Black Marlin Show up in Numbers at Bowling Green

With a week of good weather out on the water last week, Club members jumped at the chance to head down and check out the Billfish Grounds.  Reports from earlier in the week proved that the fish are starting to turn up in quantities, with Princess C seeing numerous fish but without hook up and Mark Parkes aboard his new Cairns Custom Craft "MOJO" also seeing a number of fish before successfully tagging a little black on Monday.

With Black Marlin sightings becoming more & more frequent, as well as the occasional capture in the past couple of months, it was the report from the crew aboard Screamer that really lifted the excitement around the place with Wade Medill, Jon & Greg Millard tagging 4 fish on Friday and another 3 fish (with a spectacular triple hookup) on Saturday morning, with all 7 fish estimated around the 10kg Mark.

With the bait still in great abundance and proof that the fish are there, it is looking very very good for a bumper Billfish season.

2008 Predators Tournament Success

The Townsville Game Fishing Clubs Annual Predators Tournament was once again a huge success and even with a 15/20 knot offshore wind forecasted it still didn’t deter an estimated 400 Townsville anglers to participate in what is becoming one of North Queensland’s major fishing events. 

On Monday afternoon, the Townsville Game Fishing Club together with the Oonoonba Hotel welcomed hundreds of anglers, sponsors, & spectators to witness some outstanding captures which were made during the long weekend.  Although each of the 16 prize categories were won with some awesome fish, it was the  24.6kg Spanish Mackerel, a 14.1kg Barramundi and a monster (have to be seen to be believed) 2.175kg Mud Crab which received the loudest cheers from the excited crowed. 

This year the Club focused on encouraging families and especially the junior anglers to participate, with the first 100 juniors to sign up receiving a complimentary Tackle box which included over 300 pieces of tackle, and come weigh in time, it certainly proved that they put there new gear to good use, with some fantastic captures made. 

More exciting news to arise from the weekend was that 2 early season Black Marlin were tagged & released by Townsville Game Fishing Club Members.  Both were hooked on Halco Laser Pro Mackerel lures and both fish were smaller then average and were estimated between the 10-12kg mark.  

On behalf of the Townsville Game Fishing Club tournament organizing committee we would like to thank all the Sponsors, volunteers, the Oonoonba Hotel Staff and all the anglers involved for once again making the 2008 Predators Tournament a huge success. 

Please Click here to view all the Weekends Prize Winners

Well the 2008 Australian International Billfish Tournament is over with for another year and even though the beautiful Sunshine Coast provided us with Perfect Weather Conditions unfortunately the fishing on the weekend was extremely slow. A total of 29 Boats participated in the event with Teams coming from Dampier in the west, Cairns in the North & Port Stephens in the South. The tournament gave teams the option either to fish Light Tackle or Heavy Tackle and Team TGFC who were aboard well known Townsville Boat Reel Chase decided to fish Light Tackle. With 5-10knots conditions on Saturday morning, we were quick to arrive on the grounds (which mine you are only 19 miles offshore) to find huge schools of yakka's and dolphins and with start fishing called as you would imagine our expectations were high. Leigh O'Brien caught a 9.6kg Wahoo on 8kg which put Townsville on the scorers board and it wasn't long after that we raised a couple of little Black Marlin which weren't interested in taking the beautiful Live Yakka that we presented them. On day one, there was only 3 Blue Marlin tagged & 1 Sailfish.

Day two & the weather had increased to 15 knots and with a Strong Wind Warning forecasted for later in the day, most boats fished the inshore grounds. Once again the fishing was very slow with not even a handful of Billfish tagged

The Champion Boat went to Diversion from Port Stephens who successfully tagged & released 2 Blue Marlin.  

Even though the fishing was slow, great times were had by everyone & on behalf of the TGFC team we would like to thank Jim, Kelly & Brenton aboard Reel Chase for a fantastic weekend!!

Above Image Courtesy of Kelly Dalling of www.blackmarlinfishingblog.com

TGFC Thanks the Sponsors

Sponsors, business owners and members of TGFC gathered at the Townsville Motor Boat Club on Thursday evening to reflect on the wonderful work and valuable contributions these people and companies have made to the club.  It was a way of saying “thank you” to these people, and in return, the club has become a place where business and pleasure could be combined. 

