Coffs harbour game fishing club member Rick Wilson went out on CARLIV for some deep droping chasing Blue Eye before they went for a troll and ended up with this litte baby Broadbill. Thank you to Troy boulton for the report and the photo.

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Five Solitary Islands Game Fishing Club boats fished Saturday's comp day, with Wicked Weasel and Kikino both tagging Striped Marlin. The Blue Marlin seem to have deserted the Solitary Island GFC home waters hopefully only temporarily, as the water is still blue and warm up to 24.5 degrees.

The longliners have been reported getting into some massive Yellowfin Tuna between Smoky Cape and Port Macquarie. So we can only hope there are still some for the club members to have a shot at this week.

Thank you to Glen Booth from Fishlife for the report.

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Eddy Lawler from Peak Sport Fishing Adventures fished from the 17th-20th with Karen and Ben from the NT Chasing Blacks and Sails, the guys had and awesome few days releasing 6 Black Marlin between 20-70kg and 3 Sails.

21st -24th Eddy had the guys from Wilson fishing on board Tackle testing! We only had a few hours on the first day so fished the on the edge between 150 & 200 meters, catching a nice Striped Marlin and dropped a nice Black after a few minutes. The boys tested there gear out on the GT's for the following days, the GT fishing was Red Hot to say the least with fish between 18-40kg.

Eddy had this picture below sent to him by Wayne Lee, he took the family out west of the light house the other day and caught this nice Black Marlin in 90 meters of water.

Fished yesterday 29th out wide with Craig Riley and Leigh Freestone looking for blues the water has now started to cool 27.5, Craig released his first Blue Marlin 150kg est on 24kg. Leigh caught a nice small black for the day.

Smithy on "The Bear" also fished yesterday catching 2 black Marlin and a Striped Marlin and dropped a nice Blue Marlin.

Below is a video clip from on board Peak Sport Fishing from the 2012 Gamex.

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Captain Eddy Lawler from Peak Sport Fishing Adventures has been having some great fishing with good numbers of small Black Marlin and some nice ones mixed in on the inshore grounds. Sailfish have been plentiful both inshore and out wide and the Blue Marlin fishing has been steady with fish between 90kg and 180kg.

Eddy fished Chris Wilson and his crew from Darwin the other day, the boys got stuck into some great fishing catching Blue, Blacks and Sails over there trip here, the highlight for the boys was Chris Wilsons first ever Black Marlin 131kg on 15kg spin outfit.

Eddy is fishing hard over the next few weeks so we will see some great reports coming in.

Chris Wilsons first ever Black Marlin 131kg on 15kg spin outfit.

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On Friday Fish Whisperer ventured out after a few weeks of bad weather in search of what we had seen all those weeks ago. We fished all the close grounds and ventured out to the 18 Mile to find not much activity only boating a small Wahoo until we starting heading back in I found schools of Pilchards on the surface. We worked the area for an hour or so and a mile away we raised a small Black Marlin and Brett Barton who was sleeping at the time strolled out of the cabin and pitched the live bait out and hay presto Got him on, after some great jumps and grey hounding we had the tag in and put a display on for us on the leader.

Black Marlin grey hounding on board Fish Whisperer.

Saturday we were back out again heading up to the area we caught the 12 a few weeks prior, on our way north we found a couple of schools of pilchards on the surface but were moving south at a quick pace. We fished the hards for a few hours to find nothing to keep us there for the day and to the south Reel Capture released a Black Marlin on there way to the same area. We brought the light tackle gear in and ran out the Noosa Canyons in search of a Blue Marlin, we fished our way down to the bottom end and at the death released a Blue Marlin for Ash Warland.

Captain Ken Brown on Megumi fishing east of Cape Moreton went 3 from 3 on Blue Marlin releasing a 250 pounder for Ellis Marshall, a 400 pounder for her husband Simon and one about 400 pounds for Simon's dad Terry.

Ash Warland on the leader on board Fish Whisperer with a radical Black Marlin.

On Sunday Fish Whisperer headed to fish off Cape Moreton after Megumi went 3 from 3 the day before, we started the day off with loosing and engine but after an hour we managed to track down the problem a wire that had came loose of the ignition switch. Megumi fished the same area as Saturday for all zeros and we managed to pull the hooks on one Blue after 15 minutes into the fight and Incoming released a Blue Marlin just to the north of us.

Monday was a great day out on the ocean with Megumi going 1 from 2 releasing a 300 pound Blue Marlin for John Prefontaine and raised another that didn’t eat. On board Fish Whisperer we fished the edge for a few hours and ended up in closer finding schools of Slimy Mackerel some on the surface and trolled the area for zeros but that’s Blue Marlin fishing for you. Reel Capture fished north at the Dog Leg to spot a Striped Marlin tailing on the surface and pitched a live bait to it and ended up catching it.

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Three boats fished on Friday, with Kikino tagging a Striped Marlin, and Secret Men's Business having three bites from Blue Marlin out wide, but they were pretty doughy and the water on the shelf was green and lifeless.

On Saturday, the weather bureau could not have got it more wrong (no surprises there), with the 5-10 then 10-15 knots being 20 knots from the south right from the start. The water had improved dramatically overnight, and was blue into 45 fathoms. The North Coffs Canyons were holding a bit of bait, and there was more current. Kikino lost a Striped Marlin on the shelf early, and Kestelle had two bites from Blue Marlin, but again they were tentative. Thank you to Glen Booth for the report.

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A few boats from Solitary Islands Game Fishing Club managed to sneak out over the last few days with Gameful Employment going 4-1-0 on Blue Marlin Breaking one off on 80 pound tackle on friday before the weather changed. Saturday was a tackle day on land with strong winds but on Sunday Kestelle went 3-3-3 on Blue Marlin and Kikino had a 9-7-3 releasing two Blue Marlin and a Striped Marlin. With the exception of the Striped Marlin which was caught in 44 fathoms, the Blue Marlin were from the shelf out to 250 fathoms, the water was 28 degrees in places, and they were riding the front of a pulse of dirty water coming down from the north. if you found a clear blue patch, you got a bite simple as that. Thank you to Glen Booth for the report.

Below is a video from the 10th March withVern McAlpin with his first Blue Marlin on board Alcatraz.

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Bill Billson from Australian Marlin Charters sent me this report to share with you all.

Just finished my second workshop for the season out of Port Stephens, and from the feedback I got it was another great success. It was nice to have a couple of the female gender on board this time. The 2 girls were keen to learn all the tricks, and were soon tying all the knots and rigging like seasoned crew. The day at sea saw us spending a lot of time with bait and switching technique, as the strong current on the normal grounds had the fish stocks spread out, the class got very excited when they saw how the whole concept worked, when we teased a striped marlin right to the back of the boat and switched it to a skipping mackerel. It is without a doubt the most spectacular ways to fish, and as well as highly successful when one becomes accustomed to it. Another marlin to a first time angler, and with one lost during the day and a few other sightings, the students were kept entertained as well as occupied.

You may remember lucky Steve Pennisi, who caught the 836lb Blue Marlin off the Gold Coast earlier this year. Well Steve decided to get his family interested in his new sport, and got me for a couple of days charter out of Port Stephens recently. Steve put his young teenage daughters up on strike first. I don’t know what it is with the Pennisi’s but would you believe a blue in the 180kg to 200kg class climbed on the skipping mackerel, and the young lady did an amazing job on the 15kg outfit to land her very first Marlin. Later in the day her sister also caught her first Marlin, a very active Striped Marlin of around 80kg. The girls are now hooked and on to Dad to get them out again, God I love it when a plan comes together.

Thank you to Captain Bill Billson and the Viking II for the report.

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Fishing has been consistent here on the Sunshine Coast with Reel Capture and Fish Whisperer sneaking out on Thursday with Reel Capture releasing 7 Marlin and Fish Whisperer releasing 3 Black Marlin for the day. Saturday saw both boats out again with Reel Capture going 2 from 2 on Black Marlin and Fish Whisperer with myself at the helm going 3 from 4 releasing 3 Black Marlin and boating a few Mahi Mahi for the dinner table.

Robert Smith from South Queensland Charter Services was also out on Saturday raising 7 Bill Fish for the day, had 5 on and released 2, a Black Marlin to Nathan and Sail Fish to Paul.

Robert boated a Wahoo and a Skipjack that was smashed and pierced by a Marlin midway through the fight and ended up very second hand looking. Bangalee fished in the same area and released a Black Marlin for Ben Stasiak before making the long run down to Tangalooma for the presentation for the Back 2 Tanga tournament.

We will have the full results from the Back 2 Tanga tournament soon.

Black Marlin in range of the tag shot on board Fish Whisperer.

20Kg Black Marlin boat side on Fish Whisperer.

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Glen Booth on board his vessel Wicked Weasel went 5-4-2 on Blue Marlin on Saturday. Both fish were around the 130-140 kg to Lynette Robb and David McMaster, this being David's first Marlin (photo below). Fish were caught only 14 miles from the coast in blue water around 26-27 degree water temps with stacks of bait (Slimies, Skipjacks and Flying Fish) marking on the sounder.

Gameful Employment went 5-1-1 and Secret Men's Business waltzed out after lunch time and had a cracker of a day going 3-3-3. Glen reports that the weather has now turned against them and looks like staying that way for the next week which is very disappointing with numbers of Marlin still around. Thank you to Glen Booth for his ever consistent reports.

David McMaster with his first Blue Marlin tagged and released on board Wicked Weasel.

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Lakes Entrance is starting to fire with two Striped Marlin caught on Monday with the first fish a 125kg Striped Marlin caught by John Bennett from bairnsdale and Skippered by Rick Ziarkowski on board On Strike. The second Marlin was a 135kg Striped Marlin caught by Jake Walsh on board Too Easy with Brian Walsh and Luke Richards. Im sure we will start hearing some more reports from them in the near future.

Captain Chris Dwyer, Nathan Lewis, Mario Gazdovic, James Dwyer and Patrick Dwyer on board Polaris boated a 70Kg Swordfish on Monday fishing out off Eden, New South Wales.

John Bennett with his 125Kg Striped Marlin caught on board On Strike.

Jake Walsh with his 135Kg Striped Marlin caught on board Too Easy.

Chris Dwyer, Nathan Lewis, Mario Gazdovic, James Dwyer and Patrick Pwyer with a 70Kg Swordfish.

Thank you to Joe, Geoff and Jamie for passing on the report and photos.

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Well at last the Sunshine Coast is having a red hot bite with big numbers of little Black Marlin and Sailfish showing up with Reel Capture last week going 6 from 6 releasing 3 Sailfish and 3 Black Marlin and on Saturday releasing 7 for the day. Captain Robert Smith from South Queensland Charter Services had a great day going 5 from 10 and boated 1 wahoo on Friday releasing 1 Sailfish and 4 Blacks all caught on single hook lures. Smithy informed us that the Black Marlin were from 40 to 100 pound.

45Kg Black Marlin on board 'Capricorn'.

Saturday saw around 13 boats make the long trip to the hards with the hope of seeing some of the action that Reel Capture and Capricorn had seen earlier in the week. Fish Whisperer with myself at the helm with Jay and Tim Graham and Brett Barton on the deck had a day to remember going 12 from 14 releasing 9 Black Marlin and 3 Sailfish and boating a 18Kg Wahoo. We were marking plenty of fish and bait on the sounder and there were also hundreads of birds and dolphins making the most of the mountains of bait.

Black Marlin caught on board 'Fish Whisperer'.

Craig McCullock and his crew on board Reel Capture tagged 7 for the day releasing 2 Black Marlin and 5 Sailfish as mentioned above. I watched Reel Capture at one stage of the afternoon stop beside a baitball with birds and dolphins feeding and drop a live bait in the water and within 10 seconds I turned around to see them tag a Sailfish. Steve Brooks on Ymer released 5 Sailfish for the day with a few hard fights. Ryan McKinnon and farther Jimmy on Galaxy II released 3 Black Marlin and 1 Sailfish. Paul fishing on Cat-A-Pult with Paddy at the wheel went 1 from 7 releasing his first Black Marlin after a 2 hour fight on 8Kg tackle and Tony Cross and crew on Blue Reela released 3 for the day, being 2 Sailfish and 1 Black Marlin. Luna with Nathan Douglass also got 1 from 4 on Black Marlin.

Fish Whisperer after going 12 from 14 billfish and 1 wahoo.

Brent Higgins on Walk The Line fished Sunday in the rough conditions with Leighton releasing 2 Black Marlin, 2 Mac Tuna and 2 striped Tuna. Brent and Leighton hooked 6 Black Marlin in 3 hours including 2 double headers. Brent fought a nice solid Black for 1 1/2 hours which he eventually broke off. Jamie Behrens also joined Walk The Line in his 17ft haines going 0 from 3 and to top it off a 2.5 hour slog home.

Galaxy II video from Saturday.

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Captain Bill Billson sent me this report from the 50th Anniversary Interclub Tournament.

Well after our frustrating start to the 50th anniversary interclub tournament, we managed to crawl our way back to end up on the podium. The tough fights on 15kg line with larger than normal fish for this area persisted for us, and a couple of black marlin in the 130kg class took up more time than what we required.

My clients from the Port hacking Game fishing Club were more than happy, when we got called up as third place in this large and competitive tournament, and as a bonus I picked up the major sponcers award from nautilus insurance.

First and second place in the Tag and release section went to Gun Runner and Diversion respectively, Top effort from both these teams.

As mentioned before the fishing at Port Stephens this season has been outstanding, with big numbers as well as big fish.

As a special mention, Rod Templeman and wife Tracy fished the mid week Billfish challenge with us. Rod unfortunately has been doing it very tough of late with cancer, and it has always been a dream of his to fish on marlin boat, in a tournament. They fished the midweek tournament devoted to Tag and release for Billfish, Rod’s energy levels were very weak due to his medication, but his effort came close to being rewarded as we were only one fish from taking out this tournament which had a purse of $5000.00. This was a outstanding effort for someone in his condition and bought a lot of emotion on board.

Thank you to Captain Bill Billson from Australian Marlin Charters.

Photo by Mel Currie.

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Bill Billson from Australian Marlin Charters sent me this report to share with all of Game Fishing Hub followers.

Frustration has a whole new Meaning

The first weekend of 50^th anniversary NSW interclub tournament is now history, and as I sit here and ponder on the wording for this blog, I realise how much the luck factor can play in the sport of Game fishing.

We were on the Board with one of the first Tag and realises of the tournament, a solid black marlin, than with in another half an hour, we were again hooked up to another over size Black for this fishery. This fish well over 200kg gave us a early chance with the Tag pole, but it did not find it’s mark, and it realised that it better keep as far away from that screaming engine noise as possible.

