Big Blacks on the Reef
A few reports from yesterday including Capt. Bill Billson on Viking II recording his first BIG fish of the season with one that he put at 999lbs as well as a couple of smaller fish. In the middle Capt. Adam Jordan’s Iona II went two from 4.
And a catch up report from Capt. Brett Goetze’s Amokura from the day before (Tuesday) with 2 from 4. Brett says they caught a little one about 200 and also a real nice about 900lbs. They had a whale shark come right up to the back of the boat when the big fish was down deep and had to wait for it to disappear before they continued fighting.
Notice: Capt. Brad/CASTILLE looking for crew – call 0428772950 – & seat on charter flight to Cooktown on Saturday 10th. Capt. Tim on Tradition looking for 2 seats on a flight out of Cooktown Sunday after Lizard 25th.
No photos sent with the reports today so one of our photos from last trip on KEKOA at top.
Gold Coast Blues
Report from Wazza Hall whose father Ron celebrated his 76th Birthday on Friday and who decided that 76 years without doing battle with a blue marlin was way too long. So they headed out in Wazza’s boat Blues The Colour on Sunday off the Goldie to great conditions to try and change that.
They raised 4 fish for the day and and managed to tag Ron a blue well over 200kg. The fight took about 35mins and Wazza reports would have to be their most memorable capture to date — a hard one to beat.
Thanks to Cezzie, Pete Hargreaves and Ron for an awesome Day.
Weipa Billfish Tournament Results
Thanks to Ben “Notso” Bright for the report!
The tournament this year gave us unprecedented bad weather for this time of year which resulted in a delayed start on day 1 and fewer boats fishing each day. Coupled with the good water being so far offshore, fish numbers were way down. Enthusiasm was high as usual and the evening festivities created a fantastic tournament atmosphere with 11 of the 16 nominated boats rafting up in Boyd Bay on the Saturday night.
Only one black marlin was tagged on the first afternoon by Simone French on the hot favourite Wine Down. Day two saw last year’s wining team (Reg, Rhys and Jack Moore, this time fishing on Rhy’s trailer boat) tag a marlin and sailfish in quick succession to gain a comfortable lead in trying conditions with a total of only 5 sailfish and 2 marlin tagged for the entire day. Only two sailfish were tagged on day three but these were both by the all female team on Small Fry lead by Tegan Witcher with #1 deckie Sammie Krall and newbie Liz Hamer and ended up taking out the Champion Team Overall with an overall three sailfish (one from day 2).
This year a newer line class based points system was implemented and as such there were a few surprises at presentation night.
Overall winners were:
Champion team: Small Fry – Tegan Witcher, Sammie Krall and Liz Hamer;
Runner up: Great Northern – Reg, Rhys and Jack Moore;
Champion Senior Male: Duane Jay;
Runner up: Rhys Moore;
Champion Senior Female: Simone French
Runner Up: Tegan Witcher
Champion Junior: Aaron Singleton
