The Kingswood Marlin Broome Billfish Classic starts on July 2 and recent reports indicate its going to be another ripper. During last year’s comp, over 300 sails were tagged and the Champion Boat Game On released an amazing 38 sailfish and 2 malin for the week!

Broome GFC President Jeff Cooper reports that in the leadup, the fishing has been firing off Broom with the blue water going right into Barred Creek and the pelagics following it all the way in. On the first day of the sat tagging project (more info below) they saw more than 100 sails. Big longtail tuna are also being caught at Barred Creek amongst them and recently a kayak fishermen found out about the follies of having two rods on board, suffering from a double hookup that saw both reels cleaned of all their line.

Jeff has also shared some very interesting information from regarding their recent visit from internationally renowned researcher Dr. Julian Pepperell and the launch of his world-first satellite tagging project with help from the Broome Fishing Club, the Kimberley Marine Tourism Association (KMTA), and Woodside in Broome waters.

“The study seeks to answer a range of questions about the habits and movements of Broome’s most famous fish. There will be three tagging programs that will see two types of satellite tags, known as PSATs, and one type of ‘transmitter tag’, known as a SPOT tag deployed on the fish.”

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Brendan with a big eye tuna — Cairns 2009.

Click below to see a random selection of 2009 Cairns Giant Black Marlin season shots to try out the new gallery feature of the new BMFB layout. Enjoy!
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With our off season adventure almost over, we’re looking ahead to the upcoming Cairns Giant Black Marlin season once again. And so I thought, I’d whet your appetite for it as well. While things will most likely be a little quiet on the blog over the rest of the winter, it won’t be long until the NQ marlin season starts with the little blacks in July/August, and then the big black marlin in Cairns in September. (I heard that the first few little black marlin were caught in Cairns this past week.)

For those who may not have seen it, click to read my recap of the 2009 Cairns Giant Black Marlin Season from BlueWater Issue 77.

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Hi, you’ve probably noticed things look a little different around here.

The Black Marlin Fishing Blog is currently undergoing a re-design. If you’ve found this page, we’ve almost finished, just a little bit more to go.

Hopefully the new pages will be ready soon – and when they are, you won’t see this message.

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A quick report from Ben from this year’s GCGFC Heavy Tackle Tournament held over the weekend:The Cabo Yachts & Bruce Lynton Prestige Automotive Blue Marlin Classic was relocated to the Runaway Bay Marina with great success — despite the weather which left many of the smaller boats in the fleet at the marina on Day 1.

On Day 1, Katie Ripper on Castille III quickly put points on the board with the first blue marlin tagged, followed by Richard Fletcher on Num Nuts, Barry Alty on Mistress and Carmen McCloy on Caboom.

Day 2 Castille III and Mistress added another each bringing them in first and second for the competition from the crew on Num Nuts who disqualified their fish, the first fish of Day 2 as it had become entangled in another line. Ocean Dream weighed a monster yellow fin tuna that tipped the scales at 44kg winning Eric Carruthers the heaviest other species trophy. There were also some other gamefish tipped the scales nicely at weigh in, including a 26kg dolphin fish for David Thompson on Num Nuts.And outside the competition, Perry sent me this picture of Vanessa and her pending Queensland record caught on Sunday and weighing in at 148kg on board Comocean. Congrats to Vanessa, Perry and Wombat!