The hours ticked by and another couple missed opportunities, and then after four hours of what I could only call now wasted time the inevitable happened. Obviously feeling a bit flattened we were back on the spot, the sked report made me aware that we had wasted too much time and the pace was getting away from me.

When it rains it pours and again within minutes we were hooked up again, this time to a very large Striped marlin that took us all around the fleet in hot pursuit. Then it took off down sea at top speed for what seemed an eternity. Again when the opportunity arose, the tag shot went astray and made contact with the line. I remember saying something like bad luck or maybe something along those lines.

We had been hooked up most of the day and yet our result at the end of day 1 was one Tag. Well off the pace of 5 for the Top boat.

Well with that day out of the way, you would think that, things could only get better. I arrived on the grounds at 0630 due to the crazy time they start fishing in this tournament. (leaving the entrance to Port Stephens at dark with another 170 odd boats of all sizes departing at similar time is a navigation night mare, and it looks like they will not change this criteria until someone has a collision at sea, which could have a disastrous outcome. I only hope that this stupidity does not cause a loss of life.) The baits went in the water at start fishing 0700 and immediately we were hooked up to a double header, both going in opposite direction, and we were getting smoked, I made the decision to lock up one or lose both. With one fish gone I was just about to do chase to the other fish, and due to the amount of line out the line parted. It appeared the Monkey had not got off my back.

Well my old mate Percy veer came to my aid, and our luck finally turned, after a shocking start we finally started catching. At the end of the second day we caught 5 striped marlin for the day, up there with a good result for the day, but our 6 fish total for the 2 days is well off the pace. The result for the Tournament so far in general is outstanding, good results both in marlin of all sizes and extremely large sharks. It looks like the 50^th anniversary Interclub will be one to remember. Stay turned.

Viking II backing down on a Marlin. Photo taken by Stephen Pitchfork.

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Jamie Behrens sent me some exciting news from Lakes Entrance that mates Bob Hirs, Warren Horrigan and Joe Costoso headed offshore in bob and warren's 233 formula from Lakes Entrance (Victoria), in search of a Billfish. Bob is an oil rig worker and knows the area quite well and they ended up about 85km from home, past the oil rigs and ended up going 3.3.1 for the day.

The Blue Marlin unfortunately came up tail wrapped and drowned. Joe Costoso was on the rod pictured below. The boys were using 80 pound Tiagra's and the fish took a top gun soft head ''barrel'' in lumo colour. The Blue weighed around 210 Kg. Thank you to Jamie Behrens for the report.

Bob Hirs, Warren Horrigan and Joe Costoso with the first Blue Marlin caught in Victoria.

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Glen Booth on Wicked Weasel went 8-6-2 on Thursday, tagging two Blues from a double header, but with only two on board the boat they had to break a couple of rules to get the tags in, so no club points I'm afraid. Glen lost three fish over 200 kg, including one that had them down to 20 wraps of 37 Kg Dacron in a matter of a minute (50W LRS), then pulled the hook after 30 minutes.

On Saturday, the Solitary Islands Game Fishing Club (www.solitaryislandsgamefishingclub.com) had its second club day for the month with eight boats signing on. There were eight Blue Marlin and one Spearfish tagged and released, and one weighed. The best performing boat was Steakout who got the Spearfish and a double header on Blue Marlin, about 100 kg each. There was plenty of bait and birds with the water being a degree warmer than Thursday (26-27.5 degrees), although the colour of the water wasn't as quite as good. Thursday was truly exceptional.

A dead sperm whale provided some entertainment for the shark spotters. There was only a small Tiger and a Mako in evidence at 8am but by 3pm it had drifted eight miles south and attracted some cruiserweight tigers. If the smell above the water is anything to go by it's little wonder that they attract Sharks from near and far under the water!

On Sunday, a 625 Cruise Craft tagged two Blue Marlin and most boats saw fish. 'The Boss' managed to find a 53 Kg Yellow Fin Tuna in amongst all the Marlin.

A special thank you to Glen Booth for sending the report in.

Andrew Carson with his Blue Marlin.

Matt McEwan with his Blue Marlin on board Wicked Weasel

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Here is an article Bill Billson from Australain Marlin Charters wrote about the east coast fishery.

The large blue marlin appeared behind the stinger lure, and as it made its first attempt to eat the colourful artificial bait, it certainly got my attention, this was a larger than normal blue for Australian waters. The 130 Penn started screaming and we were hooked up to this special fish. My boat Viking 11 did its thing and gave chase to the ballistic blue, and my charter client Steve Pennisi did the job in the chair.  An hour and a half later the large blue marlin regretfully came up dead, and was pulled  through the transom door, it was the largest blue I have ever caught and  weighed 836lb, Also the largest blue ever caught in Queensland.

This is just one story in what is a growing number of accounts regards to how the fishing has been on the east coast of Australia this marlin season. Big Fish and big numbers, from Lizard Island, Cairns to Port Stephens in NSW, the east coast is going off.

The nice blue was caught on my first day out after the Cairns season from my home port the Gold Coast. The Cairns giant black marlin season was also one to remember and the number of large and very large fish in the 2011 season bought back memories of an earlier era. By late November the Charter fleets log books were an impressive read in deed. As a example on a very calm day on the 1^st of October my regular Client Dave McPherson, released a beautiful and spectacular giant Black I called over 1100 pound you would think that would make any ones trip, but then straight after,  her smaller male companion a 400lb fish also jumped on. Dave was beaming but it was not over, half an hour later a truly huge fish inhaled the rainbow runner and what followed had me wondering how big this fish truly was, it made the previous fish I called 1100 pound look like a 800 pounder. After the release, Dave was exhausted so back to Cooktown for a celebration we went.

During the Cairns season the reports of the great blue marlin fishing on the Gold Coast was also being documented, another capture of note was from the Charter boat lucky strike in November. At first thought to be a very large Blue Marlin, it turned out to be a Black marlin in the class of a Large Cairns black. The Blue marlin fishing on the Gold Coast was becoming world class; well know lure maker Peter Pakula got amongst the action, and out of his Boston Whaler  released a blue over 650 pound of cause caught on a Pakula lure.

By early January another well know fishery Port Stephens was also making news, the striped marlin had arrived in big numbers early, like all the east coast fisheries the seasons started early. The news got out and the trailer boat boys from down south hitched up and headed for Port Stephens. The local boys were having a ball and releases of up to 8 in a day were not uncommon, mixed in with the striped marlin were some good size blacks to 130kg and of cause the odd blue, making a grand slam possible.

I was keen to get amongst the action and the Viking 11 arrived in Port Stephens early February, I had one of my workshops booked for the first weekend and after the tutorial day at the wharf, we took the students out to put into practise what they had been taught. It is what I dream about, having that many Marlin available, that you can show the students the many different ways you can fish for these magnificent fish, and get results every time.

Bait and switch, rigging dead baits to perform like it is alive, all got results for the students, and the action was fast and furious. But unfortunately something I do not applaud sinking weighted live baits, and sitting on top of bait schools, was producing most of the action, this to me has taken Marlin fishing to a all time low, and I strongly believe that it should be ruled out of all club and tournament fishing, well enough on that. But it was my job to show my students all facets of the sport, so live baiting we did, by knock off on my first day’s fishing out of Port Stephens the boys had released 10 Marlin, not bad as some had never seen a marlin nor work the deck of a marlin boat.

Other boats spending the whole day sitting on the Bait schools live baiting reached as many as 14 for the day, and there were some reports floating around that amongst the whole fleet fishing that day, including boats in a tournament being held at the time, that 500 Marlin had been released. This result is nothing less than phenomenal and world class.

From giant Black Marlin, large Blues, double figures in a day, and grand slams the east coast of Australia is truly going right off!

Thank you to Captain Bill Billson off the mighty Viking II for sharing the artical for all of Game Fishing Hubs readers to enjoy.

Ross Hunter reports from on board Broad Bill that they have tagged 14 Marlin in 4 days of fishing as well as some giant Mahi Mahi.  Rod Findlay on Murrifin is catching 3 Marlin a day on average although the large number of boats are making it hard unless you drive like a duck through the pack. Rod caught a 102kg Blue Marlin yesterday on 24kg although unfortunately the fish was tail wrapped and died.

Results for the Luhrs Billfish Shootout 2012 are as follows:

A total of 96 boats entered this year with 443 anglers competing for some fantastic cash and prizes. There was 17 Blue Marlin tagged, 19 Black Marlin tagged and 153 Striped Marlin tagged with only 10 Marlin captured.

Striped Marlin caught on The Force.

Tag & Release Final Standings
1st Place: Gunrunner - 149500 pts
2nd Place: The Force - 11200 pts
3rd Place: Calypso - 99000 pts
4th Place: Diversion - 92000 pts
5th Place: Pelagic - 80000 pts
6th Place: Anarchy - 63000 pts
7th Place: Shakara - 61500 pts
8th Place: Born Free - 57500 pts C/B
9th Place: Tonlu 2 - 57500 pts C/B
10th Place: Smart Bill - 57500 pts C/B
Champion Female Junior: Amy McAndrew - 43000 pts
Champion Male Junior: Ethan Henderson - 23000 pts
Heaviest Marlin: BA'JA 236kg Blue Marlin
Peter Goadby Award went to Viking 2

The Force with Captain Shayne Wilson at the helm backing down on another Marlin.

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Captain Eddy Lawler from Peak Sport Fishing has reported really good fishing in the last week with plenty of Sail Fish and Black Marlin on the inshore fishing grounds and still they are still seeing good numbers of Blue Marlin out wide.

Eddy fished Todd Mestrevic and Luke Norton from Victoria the last few days and got stuck into plenty of Sail Fish and got a nice Blue Marlin out wide. Both Todd and Luke popper fished each morning getting stuck into great numbers of GT's, Coral Trout, Cod and Red Bass.

Todd Mestrevic landed himself a monster GT, with a 108cm girth and fork length of 136cm. This is what popper fisherman dream of. Todd released this monster GT in great condition. If your interested in fishing in this great location with plenty of options from light tackle catching GT's and all reef species to Sail Fish and Black Marlin to the mighty Blue Marlin contact Eddy Lawler here to book a trip of a life time.

Todd Mestrevic with his monster GT.

Todd and Luke with a beautifull Exmouth Sail Fish.

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On Thursday, Wicked Weasel, Kestelle and Triton fished the Blue Marlin Car park inside the North Canyons with Wicked Weasel going 5-5-0 (Glenn did not want to talk about it), Kestelle 3-3-2, and Triton 3-2-1. All the activity was in a two mile area.

Word soon got out and on Saturday the best report was Secret Men's Business who went 7-7-2 on a mix of Blue Marlin and Black Marlin, releasing a Black and a Blue Marlin.

Sunday saw a lot of boats out, with Kestelle going 1-1-1 on a Blue Marlin for Elise Currey which was her first. On board the Wicked Weasel, Jarred Flynn got his first and second Blue Marlin of 100 and 130 kilos. This activity was south, between Sawtell and Nambucca, Kanahoee also got a Blue Marlin and lost another one at Nambucca.

Triton was heading south for the Interclub and tagged two Blue Marlin at Nambucca early, then two more from three bites south of there. Plenty of fish were seen and jumped off at the Blue Marlin Car park and North Canyons, but they were a bit doughy. Slimies were top to bottom in places, so they might've been a little full. Rosanna had a four hour fight with a big fish on 24 kilo, which ended with a broken line.

And today, Kestelle has zeroes, and Kanahoee a 1-1-0 with a Blue Marlin falling off after a 400 meter sprint on 80 pound tackle.

Thank you to Glenn Booth for the report and the photo, Glenn tells me he is back out again this Thursday.

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Brent Higgins and Barry Higgins fished on Walk The Line on Sunday out at the 8 mile going 2 from 3, releasing an 80 pound Black Marlin and a nice Sailfish both caught by Barry Higgins. They jumped another Black off right near the boat also. Brent informed us that there is plenty of bait, pulling full strings of Slimy Mackerel one after another.

Jamie Behrens on board Reel Hunter dropping a small Black Marlin at the back of the boat and had another bait ripped off and Brett Barton and Chris Pullen On Spot On boated a nice Cobia. Things are starting to look good but we heard that 2 long liners were seen late on the grounds. Brent sent in a video he put together of his half days fishing below.

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Nathan Douglas fishing on Luna from the Mooloolaba Game Fishing Club fished the Noosa Canyons on Saturday going 2 from 2 on Blue Marlin both in the 200 to 250 pound range while on Steve Dahl on Bring It On dropped two little Black Marlin at the Hards then joined Luna out on the Shelf to drop a Blue Marlin also. Captain Ken Brown on Megumi fished down off Cape Moreton going 1 from 3 on Blue Marlin and Bite Me went 1 from 4 on Blue Marlin in the same area.

Captain Ken Brown on Megumi backing down on a Blue Marlin off Cape Moreton.

Sunday saw a few boats fishing off Cape Moreton with the warmest water getting up to 29.2 Degrees and plenty of bait marking on the surface down to 100 meters. David Trask on Big Business went 3 from 5 on Blue Marlin, Captain Ken Brown on Megumi went 3 from 4 on Blue Marlin in the 250 to 350 pound range, Cabilito with Peter Jenyns at the wheel released a 280 pound Blue Marlin, Fish Whisperer with myself at the wheel went 3 from 3 releasing a 200, 220 and 260 pound Blue Marlin and there were a few other smaller boats releasing the odd one as well.

One of the three Blue Marlin tagged on board Fish Whisperer.

Jamie Behrens on Reel Hunter fished a nice bait ball in the light tackle grounds off Mooloolaba and landed himself a nice 16Kg Wahoo. Jamie said there was a Black Marlin caught off the same bait ball also.

Jamie and his son with his 16Kg Wahoo caught on his Reel Hunter.

Special thank you to one of my super crew John Dwyer for his great photos of Megumi and our Blue Marlin.

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Rod Findlay on Murriffin fished just away from the fleet out at the carpark to release 8 Striped Marlin and 1 Black Marlin all on 30 pound tackle they had released 8 before lunchtime. Murriffin left the grounds at 2pm in hunt of a Blue Marlin out wider to complete a grandslam but no luck for the boys. George Trinkler on BornFree had a great day as well releasing 10 Marlin for the day as well as Tim Dean on Calypso released 13 for the day, Tim has two spaces left for the weekend to fish Port Stephens get there for some awesome marlin fishing on the Calypso $750 pp for two days fishing.

