Thank goodness for the west! With no reports from either of tournaments held in NQ over the weekend come in yet, Broome has come to the rescue once again.

• Jeff reports that things are heating up in Broome as they usually do at this time of year. Billistic caught 20 sails on Saturday, following on from 16 on Friday. Fish Broome Charters has also been in the action with a double digit day on Saturday.  Jeff went out Sunday with a bunch first timers managing to catch 8 from a progression of double hookups.  He found jigging for bait didn’t work too well though as every time the jig hooked up on bait there would be a bunch of sails marauding it back up to the surface   (UPDATE: Billistic (Broome Fishing Charters) has released 62 sails in the last 6 days!)

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• 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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• The weather has claimed another victim with Yorkey’s Knob Fishing Club canceling their weekend comp due to the 30+knot winds.
• The world has been watching the grander count as reports filter in that Bermuda weighed their third grander of the season last week.  While 2009 was a great year for grander black marlin on the Great Barrier Reef (search “grander” in the search-bar to read 2009 reports), July 2010 has been a great MONTH for grander blue marlin in Bermuda with 1012lbs for Playmate on July 12, 1005lbs for C Ya on July 21 followed by another 1005lbs for Que Mas on July 22.  Just a short couple of months now until the Cairns Giant Black Marlin season kicks off once again in September.

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Photos and report courtesy of Jeff Cooper, President of the Broome Fishing Club:

The recent Kingswood Marine Broome Billfish Classic was held in what was has been described by all competitors as the most atrocious weather possible for the event. Howling wind, torrential rain, and freezing cold conditions ‘blessed’ the competitors–extremely unseasonal weather for Broome during this time of year. Despite the conditions, the 19 teams stuck it out for the six days of endurance event to finish with a total of 128 billfish tagged.

Interestingly the sailfish numbers were down about a third on last year, but marlin tagged numbers were about double. There were some big marlin in amongst them too with an estimated 180kg model giving 13 year old Bryce Marinis a run for his money on 10kg.

The final stats were:
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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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