Guest speaker and major sponsor, Greg Gilbert, explained how the club was a place where he could bring valued suppliers and customers and mix business and pleasure.  As a result, he has bought on board many new and valuable sponsors to the club.  Whether it was to invite them to fish a weekend competition or our major tournament in September, suppliers and customers enjoyed the opportunity to see how the club was run.  Many have made valuable contributions towards our tournaments and fishing competitions after experiencing the TGFC hospitality. 

Potential sponsors have also commented on the professional manner in which the club is run and the continued high standard of presentation of competitions, presentation nights and club videos. 

The TGFC committee would again like to thank our sponsors for their continued support and to business owners/managers for their efforts to introduce new sponsors to the club.  A great night was enjoyed by all.

(Story and photos Courtesy of Donna Nicolosi)

Gilbert's Take on the World

In February 2007, I asked newly joined Club Members and Sponsors Greg & Jan Gilbert to complete a Member Profile for our Monthly Newsletter and for those of you who can remember, one of the questions asked was “What’s your dream fishing destination?” There answer was “Ribbon’s Reef off Cairns”…Little did they know at the time, that 15 months later they would make the trip across the world to represent Australia in one of the World richest and most prestigious billfish tournaments ever held.

On May 16^th, the Gilberts together with good friends Ralph Czabayaski and Susan Mahoney of Adelaide will travel to what’s considered by bluewater anglers as the Striped Marlin Capital of the World, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in which they will fish for more then $1,850,000 in prize money in the 2008 World Championship Billfish Release Tournament.  Click here for more

Currents + Water Temperature = Billfish

Thomas Bridge, a Marine Biologist specialising in pelagic species was the guest speaker at our April club meeting.  

Over 40 club members attended the evening to listen and hopefully get a better understanding on the Billfish migration, water temperature and currents within our Bowling Green Bay fishery. Even with statistics and research going back to the early 1970’s, Thomas explained that there are still many unanswered questions relating to the migration patterns of the Black Marlin but can advise that the Eastern Australia Currents as well as the Water temperature do play a very important part. 

Over the past 2 decades scientists have studied the capture statistics of our Billfish and have compared them to the current patterns and water temperatures within the Bowling Green Bay area and have come to a conclusion that the Marlin follow the Eastern Australian Current into the region between the months of May – October but only if the average water temperature is between 25 degrees – 27 degrees. 

With the anticipation building amongst the club, Thomas was asked “So how is it looking for this year” he was unable to confirm or deny whether we were going to have a good season, but did advise a member after the meeting that all was looking good so far, and with reports of early season bait schools forming within the region, he is quietly confident that we will experience a great season…Let’s hope he’s right!! 

We would like to thank Thomas a very interesting night & look forward to working with him more in the near future

Townsville Game Fishing Videos on YouTube

After several requests from Club Members, family & friends I have now added some of my video highlights on the website You Tube which now can be accessed at any time at your own leisure.

For those of you who don’t know what YouTube is, it’s an online service that allows users to upload there videos for free, which then are able to be viewed by an international audience 

Some of the highlights include Utopia’s 900lb Black Marlin at Bowling Green, Glen Nutter’s 400lb Black Marlin which earnt him the GFAA Most Meritorious Award as well as the 2008 Gilbert Group NQ Mining Billfish Challenge Intro Video 

So when the weather is bad please don’t hesitate to here & check it out…make sure you add it to your favorites so you can visit regularly, as I will be adding videos on a regular basis

Tag & Release Report

The Townsville Game Fishing Club is proud to promote and support Tag & Release to ensure the conservation of our fantastic fishery. Please find the recent Game fish Tagging Report here received from our QGFA and GFAA zone representative Mick Meiers

Click image or here for story and pics.
 

NOTE:  A lot of club information on this site is available as PDF documents. You will need Adobe Reader to view these. This program is available as a free download from the Adobe website. Click here or on the logo below.