The Surfers Paradise Annual All Tackle All Species Tournament was held over the weekend.  With the Japan-quake related tsunami warning in force a few boats made late withdrawals so it was a smaller 12 boat fleet that took part.  And the fishing did not reflect how good it has been in South East Queensland this year.

As Ben reports, crews found slightly different conditions to the 10-15 knots forecast once they departed the seaway with rain squalls and a confused sea. The bite started just after 9am with three boats hooking up within 15min of each other and the race was on for the first billfish tag of the competition.  Express fought a nice fish for 3 hr 45 mins before wearing through the leader. Seapace dropped their fish while Murphy’s Law stayed connected to tag a blue marlin for boat owner John Stehmann. Thirsty Traveller fought a stubborn 123kg fish that unfortunately died during the fight to become the first marlin weighed in the comp’s history. While there were a few more blues missed in the afternoon, the dolphin fish and wahoo bites kept crews on their toes and Game Day converted to tag the final blue marlin of the day.

Day 2 Sunday dawned with a similar forecast but a sloppy sea greeted crews as they headed through the seaway and made a slow trip out to the grounds. A couple of early hookups kept all boats in the running, but it was Murphy’s Law who tagged a nice fish, a first marlin for their 16yr old angler, to increase their lead. The afternoon bite only counting towards other species points.

Bruce tells me that the final results were:
Game Day – Heavy Tackle Champion Boat Over 7m with 1 blue marlin.  Murphy’s Law – Heavy Tackle Champion Boat Under 7m with 2 blues, also taking out Champion Boat Overall. Kaos – Champion Boat Light Tackle Over 7m and Ripples – Champion Boat Light Tackle Under 7m.