Captain Bill Billson on the mighty Viking II arrived in Port Stephens a week ago and started fishing, and has done his first workshop and a charter day, the fishing has been nothing short of amazing. Captain Bill Billson caught 14 Marlin Black and Striped, and his students experienced a phenomenal day.

Sunday the 5th of February, was there day at sea for the students in the workshop, and what a day it was. It was also the second day of a tournament being held over the weekend, Billy started out letting the students use the rigging skills they were thought on the first day to present skipping baits, and also try there hand at switch baiting, it did not take long and we started marking fish on the sounders. The students could not believe how clear the fish marked on the large screen TV in the saloon. Within minutes the Viking II were hooked up too 3 Striped Marlin at once, a bit of Chaos followed and they were soon unattached.

Due to the amount of boats fishing the same area and everyone else socking live baits, the fish were very finicky on the skip baits, but it was important for all to see all the techniques they were taught the Saturday at the dock. Soon after they released there first Striped Marlin on a skip bait, rigged by one of the class members. But it was becoming obvious that to truly maximize on the amount of fish in the area they would soon have to soak some live baits, down deeper in the water column.

By lunch time Viking had finished the entire tutorial with rigging skip baits, and teaser and switch baiting. The students were keen to start catching some number’s so with the help of the Viking II excellent electronics, and our own specialized live baiting arrangement, they started catching in big numbers. By knockoff Viking II had caught 10 Marlin for the day, not bad for a group of guys who many had never seen a Marlin before, and were working the deck of a Marlin boat for the first time.

Port Stephens is gong off this season so get aboard the mighty Viking 11 and experience a magnificent boat and unbelievable fishing. Contact Captain Billy Billson on 0427183159.

Below is some footage from Rod Findlay on board Murriffin, Enjoy.

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On board Blue Illusion with Rob Danckert, Shane Dwyer and Richard Kidd fished their way from Sydney to Port Stephens fishing along the shelf releasing 3 Striped Marlin and boating a Short Billed Spear Fish. Seaka released 5 including a grand slam as well as Shelby releasing 4 for the day.

Born Free released 2 Striped Marlin south of the Carpark and Shane Webb went 1 from 2 in the flat calm conditions releasing a 120Kg Blue Marlin he caught on 15Kg tackle.

Pending small fry Australian and NSW record  - A 72.6KG Black Marlin on 15kg tackle caught by Nathan on board Lone Wolf.

Bermagui, NSW
Jan 20.
11 year old Tyler Wright fishing on board Hotshot with Ian "Wobbs" Ford and Dave Cassar caught his first Marlin a Striped Marlin that weighed 66.8Kg on 15Kg tackle.

Jan 21.
Ian "Wobbs" Ford and Dave Cassar on board Hotshot caught a 80kg Striped Marlin on 10kg for sharon Garbett.

Jan 22.
Ian "Wobbs" Ford and Dave Cassar caught 13 year old Micheal Garbett a 75kg Striped Marlin on 8kg. The boys are fishing the next 6 days and we will keep you posted on the results as they come in.

Sydney, NSW
Jan 21.
Rod Findlay on board Murrifin went 5,3,2. Fishing out in 80 fathoms, the first two Marlin didn't switch. Rod then heard one of his mates from Broken Bay GFC on Shakara were fighting their third and fourth Marlin for the day in close. Murrifin trolled in and managed to  switch a 70kg Black on 15kg. Rodney said the video should be interesting with the fish jumping and the city skyline in the background. This fish took them about 40mins to tag as it got tail wrapped.

Rod decided to put in an hour after stop fishing and soon raised a double header, tagging a 70kg Striped Marlin and the second Stripey which looked around 100kg plus, escaped when the hook broke.

Shakara went 4 from 4 on Striped Marlin for the day. All this happened 2 miles off  North Head Rodney said it was pretty cool.

Jan 22.
Sunday the southerly picked up to 20 knots all day. Neither Murrifin or Shakara raised a fish.

It sounded like Bandit Reef was the place to be which is in close north of Wollongong. A few boats caught 3 and 4 down there.

There was a sea rescue when a 24ft boat fighting a fish near Bandit Reef capsized with the crew rescued safely by the SGFC boat 'Casey'. Not sure on the rest of the details but sounded like every one did a great job and good to see no body got hurt.

Thanks to Rodney Findlay for the report from Murrifin.

Jan 22.
Richard Kidd fishing on Blue Illusion with Rob Danckert at the wheel weighed a 91.3Kg Blue Marlin caught on 30 pound tackle.

26th Annual Tollgate Islands Classic Results 2012

A total of 51 boats entered this year to compete in the 26th Annual Tollgate Islands Classic hosted by the Batemans Bay Game Fishing Club. The week before the tournament saw boats reporting 4 to 5 fish a day. It was shaping up to be a great tournament with plenty of fish around. Below is the final results for this years tournament.

Heaviest Marlin - Mark Stewart 256Kg Blue Marlin (On Site)
2^nd Heaviest Marlin - Al Knight 126Kg Blue Marlin (Freedom)
Heaviest Game Fish to a Senior Male - Mark Stewart 256kg Blue Marlin (BBGFC)
Heaviest Gamefish Junior - Josh Holz 85.2Kg Striped Marin (Got Em) (Shell Harbour GFC)
Most Marlin T&R Team - Hardaraddit 7 (Bermagui)
2^nd Most T&R team - On Count back (Catman) 2 (SHGFC)
Most Sharks T&R Team - Wildcard 1 (BBGFC)
Highest Point Score T&R Male - Brian Scofield 45000 Points (Bermagui/Eden)
Highest Point Score T&R Female - Tegan Lucardie 30000 Points (Bermagui)
Highest Point Score T&R Junior - Brock Lozzaro 23000 Points (Bermagui)
Highest Point Score T&R Small Fry - Jayden Mann 104 Points
Highest Point Score T&R Trailer Boat - Catman
1^st Marlin tagged - Ian Richardson (Rumpus Room)
Last Marlin Tagged - Brian Scofield
Highest Point Score T&R Boat - Hardaraddit 75000 Points

Day Prizes
Day 1 Most Meritorious - Josh holz (Got Em) 3629.52 Points
Day 2 Highest Pointscore T&R Small Fry - Jayden Mann
Day 3  Highest Pointscore T&R Junior - Brock Lazzario

Thanks to Gail McMahon for sharing the results with Game Fishing Hub.

Soon to be posted - the final results of the Bill Heyward Tournament and the Gold Coast Light Tackle Masters.

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Sydney, NSW
Jan 15.
Richard Kidd fishing on Blue Illusion with Rob Danckert at the wheel weighed a 108.7Kg Striped Marlin caught on 50 pound tackle and Ambition released a Black Marlin.

Coffs Harbour, NSW
Glen Booth reports its very quiet down at Coffs Harbour, which is surprising given what's going on at the Port Stephens. With plenty of current still, three knots or more, blue water and 26-27 degrees, but no Marlin. Eight boats fished Saturday for one Marlin bite. Glen worked stripey schools feeding on squid and flying fish for five hours for zip. Saw a couple of yellowfin in the stripey schools. That;s about all.

Gold Coast, QLD
Jan 14.
Lynchmob fished "Jim's" going 2 from 2 releasing a 80Kg Mako for Ronan and an 800 pound Blue Marlin that took 1 hour 40 minutes for Andy Malurish. The short length was 10ft 8 inches. Below is a video from on board Lynchmob.

Cape Moreton, QLD
Jan 14 & 15.
Captain Andrew Yeh on Outside Edge fished over the weekend to pick up nice Wahoo on the saturday and on Sunday raised a Black Marlin that would not eat.

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Sunshine Coast, QLD
Jan 6.
Brett Barton and Jay Graham on 'Spot On' fished the Hards Raising a Black Marlin that would not eat and later joined Fish Whisperer out wide at the Noosa Canyons. On board Matthew Wallace’s Fish Whisperer with myself at the helm, we went 2 from 4 on Blue Marlin releasing a 300 pounder to Warick Bible for his first Billfish release and a 500 pounder to Adam Moore. We also raised 2 more Blue's that didn’t eat. 

Brett and Jay on Spot On joined Fish Whisperer during the day to go 1 from 2 releasing a Blue Marlin for Brett Barton on 50 pound line. They raised another 2 Blue Marlin and a Striped Marlin that didn't eat. This was the fist heavy tackle fish for Spot on. Well done boys!

Spot On's first heavy tackle fish.

Warick Bible with his first Blue Marlin on board Fish Whisperer.

Adrian Temminck fished light tackle to release two Black Marlin with plenty of bait schools around the area.

Jan 7.
Paul Jones reported on the SCGFC Forum about this day out onboard 'Catapult' with Paddy and Troy:

Went out yesterday with Paddy and Troy aboard Catapult for a heavy tackle fish.
After seeing larger than normal flying fish schools we stopped to put the gear in about 4 mile earlier than anticapated . With in 15 min we had dropped 2 Mahi Mahi both hitting the same lure at the same time. After another 15 to 20 min on another school of flying fish we again lost a Mahi. After going back around to see if we could pick up any other Mahi .The Stripey hit the long rigger the fish was tagged with in 30 minutes  and realeased healthy after nearly going away with the tag pole,we were in 130 metres of water.Paddy estimated the fish between 60 and 70 kilos. Thanks Paddy once again for a great day(don't use lighter leaders)

Jan 8.
At last on the light tackle front, good bait schools have arrived with Kamikaze releasing a Sailfish for John Longworth and Jamie on Reel Hunter released a small Black Marlin. Fish Whisperer returning from the Noosa Canyons stopped for a brief look with bait balls showering on the surface with dolphins feeding on the baitfish and birds working everywhere starting to show some great signs for the near future.

Out wide Walk The Line with Brent Higgins fished off Cape Moreton to raise two Striped Marlin but was unfortunate and finished 0 from 2. Captain Ken Brown on Megumi released a Striped Marlin and raised another. Up the other end at Noosa Canyons saw Kamikaze raise a Blue Marlin and boat a Yellow Fin Tuna and Fish Whisperer went 1 from 1 releasing a 250 pound Blue Marlin to Mark Clancy for his first Billfish release.

Gold Coast, QLD
Jan 6.
Mistress was out wide heavy tackle picking up a double header of Blue Marlin going 2 from 2 for the day.

Jan 7.
Conor Lynch went out heavy aboard Lynchmob going 2 from 2 releasing a Blue Marlin to Wade Mickey and a Shortbill Spearfish to Ronan Lynch for his first heavy tackle fish.

Jan 8.
Ben Colvin reported that Anger Management lost an estimated 600 pound Blue Marlin after almost a 7 hour fight on 50 pound tackle. The big Blue Marlin came up jumping after 6 1/2 hours showing that she still had plenty of life in her. Pete Mathers fought the fish for 3 1/2 hours then passed the rod over to Ben Colvin as his back was playing up badly. Ben pushed the drag lever straight to sunset and with the use of his hands brought the big girl to the boat. They had the double out of the water half a dozen times during the fight but ended up running over the line. A great effort on 50 pound tackle to all on board but im sure the 50 pound rod will be put away after this defeat.

Exmouth, WA
Jan 5.
Eddy Lawler from Peak Sportfishing fished with Daniel James from the NT with Leigh Freestone and went 0 from 1, pulling the hooks after a 40min battle on a nice Blue Marlin. Daniel also boated an awesome Yellowfin Tuna going 76kg.

Daniel James and his 76Kg Yellow Fin Tuna.

Jan 8 & 9.
Eddy fished inshore with Mick Hislop and his family for 2 days raising plenty of Black Marlin to 200 pounds. 11 year old Conner Hislop caught himself a 200 pound Black Marlin on a light spin outfit. He subdued the fish after 1.5 hours on the rod. An awesome effort for a young teenager.

Conner Hislop's 200 pound Black Marlin in flight.

Leigh Freestone fished the inshore grounds as well raising 19 fish over 2 days fishing catching plenty of small Black Marlin and Sailfish.

If you have any reports to share please send to reports@gamefishinghub.com.au

Sunshine Coast, QLD
Dec 3.
At last the weather is dropping out for boats to head offshore. Fish Wisperer and Reel Capture made the journey down to Cape Moreton to fish out wide for Blue Marlin with the water temp around 26 Deg. On board Fish Wisperer we came across a mass flock of gannets feeding on flying fish and raised a 300 pound Blue Marlin that didn’t want to eat in the morning and Reel Capture boated a 40 pound Mahi Mahi pictured to the right with Channon Arbuthnot.

A few hours later on Reel Capture the team released a 250 pound Blue marlin and a short time later pulled the hooks on another Blue Marlin, Fish Wisperer released a 120 pound Blue Marlin in the afternoon to finish the day off.

Gold Coast, QLD
Dec 3.
Captain Bill Billson on the Viking II fished out wide with Andrew and Steve Pennisi going 2 from 3 on Blue Marlin. Andrew released a 300 pound Blue Marlin and brother Steve weighed an impresive 836 pound Blue Marlin. Well done to Andrew and Steve Pennisi and Captain Bill Billson and the crew of the Viking II.

Mat Stehmann on Murphy's Law went 1 from 1 on Blue Marlin (200pounds) and went 3 from 3 on Mahi Mahi.

Steve Pennisi with Captain Bill Billson with the 836 pound Blue Marlin.

Exmouth, WA
Eddy Lawler from Peak Sportfishing fished Paul Willis, Brenden Dolphin and Jason Pember from Perth the last few Days chasing Giant Trevelly and Blue Marlin. The boys got stuck into some big GTs and Red Bass. Jason Pember got his first Blue Marlin going 1 from 1 for the day.

Smithy and Michael Jacob on the "BEAR" Smashed a big Blue Marlin on the 29th December and a 287kg caught by the young fella Liam who is 16 years old caught on 80 pound stand up tackle They also released another nice fish at 500 pounds caught by Matt (Wob) Jacob. Thank you to Eddy Lawler from Peak Sportfishing for suppling the report and photos.

Coffs Harbour, NSW
Dec 3.
The Edge tagged and released a Striped Marlin.
Dec 4.
Foreign Exchange tagged 3 Blue Marlin from nine bites, some of which were Black Marlin, but the Blue Marlin were again inside the shelf and all aroubd 80-90Kg. Most boats had shots but they were a bit doughy The Mahi Mahi have increased in numbers, lots of flying fish about too.

