The Solitary Islands Game Fishing Club’s Heavy Tackle Challenge was conducted last weekend under the continuing difficult game fishing conditions that have plagued the NSW north coast most of this summer.

Normally renowned for a hot blue marlin bite in March, the Coffs Coast disappointed, and boats struggled all weekend to simply turn a reel in an ocean stained by floodwaters from the northern rivers.

The mysterious absence of normal numbers of migrating black and blue marlin that have characterised the summer here made for tough fishing for the 20 local and visiting boats and their crews competing.

There was good water out beyond the continental shelf that was full of acres of baitfish, but simply raising a marlin was hard work, let alone getting any to bite, and the only action turned out to be along the green floodwater boundary, where one blue marlin, two black marlin, and one striped marlin were tagged by competitors over the two days of fishing.

The tournament was won by local boat Seaborn, with skipper Clayton Livingston and crew Billy Livingston, Andrew Barter and Dylan Steel tagging one black and one striped marlin.

Thank you Rick for the report and the correction.