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.

Port Stephens

• Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso followed up on his 5 striped marlin day on Sunday with another 5 in an hour of fishing on Monday. Tim says the first bite didn’t come until 1pm, and they had 5 on the board by 2pm!

Cairns

• Meanwhile there are still a few around during the marlin fishing ‘off’ season in Cairns (as well as plenty of the usual sportfish).  Capt. Brett on Reel Chase went out to Holmes Reef via the seamount and caught two blue marlin on the way out (including one about 500lbs) and another on the way back as well as some nice yellowfin to 50kg on the seamount.  Brett says a highlight of the trip was deckhand Lachy jumping in with the bigger blue for around 5 minutes filming it while it was around 10m below the surface.



• On KEKOA with Capt. Luke we did an overnight trip out wide yesterday for two small blues (photo above). Capt. Sparra on Square Bear released a sailfish at Channel and Capt. Ross on Top Shot got a 200lb black on the edge earlier in the week.

Port Macquarie


Scott Baker on Iona 2 with his 182.4kg blue marlin

The BlueWater Legal Port Macquarie Tournament Report:

• Steve reports great fishing had by all with some 28 boats and 140 anglers enjoying the fishing. Some 125 fished were hooked but not too many actually made it to the boat. The majority of fish were blue marlin with only 2 black & 3 stripe marlin being reported.  Steve says the fish must of been on steroids with some long fights recorded – one angler spent better than 5 hours on a stripe marlin on 15 Kg line to win the T&R on the bell on the last day.

  Champion Boat T&R Good or Good PMGFC
  Champion Angler T&R Ryan Frost    PMGFC
  Champion Boat Capture   Iona 2  LMGFC
  Champion Angler Capture T&R Scot Baker PMGFC
  Champion Female T&R & Capture Michelle Evans  PMGFC
  Champion Junior T&R Harriet Crowley PMGFC
  (Harriet is from Dubbo & fishes on her Dad’s boat Backed Up2)
  Champion Small Fry Connon Brown on his Dad’s Boat Rarely Inn

  Steve says he spoke to Dave Finn while he was up here and he believes we can change port to the blue marlin capital (as Adam Jordan on Iona he was only 11ms past the shelf on a estimated 600lb blue thats closer than the shelf at Port Stephens.) Watch out Port Stephens!
  Thanks Steve for the report and Mike Kane for the photo!

Weekend marlin fishing reports – this report was started on Sunday and you can see the updates from this monrning (Monday) in bold.

Port Stephens

• I had a good catch up chat to Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso this morning who’s reporting some really good fishing out of Port Stephens right now.  Tim says the water is 24 degrees with little or no current and the fact that we’ve had no floods so far this year (touch wood) means that the water is clean.  Tim caught a 100kg blue marlin 3 miles off Cabbage Tree yesterday in just 40 fathoms of water and missed another blue and striped marlin.  The day before they tagged four and the day before that, three.  So far this morning fishing they already have two stripes on the board! Update: I just heard from Capt. Tim again who’s on his way in – 5 striped marlin for the day and heading in for the early mark. Great day!
• I also heard from Grant Morley on his boat Kahlua fishing just wide of the Car park area on Thursday who went an awesome 7-5-5. Grant says they were all striped marlin and they caught one on a skip bait as they were approaching the spot, and the rest on livies.
• Little Audrey’s Capt. Daniel Carlson fished on a mate’s boat yesterday for a 120kg stripe from 3.  He was also on board Diversion with Garry Holt earlier in this week when James again potentially broke his own pending 3kg striped marlin record with a fish weighing in a 63.5kg. Update: I heard that James caught a 2kg pending Australian record at 62kg yesterday.

Sydney

• Updated: Rob tells me that Ambition tagged a 140kg black and raised a few others while Hoodlum raised 5 small stripes but couldn’t convert and Blue Illusion got a 110kg stripe as well.

Port Macquarie

• Port Macquarie’s Golden Lure Tournament is over for another year and while I don’t have the official tournament results yet, I do know that Iona 2 took out the Capture section. Day 3 was cancelled due to the weather but Day 4 went ahead and Adam says they fought an estimated 600lb blue for 3 and half hours before losing the fish right beside the boat an hour after stop fishing and more than 11 miles over the edge.  Adam reported they raised 10 blues altogether in the 4 days they fished (including Ladies/Juniors Day). Congrats to the team!

Gold Coast

• Plenty of action on the Gold Coast yesterday with a few big blues still being caught and encountered. Capt. Ross McCubbin on Lucky Strike says he heard of 7 or 8 fish tagged yesterday alone. Capt. Ross put Gerry from Canada onto her first marlin, a 220kg blue (485lbs) which gave her a tough 1 hour fight on 130. They also had a couple more shots on blues and caught a nice dolphin fish for dinner.
• Conor Lynch also reported from on board Lynch Mob yesterday. They fought a big blue for an hour and a half before eventually getting it alongside for the release and put the fish at 800lbs+ with a short measurement of 10ft 8 for angler Andrew. They also caught an estimated 80kg mako ending the day with 2-2-2.
• Vince on Barco tells me they went 1 from 1 on Friday and 1 from 3 yesterday (blue marlin). Vince also said yesterday afternoon’s fish was another definitely bigger than the Gold Coast industry average.
• Craig Summerville’s Tsunami is likewise plugging away and added another blue in the 100kg range (220lb) yesterday and I heard that Andrew Morley’s Express tagged one as well. That’s five..!

Sunshine Coast

• Only the one encounter reported from the Sunshine Coast so far with MGFC boat Akoya going 1-1-0 off Cape Moreton on Friday with a blue on a midday bite.