• Well 14 TGFC boats searched high and low over the weekend club comp for the little black marlin, but alas only one sailfish was recorded for private Townsville boat Cool Change.  Although the weather really put it on for all, I hear the overnight bottom bashing went off!  Hopefully the marlin are just being a little ellusive and show up in time for the big tournament in September.
• Meanwhile, on Cool Runnings in Cairns, Jye reports they’ve been catching a lot of mackerel and tuna on their light tackle days out.  Lets see if the little black marlin show up for the Cairns BlueWater 6kg Billfish Tournament which starts with a briefing at Fitzroy Island tomorrow night and start fishing on Thursday.

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• This year Capt. Ross McCubbin returns to the reef at the helm of C jig, the ex-Fascination 48 Express Riviera.  On the way north, C jig have spent some time at Blossom Banks, a fair haul off Hamo where they jumped off a 400lb blue and had a lot of fun chasing other critters like these.
  
  

  

  

  

With the election coming up in less than 9 days, Australians fishos everywhere are getting nervous. This election is far too important for us to take lightly and so I asked industry stalwart Capt. Tim Dean to break down the issues for me.  He kindly took the time to answer my questions. If you fish and you vote, I encourage you to give this your utmost consideration come election day.

Kelly: What are the basics of the policies/stance of the major parties (Labour and Liberal/National Coalition) as well as the Greens Party as they relate to recreational fishing in Australia?

T.D.: The major policy which will affect us is the further implementation of the National Marine Representative System which will take a minimum of 30% of all bio-regions around Australia as no-fishing zones. This is what the Greens want by 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

• Townsville GFC have called the snap election tournament, with the announcement last night that the Billfish Bonanza will go ahead this weekend.  To enter you must be a current financial member of the club and pay your entry fee by start fishing on Sat.
• Other tournaments sneaking up include the Cairns BlueWater 6kg Billfish Tournament which starts next week.  Townsville’s big tournament, the Mike Carney Toyota Billfish Challenge is September 3-8 and Yorkey’s Knob’s rescheduled (due to the election) Norship Marine Light Tackle Slam is September 10-12.  See the tournament calendar for more info.
• A few pictures from Castille III’s days at Hamo and into Townsville. They grow the mackerel big up there!
  
  

  

  

• Broome is firing again!  Jeff Cooper joined the guys on board Billistic Sunday to get some photos of the Woodside funded tagging program in operation.  And, they got right in the middle of the action with another double digit day, finding a huge mass of sails just north of the peanut. Multiple hook ups were the norm with pods of up to 9 sails marauding the teasers and running amok. Above is a pic of the chaos (great shot Jeff!). And the weather was great too!
• Word from Capt. Dean Beech on Castille III, who straight-lined through Cape Bowling Green to Townsville after three days fishing from Hamilton Island, raising two blacks on the way in.  With strong hints that TGFC are going to call their postponed Billfish Bonanza for this weekend, we look forward to more reports.  (I’m not even going to mention the ‘w’ word for fear of jinxing it!)

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