I’m starting the weekly sked a day early today as we will likely be out of phone/internet range for a couple of days from later tomorrow as we head a bit further afield.  I’ll add any more reports that come in today here as well.

• A few boats out braving the rough conditions of the last few days finding the blue marlin on the Gold Coast.  Dan reports from Larva who went two from three blue marlin off the Gold Coast on Friday.  They got the tag into the first which they estimated in the 600lb range but dropped the second before the tag beside the boat.  They gave it away at 2pm but the boys on Murphy’s Law reported that the ocean came alive at 3pm and they tagged a blue just before sunset having missed a double header earlier.  You can watch Dan’s Larva Lures promo video from their blue here.
• Rod braved the rough yesterday to fish Murrifin wide of Sydney for a blue that he put at about 140kg.
• Craig reported from the Canberra Yellowfin comp at Bermi but it seems like the big tuna are thin on the ground (water) so far. Day 1 was cancelled due to the winds. Day 2 saw a 489kg tiger shark and a pending Australian record spearfish captured and another couple tagged (and a broadbill to the team on Hot Shot with Capt. Ian “Wobbles” Ford, which was caught on a pilchard!) There have also been 4 striped marlin tagged and 40 odd ‘baby’ yellowfin (the heaviest 26.2). On Day 3 (Monday) the conditions were picture perfect. The heaviest tuna indeed ended up being the 26.2kg fish caught by Batemans Bay junior Josh Hay (who also took out the Champion Junior award in the T&R section). What a great weekend for Josh who also won the 50k boat in the lucky angler draw! Heaviest marlin was a 112.2kg striped marlin on board Tri Cat (Craig tells me the fish jumped into the boat and speared the angler too – though nothing too serious!) The most tuna tagged wend to A Salt Weapon. Unfortunately, as Craig reports, it was a very slow weekend for most boats!
• And for your viewing pleasure, I found some time on the weekend to edit some more footage from our 2010 Cairns Giant Black Marlin season on board KEKOA while the boys were out smashing the barra (just over 600 to 109cm in 5 days!) Enjoy!

• And the Australian connection: Capt. Tim Richardson reports that his American crew member Scuba Steve who worked the deck for him on Tradition last season was part of the team with with Capt. Zak Conde that weighed an 1151lb blue marlin in Cape Verde yesterday.
• I’m not the only one who has been busily trying to finish off editing footage from last season. Capt. Tim has put together a three part series of his season. Part One is below:
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• The sailfish are still frustrating the anglers at Broome in the West eating frustratingly small bait and being difficult to switch. Their season is yet to really take off and we can’t wait until it does!