If you have any reports to share please send to reports@gamefishinghub.com.au

Dec 24.
Eddy Lawler from Peak Sportfishing went 1 from 8 on Blue Marlin hooking fish between 100kg and 300kg, fish landed 200kg by Eddy Lawler,

Dec 26.
Eddy fished the first half of the day fly fishing the inshore grounds raising 2 small Black Marlin and a Striped Marlin and getting a shot on fly at the Striped Marlin. Eddy then headed wide with leigh Freestone on the rod with an epic 40 minute battle in big seas to release an estimated 350kg blue Marlin.

Dec 29.
Smithy on the BEAR released a 100kg Striped Marlin and a 100kg Blue Marlin.

Thanks to Eddy for the report.

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The last week has been largely impacted by ex tropical cyclone Fina producing strong winds and large swells along the east coast of Austraila and its affect will continue into this week. Some areas had breaks in the weather and boats made the most of the opportunity.

Sunshine Coast, QLD
Dec 20.
Craig McCulloch on Reel Capture released his first marlin of the 2011/12 season being  a little 20Kg Black Marlin caught on 4Kg tackle with David Granville on the tag pole and Jeff Oates on the wheel. Below is a video of their fish.

Dec 27.
Fish Wisperer, Reel Captrure, Ymer, Walk The Line, Bring It On, Luna and a few more smaller boats ventured out. On board Fish Wisperer we managed a triple hook up on Yellow Fin Tuna around the 8 - 9Kg mark and marked two Marlin that we could not raise off some small patches of bait. Walk The Line with Brent Higgins and ex Cairns decky Josh Eagen managed to raise a small Black Marlin in the afternoon in green water.The fish pulled the skipping gar out of the rigger and pulled a few meters of line off but came unstuck unfortunately

Cape Moreton, QLD
Dec 27.
Big Business went 2 from 2 on Blue Marlin, releasing a 250 and 400 pounder before heading back into port through the storm.

Gold Coast, QLD
Dec 27.
Ross McCubbin on Lucky Strike released a 80Kg Black Marlin and caught 4 Mahi Mahi up to 15Kg before having to make the run in with a storm moving in.

Port Stephens, NSW
Dec 24.
Rob Danckert on Blue Illusion, a 36 pro tournament Riviera fished from Sydney to Port Stephens going 3 from 5 releasing a 30 and 70Kg Striped Marlin and a 150Kg Blue Marlin. Not bad going with only two people on board.

Coffs Harbour, NSW
Dec 24.
Kikino tagged and released two Blue Marlin and Darkside pulled the hooks on one, thanks to Glen Booth for the report.

Exmouth, WA
Full report from Eddy Lawler with Leigh Freestone fishing on board PEAK Sportfishing  to follow soon.

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Dec 22.
Captain Gavin Woodbury from Sea Probe Charters on board Watch Tower fished on Thursday to boat some nice quality Mahi Mahi and caught a 120Kg Blue Marlin on 30 pound tackle for angler Brett Leathan that at one stage just about spolled them.

Dec 23.
Gavin was back out on friday and released a 80Kg Striped Marlin on 30 pound tackle for Ewan Johns and caught 10 Striped Tuna and a few Mahi Mahi. On board Castille with captain Dean Beech released a 200 pound Striped Marlin.

Brett Leathan with his Blue Marlin.

One of the Mahi Mahi caught.

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Sunshine Coast, QLD
Dec 15.
'Fish Wisperer' fished the 8 mile in 20 knots of breeze and found some nice mid water school's of small Slimey Mackeral but didn't turn a reel for the day.
Dec 18.
'Keneka' fished light tackle and saw no Billfish for the day but managed to boat a few Mahi Mahi and some small Yellow Fin Tuna.
Dec 20.
'Reel Capture' released a 20Kg Black Marlin caught on 4Kg tackle by Craig McCulloch, they got the tag into it in 5 minutes.

Gold Coast, QLD
Dec 18.
'Why Wait' fished north of Sullies and pulled the hooks on two little Black Marlin but caught a few Mahi Mahi Out wide in the deeper water 'Addixion' got a tag into a 85Kg Striped Marlin that was caught on 8Kg, 'Sea Pace' went 2-1-1, 'Barco' went 8-5-2 and Mistress 1-1-1.

Sydney, NSW 
Dec 18.
Rod Findlay on Murrifin fished the Shelf due east of long reef going 2 from 2, releasing a Striped Marlin for Steve Wulz and a Blue Marlin around 120kg for Adrian Hawkins. 'Gail Force' released 2 Striped Marlin.

Broken Bay, NSW
'Shakara' bait and switched and released a 80kg Striped Marlin to angler Jay Anderson in 130 Fathoms and Dealne from Broken Bay tagged a Striped Marlin also.

Botany Bay, NSW
Rob Connellan from the Port Hacking GFC on 'Time To Tango' fishing in 160 fathoms out of Botany Bay and released a 200 pound Black Marlin on 30 pound tackle and 'Dark Horse 'released a Mako for Sam Barning.

Coffs Harbour, NSW
'Wicked Weasel' fished in ten knots of breeze all day and went one from three on Blue Marlin, tagging one around 100kg. Triton went three from four, two Blue Marlin, a Striped Marlin and possibly a Black later in the day that fell off. 'The Edge' snared a double on Blue Marlin with just two on board and 'Darkside' went none from three which didn't please them one bit. A couple of other boats had a few bites also but didn't convert. Thanks to Rod Findlay, Jay Anderson and Glen Booth for the reports.

Photo supplied by Glen Booth.

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Eddy Lawler from Peak Sport Fishing fished Leigh Freestone, a local lad and Clay HiIlbert from Victoria and had an awesome day out. They went 2 from 3, 200kg and 280kg Blue Marlin and dropped a Striped Marlin. All the bites were in 700 - 750 meter of water west of the light house were they found a temperature break and worked that for most of the day.

The water temp is slowly creeping up and is sitting at 26 deg. Local Boat 'The Bear' fished south 2 days ago and released 1 Blue Marlin at 100kg and dropped 2 more. Also Wayne on 'Charinda 2' a five meter tinny fished north and scored a nice 160kg Blue Marlin for the day. Thanks to Eddy Lawler from Peak Sport Fishing for the report and the great photo. If you’re looking at a new fishing destination and find yourself in Exmouth make sure you get in contact with Eddy here and experience the great fishery they have.

Mooloolaba, QLD
Dec 10.
Tony Cross on Out Quoting fished the 8 Mile off the Sunshine Coast to release a solid little Black Marlin for first time angler Russell Wright. It was caught on a skipping lumo gar off the back off a small pillie school in 42m. Great to see a very healthy fish that was much heavier than the measurements would have suggested.

Congrats to Russell and hopefully its the first of many more to come.

Out Quoting also dropped another Black Marlin on Sunday, reporting some good size Yakka schools on the 8 mile.

Gold Coast, QLD
Dec 10.
Thirsty Traveller tagged and released a Blue Marlin, God's Hands went 1 from 2 on Blue Marlin, Sea Eagle went 2 from 4 and Murphy's Law weighed a solid 55kg Yellow Fin Tuna.

Whitsundays, QLD
Ashley Warland fished off the shelf out with Justin Andrews and Hamish Jensen on Desies Pride for billies. Hamish caught one Saifish and Ashley lost a nice Black Marlin about 300 pounds on 50 pound stand up after an hour and half fight. The boys had 3 more half arsed shots and also caught some nice Mahi Mahi, Spanish Mackeral and bottom fish.

Coffs Harbour, NSW
Dec 10.
Saturday just gone aboard 'Wicked Weasel' Glen Booth tagged a 300 pound Blue Marlin, Foreign Exchange tagged a 150 pound Striped Marlin, and Hooken-Em released a 400 pound Blue Marlin. A couple of other Blue and Striped Marlin were lost as well. Glen had bites from two Striped Marlin on the way in, neither of which stayed connected fortoo  long. Thanks to Glen Booth for the report and the photos.

Below is a video from on board Moana from the Cairns heavy tackle season 2011.

Stay tunned for the fishing report from Exmouth with Eddy Lawler from Peak Sportfishing.

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Eddy Lawler from PEAK Sportfishing reports the fishing between the 60 meter FAD and Halby Bank has still been producing good numbers of Sailfish and the odd decent Black Marlin.

Eddy fished Trish and Bill Atkinson who travelled all the way from The Bay of Plenty in New Zealand to chase the mighty Sailfish, Trish and Bill had some great fishing on the west side and got stuck into some big Sails, Mahi Mahi and Yellow Fin Tuna.Thank you to Eddy Lawler from PEAK Sportfishing for the report.

Eddy Lawler and Bill Atkinson with a nice Exmouth Sailfish.

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Well it's been a terrible week down the east coast due to bad weather. Not too many reports coming in. The following was the only action we have heard about.

Coffs Harbour, NSW
Glen Booth fished Monday for zeroes, but Foreign Exchange went one from three on blues for first-time angler David Poulter. Interestingly, two bites were in 55 fathoms, and the other in 85. Glen Booth reports he went wide and picked up three knots travelling back into the shelf, which is possibly why the blues were up shallow.

Foreign Exchange backing down on a Blue Marlin.

Fraser Island, QLD
Nov 29.
Captain Ian "Wobbles" Ford with Dave Cassar on HOT SHOT fished off Fraser Island for a few hours and went 3 from 5 on Blue Marlin. With reports from boats fishing past Fraser Island im sure we are all itching to get up to Fraser for look.

Hamilton Island, QLD
RENEGADE Charters out of Hamilton Island released a 110 pound pound Black Marlin at the Oval during the week and another local boat released one as well in the same area.

Cairns, QLD
Below is a video of leader jump shots from on board KEKOA with Captain Luke Fallon and Jarad "Dingo" Boshammer and Braden Byrne on the leaders and Kelly Fallon.

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Lady Musgrave, QLD
Nov 27.
Captain James "Jimbo" Bladin on the SPARTACUS went 2 from 4 on Blue Marlin just north of Lady Musgrave. James informed me that they will be fishing around that area for another two days so we will keep you posted on their results as they come in.
Nov 28.
Back on the SPARTACUS they released another 2 Blue Marlin in the 300 to 400 pound range and Brett Thomas on GORILLA released a 850 pound Black Marlin and jumped a nice Blue Marlin off as well.

Sunshine Coast, QLD
Nov 25.
'Anger Management' from Surfers Paradise G.F.C raised a Black Marlin at the 10 mile during their prefish for the Mooloolaba Billfish Bash.

Nov 26.
BRING IT ON fishing out of Mooloolaba during the Mooloolaba Billfish Bash and released two small Black Marlin. Many boats caught plenty of Mahi Mahi also. KAJIKI with Noel Jones at the helm was fishing off Chardons and jumped a Sail Fish off.

Nov 27.
BRING IT ON jumped a small Black Marlin off, while another boat from the Gold Coast fishing the tournament pulled the hooks on one right at the back of the boat. Robert Smith on CAPRACORN jumped a Blue Marlin off on 8kg line.

'Anger Management' pulled the hooks on a solid Black Marlin and myself and the crew on FISH WISPERER weren't fishing the comp but fished the hards for a few Mahi Mahi and fishing from the northern end of Noosa Canyons we produced a few more Mahi Mahi and a 140 pound Striped Marlin.

Nov 29.
Captain James "Jimbo" Bladin on the SPARTACUS fished his way down through noosa Canyons and past Cape Moreton and had one bite but said the water looked good up at Noosa Canyons.

Gold Coast, QLD
Nov 28.
Peter Pakula fishing on PAKULA with Adam Bandiera, Thomas Apps and his crew Mick, going 1 from 1 releasing a 450 pound Blue Marlin on the new Pakula Lumo Jet Sprocket.

Cairns, QLD
Nov 28.
Captain Tim Richardson from TRADITION Charters had a great day at Linden Bank going 3 from 4 up to 800 pounds and saw one other for the day.

Jeremy Meakin who was doing the deck for Hayden Bell on board RELEASE sent this footage below.

Cairns to Gold Coast, January 2012 on board TRADITION Charters.

Trip details:

Trip 1. Cairns to Mackay, 7 days, depending on weather, out to seamount, holmes/ flora, McDermott Bank, Flinders and Myrmidon Reefs , thru the reef to Mackay, heavy tackle blacks, blues, poppers, jigging, spearing etc.

Trip 2. Mackay to Gold Coast, 7 days, via Fitzroy Reef, Lady Musgrave, wide off Fraser and down to the coast blue marlin fishing , if the weather is flat calm, maybe out to the outer reefs outside the swains and then Wreck/Cato seamounts home.

Can do up to 4 guys with you guys crewing for more info contact Tim Richardson here, need to commit by mid December at the latest, or Tim will bring the boat straight home before Xmas so Tim can get Tradition home and get off!!!

Exmouth, WA
Nov 28.
Eddy Lawler form PEAK Sportfishing reports the fishing has been awesome, the weather has been hard, and the GT fishing has been going off.

The big fish are here and are in good numbers. They range from 25kg - 30kg+. Eddy is in the middle of a Charter with Sam Wallrock from Sydney and his party have been smashing the GT's and Sails the last few days, below is a couple of photos of their trip so far.

Found this video below on youtube and just had to share it, fishing in Exmouth, WA.

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Sydney, NSW
Nov 20.
Rod Findlay on MURRIFIN fished off Broken Bay going 1 from 2 of Striped Marlin.

Terrigal, NSW
Nov 20.
HAVEN Charters with Captain Scott Thorrington were out on their first Marlin charter and went 2 from 3 on Striped Marlin and raised another that wouldn't switch.

Gold Coast, QLD
Nov 21.
LARVA Lures went 1 from 1 and releasing a Blue Marlin on a 12" Tongariki Ash with Pink Fusion Skirt and a cup head attached.

Sunshine Coast, QLD
Nov 20.
YMER fishing out wide raised a Blue Marlin as soon as they arrived on the grounds but didn't convert. They managed to boat a nice sized Mahi Mahi though. SPOT ON fished light tackle and found plenty of Pilchard schools but unfortunately no Billfish. They also boated one Mahi Mahi.

Cairns, QLD
Nov 21.
On board LITTLE AUDREY with Daniel Carlson, the crew pulled off a great day releasing a 1050 and a 1000+ pounder in 10 mins and released 1 smaller fish for the day. Jeremy Meakin reported from RELEASE with Captain Hayden Bell that they have released 10 Black Marlin in the last 5 days.

Captain Damian Colette on SALTAIRE sent this photo of one that he released at Linden Bank.

SALTAIRE with a nice one on the leader.

DIVERSIAN with Gary Holt at the wheel had a great day releasing a 150, 800 and a 1000 pounder. Below is a video of James Holt in the chair catching his 1000 pounder.

