Cairns
Some good news in the leadup to the 30th Anniversary Ladies Ribbons tomorrow with a couple of fish reported on the Bank and wide of the Bank yesterday. Mooloolaba GFC’s Mick Wrack released one on Capt. Russell Caphorn’s Kaizen that Russell put right up there. While Capt. Tim Richardson on Tradition also released a smaller fish out wide.
Murray Olden, who fished on board Calypso with Capt. Darren “Biggles” Haydon earlier in the season, has put together a clip of his great trip. Check it out below:
Jervis Bay Tourney Report
Again in full – click the ‘read more’ for the full report – with thanks to Martin for sending!
“What a tournament!!!!!
Thursday started with the committee getting ready for anarchy! At our pre briefing meeting we decided that Friday’s weather was too dangerous to send boat’s out in and cancelled fishing. This decision resulted in a lot of skippers mocking us, calling us soft and every other name under the sun. Then Thursday night when the southerly hit us gusting at about 40-45knots and the current raging downhill at about 3knots it made for a nice choppy 3 meter swell…… the mocking soon stopped!!
Friday was spent lazing, eating and drinking and so that we had SOMETHING fishing related to do, the committee decided to have a giveaway at the pub at 3pm. So 3pm sees the pub’s population literally double and the winner of a brand new 30w, rod and line is…………..Romano’s deckie on JBGFC boat Madam Zelda!! Cheers all round and it was back to drinking!
Friday night and the wind settled a little but not totally. We head up to the radio room hoping that the sea had abated. It had not! Almost all of the boats had logged on however a lot of them were turning back an we ended up having about 10 boats drifting inside for squid to bide their time and see if the conditions were going to improve.
They did and so did the fishing!!
By the 8:10 sched there were numerous tagged YFT and even a blue marlin that had been hooked and lost! By the 10:10 sched; more yellowfin and more blue marlin tagged with some mako thrown in for good measure. Now because the Friday was cancelled, the CASH SHOOTOUT had been move to Saturday so everyone was keen on tagging like crazy!!
By 12:10 sched we were getting 4 way hook-ups on fin and had lost collectively about 4 blue marlin! It was INSANE!!! The conditions got better and saw a few boats head out and the fishing continued for the rest of the day the same as it had started.
Sunday was a near glass out! Perfect conditions and it was all hands on deck! More tuna, marlin, mako and blue sharks tagged and captured all day and with stop fishing at 1pm, the gantry was a nervous place to be with fishos waiting to see if they’d won!
The fish of the tournament was Chris Barsha’s blue marlin that went 139.5kgs on board Marlin Magic. Took him almost 2 hours to bring in as they had it boat side more than once but on 24kg, they’re not an easy beast to tame!
I must say, that the Whitesands Tournament is one of the best along the east coast. Where, and more importantly, when else can you constantly, year after year, get all 3 major game fish in the one tournament? Couple that with the great atmosphere of the south coast and it makes for a great tournament to be a part of.
Official results are as follows:
– Most Meritorious- Chris Barsha 139.6KG Blue Marlin on 24kg line aboard Marlin Magic from JB GFC
– Heaviest Marlin- Chris Barsha on Marlin Magic from JB GFC 139.6kg Blue Marlin
– Heaviest Shark- Baja from Lake Macquarie with their 152.2kg
– Heaviest YFT- Martin Borg on Offtap from JB GFC 45.6kg
– 2nd Heaviest YFT- Ed Johnson on Conflict from Botany Bay GFC 41.6kg
– Champion Boat Capture- Midas Touch LM GFC
– Champion Senior Male T and R- Paul Bayley on Frigate from Batemans Bay GFC
– Champion Senior Lady T and R- Zoe O’Connor on Opportunatee from Batemans Bay GFC
– Champion Junior T and R- Also Zoe O’Connor
– 2nd Champion Junior T and R- Liam Farrugia on X-Factor from JB GFC
– Most Marlin Tag and Release- Offtap from JB GFC (on count-back by 7 mins over Mad 1!)
– Most Sharks Tag and Release- Frigate from Batemans Bay GFC
– Most YFT Tag and Release- Angie II from JB GFC
– 2nd most YFT tag and release- Opportunatee from Batemans Bay GFC
– Champion Boat Tag and Release- Frigate from Batemans Bay GFC
Big congratulations to the winners of the CA$H Shoot out – Baja from Lake Macquarie GFC for capture and Frigate for T & R from Batemans Bay GFC. They took away a cool $2000 cold hard cash each! We also gave away the Suzuki outboard, Simrad units, 2 Okuma Makaira outfits and a host of others prizes to lucky boats and anglers.
Again, what a champion tournament it ended up being and we hope to see you all down here in 2014…..IT’S GOING TO BE A CRACKER!!! “
