Calm Weather at the wrong time

Well we were fortunate enough to get some good weather last week, the only bad thing about it was, as usual it fell mid week while most of us were working hard at our day jobs.

I had a call early Friday morning at work from an excited Ashley Cotter (Tackleworld) asking me to ring Anthony Florence (our club’s weigh master) to find out what he has to do to claim a Queensland Game Fishing record, without further hesitation and some bad phone service I put down the phone without even asking him where he was or what he caught. I contacted Anthony & got all the details and rang Ashley back, Ashley answered the phone and said “I’ll call you back, I’m hooked up to another one”…As most people would know, it’s hard enough going to work knowing the weather is good let alone receiving a phone call from someone who is hooked up to a fish, so as you would imagine, my motivation to be at work in front of a computer was growing less & less.

After a short time Ashley rang me back & told me that he was fishing the flats over at Magnetic Island on 1kg line and the Golden Trevally and Salmon’s were absolutely going off!! and he had caught a nice 2.5kg Golden which at the time he thought was a possible Qld Game Fishing Record. As I gave him all the instructions about what he had to do to claim the record, he all of a sudden shouted with excitement “Check out the Golden’s, there swimming underneath the boat” and with a nice calm voice I replied “Ashley, I’m at work remember, I can’t see the fish” Once again we had some phone reception issues so I was unable to talk to Ashley until the next day

Unfortunately due to technical issues Ashley wasn’t able to submit a claim for the Qld Record and despite, putting the boat in at the ramp and forgetting the bung as well as jumping in the water to land a fish forgetting that his mobile phone was in his pocket, he said it turned out to be a fantastic day of light tackle fishing out on the bay

Blue skys but still plenty of wind!!

The rain has cleared but the wind continues to blow with the forecast keeping anglers on dry land for another week... Reports are still coming through from Todd O'Shaughnessy that there are still plenty of barra's around to be caught if you know where to find them, Todd is also stocking up on teaser baits with plenty of Tarpon's around also.

With not much else to report on heres a bit of 2006/2007 Bilfish action which will hopefully get the the excitement going as the the good weather & the billfish aren't to far away!!

Bad Weather & Barra!!

"Showers, storms and rain areas with moderate to heavy falls continuing over thefar northern tropics. Isolated to scattered showers along the east coast and over parts of the northern tropical interior. Moderate to fresh SE to E winds across the interior, becoming fresh to strong along the east coast. "

Unfortunately that's the forecast we've been reading for the past couple of weeks now & with another Strong Wind Warning forecasted for this weekend the club has had no option but to postpone this weekends Nelly Bay festivities which were coincinding with the March Comp

With the bad weather like it is, most anglers decide to sit at home and watch TV, but it's keen anglers like Todd O'Shaughnessy who can't stay away from the water!!! Todd recently landed this nice Barra (Pictured left with Todd's son Malcolm) and lost several others during a trolling session in one of the local rivers close to town & only 5 minutes from the ramp.

With Todd receiving a little bad luck in February with his boating incident over at the Palms it seems that some Good Luck is coming his way with Todd also recently purchasing his new rig, a

6.4m Blue Fin which is due to arrive in the next couple of weeks.

At the moment Todd stands as Runner Up on the Club's "Champion Boat" tally and if I was a betting person and taking into account that he's due for some good luck, I'd definitely back him to take out back to back awards this year!!

Final Interclub Report from our President

Although reports from the weekend have been a little sketchy, here is a quick report from Tom with all the info...

14 club members fished the event on 4 different boats, Reel Chase, Kekoa, Reel Lady and Fascination. The weather was very wet and windy with the thermometer only hitting 14 degrees on the second Saturday which was also

cancelled as with the first.

Congratulations to Peter, Leigh & Captain Luke from Kekoa who won the interstate team prize and if they had been a NSW team would have won the overall Inter club Tag and Release. Both Peter and Leigh tagged 4 fish each during the Inter club comp. They also tagged 6 fish between them on one of the 2 day mid week comps, which they would have won except for the fact they couldn't get the required number of anglers for a team to qualify. The winning boat tagged 4.

Us aboard Reel Chase were the centre of attention on the second Saturday morning when big Phil tried to park his boat "Little Audrey" on top of us & as you can see from the hole in Little Audreys bow in the pic, our local boat building identity Alan Christian definitely built a strong boat, as we only got a bent bow rail.

Reel Chase did end up fishing on the last day but unfortunately in the wrong area, with 15 to 20 other boats who didn't get a bite.

The hospitality shown to us by the NSW teams combined with the size and professionalism of the event was great and enjoyed by all . Well over 200 boats competed and around 1200 anglers.

TGFC Members find Success at NSW Interclub

First of all, I'd like to apologise for not mentioning in previous posts that besides our team aboard Reel Chase we also had another Townsville Game Fishing Club team participating in the NSW Interclub with Leigh & Peter O'Brien fishing aboard Kekoa with well known local skipper, Luke Fallon.

It was the guys aboard Kekoa who took out 'Champion Visting Boat - Tag & Release' trophy as well as Champion & Runner Up Angler trophy's for Visiting Boat also. They finished the tournament with a total of 7 tags including a Marlin Grand Slam (Stripe, Blue & Black) for Peter on the last day of competition. Congratulations guys!!!!!

For more info, photos and results go aboard Reel Chase with Kelly Dalling and checkout Australia's best Game Fishing Blog http://www.blackmarlinfishingblog.com/

Weather continues to dominate Interclub Tournament

Unfortunately for the second weekend in a row, organisers have had no other option but to cancel the first day of the NSW Interclub Tournament. With over 200 boats and the 1000's of anglers participating, the gusty 30 knot winds and big sea's have caused nothing but frustration for everyone involved, especially knowing that the fish are out there.


Fingers crossed that the weather decreases overnight & the TGFC Team aboard Reel Chase can get out there and amongst the action on the final day of the tournament.