Exmouth, WA
Eddy Lawler from PEAK Sportfishing has reported from the gulf fishing for the sailfish. Eddy reports the fishing has been awesome with plenty of fish on bait balls. He fishing Fished Luke Norton, Joel Tipping and Nick Schram from Victoria the last few days and each of them got stuck into some nice sails with plenty of fish being caught. The boys got to witness some of the best bait ball action seen for the season. There is some nice hot water sitting of the coast at the moment so they are just waiting for the weather to come good so they can get stuck into some nice fish out wide!

Continue reading for some more photos

Gladstone, QLD
Husband and wife team Russell and Janette Golding on board 'MISS MOLLY' fished off Gladstone from the 9^th till the 11th November and got a beating going 1 from 4. One straightened the hooks, one was bill wrapped, one dived under the boat while they were on the leader trying to tag it. The smallest one going 300lb, was tagged last to save the trip. The fish were bigger then the trip before and all Black Marin no Blue Marlin.

This is a great sign with a few weeks left in the Cairns heavy tackle season. We can expect that some of the fleet that head south will be putting in some time around Lady Musgrave down to Fraser Island.

Cairns, QLD
Nov 13.
Lachlan Tuckwell on board KAIZAN reports from Linden Bank, they released a 900 followed by a 1050 pound Black Marlin just before calling it a day for Greg Caporn.

Nov 14.
Captain Kim Andersen has made an appearance on the reef this year onboard 'REEL SHOCK', a 40 foot Obrien that has just been refitted. He went 3 from 4 at Linden Bank with the Stretch down in the cockpit.

Nov 15.
MISTRESS went 2 from 4 with one of the fish eating all three baits. The final result being a 600 pounder that had no chance. Brett Thomas from GORILLA filled in for Chris on AMOKURA and went 2 from 3 releasing a solid 900 pounder.

Nov 16.
Captain Dean Beech on CASTILLE had 8 bites for the day releasing a 450, 1050 and a 1150 pounder and pulled the hook on one around 800 pounds. The three fish were the first billfish for the three anglers. Captain Tim Richardson on TRADITION released a solid 950+ pounder for angler Jack. Daniel Carlson on LITTLE AUDREY also had a great day releasing a 200, 400, 500 and a 900 pounder and saw another 3.

On board MISTRESS they released a 600 pounder for day 2 of the charter with the tally at 5 from 8 with 2 days to go. Lachlan Tuckwell reports that KAIZAN released a double header consising of a 150 and a 250 pounder and had a bite out of another. Captain Chris back at the wheel on AMOKURA released three small fish for day also

An 85-year-old great grandmother Connie Laurie released an 850 pound black marlin during a day charter off Cook Town on board TOP SHOT with captain Ross Finlayson. For full story click here.

Sunshine Coast, QLD
Nov 16.
Brooksy on YMER ended the day going 2 from 4 on Blue Marlin and saw another 1. He also boated a nice 30 pound Mahi Mahi. WATCH YA PROBLEM released a solid one around 500 pounds as well.

Blue Marlin boatside on YMER.

Ballina, NSW
Nov 13.
Farther and son team Andrew and Tim McQuade released a 130Kg Blue Marlin. This is Tims fifth Marlin and we hope many more to come.

Tim McQuade with his 5th Marlin a 130Kg Blue Marlin.

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Following on from our earler report about the huge numbers of Billies in the gulf, Eddy Lawler from 'Peak Sportsfishing' has sent us some photos and details from a few days ago.

I fished Ben Plumridge (pictured) from Victoria, fly fishing for Sails and our best day had 6 bites and landed 3 on fly. The conventional fishing has also been really good and we are getting around 10-15 shots a day.

There's heaps of bait on the grounds with spectaculal sight fishing on the surface with free swimming and bait balling fish everywhere.

On Wednesday November 1, Captain Daniel McCarthy on the MOANA released this 1100 pound Black Marlin caught on a Bluedog Lures Big Cuban.

Congratulations Daniel and thanks to Bluedog Lures for providing the photo.

Cairns
Oct 28.
Sunshine Coast Boat 'Kamikaze' Skippered by Heath Irvine tagged a big black which potentially was their first "Grander" for the season. Heath's dad was in the chair with his two brothers Trent and Ryan on the deck. Unfortunatelly we don't have any pics but Kelly from the BMB was sitting right in the action and managed to get some great shots.

We expect to hear some good results in the following week from Kamikaze as a few of the Sunny Coast boys including our own Ross Martin and heading up tomorrow.

Oct 29.
Square Bear, Craig “sparra” Denham released a 1100 pounder for Ben Stasaik at No 3 Ribbon Reef. Amokura with Jacinta Thomas fishing 50 pound released a 150 and 250 pounder.

Oct 30.
Square Bear, Craig “sparra” Denham released a 200 and 300 pounder for Rob Marino and Andrew Stasaik. Back on board Amokura Jacinta Thomas released her biggest Marlin a 500lb which if they boated was a potential junior female world record.

Oct 31.
Tim Richardson on Tradition went 1 from 3 and saw a few good ones that didn't eat. Square Bear with Captain Sparra released a small black for Martin Goldstein. On The IONA with Captain Adam Jordan they released a 1100lb for Pete Sutcliffe

Video Caption: Captain Nick Stanczyk gets in the chair aboard the "Square Bear" to catch and release a black marlin estimated at 950pounds! Capt. Sparra put Nick on the fish and with as much as 60 lbs of drag on the fish it was a 15 minute battle with the fish swimming off healthy.

Gladstone
Husband and wife team Russell and Janette Golding went out from Gladstoneon 26 - 27 October for 2 tagged Blue Marlin from 3 strikes in perfect weather on their boat 'Miss Molly'. Photos below

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Cairns, QLD
Captain Dean Beech from CASTILLE Charters had a great 5 day charter with Bill Borkan releasing 12 Black Marlin from 150 pounds up to 900 pounds. Dean sent us a couple of great photos unfortunately it’s of the one that got away.

Photos taken by CASTILLE Charters.

Tim Dean on the CALYPSO has been fishing at Linden Bank and has released one he called over the magic mark "1000 Lb" and one just shy.

Below is a video on board the VIKING II with Captain Bill Billson releasing a grander for angler Dave "Bagwah" McPherson.

Gold Coast, QLD
Oct 21.
Steve Morley fished with Sam Lythgo and Andrew on SEA EAGLE releasing Andrews and the boats first Blue Marlin. Sam boated a solid 45 Kg Yellow Fin Tuna as well. GODS HANDS  and MONKEY BUISINESS released 1 Blue Marlin and LARVA Lures went 1 from 3.

Oct 23.
Simon Christidis fishing on his vessel OUTERLIMITS released their first Blue Marlin of the season.

Video on board SEA EAGLE with their first Blue Marlin.

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Cairns, QLD
Oct 14.
Captain Luke Fallon on board the KEKOA went 4 from 8.
Oct 15.
Captain Tim Richardson on TRADITION saw 3 fish and ended the day releasing a 350 pounder and Captain Luke Fallon on the KEKOA went 4 from 7 for the day.
Oct 16.
Captain Tim Richardson on TRADITION went 2 from 3, Heath Irvine on KAMAKAZE a private boat from the Sunshine Coast fishing at No.5 Ribbon Reef released a 350 pounder for their first fish of the season. Lachlan Tuckwell on board KAIZEN reports a great trip so far with 6 fish, 2 at 150 pounds, 2 at 300 pounds, 1 at 800 pounds and one big girl at 1070 pounds.

Cape Moreton, QLD
Oct 16.
Ken Brown on Megumi fished the canyon's east of Cape Moreton for 1 bite from a small Blue Marlin around 200 pounds, you can only hope that they start showing up soon with fish being caught off the gold Coast so close.

Gold Coast, QLD
Oct 16.
Well it continues from the waters off the Gold Coast with number of Blue Marlin and Yellow Fin Tuna with MURPHYS LAW going 2 from 5 on Blue Marlin, RAM JET 0 from 2 on Blues and a couple of Yellow Fin Tuna and GODS HANDS released a Blue. Ross McCubbin on LUCKY STRIKE boated a nice 40 pound Mahi Mahi and lost a Blue Marlin that jumped thru the double.

Exmouth, WA
Oct 16.
Eddy Lawler from PEAK Sportfishig fished wide last night looking for some Broadbill they got one in the early hours of the morning 3:30am a 50 pound fish caught by Leigh Freestone, it was their second attempt at targeting them so we are looking forward to what is to come in the future.

Eddy Lawler and Leigh Freestone with thier first Broadbill.

Groote Eylandt, NT
Adrian Warden reports that the Sailfish are slowing down at Groote Eylandt with 3 released on Wednesday and 8 on Friday.

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Cairns, QLD
Oct 10.
Captain Luke Fallon on the KEKOA released a 600 pounder followed by their first grander of the season for return client Jason Hassett. Captain Chris from AMOKURA Charters tagged and released 2 Black Marlin around 350 pounds each for their clients and Captain Daniel Carlson on LITTLE AUDREY released another two 200 pounders.

Photo taken by Kelly Fallon on the KEKOA with Jarad "Dingo" Boshammer on the leader.

Oct 11.
Captain Tim Richardson from TRADITION released a 600 pound Black on there 1st day of their new 12 day charter with Stephan Kreupl. Tim has some dates still available from October 30th to November 10th inclusive available as a block or split up, contact Tim Richardson here if you are interested in coming and fishing the greatest place on earth, the Great Barrier Reef , where the monsters live.

Captain Daniel McCarthy on MOANA III have just had a pretty good weeks fishing releasing 8 fish for the week, 4 between 850 & 950 pound and the rest were 150 to 350 pound. Lots of Wahoo & Yellow Fin Tuna around and the current is smoking to south like it hasn’t done consistently for a few years

Unfortunately one Daniel's charters has had to cancel, (due business problems in the USA) so we now have a vacancy from 10th to 16th November you can contact Daniel McCarthy here for more details. Photo far right from Daniel McCarthy on the MOANA.

Daniel Carlson on LITTLE AUDREY released a 300 pound Black with just the crew and owner Phillip Webster on board and Brett Goetze on REEL CHASE released a 500 pounder and were fighting a nice one.

A short clip from Kelly Fallon on the KEKOA.

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Exmouth, Wa
Eddy Lawler from PEAK Sportfishing reports the fishing has been really good with great popper fishing at the back of the reef for GT's with plenty of fish to 25kg. They got stuck into some big fish as well, like the one pictured the measurements put it around 42kg.

The billfish have been steady with plenty of rat black marlin, on the in shore ground around Helby Bank and the FAD. The Sailfish have showed up in the gulf, the bait is still scatted but the fish are there. There have been a steady run of striped marlin out wide as well.

Sunshine Coast, QLD
Oct 7 - 8
The Sunshine Coast Game Fishing club held thier Spring Shootout over the weekend with 22 boats entered. Barry Higgins on WALK THE LINE released the only Billfish for the tournament a 250 pound Blue Marlin, WALK THE LINE took out 1st place with Brett Barton taking out 2nd place for the Telstra boys with a few Longtail Tuna on SPOT ON.

Cameron George on SPOT ON weighed a Longtail Tuna from day one that went 19 Kg on 8 Kg, Rob Smith on CAPRICORN took out 3rd place and Ryan McKinnon took out champion junior with a weighed a Spanish Mackeral on CAPRICORN as well.

2011 Sunshine Coast Game Fishing Club Spring Shootout winners "Walk The Line"

Oct 9.
PRIVATEER released a Blue Marlin and saw another one and Chad heading back from the SCGFC Spring Shhotout had a 500-600lber dump 600m on him between Cape Moreton and Point Lookout.

Gold Coast, QLD
Oct 8.
Larva Lures  fished on Saturday to release an estimated 800 pound Blue Marlin caught on 80 pound tackle, the boys also caught a  45 and 75kg Yellowfin Tuna.

Cairns, QLD
Oct 7.
Captain Tim Richardson on the TRADITION weighed a 1,103 pound Black Marlin for lady angler Lydie Fayard, this is her first fish she has weighed. Well done to all on board TRADITION.

Captain Tim Richardson and the TRADITION with Lydie with her 1103 pound Black Marlin.

Lizard Island, QLD
The 25th Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic ended with a total of 264 strikes, 200 hook ups and 125 Tags from the 24 boats, Champion team went to ASKARI with Captain Corey Hard followed with runner up LITTLE AUDREY with Captain Daniel Carlson.
You can view all the results here.

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Day 2 Results. 
Day 2 of the 25th Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic seen a total of 13 fish tagged and released from the 22 competing boats, below is day 2 and the overall standings for the 2011 tournament.

Final standings after Day 2.

Good luck to all compeating in this years tournament for day 3.

Cairns, QLD
Oct 1.
Captain Dean Beech on CASTILLE out on his first charter for the season caught a 150 pound Dog Tooth Tuna on 30 pound tackle for angler Barnie Junior Barnard.

Captain Tim Richardson on the TRADITION was fishing at the bottom of No.10 Ribbon Reef releasing 2 and jumped off a 700 pounder with the double on the rod, Tim saw 7 fish for the day.
 

Lizard Island 25th Black Marlin Classic Day 1 Results.
Oct 2.
Captain Chris (Sharky) Miles on the KANAHOEE fishing the first day of Lizard Island Tournement released a 150 and 850 pounder. There was a total of 8 Blacks released from the 22 boat fleet for day one with two boats with 2 fish.

Exmouth, WA
Oct 2.
Eddy Lawler from PEAK Sportfishing fished sunday going 1 from 2 releasing a nice Striped Marlin around 70kg and raised another small Black Marlin, well done to braden cooper it was his first billfish!!

Groote Eylandt, NT
There has been some great numbers of Sailfish being raised and tagged here on Groote since Sat 24th Sep, BELLY UP was there on Saturday and raised at least 15 Sails hooked 6 and tagged 2.
Sep 25.
Sunday had NO MORE FAVOURS and DIAMOND TIME go back to the southern grounds off South Point (the Kink) NO MORE FAVOURS tagged 5 Sailfish and DIAMOND TIME tagged 3 with to many fish raised to even keep count.
Sep 26.
Monday had 3 more boats, NO MORE FAVOURS and DIAMOND TIME and a wounded CLUB LIQUID with only one engine.
NO MORE FAVOURS tagged another 5, DIAMOND TIME with 6 tagged and CLUB LIQUID 1 tagged, and again at least 30-50 fish raised in the day.
Sep 28
DIAMOND TIME tagged 8 and REEL ADDICT tagged 7 and lost 4 after solid hook ups. And again we saw at leat 30 - 50 Sailfish for the day between the two boats.

