PHP Warning: Use of undefined constant VBA_SCRIPT - assumed 'VBA_SCRIPT' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in ..../includes/functions_navigation.php(802) : eval()'d code on line 1 Bad Billy's Boral Bigguns
Got the call from Dazza, who skippers Gavin Nixon’s 30’ Blackwatch “Bad Billy”, a couple of weeks ago to come down for the Gold Coast Game and Yacht Club’s Boral sponsored Heavy Tackle Tournament for the weekend. Our crew consisted of Gav, Darren, Doug (also from Kingaroy, so dubbed “Gympie 9”), myself, Craig and John (Saturday only). Craig was associated with the sponsors and with Gav being on the committee, along with a few others, he volunteered to take him out and show him what gamefishing was all about. We had a bit of a headstart as Craig had done a bit of fishing for Snapper, Cobia and Spotties down off Coffs as well as crewing surfboats so the lumpy conditions on Sunday were no problem for him but he hadn’t seen a Billfish.
We took the boat down to the “A” finger at Runaway Bay on Friday afternoon where all the boats were and participated in all the usual goings on including the Calcutta where we went for the bargain price of $60. This was looking like a good investment when we were in third place by countback from “Outrageous” on Saturday night. Most of the fleet of 27 were tied up there Friday with a couple of northern boats fishing south during the Saturday and others leaving from home. The briefing and pizzas as per usual were at the Game Clubhouse which is always worth a good look around with a 950#er mounted on the wall plus various other memorabilia, photos and trophies that are very interesting. “Black Bart” was last boat up yet again.
Start fishing was 8.00 so we surfed out on the Norwester to Darren’s secret spot and were there just before start fishing to put the riggers out and clip on the lures. On the call of start fishing 5 lures were deployed on the 5x80# Tiagra outfits. Rod positions were assigned to the anglers with Gav choosing the corners, “because they never go off!”, Craig was on the riggers and me and Doug would swap on the Shotgun which has been the gun lure for the boat this season. First beers were declared at 8:15 and our first strike came at 8:20. Well Gavin was wrong about the corners going off and as is often the case on the close lures it was big fish to boot on an Evil coloured lure on the Long Corner. It showed itself to be a good Blue Marlin and cleared the spread cleanly before charging us with a jumping run. Dazza went forward to keep tight and the cockpit was starting to look like it had some semblance of order with Gav in the chair. As to be expected beers went everywhere seeing as they had only been open for 5 minutes, afterall you don’t expect to hookup ten minutes after the spread is set and especially during a heavy tackle tournament starting at 8:00 in the morning during winter.
Typical of Blues, this one dived to the full extent of the line it had out by stage after its first couple of surface runs. Mid fight a couple of other boats hooked up with one being “Animal” and the other “Colorado”. “Animal” had their huge fish tagged in record time to take out first Billfish of the tournament with “Colorado” tagging their’s shortly after. Gav pumped his fish up and it stayed slightly deeper than the double for much of the fight and when getting it close it would turn and steer itself away. The wind-on finally hit the reel at about the hour thirty mark and I tried for a deep down straight up and down tag shot but missed losing the tag in the process. A scramble ensued for a new tag and this time there was success with our first tag away for the tournament.
The fish was swum, measured, photographed and released with everyone getting a good look at the beauty. At a bit over 2.4m on the tape short length we wrote 140kg on the tag card. That effort was it for Gav for the day.
Not long after and whilst settling into the routine of the day with the lures doing there thing we took a double hookup. These turned out to be Yellowfin Tuna with Craig landing one first standup which was about 10kg and was released then Doug getting one up which was about 15kg which we tagged for club points for him and boat points for the boat. A quick look of the rules after this little episode revealed Yellowfin being 500 points; oops!
With me yet to have a fish we adjusted the chair and harness set up to my longer legs ready for the next big one. It wasn’t a big one but it did take an impressive amount of 37kg line for what turned out to be about a 25kg Yellowfin Tuna. We were pretty happy by this stage with 1 Blue, 3 Yellowfin to the boat and one other one seen all by about 12:30. We had a quiet afternoon till the 4:00 cease fishing time. “Phantom” ended up getting a couple of Marlin for the day as well as some Tuna leading from “Colorado” with two tagged. “Colorado” had their chances raising another two big fish somewhere between 750# - 1000# at the same time with one hooking up for a slight time then charging them and getting itself slack line during the initial bite.
Tea was a BBQ with seating under a Marquee right at the top of the dock where the boats were. The boats looked a site all penned together from the 65’ Precision “Brilliant Company”, 50’+ers “Reel Chase” & “Mistress” down to the outboard powered “Boston Whaler”. “Pirate” and “Outrageous” took on night watchmen duties Saturday night with Flipper and Obi Wan going toe to toe.
We headed a bit further north on Sunday morning. Conditions were interesting on the Sunday with a few retirements and a few hard luck stories. Most boats that gutsed it out saw fish. On the Saturday they were biting well with most strikes turning into hookups then into tags but on the Sunday the conversion rate was down. “Colorado” got off to a good start with a third fish to put them in the lead. Some boats had their chances like “Mistress” and “Phantom” that were raising the fish but “Phantom” eventually stuck one to wrap the comp up. Our day was quiet till the last hour. Craig from the sponsors contingent was on strike all day and had bought Bananas on board with anyone finding out and not knowing any better. Eventually the “Bad Billy” lucky shotgun lure went off with a crack and Craig was off. The team was coming together and everything was cleared and settled early on. Craig crews on surfboats so he is a fit guy but we had a case of bad luck with the hooks pulling after about 15 minutes on what looked like a Blue with Craig applying good amounts of pressure and getting his pumping spot on.
We thought our race had been run and lost by this stage but we got another cracking strike on the same lure at about 2:35 before the cease fishing time of 3:00. Douggie was on Strike and this fish had multiple goes at the lure but the temptation of some extra speed by winding in was too great for it and we had our third billfish hookup of the weekend underway. Unlike the Blues this Black came back up again and Gav didn’t miss with the tag as it jumped off the port stern. This fish was swum and released and Doug had his first Marlin under his belt on 80lb chair tackle having joined the club to fish the Little Ship Club Tournament a couple of months previously. Amazingly we had taken the first and last strikes of the tournament converting them into one trophy for last Billfish of the comp. By now the seas had abated and it was a good run home.
The boat was washed then we had a scrub before heading up to the presentation dinner. The food was top notch and the prawns kept coming for the hungry fishermen. Jase and Brooke ran a good presentation with hard luck prizes going to Munro who was on Danny’s “Fair Game” and the crew from Rob Pirie’s 26’ Carribean “Work Bench” for the usual sterndrive mechanical problems, the unusual head facilities on the boat and almost losing a guy overboard off the Reelax Moreton Bay chair mounted on the engine box whilst on a fish.
As per usual it is always worth rocking up to any event put on by the boys from the GCGYC because you know it is going to be fun.
Smithy
P.S. Been having a rough trot on saltwater the last couple of trips so it was good to have a good one. That is why there have been no reports for a while. Freshwater has been going off locally to make up for it.
well done smithy, i did the blue water classic last week, fished light and only raised one sail on saterday. sunday was called off due to weather and in the end black jack won with 9 yellowfin followed by blue black with one black marlin (with one angry skipper connected to that marlin). it was a slow weekend with only a few of the wide boats seeing one or 2 fish and us on the inshore grounds finding it hard to even find bait.
