Ribbons, Cairns – Capt. Adam continues to get the jump on most of the fleet who are just now turning their attention to the impending start of the heavy tackle season as Iona 2 released another two smaller fish yesterday at 80 and 100lb.  He saw five for the day including a monster at Number 10 Ribbon.

Townsville – We were well entertained with the presentation of the 2010 Mike Carney Toyota Billfish Challenge last night. Lots of great footage, not all of it from this year of course, including some wonderful TowCam footage that greeted us when we entered and kept us entertained until the formalities got underway.  As previously reported, Sea Baby IV took out the Over 8m category with 4 tags from Reelistic 48 with two.  In the Under 8m category, Elektrakushen won from Screamer on countback, both with two tags. Overall 14 billfish (13 sails and 1 marlin) were released from amongst the 27 boat fleet.

Some of my photos from the shotgun start below (and amazing low flying, ducking and weaving helicopter). I’d hoped to get some photos of the fish too but alas…..

And Heath Irvine on Tanjian solo released an 80kg black.  Shaping up very nicely for the tournament at the end of the month.

David Granville took this great shot of one of Reel Captures‘ fish.

Townsville Tournament: Congratulations to the teams on board Sea Baby IV (over 8m) with 4 tags and Elektrakushen (under 8m) with 2 tags for their wins in the Townsville Mike Carney Toyota Billfish Challenge.  The presentation is tonight and so full results up tomorrow.

All indications are that the little black marlin have indeed bypassed much of North Queensland this year – only one marlin was tagged for the entire tournament, the rest being sails, and even more surprisingly, not a single billfish was tagged at Cape Bowling Green this week. Townsville club members are now gearing up for heavy tackle with more than one boat planning to hit Myrmidon Reef early next week.

In trademark Capt. Chris “Sharky” Miles fashion, Sea Baby IV swooped in to take the lead with a total of three fish tagged, adding two on day 3, a double header of sails.  The first fish of the day (sailfish) went to Princess C who picked right up from where they left at cease fishing yesterday.  Kanahoee made it onto the scoreboard with a sailfish at lunch and the Phantom were hooked up at cease fishing.

Day 2 results
More fish today though still quiet by Townsville’s usual standards. And, apart from a lone marlin today (first marlin of the tournament tagged by Sea Baby IV), it has been all sails.  Sparticus put the first points of the day on the board at a relatively early 9am with a sailfish.

According to my notes (not official results) Elektrakushen leads with two sails tagged from Screamer who added their second fish during the final sked.  Reelistic 48 was 1-1-1 sailfish on the first sked and also hooked up at cease fishing so may be on two fish as well.  Princess C also tagged a sail during the final sked.

From Townsville light tackle, today was Day 1 of the Mike Carney Toyota Billfish Challenge.  Unfortunately, the quiet we experienced before the tournament has continued through the start. Not a single black marlin was seen although two sailfish were tagged and released from amongst the 30 boat fleet.

On board Screamer, Pemberton Jnr (Lindsay) tagged the first billfish of the tournament just after 1pm.  At 2, the team on board Elektrakushen put a tag in a sail that angler Brad Kane had been fighting for two hours on the 6kg line.  These were not the only seen.  On board Castille III, Capt. Deano raised a pod of sails for a double hookup which unfortunately turned to a double jump off soon after.  And there were a few more reports of fish lost around that same time including Burgundy Lady who had a couple of bites that couldn’t be converted.

But lonely only one sail was successfully tagged by TGFC’s Stav Bogiatzis aboard the goodship Flotation skippered by Anthony Florence.

Congrats Stav!

Thank goodness for the west! With no reports from either of tournaments held in NQ over the weekend come in yet, Broome has come to the rescue once again.

• Jeff reports that things are heating up in Broome as they usually do at this time of year. Billistic caught 20 sails on Saturday, following on from 16 on Friday. Fish Broome Charters has also been in the action with a double digit day on Saturday.  Jeff went out Sunday with a bunch first timers managing to catch 8 from a progression of double hookups.  He found jigging for bait didn’t work too well though as every time the jig hooked up on bait there would be a bunch of sails marauding it back up to the surface   (UPDATE: Billistic (Broome Fishing Charters) has released 62 sails in the last 6 days!)
• In Townsville, Capt. Luke and I joined Capt. Deano’s guests on Castille III on Sunday for donuts on the billfish front.  On Monday, Capt. Deano joined us on KEKOA and guests from the west got stuck into the mackerel, but apart from raising a lone sail, all was quiet on the billfish front again.  As it has been at Bowling Green in the past, you’ll find nothing one day and then the next day there they are. So we’ll just have to keep checking (and hoping) in the leadup to the tournament.

With the Cairns BlueWater light tackle comp now underway, looking forward to hearing more reports like these!