Yong Linclon on the left and adrian warden.

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Cairns, QLD
Sep 22.
BILLFISH started there CAIRNS heavy tackle season with a 350 pound Black on the first day and a 1000 pound plus on the second day. The big fish took 3.5 hrs and covered 9 miles during the fight.
Sep 23.
KAIZEN released 2 for the day a 150 and 900 pound Black Marlin and raised another 4 for the day.
Sep 24.
KAIZEN went 2 from 2 releasing a 100 and 400 pound Black Marlin for angler Rod Webster.
Sep 24 - 25.
Captain Tim Richardson on TRADITION was fishing Lena Reef Saturday and got a nice 300 pound Black, and Sunday they released a fat 900 pound + Black at the top of no.3 Ribbon Reef.

Fraser Island, QLD
Sep 24.
Captain James Bladin on the SPARTACUS a 52 Viking with Danny Curtis, Brett Barfoot and Rolf Czabayski left the Gold Coast on Saturday after a long refit to make their journey to Cairns for the 2011 season. James reported going 1 from 3 on Black Marlin.

SPARTACUS crew with a 150 pound Black Marlin.

Sunshine Coast, QLD
Sep 24.
FISH WISPERER fished light tackle and searched around and found some nice bait balls, marking one billfish but no luck. We caught a 25 pound Longtail Tuna and 4 nice Pearl Pearch up to 3Kg for a feed.

Gold Coast, QLD
Sep 22.
Andrew Morley on EXPRESS went 1 from 2 on Blue Marlin releasing a 300 pounder and cracked off an estimated 600 pounder.
sep 23.
EXPRESS had a great day on the water on Friday catching 9 Mahi Mahi and a Short Billed Spearfish.

Port Macquarie, NSW
Sep 23.
Ryan Frost fishing on board PURPLE HAZE reported that they tagged and released a 160 pound Striped Marlin and a 250 pound Blue Marlin, Ryan said the water temp they had was 21.1 Deg.

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Captain Brett Thomas on GORILLA a (47 Assegai) has returned to port after a 4 day trip, Brett and the crew did not see a fish on the first day of the trip but for the next three days they released 6 from 8. The biggest Black Marlin was estimated around 850 pounds followed by a 450 pounder and the 4 other Blacks were around the 200 to 300 pounds.

GORILLA with a 850 pound Black Marlin on the leader.

GORILLA in pursuit of a 450 pound Black Marlin.

Captain Brett Thomas on GORILLA has returned to port after a 4 day trip, Brett and the crew did not see a fish on the first day of the trip but for the next three days they released 6 from 8. The biggest Black Marlin was estimated around 850 pounds a 450 pounder and the 4 other Blacks were around the 200 to 300 pounds.

TOPSHOT with Captain Ross Finlayson is back in at Cooktown after a 5 day trip fly fishing, they had an estimated 1100 pound Black Marlin on for 3 hours and ended up breaking the tippett. A great effort to the the TOPSHOT crew and angler.

Crewman Lachlan Tuckwell reported that KAIZEN with Captain Russell Caporn went 1 from 2 today on Black Marlin releasing a 200 pounder at No.4 Ribbon Reef for angler Rod Webster, KAIZEN is back out in the morning heading up to No.10 for the next few days.

KAIZEN with a 200 pounder on the leader.

Exmouth, WA
Sep 17.
Eddy Lawler from PEAK Sportfishing fished wide on Saturday with Aaron Rampling fly fishing they raised 3 Striped Marlin got the hooks in 2 but couldn't stay tight for long. Aaron got a nice sailfish that went 33.3kg on 15kg tippet which is a pending Australian fly record and there have been heaps of big Spanish Mackerel up to 30kg. Thank you to Eddy Lawler for the report and if your over in Exmouth and your keen to do some fishing make sure you get in contact with PEAK Sportfishing you can find contact details in our charter directory.

Aaron Rampling with his pending Australian record.

Cairns, QLD
Sep 15.
Captain Damian Colette from SALTAIRE Charters released a 200 pound Black marlin off jenny louise for thier first billfish of the heavy tackle season.
Captain Daniel McCarthy on MOANA from Big Fish Downunder released a 400 pound Black Marlin off Houston Light.
Sep 16.
Captain Chris on the AMOKURA left Airlie Beach on wednesday morning, they jumped off a small Sail Fish on Wednesday before catching this on on Thursday morning.
Sep 17.
AMOKURA spent the night at Flyn Reef after bait fishing and filling the freezers. Captain Chris and the crew did not waste any time, after half an hour they had caught there first fish of the season a 300 pound Black Marlin followed by a 800 pounder. A great way to start the 2011 season, well done to the AMOKURA.
Sep 18.
Captain Hayden Bell on RELEASE caught a small one and a big one fishing between No.3 and No.4 Ribbon Reef.
Sep 19.
AMOKURA ended thier day with just a small Black Marlin and were heading into Cairns, they will be back out fishing on Thursday.

Hamilton Island, QLD
Sep 17.
Report that a local private boat fishing for Mackeral over the weekend jumped 2 Black Marlin off on ribbon fish.

Mooloolaba, QLD
Sep 17.
FISH WISPERER fished off Noosa at Chardons Reef for a few hours and found the water temp still 20 deg with green water we then made the run out to the northern end of Noosa Canyons and found 23.2 deg water. We came across a free jumping Stripped Marlin and later in the afternoon right on 4pm raised a small Blue Marlin around 160 pounds only to have the fish knock it out of the rigger.

REEL CAPTURE at the bottom end of the Noosa Canyons raised a Striped Marlin first off and came across a Striped marlin sunning it self on the surface, not long later they spotted this fish again and Jeff Oates jumped up to the bow of the boat to flick his live yakka right on his head and hay presto got him on.  After a quiet quick fight they had got the tag into a 70Kg Striped Marlin on 8Kg, great going to all on board.

Gold Coast, QLD
Trevor Simons on RAMJET tagged and released a Blue Marlin on the Riv grounds estimated around the 300 pounds for the first billfish for RAMJET for the season, great going to the crew.

Port Macquarie, NSW
Sep 17.
Over the weekend Ryan reports that there were 2 Blue Marlin and 1 Striped Marlin tagged and released over the weekend with the water temp at 22.4 Deg by local boats MUSTANG, RENEGADE and CALYPSO.

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Captain Tim Richardson on TRADITION has been chugging straight through from the Gold Coast for 4 days straight. Captain Tim put them in at the top of the green zone at Cog and within 5 minutes hooked up to a 120 pound Black Marlin. It never jumped, just ripped off line up sea. Tim turned the TRADITION around, chased it down and got half the spool back. The leader came off the tail and then it tailed down sea with the TRADITION chasing in hot pursuit until they got the tag in, grabbed the leader and pulled it onboard for a few quick photos. Tim said no other bites as yet, but we have been straight lining it down sea all the time.

TRADITIONS first Black Marlin for the 2011 season.

Due to a cancellation, Tim Richardson has a 9 day mothership trip with the Bali Hai available during the period of Oct 24 to Nov 12 inclusive - this is some of the best time of the season and is available at a discounted rate as some of the deposit has been paid already. Contact Tim here for more details.

The Weather this week along the south east coast is great with numbers of boats looking to fish over the weekend out of the Gold Coast and I my self will be heading out on Saturday on the FISH WISPERER for a look. The latest SST chart is looking great with the warm water starting to move in along the coast, we can only hope the fish will be following the warm water.

The Cairns heavy tackle season is off to an early start with Captain Adam Jordan on board IONA II starting to catch a few as well as Russell Caporn on KAIZEN. With boats starting to show up in Cairns it wont be to long till we start getting some great reports.

Cairns, QLD
Sep 11.
Captain Russell Caporn on board his 52 Kaizen, KAIZEN with an all Sunshine Coast crew Conor Lynch and Lachlan Tuckwell fishing in the middle Ribbons went 2 from 5 releasing a 200 and 500 pounder. They raised an 800 pounder late in the afternoon that was not in the mood to feed. I spent some time with Conor and Lachlan before they left for the season to run them through bait rigging for the Cairns season. It's great to see new young crew step up and be apart of this amazing sport. Well done to all onboard KAIZEN.

KAIZEN in hot pursuit of a 500 pounder @ No. 4 Ribbon Reef

Gold Coast, QLD
Sep 8.
Darren Malaquin from the Gold Coast Game Fishing Club on his vessel ADIOS fished out at Jims and the Riv grounds with the water temp 22.5 Deg with lots of birds and picked up 2 Mahi Mahi.

I Also heard a rumor that a Gold Coast boat jumped 2 Blue Marlin off and saw another one tailing on the surface.

Exmouth, WA
Sep 11.
Captain Eddy Lawler from PEAK Sportfishing fished Leigh Freestone on Sunday for his birthday, Eddy raised 7 Black marlin for 4 shots and released 2 Black Marlin. The water is blue as, and the wind has been in for about a week but it is shaping up for some awesome conditions over the next few days to come. What a way to spend your birthday, a great day for Leigh.

Leigh Freestone with a Black Marlin with PEAK Sportfishing.

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Fraser Island, QLD
Sep 1.
Captain Russell Caporn with his crew Conor Lynch and Lachlan Tuckwell on board KAIZEN heading from Mooloolaba to Townsville for the 2011 Cairns heavy tackle season went 9 from 10 catching 8 Yellowfin Tuna, a Mahi Mahi and dropped a Blue Marlin. 1 Yellowfin Tuna 55-60kg, 3 in the 40kg range, 2 in the 45 - 50kg range, 1 - 15kg model and a jellybean for a bait. Lachlan said the water temp off Fraser was 22.8 Deg and you can see on the SST chart the warm water is making its way down the east coast.

Gold Coast, QLD
ADDIXION tagged and released a Striped Marlin and there has been a few Yellow Fin Tuna out on the shelf as well as Mahi Mahi and Wahoo. I received a report of 1 Blue Marlin being hooked and lost as well.

Hamilton Island, QLD
Renegade Charters from Hamilton Island released a sailfish at the Oval, Private boat GALEFORCE released a 100kg Black marlin at Blacks Reef and an unknown private boat released a Sailfish in a secret spot.

Townsville, QLD
After 2 days of fishing in the Townsville Billfish Challenge KEKOA is in the lead with a Sailfish and a Black Marlin released, followed by ELECTRAKUSEN with a Sailfish and CASTILLE with a Black Marlin.

Sydney, NSW
Sep 4.
Captain Glenn Hunter on BILLFISHER boated a 104.3kg Yellowfin Tuna caught on 50 pound stand up tackle. The big fish took three anglers 5.5 hours to land. A great effort to angler Peter Bruce and his team who also caught a 75kg fin a couple of months earler on BROADBILL.

Photo: Peter Bruce with the 104.3Kg Yellow Fin Tuna.

Exmouth, WA
Sep 4.
Captain Eddy Lawler from PEAK Sportfishing released a Sailfish for Dave Bicknell and a Black Marlin for Jai Currington on Sunday. This was Jai's first Black Marlin switch baiting and Dave's first ever Sailfish. Good Job boys!

Eddy said the fishing has been really good with plenty of sailfish action at the back of the reef and the GT fishing has been hot with heaps around the 15-20kg range.They have also been getting into some huge Red Bass as well.

Continue reading for some more pics.

Photo: Dave Bicknell with his Sailfish.

If you have any reports to share please send to reports@gamefishinghub.com.au

Mackeral Islands, WA
Jon Jarvis and Pete Faulkner fished the '2011 Mackeral Islands Leisure Cat Game Fishing Tournament' over the weekend. They tagged and released one Black Marlin, and dropped a Sailfish. Jon also hooked an 80kg+ Black on 8kg that refused to play the game. After 2.5 hours they pulled the pin. They reported some Mahi Mahi and Tuna also been caught.

Photo to the right of Jon with a Mahi Mahi. Taken by Pete Faulkner

Broome, WA
Aug 28.
Farley Bancroft had a bad day on the billfish dropping 5 but had a cracker day on Wahoo, Tuna and plenty of Mackeral with double and triple hookups.

Port Stephens, NSW
Aug 28.
Dave Tucker fishing on CLIMAX caught an 80Kg Striped Marlin for angler Nathan. Dave said the water temp was around 20 degrees with plenty of sauries around.

Sydney, NSW
Aug 28.
Rod Findlay on MURRIFIN caught 1 Mako Shark and a couple of Albacore and Anthony Dimech boated a 30Kg Yellowfin Tuna and 5 Albacore.

Rob Danckert fishing on BLUE ILLUSION chasing Tuna out in 1000 fathoms. They caught a few Albacore straight up then on dusk they caught 2 Yellowfin Tuna about 30 - 40 Kg and a Blue Shark.

Queensland
Terrible weather up the east coast kept most of the fleet in port for the week although a few braved the rough seas to put a few on the scoreboard.

Gold Coast, QLD
Aug 27.
Andrew Morley and Marcus Hargreaves on EXPRESS from Surfers Paradise Game Fishing Club caught 3 Yellowfin Tuna up to 40 kg on the top end of the canyons. They reported plenty of bait and birds around the area.

Cairns, QLD
The Cairns Bluewater Game Fishing Club held their 'Cairns Blue Water 6Kg Billfish Tournament' from the 24th - 28th. We will have the full tournament results posted soon.

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Michael Jacob fished over night from Exmouth on Friday on a friends private 30ft Blackwatch.  The plan was to chase marlin out wide in a warm pocket of water showing on the SST chart and chase Swordfish at night, as well as a bit of deep water jigging for ruby snapper and 8 bar cod.

The fishing was great as they raised 10 Billfish in 2 days releasing 7 Black Marlin to 300 pounds and 1 Sailfish. As for the Swordfish they had 2 bites of some description with one  playing with the bait for half an hour before eating and then dropping it after about 4 seconds bringing the bait from 50 meters to the surface.

Early that morning they had a bite  that left Michael's Tiagra 80w RED hot after running 400 meters. It was the fastest constant run he has ever had on a 80 pound outfit. After losing the 400 meters they pushed the drag to 17kg and the fish sped up breaking them off just before they were spooled. It was an awsome run and too fast for a shark so mayby it was a big tuna or a sword!!!

The next morning they did a spot of jigging over the tide and all four anglers jigged up some nice rubys to 12kg, then returned to the marlin bite.

Special thanks to Michael Jacob for the report.

Cape Moreton, QLD
Aug 17.
Matt Price had a great day out off Cape Moreton releasing a Shortbill Spearfish and boating a 18kg Mahi Mahi and some king fish. They were jigging in 180m of water.

