There are still report from the weekend coming in with the black marlin in Townsville and the bluefin off Sydney in the next report, but kicking off the weekend in Cairns…

Cairns Black Marlin & Sails

• The Yorkey’s Knob Boating Club’s members comp was held on the weekend and it was finally time for Grant Harradine to shoo that monkey off his back.   Grant caught and tagged his 1st black marlin on Stressless yesterday and then backed it up a few hours later to add his second. Congrats Grant!  Steve tells me there was no skipper error this time (<grin>) and that he put the fish at 20 and 25kg respectively.
• Also fishing YKBC’s members comp on Saturday, Spreadem tagged another two black marlin, this time fishing the southern grounds.
• Meanwhile, Cairns BlueWater Club boat Think Big had a fun time on the sailfish.  Fishing off Pixie Reef, Paul reports a 2-2-1 on the sails with wife Sharon tagging hers on 10kg after 20 minutes (photo below).
  
• Daughter Emily was not quite as luck unfortunately losing hers at the back of the boat when the line let go at the hook. Another great shot of the sail mid-fight below.
  
• Cairns BlueWater’s 10kg Billfish Tournament will run August 22-25, and the tournament brochure has been added to the tournament calendar. Thanks to Caz for sending that on!

Port Douglas too

• Capt. Damon Gruzdev on Port Douglas private boat Kyrenia, who were 2011 winners of the Port Douglas Marlin Challenge, kicked off their 2012 campaign with their first black marlin of the season as well.

Cardwell’s back

• The Cardwell fishos have also been at it again, with Garry Nichols and Brett Ward fishing Saturday under a dull sky to tag a 12kg black marlin before lunch. They successfully released another in the shipping channel on the way back to the bait ball late in the day before experiencing another episode of mini marlin mayhem after working the spot for half an hour. Four rods went off – billfish jumping, reels screaming – but unfortunately Brett reports the end result was, you guessed it, three dropped black marlin and one foul hooked mac tuna caught!
• The first event on the NQ billfish calendar kicks off this weekend being the Lucinda Light Tackle Tournament.

Billfish in Broome

• Fishing in the 2012 Kingswood Marine Broome Billfish Classic kicked off yesterday with 47 boats in the shotgun start.  Broome FC reports that 24 boats are fishing the main competition with an additional 23 yesterday for Fatty’s Day and the first sailfish tag was reported just 15 minutes after lines in. Looking forward to more reports as fishing continues this week.
• Updated: Day 1 results Sailfish – 156 raised, 103 strikes,69 hookups and 38 tags. Marlin – 10 raised, 9 strikes, 3 hookups and 1 tag. The Day 1 Champion Team  is Sailraider and the Runner Up – Excalibur with the Champion Angler Slim Money on Dog Fish.