There may have been fewer fish caught on Day 5 of the Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic, but was lacking in quantity, certainly wasn’t lacking in quality with another 4 fish released over 850lbs! Askari is streaking away from the competition adding another 3 tags on Day 5 to give them a total of 12 so far for the tournament. Their nearest rival, Little Audrey will need to catch 5 fish more than Askari to take the lead.

Not only did Capt. Corey Hard’s team end up on top on the daily for the second day running, but they also released another monster that Capt. Corey put at 950lbs as well as two more at 300 and 450lb. I took this picture alongside Askari as they tagged the fish. Hattitude released another big girl at 900lbs for Andrew Harvey. This is their second big fish of the tournament. Also a second big fish for the week and Danny “Rod Stealer” Curtis released a 900lb monster on board Hellraiser at Number 7 Ribbon. Capt. Dan on Little Audrey, who are maintaining their second place, told me they also dropped another big one next to the boat, tagging just the one at 150lbs.

Capt. Dean Beech’s Castille III was another big fish releaser on Day 5. They sat tagged a solid 850lb-er for Chris Caron, making the most of the great conditions for some great pics including this one taken by Tara Manners. The shot shows the satellite tag on its side. Five boats have a satellite tag each and and so far three of the tags have been deployed. These tags will track the movements of the fish over the next several months including distance traveled and depth.

And on Day 5, Reel Cross converted a 200lb-er to put them on the board and Top Shot, Kanahoee, Viking II and Reelistic also added to their tally as well. The current standing at the top of the leaderboard with two days to go is: Askari on the lead with 12 tags followed by Little Audrey on 8, Viking and Top Shot on 7. Spartacus, Hellraiser and Kanahoee on 6. Calypso, Hot Shot and Hattitude on 5. Onsite and Tradition on 4. Moana, Amokura and Reelistic on 3.
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Outside the tournament there are certainly boats still fishing and catching fish but are leaving the radio airtime to the tournament boats. On KEKOA, after picking up a few fish over the last few days, we had a better day yesterday going 4 from 4 at 250, 800lb, 150 and 250lbs. Roger’s 800lb fish giving us a spectacular display at the back of the boat for the GoPro and cameras (my photos above with Dingo on the leader and giving us a first glimpse below.) Down on Linden Bank, Capt. Simon Carosi’s Brilliant Company released two including a 500lb-er. Hopefully once the tournament is over we’ll be hearing a bit more from all the way up and down the reef!

Leaders run in — Askari in flight on the way in after a top day.

There were some outstanding efforts on Day 4 of the Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic including Capt. Corey Hard’s team on board Askari who added 5 tags to catapult them to the top of the leaderboard and Capt. Tim Dean’s team on board Calypso who tagged an estimated 1100lb-er as well as two smaller fish!  What a day!

On Calypso angler Robert Rich watched his team-mate Craig Reager catch his biggest fish to date, 950lb-er on Day 2 and thought it couldn’t get much better. Well it does–Robert topped that and then some with the 1100lb-er yesterday that also left its calling card in the transom door.  Capt Tim says the guys are topping their biggest fish each day but I’m not sure where they can go to from here!

Barry Alty on Mistress fighting his 900lb-er on Day 3. As a side note, Barry is taking photos of any boat fishing alongside him. Just email him–barryalty at bigpond dot com–and he will send you the pics next week when he’s back on the coast. Likewise, I’m doing the same from KEKOA although we are not fishing the tournament and you can email me for photos also–info at blackmarlinfishingblog dot com.)

The action was almost non-stop from the outset with Kanahoee and Mistress both hooking up within minutes of start fishing. But things really hotted up around 2pm and then it was on for the rest of the day.  Askari found a patch of fish and worked it all day calling in tag after tag of mostly smaller fish.  Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford’s Hot Shot had their own patch of fish-producing goodness at Number 7 Ribbon alongside Capt. Trent Vischer on Hellraiser who added another three tags to their tally yesterday–including an 850lb-er to John–to make it 5 tags now for them at Number 7 Ribbon putting them into contention. Not bad for the team who had to sit the first day of fishing out due engine troubles! Little Audrey made sure everyone knows they are the boat to keep an eye on with two more fish yesterday including another big fish to Ken Klein that Capt. Daniel Carlson put at 950lbs!

Onsite are making up for lost ground also with three tags yesterday including two big fish at 750 and 850lbs.  And youngster Connor Craven fishing on board Viking II has put himself into the lead in the Champion Angler stakes with another three tags yesterday.  That gives him six for the tournament so far.  Unfortunately, gear box problems may put them out of the fishing for at least some of today.  Ralph Czabayski with Capt. James “Jimbo” Bladin on Spartacus added another two tags yesterday to keep himself in the running for champion angler as well.  Also with 6 tags altogether he is third on countback from Connor and Askari’s Ray Camilleri who are making it one hotly contested prize!

On the ladies side, on Capt. Tim Richardson’s Tradition, Lydie Magers stormed back into contention with a great day on the water. Lydie finished with three tags at 350, 450 and 800lb to put her second on countback to Kanahoee’s Amanda Thompson (both with a total of 4 tags each).

