Tourneys and tidbits » Black Marlin Blog

The Redcliffe Australia Day Billfish Tournament has been postponed due to weather. It will now take place on this coming weekend with the briefing on January 31st (Thursday evening) and fishing Saturday and Sunday with the presentation Sunday evening.
Some more reports of first marlin as the fish spread well into and across NSW. Paul Ashlin tells me that the boys on No Issues out of Batemans Bay had a great Australia Day getting into their first marlin after chasing, and dropping them, for the last 2 seasons. The first one was a striped about 90kg and pulled the hook just as they reached for the bill to get the photos. After seeing several free jumpers in the afternoon and a whole bunch of striped tuna keeping everyone busy, they got a second just before heading home. Captain Paul and crew Dan, Justin and Josh would like to thank the members from Bateman’s Bay Game Fishing Club for all their help and advice!
I don’t have a report from Botany Bay GFC’s Bill Heyward Tournament on the weekend (would love one though – please email me!) But I did hear via Band Of Brother’s Anthony Raco that they took out the event on Tonlu II. Anthony says the team, wth skipper Luke Maddern took out multiple categories including Champion Boat T&R, Champion Angler T&R, Most Marlin T&R and First Marlin T&R for the tournament. They ended with 3 striped marlin, 1 black marlin and 2 dolphin fish for the weekend. Congrats in what I can imagine were some pretty trying conditions!