Photo of Matt's Short Billed Spear Fish far right.

Townsville, QLD
Aug 19.
Captain Luke Fallon on the KEKOA headed from Cairns to Townsville with the company of his all girl crew Kelly Fallon, Talina O'brien and Suzie MacDonald to go 1 from 3 on Sailfish they raised 1 more Sailfish that they could not get a bite off. The KEKOA is competing in the Townsville Billfish Challenge which runs from September 2 - 7, check out KEKOA here for a personalised charter here.
Aug 21.
Captain Dean Beech onboard CASTILLE Charters on there annual voyage from the Gold Coast to the Great Barrier Reef released a Sailfish for ex Cairns ledgend Terry Parker Cape Bowling Green.

Mackeral Islands, WA
Aug 22.
Day one of the Leisurecat Mackerel Islands Game Fishing Tournament ended with 3 Billfish tagged and released, consisting of 2 Sailfish and 1 Black Marlin. There was plenty of Mackerel weighed to 15 kg. The format of this tournament is 5 days of fishing, of which a team must select one 'lay day' of their choice. Jon Jarvis informed me that all competing in this years tournament are all rairing to get out there today for day 2.

Exmouth, WA
Aug 19.
Captain Eddy Lawler from PEAK Sportfishing got stuck into big numbers of Spanish Mackeral and Wahoo. Eddy said the weather has been fantastic and he will also be fishing over the next few days.

If you are looking for a fishing adventure in exmouth contact Peak Sportfishing here and Eddy will be more than happy to go through his fishing packages.

Peak Sportfishing photo far right.

Aug 22.
Captain Josh from ON STRIKE had Scott Fury and his wife Ivana from FURY CUSTOM BOATS deliver their latest vessel this week. During the final water testing they decided to thow out a skip bait and managed to land an awesome Sailfish. This was Scotts first ever billfish and definately a fish he won’t forget, being ON STRIKES first billfish.

Last week Captain Josh had Brett Fonti onboard for 5 days of great fishing. They scored some great weather while visiting Exmouth and finished up releasing 7 Marlin and 2 Sailfish.

Christening ON STRIKE with their first Sailfish

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Sydney, NSW
Aug 14.
Rob Danckert fishing on BLUE ILLUSION tagged and released two Makos on 80 and 100 Kg and AMBITION found a 61 and 130.2kg Bluefin Tuna out at heatons. The 130.2Kg Tuna was caught on a Pakula Hothead Illusion Small Sprocket.

Gold Coast, QLD
Aug 14.
Chad fished on Sunday and managed to tag a 100-120kg Striped Marlin on thier way back to Jims in 750 meters. This is the first Billfish tagged this season for the Gold Coast Game Fishing Club.

Captain Daniel Carlson on board LITTLE AUDREY on their annual voyage to Cairns has added to a great start to the season releasing a ballistic Blue Marlin. Daniel called it around 650 pounds and after roaring around the ocean for 15 mins they released the big girl.

Cairns, QLD
Aug 11.
Tara Thompson from SQUARE BEAR Charters reported Captain Steve Ahlers from the HELL RAISER had a couple of bites from a black as well as a couple of mackeral.
Aug 12.
SQUARE BEAR was out on Friday and had a couple bites from a Sail fish and later in the day had a little Black Marlin in which they pulled hooks on.
Aug 14.
Captain Damian Colette from SALTAIRE ChARTERS fished Opal Reef on Sunday to catch some 30 pound Longtail Tuna, and they had a 400 pound Black Marlin come up and eat his stick bait which unfortunately was on his TLD 20. They broke line as it went ballistic jumping on the mainline.
Aug 15.
Captain Damian Colette was back out again and fished Opal Ridge They boated a 40 pound Wahoo and a few nice quality Spanish Maceral. They also raised a 100 pound Black Marlin but could not manage to get a bite out of him.
Aug 16.
SALTAIRE is heading back out on Wednesday for a 5 day charter and we will keep you updated throughout the trip.

Dampier, WA
Brett Sinclair fished the Dampier Classic which broke a world record by 100Kg weighing a 260.8Kg Tiger Shark on 6Kg. It took Brett just over three hours to boat this monster. The Dampier Classic saw another Australian record broken with a 27.4kg Tiger Shark on 1kg line. For more info on this world record Tiger Shark read here. KBGFC is generally a tag and release club and accepts catches throughout the competition for records.

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Cairns, QLD
August 6-7 SQUARE BEAR boated 27 Mackeral and raised 2 little black Marlin.

Yorkeys Knob Sport Fishing Club has cancelled their Light Tackle Slam tournament due to bad weather over the weekend (6^th & 7^th) and now has been postponed to August 20 - 21. If you have not entered, now is your chance to do so. You can download your entry form here or go to our tournament calander for the brochure and enrty form.

Gold Coast, QLD
Brett Smith on FIRE UP fished on Sunday wide of jims, and trolled down the 750m contour where they tagged and released a 90-100kg Striped Marlin after an 1.5 hour fight. This is the first billfish released for the Gold Coast season.

Sydney, NSW
BLUE ILLUSION fished over the weekend to weigh a 170Kg Mako shark on 15Kg tackle for Shane Dwyer.

Rod Findlay from MURRIFIN has put together a cracker of a video from the Sydney Game Fishing Clubs Mako Tournament. This tournament has become a circle hook only event.

Exmouth, WA
Below is a video of two days marlin and sail fishing with Ryan "mumzy" Mumford, Ian "the penertrator" Huxter, Ben "dover" Knight, the always gorgous Brittany Shultz and Michael Jacob.

Broome, WA
After 6 days of fishing the Broome Fishing Club held their presentation dinner for the Billfish Classic on Saturday night. Final results were

564 Sailfish raised, 454 strikes, 336 hook ups, 224 tags.

71 Marlin raised, 54 strikes, 36 hookups, 13 tags.

Champion team went to FISH BROOME with 19500 points who narrowly beat GAME ON by 4 fish and 17500 points in a really tight finish.

Winners in the other classes were CLUSTER DUCKS in the '6 to 7.5 meter class' with 11500 points and SHAG took out the 'under 6 meter' class with 4000 points.

Champion male angler went to Steve Ring with 8000 points.
Champion female angler went to Danielle Cox with 3000 points.
Champion Junior angler went to Eric Locke on 5000 points. Eric also caught his first marlin during the compertition.
The Redelle trophy, for the biggest stuff up, went to Lance Carder for breaking his foot, although he did continue fishing the compertition.

Dampier, WA
Dampier WA Classic on Saturday there were 21 Black Marlin released and 1 sailfish tagged. Sunday saw 35 Black Marlin and 2 Sailfish tegged and released.

Breakseas Spit, QLD
Heath Irvine and Jay Graham on board KAMIKAZE (33 Obrien) fished off Fraser Island last week landing a 80 pound Yellowfin tuna and loaded up the freezer with quality reef fish, while fighting a few Kawa Kawa they raised a Sailfish but could not get it to feed.

Cairns, QLD
Captain Craig "Sparra" Denham on board the SQUARE BEAR with Tara Thompson on the deck fished the weekend. They tagged and released a nice little Black Marlin and boated 18 Spanish Mackeral. This is SQUARE BEARS second Black Marlin for the light tackle season.

Another quiet week on the east coast, but it's a different story in WA with the 'Broome Billfish Classic 'currenly underway and plenty of billfish being released.

Broome, WA
Day 1
The Broome Fishing Club is currently holding thier annual Billfish Classic. The first day of fishing was on Sunday. The classic kicked off with the shot gun start, and a helicopter gathering some great video footage. With glassy conditions the first days results were 110 Sailfish raised with 89 strikes, 59 hook ups and 30 tagged (Black Marlin results to come). Steve Ring wins the "Fatty Albert" trophy with 2 Sailfish and 1 Black Marlin.

Day 2.
We haven't heard too much as they are out of range but FULL CIRCLE got blown away by a 400 pound marlin, that left them gob smacked. GAME ON started off with a double header of sailfish, QUICK RELEASE also tagged and released a double header of sailfish.

Day 3.
Team RICHTER released a sailfish just after start fishing, FISH BROOME picked up a double header of Sailfish as well as GAME ON, CAMBELLS SAWMILL fishing team and QUICK RELEASE. Team RICHTER also tagged a triple header of sailfish which is a great effort considering there are only three anglers on board. Day 3 final results were 146 sailfish raised, 110 strikes, 85 Hook ups and 56 tagged. 11 marlin raised, 7 strikes, 5 Hook ups and 1 tagged. Team RICHTER took out day 3 honors with 8 sailfish releases. BILLISTIC is currently in the lead by just one fish from GAME ON, Team RICHTER, FISH BROOME and CAMBELLS SAWMILL.

Day 4.
Day 4 is underway and plenty of reports are coming in. With just a few hours of fishing, BILLISTIC has already tagged 4 with QUICK RELEASE, CLASSIC WHITE, FISH BROOME, BIG RED and RELENTLESS all on the board. Full day reports will be posted this afternoon.

Day 4 update - GAME ON have called in 4. FULL CIRCLE and CAMBELLS SAWMILL are on the board also. Broome is on fire!

This weeks report is on the quiet side for billfish but it's expected for this time of year. From Sydney down to Portland they are reporting yellowfin and bluefin tuna.

Queensland has also been on the quiet side with a few boats searching for a billfish out of Mooloolaba last week with no luck. Most are still making the most of the snapper fishing for a great feed.

Fingers and toes crossed in the next few weeks we will see the slimey mackeral show up off the coast of Mooloolaba and the sailfish that will follow.

Broome Fishing Club is holding thier Billfish Classic this Friday the 22nd till the 30th July. We will post results when the tournament has been completed.

Sydney, NSW
SMARTBILL fished on saturday cubing for tuna and it payed off. Ed's fish weighed in at 76.8kg, caught on 24kg tackle and Sam's fish weighed in at 69.2kg caught on 37kg tackle. Photo to the right.

Josh Hay fished over the weekend and weighed a 98.8kg blue shark on 80 pound tackle, a new pending Australian and NSW record and also caught two yellowfin tuna, one weighing 22.5kg on 15kg tackle. Josh is a mad keen angler and has been working away at breaking all the NSW records he can.

Bermagui, NSW
Darren Hamilton Moore had a great day on the 1000 meter line straight out the front of Bermagui. He bagged out on albacore tuna ranging from 4 to 12kg.

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Below is a report sent in by GFH reader 'Robert Verryt' from WA. Thanks for sharing Rob and great effort!

Just got back from a great week’s fishing up Steep Point WA.  One of the best trips ever, not only did we (Geoff, Sam and I) catch plenty of fish and the conditions were perfect but on top of that I managed to catch and release a 7-8ft, 50-60 kg sailfish while balloon fishing from the rocks.   

I was fishing from the high rock jutting out above Sam’s head (it’s above 80 meters behind Sam’s position). The fight lasted about 45 minutes but I had some high drama when the dam thing went 100 meters around the far point chaffing the line high up on the rocks. 
I reduced the drag and got Geoff to take the 12 ft gaff around the lower reef and hold the line (40lb mono) away from the cliff. 

 After a short time the fish went back out so I waited before continuing the fight.  It then went over to the right hand point Sam was on.  I knew if it made it around that corner I had no chance so up went the drag and heave ho I went, it worked and from that point it was just a matter landing it. 

As it reached the rock it had 5 sharks on its tail and it was as stuffed as I was.  Geoff did a great job with the gaffing but even that had it drama with Geoff discarding the gaff and deciding that he would pull the fish up by the leader (80lb mono), but it napped so still not wanting to harm the fish he used the gaff to grab one of the 6, 10o hooks and hauled it up onto the reef.  I quickly climbed down from the cliff, raced over the reef, took the hook out, got Geoff to take the photo and then we  had to choose whether to place the fish into a large reef pond or back in the ocean. 

The fish was out of the water for maybe 3 minutes.  We chose the ocean but the poor fish did not look good and the sharks were waiting but did not attack.  The small swell that was running made the water swill around the fish and seemed to help it recover.  It was touch and go but 20 minutes later the fish slowly moved away and the sharks just looked on (I think the sharks have a lot of respect or fear for sailfish). 

Great finish to a memorable fishing moment thanks to my gaff man Geoff.

Continue reading for larger photos.

Gold Coast, Queensland
Kevin (as posted on the Gold Coast GFC forum) cut open two dolphin fish that he caught just short of Micks mountain in 800 meters. One of the fish at the bottom of the photo is yet to be identified.  Julian Pepperall has been unable to identify the eel/snake like creature that is 29cm long. The other contents consisted of a Broad Billed Sword fish, Slimie Mackeral, assorted squid, Puffer fish, Trigger fish, and other partly digested goodies.

Townsville, Queensland
Alex Nicolosi on board ZURI, a 32 Cabo (ex SHAMWARI from Mooloolaba) over the weekend fished Cape Bowling Green to find some scattered bait. Saturday was very quiet with only getting a few little tuna and Mackeral until they got a double hook up on Sailfish but dropping one and tagging the other. Sunday was a bit better with getting a few good Mackeral. Alex reports overall the weekend was quiet with not a lot of activity.

Exmouth, Western Australia
Michael Jacob was out with Ian Huxter, Brittany Shultz and Ryan Mumzy Mumford. Ryan ended up catching a pending new Australian record Black Marlin on a 15kg tippet. It weighed 26.6 kg.

Sydney, NSW
Glenn Hunter on his boat BILLFISHER has been getting amongst the yellowfin of late.He has caught some excellent fish and he is out again for the next five days on them. Will report later on his catches. See photos of recent catches. One lot with the Maroubra boys and the others with the boys from the bush. Thanks to Ross Hunter for the report.

Broome, Western Australia
Rudi Oberholzer fished last week on a 5.3 meter trailcraft called PROFISH and came across a pod of about 20 sailfish. They were all around and under the boat they raised 9 and released 2 Sailfish.  Below is a short clip from Rudi of their days fishing. Thank you to Rudi for sharing the information.

New South Wales
Thursday with Joel Tegart from Shimano, Stu Hindson and ex-longliner skipper J.Nicholls landed their 1st bluefin tuna at 8.30am and had them at the boat until 1pm. They got some great bites on poppers etc and landed over 15 fish on light gear to 70kg. The boys weighed some nice ones back at the shop to 92kg.

IMPULSIVE fished on Saturday and ended up with 8 blue fin to 45 kg and a pending Australian and NSW record to Josh Hay with a 30.1kg blue fin on 8kg tackle, after a  3 hour fight

William Kozma on LOOSE CREW fishing wide off Sydney over the weekend landed  a short billed spearfish.