Taking a moment to look at the big fish this tournament has produced so far – Australia’s still got it!  Number 1 for giant black marlin in the world without a doubt! 17 fish over 700lbs so far.

Calypso 1100lbs, 950lbs, 700lbs, Little Audrey 950lbs, 850lbs, 800lbs, Kanahoee 950lbs, 850lbs, Askari 900lbs, Mistress 900lbs, Hellraiser 850lbs, Top Shot 850lbs, Onsite 850lbs, 750lbs, Tradition 800lbs, Hot Shot 800lbs, Hattitude 700lbs.

There have been some big fish lost as well. I mentioned previously about Reel Cross who fought a big fish for several hours on Day 2 only to lose it beside the boat. Darren Lewis who is lending his experience on deck to the novice team sent me this photo of the fish.  (It’s a photo of a photo–ahh technology!)  And another relative newcomer to the Lizard Island tournament Game Over also fought a fish for several hours went into the darkness after cease fishing. I’ll try and find out what happened to that fish today.

The current standings at the top of the leaderboard are:

In the lead, Askari on 9 tags followed by Little Audrey on 7 and Viking and Spartacus on 6.  On 5 tags each are Top Shot, Hellraiser, Calypso and Hot Shot. On 4 tags are Kanahoee, Onsite and Tradition.

There are 20 out of the 24 boats on the board now!

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Outside the tournament big fish too for Capt. Tim Ryan on Joe Joe who released an 800lb-er on Opal Ridge yesterday!

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Although the day started out pretty slowly, a flurry of bites around the 4 o’clock mark made for a much more interesting afternoon–they had to wait, but it was worth it as there were certainly some big fish amongst them!

Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso, fresh off a boatside ‘release’ for his angler Craig’s biggest marlin on Sunday, tagged a fish that he put at 950lbs! The fish gave a great arial display boatside and all on board were absolutely stoked! About the same time, Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford on Hot Shot called in the tag on their first fish of the tournament which he put at 800lb for his angler Ron Delamare.

Radio boat for the tournament Castille III also got on the board with a 400lb-er for angler Chris Caron. I thought we might be in for some radian fun with Capt. Dean Beech radio-ing in his tag details from the tower to Tournament Director Bob Lowe on the bridge, but alas–maybe next time Deano? Also on Number 10, Capt. Tim Richardson on Tradition released a 350lb-er for his lady angler Lydie Magers and missed another that he put at 700lbs. Another lady angler Nina Mattingley, but this time with her first ever marlin, got on the board on board Fascination fishing at Day Reef with Capt. Craig “Brutus” Newbold. Congratulations Nina!

But the day once again belonged to two boats who fought it out for the top of day honours with two fish each. This time between the two private boats with Spartacus pipping Hattitude for their second tag with 12 minutes in it. (Which really shows the fish came on at the same time along the reef.) Owner Ralph Czabayski called both fish on Spartacus at 200 and 400lbs. Andrew Harvey caught both on Hattitude at 700 and 150lbs which I believe, combined with his fish on Day 1, will put him in the lead for Champion Angler.

There were 13 tags all together on Day 2. The consolation prize goes to the team on Reel Cross who fought a fish almost the whole time between the final two skeds only to lose it at the boat.

Current tournament standings (in order): With 2 tags, Amokura, Kanahoee, Viking II, Fascination, Spartacus, Hattitude. With 1 tag, Reely Black, Bill Collector, Castille III, Little Audrey, Top Shot, Calypso, Hot Shot, Askari and Tradition. That makes 15 of the 24 boats competing on the board.

Outside the comp, Suzie sent me another report from the boys and girls in blue, with one of the local Sergeant’s releasing this fish that they put at 300lbs off Euston Reef over the weekend (above). Great stuff!

Day two of the Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic – check back (refresh) to see the results as they unfold.
17:30 pm
Cease fishing. That’s it for today. Full report in the morning.

16:55 pm
Spartacus 400lb for Ralph. Hattitude tagged.

16:18 pm
Spartacus second fish was wrong species. Fascination tagged but I can’t hear their details. Askari tagged too. Reel Cross has been fighting for a while.

16:16 pm
Spartacus tagged 200lbs for Ralph and then hooked up again.

16:07 pm
A couple of big fish their. Calypso tagged 950lbs for Craig. Hot Shot (Wobbles)tagged 800lbs but I couldn’t catch the angler’s name.

15:55 pm
Top Shot tagged (size ?). Viking II tagged 400lbs to Connor. A little flutter of activity with a few boats hooked up.

15:18 pm
Little Audrey tagged 150lbs.

14:25 pm
Spoke too soon: Castille’s fish tagged at 400lb to Chris Caron.

14:21 pm
Tournament base called hookup on Castille III. It’s been a while now so it might be a big fish and a contender for one of Peter Teakle’ satelite tags….

13:42 pm
Scratch that for Hellraiser, I think I mis-heard.

13:11 pm
Hattitude and Hellraiser tagged during the sked. Other than that it was zeros. Hattitude’s fish was 700lbs to Andrew Harvey. Hellraiser details to come but chances are it’s one of the Curtis’s

11:12 am
Start fishing has been called. (Sorry I was in the internet black hole at the top of Number 4 Ribbon).