What a great weekend it was for the Betta Billfish Bonanza. The weather was unusually blowing from the north on the first two days, but the third day was sensational. The billfish were active with approximately 150 marlin raised, 81 hooked and 31 tagged, while there were 129 sailfish raised 61 hooked and 33 tagged for the event. This year was the biggest ever for participation with 33 teams and 117 anglers. It was also the most participation for female anglers, including two all-female teams. Junior anglers made a welcome addition to the number of competitors with 13 fishing; the highest number we’ve had thus far. 

The results were: Champion Team Azura, Champion team runner up Apocethary, Champion Angler Marlin fishing aboard the boat Your Kiddin’ Gary Scells, Champion Angler Sailfish aboard the boat In Deep Jae Danks, Champion Junior aboard the boat Azura Peter McCarthy. The junior winner Peter McCarthy had never even been gamefishing before and caught seven marlin in the three days!! There were plenty of anglers that caught their first billfish and there were sailfish, blue, black and striped marlin amongst the tagged fish. There were no recaptures this year, although interestingly, one sailfish was caught with a massive growth on it that didn’t seem to hinder the fish’s ability to survive and feed. A huge thanks goes to all the anglers, the committee, volunteers, valued sponsors and of course, the fish!

Peter McCarthy

Meanwhile, after the comp, female angler Sandra Steel ventured out on In Deep with skipper Matt Gates to target some big blues. After spending the whole day in 1000m+ of water they came in to the shallow waters off the lighthouse at around 5pm. It was 5mins till they were going to pull the gear in when a massive black marlin struck in just 68m of water. After a screaming run and hour long battle, the black marlin pictured was tagged before release. It would have been a state record for a female angler and possibly the state record for marlin, however it is out there swimming and making more little blacks for us all to catch!

Big black

Thankfully the weather was good up to last week for the comp, but this week it is howling from the south! This gives anglers a good chance to do some maintenance on their gear and get ready for when the weather is good again. If you do want to get out, then a good option during windy periods is to go up the creeks in the gulf side and try for mudcrabs or flick small lures around for mangrove jack, small trevally, queenfish or estuary cod. The mud can be hot and sometimes the sandflies can be hideous, but when it’s windy it keeps the sandflies away and the temperature down.

During the week we had several entrants to our monthly competition. So many that I wasn’t sure which pics to give you this week! One angler was junior angler Will Lawrence who headed out from the marina towards Coopers Shoal to watch the whales and maybe catch some fish for dinner. The weather was calm and his Dad talked Will into having a fish as he hasn’t been all that keen in the past. With new hooks on his old rod and reel a piece of mulie bait, it went to the bottom. In seconds he was hooked up to his first legal sized blueline emperor! After the excitement of landing the fish by himself he couldn’t wait to do it again. Will landed 9 good fish in the 3 hours! There was a mixture of reef fish including mosses sea perch, northwest snapper and spanish flag. He finished the day off by hooking up to 1.5m tiger shark that busted him off after about 2 minutes and is now keen to get out and chase some bigger fish.

Will Lawrence