Southern Bluefin Bonanza

The Southern Bluefin Tuna bite continues off all points south including Jervis Bay, Ulladulla, and Batemens Bay with the fishing reports streaming in. But the hot bite for the big fish right now seem to be all off Sydney.

Charter boat Reef Magic was on the fish again with a 5-5-4 on the weekend including a 100kg+ fish on a Stella! Another Sydney boat Grommit also got three to 70kg.

And Mickey tells me that Steve and Macca had a four way hookup and even with only the two of them on board managed to get all four fish (and the biggest went 72kg)!

On Monday the bite continued with Reef Magic adding another 5 for their clients between 35kg and 70kg and let countless go. The fish were caught on skirts, jigs, poppers and stick baits.

Rob Curry on the Botany Bay GFC boat Marquis was also in on the action on Sunday losing a big fish they put at around 120kg at the side of the boat. They made up for it on ‘Mad Monday’ boating three excellent fish to 70kgs.

Thanks Mickey for all the details!

Blue Marlin World Cup

Australia’s only representative in the annual Blue Marlin World Cup sadly struck out for the July 4 event. While Nitro Express raised two blue marlin and successfully released a striped marlin and boated a yellowfin, only blue marlin of 500lb or more qualify for the event which is fished between the hours of 8:30am and 4:30pm on July 4 all over the world in each boat’s time zone.

This year 138 teams competed with the trophy going to Bermuda boat Queen of Hearts with a 768lb marlin.  This is Queen of Hearts second win and is also the second time in the event’s history that a team has taken home the trophy for the second time and marks the seventh win for Bermuda in 28 years.

Only two qualifying fish were weighed with all smaller fish released. Congratulations to the team on Queen of Hearts.

Tournament News

• The Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic dates for 2013 have been announced. The tournament will run from 12 to 19 October, 2013.  This year’s tournament is due to commence on October 20.
• The Mike Carney Toyota Billfish Challenge brochure has been added to the website in the tournament directory. This years event will allow line classes up to 10kg. It is the 30th anniversary tournament.  Unfortunately the weather has not cooperated over the past week and so no recent fishing reports to add.
• The Sunshine Coast GFC’s Spring Shootout will be held on October 13 and 14 and has been added to the calendar. More information will be added once it is announced.
• The Broome Billfish Classic kicks off on Friday and we look forward to hearing how the fishing goes!