Updated:
Sharon and Paul Poulter’s Think Big fished outside the comp on Saturday and went 2 from 2 the first fish being around 10Kg and the second around 15kg. On Sunday after a lazy start followed by a snorkel around the bays of Fitzroy they headed out to the grounds after lunch. After an hour or so the downrigger went off and soon after there was a much larger fish swimming down sea with the teasers. Sharon pitched a bait straight to the fish and it was hooked. Paul said that conditions were far from ideal and we were using 8kg so it wasn’t going to be easy, but after a 25 min fight the fish was tagged and on its way. This fish was around 160 to 180 cm short length so estimated at 40kg!
Montebello Islands
Hot again in Western Australia’s Montebello Islands for the crew on Capt. Chad Mills’ Blue Lightning. Leah tells me that they weren’t even billfishing on Thursday and recorded 1 black and 2 sails. Friday they targeted for 23 sailfish and Saturday added another 21 and were still trolling at the time of report! Action packed fun with lots of wahoo and mackerel getting caught as well. Leah said at one time they had 6 sails all hooked up at once and manged to successfully release all 6!
Weipa
The sails have been turning on in Weipa this past week as well with club boat Get N Any finding the fish late Thursday for 4 tags. On Friday they followed up with 5-4-4 on Friday with Sea Hunter also going 4-2-1.
Cairns Bluewater Billfish Tournament Results
The leaderboard changed daily and the last day was no exception (see previous posts for wrap-up reports from Day 1 and 2). While the previous leaders were unable to add any tags, Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles‘ Levante was able to add three to put them in front for the win! They were pushed all the way by the juniors on Peter and Sheridan Yates’ Absolute who had a blinder with 4 from 5 on Day 3 to put them also on 8 (7 blacks & 1 sail) in Runners Up position on countback. Anglers Taj Newcombe and Kye Yates taking first and second in the Juniors category!
Overall there were 83 billfish tagged for the 3 days of fishing made up of 72 black marlin and 11 sailfish
42 tagged Day 1
22 tagged Day 2
19 tagged Day 3
The winning boat 7.5 Over ‘Professional’ was SV Built Levante on 8
Winning boat 7.5 and Over was Absolute on 8
Winning boat 7.5 & Under was Hardline on 3
Champion Senior Female tagged 3 fish on Above Grade – Lisa Goodwin
Champion Senior Male tagged 5 fish on count back-on Black Magic – Geoff Ellens
Champion junior tagged 5 fish on Absolute – Taj Newcombe
Townsville Billfish Challenge
Fishing was slow but Renee tells me everything else made that easily forgettable, and the weather was glamorous.
This years big change to being run out of Horseshoe Bay was a major success and during and after the event, every single boat had nothing but positives to say.
There were only 11 fish tagged from 30+ seen. After Day 1, there was only 1 sailfish on the scoreboard tagged by The Chapel. Day 2 saw a hot bite period (compared to what had already been seen) between 12-3pm and 5 quick tags were recorded including another 1 from The Chapel keeping them clear of the pack on 2, with 4 other boats on 1.
A shortened Day 3 meant every single boat was in the hunt but when The Chapel called in a successful tagging of a double header of sailfish just before lunch they just about had it all sewn up.
3 new boats hit the scoreboard on Day 3 with 1 tag each.
A hugely successful event has made nearly certain that everyone will be back again next year, based out of the ‘Marlin Bar’ in Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island which was a big hit and the atmosphere throughout the whole event was electric.
Winners:
Champion Team – The Chapel
Champion Skipper – Ray Chappell
Champion Male Angler – Jarrad Agst (The Chapel)
Runner Up Male Angler – Tom Massurit (The Chapel)
Champion Female Anger – Maryanne Sheens (Contagious)
Runner Up Team – Nautical Blue
Champion Boat Under 7.5m – Rod Rage
