Congratulations to the teams on board Sea Baby IV (over 8m) with 4 tags and Elektrakushen (under 8m) with 2 tags for their wins in the Townsville Mike Carney Toyota Billfish Challenge.  The presentation is tonight and so full results up tomorrow.  All indications are that the little black marlin have indeed bypassed much of North Queensland this year – only one marlin was tagged for the entire tournament, the rest being sails, and even more surprisingly, not a single billfish was tagged at Cape Bowling Green this week. Townsville club members are now gearing up for heavy tackle with more than one boat planning to hit Myrmidon Reef early next week.

Meanwhile, the ‘model up’ black marlin have already shown up on the Sunshine Coast.  On Monday, Outside Edge released three black marlin between 70 and 120kg. On Tuesday, Reel Capture release two blacks at 90 and 120kg both on 8kg and also jumped off 100kg stripe and saw a freejumping sail. And Heath Irvine on Tanjian solo released an 80kg black.  Shaping up very nicely for the tournament at the end of the month.

Still slowly adding numbers to the tournament tally.

In trademark Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles fashion, Sea Baby IV swooped in to take the lead with a total of three fish tagged, adding two on day 3, a double header of sails.  The first fish of the day (sailfish) went to Princess C who picked right up from where they left at cease fishing yesterday.  Kanahoee made it onto the scoreboard with a sailfish at lunch and the Phantom were hooked up at cease fishing.

Castille III on anchor at Cape Bowling Green.

Day 2 results
More fish today though still quiet by Townsville’s usual standards. And, apart from a lone marlin today (first marlin of the tournament tagged by Sea Baby IV), it has been all sails.  Sparticus put the first points of the day on the board at a relatively early 9am with a sailfish.
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From Cairns heavy tackle, Capt. Adam and Iona 2 have been heading up the Ribbons in not too favourable weather. Even still they managed to release two yesterday on Number 10 Ribbon Reef at 300 and 150lbs (picture). Its a really good sign for the season ahead, the fish being around so early.

From Townsville light tackle, today was Day 1 of the Mike Carney Toyota Billfish Challenge.  Unfortunately, the quiet we experienced before the tournament has continued through the start. Not a single black marlin was seen although two sailfish were tagged and released from amongst the 30 boat fleet.

On board Screamer, Pemberton Jnr (Lindsay) tagged the first billfish of the tournament just after 1pm.  At 2, the team on board Elektrakushen put a tag in a sail that angler Brad Kane had been fighting for two hours on the 6kg line.  These were not the only seen.  On board Castille III, Capt. Deano raised a pod of sails for a double hookup which unfortunately turned to a double jump off soon after.  And there were a few more reports of fish lost around that same time including Burgundy Lady who had a couple of bites that couldn’t be converted.

Report courtesy of Steve Tatham – thanks Steve!

Competitors fishing the Dampier Classic over the weekend encountered very unfavourable conditions with the winds mostly 30-35 knots, peaking at 42 knots on the Monday.  Billfish numbers were down on the huge result from last year (291 sailfish and 53 black marlin in 2009), sailfish significantly, and this year there were more marlin caught than sailfish. But it was still a good showing considering the conditions with 46 black marlin and 12 sailfish tagged.

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