Bowling Green Madness Continues

Last weekend the TGFC held it's September Monthly Comp & with predicted 10 knot winds, 10 Club Boats made there way down to Bowling Green in search of some late season Billfish.

With the wind blowing more around the 15-17 knot range boats found conditions very uncomfortable & compared to previous weeks the bait was becoming very difficult to find but the small patches of bait that were found still held plenty of fish. Out of the 10 boats, there was 20 Black Marlin & 4 Sailfish tagged for the weekend.


With water temperatures rising & the bait dissapearing, lets hope the fish can hang around for next weekend's Billfish Bonanza (3rd & 4th October)


Photo Above - Russell O'Brien & Todd O'Shaughnessy with a little Sailfish

Photo Bottom - Champion Junior, Cassis Powis with a 7.85kg Northern Bluefin caught on 6kg - Great effort!!!!

TGFC finds Sucess at Innisfail

By Greg Gibert (Gilbert Group QLD)

Just a quick e-mail to let you know that my team representing The Townsville Game Fishing Club fishing on our boat G'd Up, won the Innisfail Game Fishing Clubs annual billfish tournament last weekend, Our team consisted of Mick Mears (Skipper) Rob Vearing (decky and angler) Craig Fitzsimmons (angler) Jan Gilbert (angler) and myself (angler and team captain) all TGFC members.

We had perfect conditions all through the three days from Saturday through to Monday afternoon. We caught a sailfish and a small black marlin and were coming second on count back at the end of on day one, the second day condition were fantastic but we failed to land one sail fish and two black marlin that failed to hook up, this saw us going into day three in fourth position with Mauna Kea leading, and Iona and Kanahoee second and third respectfully,

We got a strike by a large black marlin just after start fishing but did not hook him up, shortly after a nice sail fish took the shotgun lure and we had him at the boat in about fifteen minutes tagged photographed (see attached) and released, soon after the sail fish was released a small black marlin took a swimming scad and we had it tagged and released in five minutes, this brought us back into contention as none of the lead boat scored any fish on the first sked's. Not long after the first sked was finished a nice black marlin took another swimming scad and after about ten minutes we had a tag in him and let him on his way. We now were leading the tournament and held the lead with no other lead boats tagging any bill fish on day three, this saw us win the event by one billfish. Our team won the champion team, Mick Mears won champion skipper, Rob Vearing won Champion Decky and I won Champion angler days one and three and also won champion angler and champion visiting angler.

We all had a great weekend at Innisfail with twenty four boats competing, it was great to win a large tournament against some of the best boats and skipper in the country and in our own boat. The event was very well run and was the best in it long history.


CONGRATULATIONS TGFC!!!

Oh what a magnificent week!!!

Well this years Gilbert Group NQ Mining Billfish Challenge continued to prove that it is one of the most successful Game Fishing Tournaments on the East Coast Australia with these years event turning out to be the largest ever held in the Tournament’s 26 Year History.

With a over $100,000 worth of Cash & Prizes up for grabs as well as some awesome fishing action experienced in the lead up to the Tournament it wasn’t hard to see why over 40 Boats & 142 anglers made the trip North to be apart of this Spectacular Fishing event.

With anglers experiencing Good & bad weather conditions throughout the Tournament the World Renowned Billfish Grounds continued to live up to International Standards with 408 Billfish seen, 318 Hooked & 183 Tagged throughout the 5 Day Event.

Local Boat ‘MOJO’ skippered by well known local Game Fishing Identity Mark Parkes took out the 8m & Under Category with a total of 9 Billfish & Gold Coast Boat ‘GAMETIME’ took out the 8m & Over Category with a total of 16 Billfish.

On behalf of Club President, Tom Hatrick & the Organizing Committee I would like to personally thank all the Sponsors, Volunteers & everyone who participated as without you all it would not have been the success it was. We look forward to seeing you all in 2009.

Tournament Fever hits Townsville

Well the feeling around the place is becoming more & more electric in the final countdown to this years 2008 Gilbert Group NQ Mining Industry Billfish Challenge. With visitors starting to arrive in Townsville they are being blowen away by the fishing reports that have been coming from the Bowling Green Area. Confirmed Reports have several boats averaging 8 - 10 Billfish tags a day, with packs of both little Black Marlin & sailfish harrasing baits.

With the the fishing action absolutely going off & the predicted light winds forecasted for the start of the Tournament, it is building to be one hell of a week.

If you are unable to participate in this wonderful event, The Townsville Game Fishing Club would like to invite the Townsville Public down to be apart of this wonderful occasion. Boats will be in Port at the beautiful Townsville Marina on Friday Night, Sunday Night & Wednesday Night and we encorouge families to come down & check out the multi-million dollar Game Fishing machines.

The Traditional Cleveland Bay Shot gun start will also be held at 7am on Saturday Morning - The best vantage point will be from the Rockwall which can be accessed on the Strand side of Jupiters Casino

For more information, please log onto www.townsvillegamefishclub.com or go aboard well knowen Game Fishing Vessel Reel Chase with Kelly Dalling at www.blackmarlinfishingblog.com