Some marlin fishing updates from Ulladulla in the leadup to the Jess Sams Tournament this weekend. Peter tells me he fished his boat Mayhem on Saturday and tagged two striped marlin, at one stage having 3 stripes up on a teaser at the back of the boat but only managed to switch one of those three. Meanwhile another local boat Blackjack tagged a 150kg black nearby.

Peter says there are bait schools all over and the fish appear to be wide spread all the way from 25 fathoms where Blackjack missed a double on the way in, all the way out to the shelf. One local pro also reported seeing 5 marlin while fishing in close of the headland, which means the marlin are within reach for everybody regardless of the size of boat. All going well it’s ready to fire this weekend!

North of Ulladulla there are reports of blacks, blues & stripes off Jervis Bay, The Banks  (170kg + black marlin) and Kiama with some boats reporting up to 6 and 7 fish in the one day.  South of Ulladulla the fishing continues to fire with reports of plenty of action at the Bermagui Bluewater Tournament  over the weekend where local boats Mr Hooker and Hot Shot battled it out for champion boat.

Anyone wishing to fish the Jess Sams Tournament can get an entry form at www.ulladullagamefishing.info

Bermagui

• The tournament report is still to come but I heard that Mr. Hooker took out the three day event. One fish behind was the team on Hot Shot with their junior angler Tom Wright taking out Champion Junior Angler with 8 tags.

Port Stephens

• While the marlin fishing has been slower mid-week, the fishing fired up in time for the weekend once again. On Saturday, Calypso (with Capt. Ross Finlayson at the wheel) released five while Blue Illusion got three stipes and spearfish.  Fritto 1, braved the 25 knot North-Easters yesterday for a 2-2-2 on the first two baits that hit the water. Andy tells me there were  a lot less boats on the water due to the weather.  Brent Hancock’s Tacklworld is also reporting 5 for Seaka at the Carpark, including a marlin grand slam, and four for Shelby, while Brent and the team on Born Free fished further to the south for two good stripes.  Brad Curis on Ningaloo tells me the fishing has been pretty consistent since the start of the year with 1 or two a day, and more on the good days. He released an estimated 300lb blue marlin on their last trip out on Friday and a stripe the day before, with their best day fish the week before with 5 stripes.
• More record hunting is also going on for the crews of Diversion and Gunnrunner.  Lone Wolf also got in on the act with a pending Australian Small Fry Record for Nathan Plunket – a 72.6kg black marlin on 15kg line. That’s Nathan in the black visor – great going for the young fella!
  

Upcoming Tournaments

• The Jess Sams Tourny at Ulladulla, Lake Macquarie Big Fish Bonanza and the Sunshine Coast GFC Classic are all on this weekend. Check out the tournament calendar for more details.

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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