5 days and 95 tags into fishing with another 13 added yesterday. And while the good weather run has come to an end (actually quite sloppy out there yesterday as you would expect on the first day of a blow), the fishing is still pretty good and the big fish are still plentiful. (Of the 95 tags so far, a massive 22 fish are over 800lbs!) Most of the fleet is fishing up the top of the Ribbons on Number 10, and this is where most of the action was on Day 5.
Before I get into the standings, just a quick reminder that due to the cyclone and venue change, fishing times for tomorrow (final day) have changed and will be 0800 to 1430 tomorrow. This means that I may not have time for an update before we start fishing. But I will try! Follow me on Twitter to keep up with the tags/point scoring as it happens.
A couple of special mentions in the comp again for fish that were not point scoring, but great efforts none-the-less. Capt. Adam Jordan’s Iona 2 disqualified a fish on Day 4 of fishing that he put at right up there. The 69 year old angler did a great job in the chair but couldn’t quite bring her up, so another angler was employed to finish the job. Later, after they got the tag in their 450lb-er and only point scoring fish, they also had another big one (again right up there at about 1000lbs) for Peter on, unfortunately straightening the hook on the leader before the tag went in. Bad luck guys but some great big fish!
Same yesterday for Janice Eggins on Althaldo who fought a big fish that Capt. Tiger put at well over the mark for just shy of two hours which they DQ’d from the comp. But Janice couldn’t quite get her head up in the end so again, relinquished the chair to a fresh set of arms who got the fish to the boat and successful release.
And another non-point scoring fish with Capt. Bobby Jones’ Iceman hooking up after cease fishing to one that he put at about 600lbs, that they also satellite tagged.
But in the competition:
The young Georgouras sisters on father Steve’s Illusion got the ball rolling very early into the day yesterday with Elise tagging an estimated 850lb black marlin just 11 minutes after start fishing. Claudia followed up a little later in the day with a fish of 150lbs to put them on top for the daily.
Not long after, Capt. Ross Finlayson on Top Shot’s angler Tominori Omi was on again with one that Ross put at 750lbs. Next on KEKOA we tagged another big one for Alex that Capt. Luke Fallon put at 950lbs. This time the fish did all the things right for us and Alex was saved another marathon, staying on the surface before giving us a good display on the leader for a sub-10 minute fight. We also added a second for Brian about 400lbs and jumped off a third bigger fish again right on cease fishing.
Capt. Dean Beech’s Onsite also added a nice fish for Grant that Deano put at 850lbs.
The current standings are:
Little Audrey added another tag to retain their lead on 11 tags. Top Shot are clear on 10. On 7 a piece are Kalira, Amokura and Hellraiser. Althaldo is on 6. Castille III on 5. On 4 are Duyfken, Iona II, Moana III and Think Big. On 3 are Viking II, Bite Me, Iceman, Illusion, KEKOA and Kaizen. On 2, Reel Easy, Defiant (who have provided some great pics below from a couple in the last few days), Onsite and The Joker. And Game Over is on one.
Outside of the comp, I don’t have many reports but Capt. Tim Richardson’s Tradition, fishing among the tourney boats, added 2 fish – one for 11 year old David, and one for his mum Angie. And again, we saw Capt. Haydon Bell on Kanahoee backing around an I got this shot of an energetic mid-ranger!
