Team Zulu made it top team two days in a row adding the first fish of day 2 to their tally, and then adding another later in the day to bring their total to four tags.  Not the biggest fish (reported at 110lbs and 80lbs respectively), but point scorers none-the-less.

After the flurry of fish on the reefs north of Number 10 Ribbon on Day 1, no tags were recorded up that way on Day 2 with the tags spreading out along the edge all the way south to Linden Bank where the team on Amokura trekked for a successful tag to owner Darren Sandy at 300lbs.  The fishing is still patchy and no big numbers, however it was wonderful to finally have a break in the weather and we’re hoping the easing of the wind will allow the warm water and the fish back in.

Team Levante accounted for the biggest fish of the day at 700lbs for angler Stewart Craig (picture below), adding a second for teammate John Boudoukos later in the day to put them on two tags. And the Hardcore team on Askari also added two tags on Day 2 to put them in the running.

Tags to Kalira, Ultimate Lady, Little Audrey and Hellraiser rounded out the point scoring fish on day 2 bringing the total of the 29 boat fleet now on the board to 13.

They are: Zulu (4), Black Magic, Adrenaline, Askari and Levante all on 2, Duyfken, Black Label, Think Big, Kalira, Amokura, Ultimate Lady, Little Audrey and Hellraiser all on 1 a piece.

Gold Coast Blues

Its been a while since I’ve heard from the Gold Coast based Barco. Jeff sent me a note to tell me that they went 2-2-1 on blues around the 400lb mark putting yet another first timer onto their first marlin for the second weekend in a row on Sunday. Jeff says that it was a tougher day fishing on Sunday with only one other fish they heard of being tagged down off the Tweed.  This follows up some good fishing on Saturday in the one day GCGFC Shootout.

President Ryan Goding reports that the Gold Coast Game Fish Club’s hosted its 1st ever October “All Tackle” Tournament being the GCGFC Shimano Shootout 2015.

24 BOATS entered in this tournament and competitors were met with excellent conditions with 5-10 knot winds, calm seas and plenty of blue marlin. The tournament boats saw 4O strikes, 19 hook ups and 13 marlin tags with one marlin capture. Of the marlin tagged/captured there was just 1 stripe marlin and the rest were blue marlin.

Jesse Hill tells his the team on Jugs went 7-6-2 to take out the Champion Tag and Release ahead of Capt. Ross McCubbin’s Lucky Strike. Champion Capture went to Everwilling with 3 from 8 including a 204kg blue. Glanville Heydenrych’s team also went 2 from 6 making a close finish!

The winners were as follows:

CHAMPION BOAT TAG & RELEASE BILLFISH with 2 x Blue Marlin taking out $10,000 plus the Calcutta went to JUGS Guy Caelli (Skipper), Matt Caelli, Ashley Kipniak, Jesse Hill, Steve Graham, Joel Gartiner

2ND BOAT OVERALL TAG & RELASE BILLFISH 2 x Blue Marlin went to LUCKY STRIKE Mark Morland (Skipper), Mick Stewart, Craig Leadoux, Cristian Cross, Aiden Cross, Daniel Cartwright

HEAVIEST BILLFISH OVER 150kg 1 x Blue Marlin 204kg – Angler Keryn Shipp winning $5,000 on EVERWILLING Jamie Henderson (Skipper), Keryn Shipp, Sean Gilbert, Ryan Goding, Andrew Morely

MOST TAGGED OTHER GAME FISH 2 x Mahi Mahi went to UNREEL Dave McCallum (Skipper), Casey Harrison, Andrew Fitzpatrick

CHAMPION JUNIOR TAG & RELEASE – Jayden Holmes

Ryan passes on his thanks to all competitors and notes to watch out for the light tackle tournament in January.

Photo below from during the shootout from Callin in Sick (26ft Proline) with Levi Taylor & Hugo Van Zyl