Thanks to Barabara for the results:

Champion angler went to Capt. Kim Andersen’s wife Natalie on New Moon on a count back, for her sailfish on 10kg. The runner up was Nicky Gilbert from Townsville on Bill Collector (with the same points for her sailfish tag). The Champion team went to Bill Collector with added points from weighed game fish. Look Sharp‘s sailfish was caught on heavier line but still came third overall in the Calcutta.

Barbara’s boat (5.2m Kevlacat The Edge) was lucky to get champion team under 7m despite having to return to port at 12.30 due to Sharon’s illness with a hot mackerel bite in the morning (6) and came overall 4th.

Kelly Barnes fishing with us on KEKOA won heaviest gamefish with her 25.2 kg yellowfin on 10kg.  Congrats Kelly!

There were 37 boats entered in the tournament a great result. As I mentioned yesterday, Chloe Albert on New Moon fought a 200lb black marlin on 10kg line for two hours before the line broke. Bad luck, Chloe! Some more great game fish were weighed including a 22.7kg wahoo for Kasey Koy fishing on Cool Runnings.

Another action pic, this time from the underwater bite from the TowCam from Capt. Tim Richardson on Tradition.  Capt. Tim started a new trip yesterday with another big fish, a 900lb-er for angler Dave.  Dave and his family are up fishing the reef from Canberra.

We went one from one on KEKOA yesterday for Rick once again before running into Cairn for changeover – that makes 7 fish in 5 days to 900lbs for the boys.  We’ve put together some more footage, this time from Brendan’s (Tman) big fish from the day before. Plenty of big jumps on the leader.  Also at the Bank, Calypso got the late bite for a 300lb-er and Sharky on Sea Baby IV, still fishing ultra light tackle to today, tells me they raised three including the sea monster as well.

I’m still waiting for the official Port Douglas Marlin Challenge tournament results to come through but it might not be until tomorrow because there are some very sore heads this morning I hear (ahem, TNT!)  But I did hear from Capt. James “Jimbo” Bladin on Sparticus who took out the comp with six fish -  all small ones the biggest was only 300lb. The anglers were Ralph and Rolf Czabayski and David Sweet and crew was Dean Nichols and Chris Weeks. Jimbo also tells me that in the last 9 days fishing they have caught 12 fish – awesome stuff – but that wraps up their season now. See you next year!

The term has been thrown about a bit but Capt. Jared Weir used it again this week and it certainly is an accurate way to describe the Bank sometimes – where you go to watch other boats catch fish. On Sunday all the action was behind Amokura while the rest of the fleet watched. Spartacus was Monday’s Amokura.  And, as far as I could tell, Hot Shot, with Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford, was Tuesday’s Spartacus.  At least they were the only ones that we saw catch fish including this one (below riding down the wave with Dave Cassar on the leader).

Ian tells me they ended up with three at 300, 500 and 900lbs.  Another good day! I took another shot of them on their bigger fish (bottom) but unfortunately we were just a bit too far away for it to be a better shot. Also fishing the Bank after spending some time in the Ribbons, Askari with Capt. Corey Hard released two yesterday as well.  Kim tells me they caught a double header with the first, a 200lb-er caught by Jeff, the second, a 450lb-er caught by PC.  Video on its way.

On the Ribbons but heading south, Capt. Dean Beech on Castille III released a real nice fish yesterday that he called very close to the mark almost immediately after putting the baits in at Number 3. What a way to start your day!

On KEKOA we saw but did not conquer.  We have 50lb stand up enthusiast Shigeshi Tanaka (AKA “Dougie”) fishing with us this week with Capt. Barry “Cranky” Cross and Queensland’s leading fishing writer John Mondura – who is often Dougie’s personal photographer on these trips.  Dougie’s been fishing the reef for 21 years chasing his dream of the illusive grander on 50lb line.  He’s hasn’t got it yet but in the many years he’s been fishing with Barry, he’s gone pretty close!

Another well known angler, light tackle specialist Mike Levitt is also fishing the reef again right now with his party on board Sea Baby IV and Calypso and the mothership Atlantic Princess.

This is the time to be fishing the reef – if you are thinking of making a last minute trip to the north this year, there is still some availability–>check here (new dates added).

Mission Beach Tournament Report

Thank you to Babara Leptig, Secretary of Mission Beach GFC, who sent this along.  Barbara reports they had many late withdrawals due to the weather (yes it was blowing again!) and only 8 boats fished the tournament.The billfish continued to be absent (only two sailfish were hooked and lost) but the game fish were biting. There were some big spanish mackerel, barracuda, yellowfin tuna and GTs caught over the two-day event. In total 52 game fish were weighed and 35 were tagged – a great result and everyone had a fantastic time.

The winning boat was the local 6.5m Tomahawk owned by the owners of ‘The Tinnie Shack’ at Mission Beach, Carla and Dean Grieve. Carla is a regular on the ABC radio Fish Talk program on Friday afternoons and was a popular winner of champion female angler. Their third angler Adam Peach took out champion overall angler.  Congratulations to all who competed!

The Port Douglas Marlin Challenge starts tomorrow and Joe Joe will be acting as radio boat (and competing of course) so I’ll be sure to update on the fishing as much as I can on twitter.

Thinking of fishing this fabulous fishery? The following members of the BMFB Boat Directory have late cancellations/availability still remaining for this 2010 Giant Black Marlin Season:

Amokura November 30 – December 4.

Hot Shot November 22-28

Joe Joe November 18-23.

Moana III November 9-11 and November 29~

Sea Baby IV November 22-27 and November 29-December 2.

Tradition November 22-December 8.

There are lots of big fish still waiting to be caught!

Also, don’t forget if you are in the town, the Cairns Professional Game Fishing Association’s Hall of Fame Dinner will be held on November 27 at the Shangri-La Hotel at the Cairns Pier.

Join us for an historic night of entertainment and giant marlin celebrations.  Rub shoulders with the very cream of the world’s most famous marlin fishery.

Share a sumptuous dinner and mix with legendary captains, crews, anglers and Cairns Hall of Fame members.  Watch in awe as a stunning procession of private photography and film clips are screened for this exclusive audience.   Hear intimate anecdotes from the experiences of the Cairns fishing elite.

This is your chance to be included as we toast and celebrate the 2 new special inductees, Dr Julian Pepperell and Sir Garrick Agnew.

Also, there are many tournaments coming up this month including the Yorkey’s Knob Makaira Bullfight later in the month. Check out the tournament calendar for more details.

Thursday’s fishing report to come.

Joe sent me this footage from Moana‘s 1100lb-er for Andrey during the tournament. Joe spends time on Moana with Andrey and Capt. Dan each year and is very handy on the camera – great footage Joe!

Two reports from fishing yesterday to the south at Linden Bank with Capt. Jared on Shaka reporting another good day on the water with two fish including one that he put at 900lb!  Jared says that it was a good fish and fought hard and gave the boat a good workout in reverse.  This is a picture of the second fish for John at 500lbs taken by Rhys on the wire with ‘chest cam’.

Also fishing the bank, Capt. Tim on Tradition released two at 300 and 600lb (photo below) for Greg and lost another at 250lb on the double.  Tim says there was a bit more action at the bank and the water cleared up nicely overnight. The water has started to clean up in the middle as well.