Hailey’s photo of her twin sister Hutton’s first sailfish!

Following up on Day 3 of the trip, the girls stayed home while Dad Terry and Dingo headed 15 miles off shore to try help Terry Fohey catch the last billfish he needed to finish his billfish slam (every species around the world). Set up with 80lb braid, 10lb  lead weight, light sticks and mac tuna belly for bait, they hooked up on the first drop in 1700 ft of water. Soon after Terry boated a sword with a 48 inch short measurement to complete his world slam – an awesome feat.  Big congratulations to Terry (and Hailey and Hutton too!) and thanks to Dingo for the report!

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Meanwhile, Broome FC has been hectically trying to keep up the live updates but great fishing is getting in the way!  Day 2′s recap was missed however Day 3 was reported as 146 sails raised, 110 strikes, 85 hookups and 56 tags as well as 11 marlin raised, 7 strikes, 5 hook ups and 1 tagged.  Sounds like its hotting up!

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And, more Aussies fishing overseas: The annual HIBT is once again underway out of Kona, and Aussie anglers are well representated.  Day 1 results were 16  blue marlin tags and 1 weighed as well as a stripe and short-nose spear each tagged and a yellowfin boated.  Looking forward to hearing how the rest of the tournament pans out!

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Lastly, for those who aren’t subscribers, the July newsletter went out last week and you can see it here.  I also have some exciting new features coming up over the next two months and subscribers will get the announcement first so if you would like to sign up for the monthly newsletter, you can do so in the sidebar on the rights.

The Broome Billfish Classic has kicked off and for those (not fishing and) following the results as they come in – its proving quite distracting – great job guys!  Day 1 sailfish stats are 110 sails raised, 89 strikes, 59 hook ups and 30 tagged.  There has also been a few marlin on the scoreboard as well.  The Fatty Albert Trophy (Champion for Sunday) went to Steve Ring with two sails and a black marlin.  And there’s still 5 more days of fishing to go!

Meanwhile, on another west coast (the west coast of the cape), Ben “Notso” Bright added another sailfish to his 2011 season tally on Saturday off-Weipa.  On ya Ben!

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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