Glenn Hunter on BILLFISHER caught 5 yellowfin to 55 kg on Saturday for Johnny Boo and Anthony Chaffey (the Human Winch)

Gold Coast, QLD 
Gavin Woodbury from SEAPROBE CHARTERS reported on Saturday, catching a 200 pound black marlin on 30 pound line out of the Gold Coast in 50 fathoms. We also heard some rumours of a few stripes being caught.

Exmouth, WA
Captain Josh Bruynzeel from ON STRIKE CHARTERS reports of pods of sailfish starting to show up. Josh is just about to take delivery of the newest addition to his fleet, a FURY 282 centre console being just over 30ft in total length and 2.8 metres wide, powered by twin 200hp Mercury Verado outboards. These supercharged outboards offer the ultimate in quiet operation regardless if you are trolling at 8 knots or zipping along at ‘On Strike’s’ top speed of 45 knots. ON STRIKE has the latest in fish-finding and navigation equipment, boasting 3 twelve inch SIMRAD screens. These units support a 2kw digital broadband echo sounder for maximum depth penetration and side scanning for bait balls or structure. With integrated autopilot built in to the unit ‘On Strike’ is ready to tackle anything.

We look forward to hearing some reports from Josh and the new boat.

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New South Wales - Pending NSW record Bluefin

Queensland - Bottom Bashing.

Cairns & Port Douglas- The blacks start to move in & Red Emperor

Continue reading for the full report

Below is a video proving that Makos don't like been hooked. A good watch

Video source: 2Cats Sports Fishing

Sunshine Coast, QLD
Sunday saw BANGALEE out heavy tackle at the dog leg and angler Steve Dahl picked up a 100Kg black marlin for his efforts. In closer in 80 meters REEL CAPTURE picked up an 80kg striped marlin that gave local Jeff Oates a work out on 8Kg  tackle. Captain Craig McCullock said it was a very nice fish on 8kg tackle and it gave them a great  fight. We hope to start seeing the slimy mackeral schools starting to show up off the coast soon, followed by the sailfish. We can only hope.

The garfish are still been caught in good numbers in the basin at the Mooloolah River mouth so make your way down there to stock up on baits for the light tackle season.

Gold Coast, QLD
A few boats fished the weekend for blue marlin and ended up seeing nothing. Captain Ross McCubbin fishing on LUCKY STRIKE with the boys from Southpoth Golf Club were out searching for a feed and produced 15 pearl perch, 12 pig fish, 6 snapper and a 5Kg bar cod. As the blue marlin have moved on with the cold water moving in, most people are taking advantage and heading out to catch a feed of snapper and pearl perch.

Apollo Bay, VIC
Chris Fowler fished on Tuesday, reporting plenty of bait still out on the grounds and they boated a 125Kg bluefin tuna. There were another three fish boated ranging from 80 to 110Kg plus all the jelly bean models.

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Well there isn't too much to report on this week as the weekend was windy and raining along the east coast in many locations.  A few keen people braved the weather and produced some results but a lot of us went with being at home in the warmth.

Batemans Bay, NSW
Batemans Bay Game Fishing Club held thier 25th Annual Yellowfin Tournament over the weekend but due to the bad weather they were limited to fishing Sunday only. Heaviest yellowfin went to Sam Hay on IMPULSIVE, weighing in at 51.7Kg, and runner up heaviest yellowfin went to Wayne Turner on ANGIE 2 with a 40.5Kg yellowfin.

Dampier, WA
The '2011 Pirtek Dampier Billfish Shootout' attracted 55 boats for a total of 67 billfish tagged and released. Champion male was Kevin Deakon with 3 billfish, Champion female went to Fiona Jamieson with 4 billfish tagged and released, Champion team went to TOURETTES with 5 tagged billfish and runner up went to PURSUIT with 4 tagged billfish. Fiona Jamieson won the Polycraft with the Etec as the lucky door prize.

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Sydney
Yellowfin & Shark

Gold Coast
Yellowfin & Blues

Dampier WA
Pirtek Billfish Shootout & Sailfish

Continue reading for the full report

Sydney - Water spouts  & Blue marlin!

Port Stephens - Striped Marlin

Gold Coast - Blue Marlin

Portland Vic - Blue Fin Tuna and Mahi Mahi!

Continue reading for the full report.

Fishing reports have been coming in slow and will add more as they roll in.

Gold Coast, Queensland
MISTRESS was out fishing over the weekend releasing a blue marlin around 240 pound on Saturday, Sunday tagging a blue marlin around the 280 pounds plus a spearfish. Rodney also told me on Sunday while hooked up to their blue, he was pulling  the last lure in and had a blue swim up to the transom. There were a few other boat seeing their share of the action fishing around the riv grounds and jims.

Broken Bay, New South Wales
Tom Kind fishing on CHALLENGE caught his first solo striped marlin fishing wide off broken bay on Saturday. Photo to the right.

Sydney, New South Wales
Captain Ross Hunter on board BROADBILL had a great day out on Sunday releasing a striped marlin and catching a few yellowfin and alabacore tuna.

Portland, Victoria
Anglers are having a great time out of Portland with bluefin tuna being caught, some around the 110kg mark. You can view a live camera at the portland boatramp here.

Daly River, Northern Territory
Captain Ross McCubbin, Ben Job and Brad Job have finished 4th place in the 2011 Barra Classic. Congratulations and well done. Stay tuned for a full wrap up.

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Fishing over the week has been very slow and with weather conditions in some locations being a bit nautical as they say on Deadliest Catch, reports have been very quiet.

Bermagui, NSW
The Canberra Yellowfin Compertition held out of Bermigui with Day 1 cancelled due to the weather being nautical, Day 2 REEL GAME weighed a massive 489kg tiger shark well done to the crew and a few short billed spearfish and a few striped marlin tagged as well. Day 3 i just got a call from Captain Dave Cassar fishing on board HOT SHOT skipered by Ian Ford tagged a little broadbill, they caught it on a pilchard in the cube trail. Well done to the team on board HOT SHOT as Dave said its the first broadbill he has landed out of Bermigui and it was during the day. 

Sydney, NSW
Rod Findlay on board MURRIFIN on sunday released a nice blue marlin around the 140 kg mark.

Botany Bay, NSW
Anthony Savva skipper of SNIPER weighed an 85.5kg tiger shark caught on 8 kg line, well done to the team from Botany Bay Game Fishing Club.

Gold Caost, QLD
LARVA tagged and released a 600 pound blue marlin on friday that took angler Dan Burke two and a half hours fishing 50 pound stand up tackle, Andrew Smits lost a blue around the same size right at the back of the boat. Still a good day 2 from 3 out on the water for LARVA. Have a look at the range of Larva Lures rapid Interchangeable Lure Systems, i will be adding these to my collection.

Video of the boys from LARVA with their 600 pound blue marlin from friday.

Queensland

Brent Higgins on his boat WALK THE LINE went 1 from 1 on blue marlin off Cape Moreton, the 2nd blue marlin for Brett Barton at 300 pounds. REEL MAGIC tagged and released a blue marlin as well, REEL CAPTURE pulled the hooks on one right at the back of the boat as well as a number of other boats jumping fish off. MURPHY'S LAW fished off the Gold Coast to catch them a short billed spear fish, with the moon phase better this weekend the Sunshine Coast Game Fishing Club is holding their "No Frills" Tournament, fingers crossed for the weather.

New South Wales

Shane Dwyer on board BLUE ILLUSION went 1 from 3, released a striped marlin inside browns mountain. Shane also said that AMBITION jumped a blue marlin off on a bibless lure and jumped a striped marlin off as well.  Ross Hunter on BROADBILL released two striped marlin out of Sydney. Fishing has been consistant there at the moment. Bill Billson on "VIKING II" fished from Port Maquarie to the Gold Coast. Captain Billy finished up going 1 from 3 blues and got some good footage with the TowCam.

Murray Finlayson contacted me to report on Port Stephan's that 2 boats fished on saturday for 1 blue marlin bite on board BLUE DOG, sunday 6 boats fished with 3 fish released and a few lost. Murray was fishing on board GUNRUNNER they were fighting a tuna when it turned into a blue marlin, it ended up chafing through the tuna lure leader, would have been a great effort.

Western Australia

The Perth Game Fishing Club hosted their Marlin Cup over the weekend. There were no billfish tagged only 14 other species tagged with 3 captures.

WALK THE LINES First Blue Marlin.

The Sunshine Coast has seen a bit of action over the long weekend with several boats tagging good sized Blues yesterday. FISH WISPERER went 1 from 1 blue marlin at the Noosa Canyons, with the strike taking only one minute from the lures been dropped in the water, and also putting two 20 pound mahi mahi in the esky. Further south around Cape Moreton BIG BUSINESS tagged 1 blue, and MEGUMI went 4 from 5 with estimated weights of around 280, 350, 400 and 500 pounds.

FISH WISPERER returning from a day at the Noosa Canyons

Captain Robert McCulloch has a new position at Arafura Sea Charters which has given him access to a number of boats and some pretty interesting fishing grounds just off shore.

On Rob's very first day out Ruth hooked a nice little Black Marlin around 100Kg on 6kg line and after only half an hour had it boat side. The fish had fallen to a twenty five year old Leads Lure that has followed him everywhere. With the addition of some nice Spanish Mackerel, gorgeous weather and the magnificent Bromby Islands as the backdrop their introduction to Gove was extraordinary to say the least.

Easter Saturday
With the onset of Easter Captain McCulloch had been given the task of towing three tinnies, seven people  and all their supplies up to the Bromby Islands for deployment before returning home. Once again Rob seized the opportunity and Ruth Came along as his crew.

On their way home they decided to try ther luck fishing some prominent features shown on the charts just out of the harbour and as they trolled onto the marks all hell broke loose. The next hours fishing was extraordinary to say the least and with multiple hook-ups the norm it caused them to pull in all the gear and only run one rod. After driving away from the Mackerel Rob and Ruth were ambushed by hoards of large Long-tail Tuna and finally a Sailfish fell to Rob's other twenty five year old Leads Lure. The Sailfish was released unharmed and by this time Ruth was content to head home for a Corona.

Thank you to Robert and Ruth for the information and great photos.

Gold Coast, Australia

Gold Coast boats made the most of this weather with Sea Pace tagging 1 from 2 blues yesterday as well as Larva and Adios tagging a blue marlin each, there were a few more blues lost as well to other boats.

Sunshine Coast, Australia

Mooloolaba Game Fishing club has there 2011 Billfish Bonanza underway today, there will be a report to follow soon.

Monthly Photo Competition

Remember to send your photos in for the first photo competition which will start in June.

Sunshine Coast:
The waters off the Sunshine Coast are still producing consistent numbers of sailfish with local boats reporting most of the action is in the morning. "Ymer" went 3 from 3 sails which was great to hear after there long battle with a large stubborn black marlin the day before. "Catapult" went from 1 from 2 sails and "Bite Me" went 1 from 1.

With today’s weather being glass calm and not a breath of wind I would imagine we will be hearing some more reports today.

Port Stephens:
Tim Dean on board "Calypso" had yet another cracker day out of Port Stephen's releasing 8 striped marlin and 1 black marlin, Tim is having a season to remember. Well done Tim and thank you for the update.

The run of Sailfish continued yesterday on the grounds off Mooloolaba. Most of the boats were live baiting around the pilchard schools and it didn't take long for the action to start.

BJ and Conor aboard "Sailfisher" had pinned two sails before lunch before latching onto a monster Black Marlin on 8kg which dragged them half way to NZ. Unfortunately after an approx 7 hour fight they broke it off and were left to head back in the dark, after contemplating one for the record books.

A similar story aboard "Ymer" where Channon Abuthnot struggled with a Black from 10 mins after setting the lines and broke it off after around 7 hours. They ended up over 9 miles south east  from where they had hooked up.

"Big Wave Dave" pinned 1 sail, and an unknown tinny also tagged one. Other boats such as "Triton lV", "Kamikaze", and "Walk the line" all had their chances but didn't manage to put any on the scoreboard.

Should be a similar story today with the weather holding up. Hopefully some better luck, for anyone heading out.

Well the weather gods have shined some much needed light on the east coast, the local Sunshine Coast fleet had a chance to head out on the water and make the most of the great weather conditions. Reports from Craig on board his boat Reel Capture saw the crew tag two sailfish as well as Sailfisher tagging two sails, Crazy Horse with one sail and Brent on Walk The Line taged one sailfish. Water temperature has dropped a few degrees but as the reports come in the sailfish are still moving in on our grounds off the east coast. We could be looking at a bumper season with this weeks weather conditions being 5 to 10 knots for the week. We can expect to hear a lot more reports over the next few days.

Mathew Wallace had a day out on the water out of Sydney on board Little Audrey with captain  Daniel Carlson. They ended up catching one striped marlin for the day but did it in style and comfort and had a great time, nothing like a floating hotel that can catch fish.

Final report to come from the "Cabo Yachts & Bruce Lynton Land Rover Blue Marlin Classic 2011" will be posted soon.

On March 7th 2011 the AMBUSH , a 61 Garlington, with Capt Tim Richardson (from Tradition Charters in Australia, at the helm) were fishing a FAD off the southern end of the windward island of St Lucia. After leaving their mothership the OLGA at 11 am, they tagged 10 from 14 blue marlin by 5pm. All the fish were 250-375 lbs and all caught by Clem, one of the crew from the OLGA.
Crewing on the Ambush is Tanner Hardin, and the girls from the OLGA, Claire and Sara who tagged all the fish for Tanner.
8 of the 10 fish tagged all ate a Pakula Lumo Sprocket. Two days prior Capt Tim and Tanner caught 4 blues in 2 hours by themselves.

The fish were all marking on the huge bait balls and coming up stright away. The AMBUSH fished the same FAD a couple of weeks later and were disillusioned to find 6 pangas all fishing drop lines on floats for the blues, and many had 2 or more fish already in the boat. We watched them jumping on the end of the lines until they were gaffed or harpooned.

Contact Capt Tim @ www.traditioncharters.com for more info.

Captain Chip Van Mols on board Monkey Biz 11 weiged his third grander blue a 1062lb on the 13th March for angler Tim O'Halloran and the first for the season in Kona. Measurements were 141 short, 73 girth and a 20 1/4 tail congratulations to the angler and crew of the Monkey Biz 11.

Captain Tim Dean from "Calypso Fishing Adventures" in Port Stephens has reported that over the past 4 days he finished up with 28 Blacks, Stripes and Blues, with one Black estimated around 700lb. Great effort guys!