Celebrations for the crew on Reel Screamer unfortunately did not last long when it was discovered that their leader lengths were too long and both fish were disqualified.)

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Some marlin fishing reports from the weekend on the southern NSW coast:

Bateman’s Bay:

The Tollgate Classic is over for another year. The weather was kind and there were a few fish around to be caught for the 50 odd boats entered (though the marlin fishing over the tournament was slower than recent years overall). Travis, on deck of BBGAC president Dennis Lucardie’s boat Hardaraddit, tells me they took out the tournament with 7 striped marlin tags as well as Champion Angler for Brian Schofield and Champion Female for Denis’ daughter Tegan.

Young Brock Lazzaro from Bermagui fished on Mr Hooker and took out Champion Junior Angler with 2 striped marlin tagged. Most fish were caught south around the Tuross Canyons which should be good for the Bermagui Bluewater Classic this weekend.

Onsite weighed a 256kg blue marlin on the Saturday and a few boats finished the tournament with two marlin tags. Travis says another Bermagui boat Panlicker had a shot at the runner-up trophy but failed to hand in their third tag card on the last day.

I also heard the smallfry and junior anglers had a great time and were very competitive tagging their striped tuna and received compliments on their radio skill from the sked master!   Thanks to Travis and Gail for the reports!

Read on after the jump for the full results.

Bermagui:

Fishing with Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford on Hot Shot, Dave tells me they had a good weekend with an estimated 80kg striped marlin for Sharon Garbutt on 10kg, as well as a 75kg striped marlin for 13 year-old Michael on 8kg.  With Wobbles at the wheel and Dave on the deck, 11 year-old Tyler Wright also caught his first marlin at 66.8kg on 15.

The Bermagui Bluewater Classic is this weekend.

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Another weekend, so more great marlin fishing from along the coast including a few tournaments (full reports still to come in). I’m still getting reports coming in so read on for a quick recap of the action (with more detail to come later) as well as some catch up photos from last week:

• The Gold Coast Light & Heavy Tackle Masters finished with cease fishing at 3pm yesterday and local super-Capt. Ross McCubbin came out on top overall and in the big boat class with 4 blue marlin. Ross was at the wheel of the 51 Riviera Jugs.  Three other boats including Capt. Bretty Alty on Mistress tagged two each. More to come.
• Central Coast NSW: Rod Findlay tells me they had some great fishing on Saturday on Murrifin less than 2 miles off North Head (in 40 fathoms between Barrenjoey Head & North Head). Rod said they started the day in 80 fathoms, raising a couple but not switching, but headed in close when they heard Broken Bay GFC boat Shakara were fighting the third of their four striped marlin for the day.  Within minutes of arriving, they switched a 70kg black on 15 kg, later adding a 70kg stripe from a double header (missing the second, a bigger striped est at 100kg) and finished with 5-3-2 for the day.

  Ron Jacobs tells me other Broken Bay GFC boats who were fishing Central Zone on the weekend also had some good results with Avanti going 2 from 4 (including a blue marlin), Ron on Shakara with their 4, and Sirrocco with 3.

• By Sunday, the bite had moved south with no fish raised in the same area.  Rod tells me it seemed like Bandit Reef was the place to be (in close north of Wollongong) and he heard of a few boats catching 3 and 4 fish there yesterday.
• NSW tourneys held on the weekend include the Botany Bay GFC Bill Heyward Tournament and the Bateman’s Bay Tollgate Classic (reporst to come).
• Catch up photos from the North Queensland: Capt. Brett Goetze on Reel Chase sent me these pics from their trip out to Holmes Reef (ex-Port Douglas last weekend). Brett reports they fished via the seamount for two blue marlin on the way out and another on the way in (to 500lbs) as well as yellowfin tuna to 50kg.