The Hervey Bay Boat Club Game Fishing Club’s annual tournament was a great success despite huge seas and windy weather hampering the first day. The tournament field consisted of around 20 boats when the fishing started on the Friday with 20knot winds.

On the first day the weather made crossing the bar impossible and outright dangerous but the fisherman tagged plenty of mack tuna inside the bar. We managed to entice one billfish come up and attack a lure but failed to hook up. This was the story for most of the weekend as small billfish were very shy. Plenty of dolphinfish, wahoo, cobia and tuna were caught but we were very unlucky with the billfish.

Day 2 of the tournament began with great weather and seas backing off overnight to almost calm conditions. I concentrated on an area I fished the week before with no results. At the end of the tide change no one had caught a billfish despite numerous cobia, wahoo and dolphinfish being reported. Mo Wybrow’s team caught their first billfish shortly after the tide change. These guys had come second in the teams event last year and were looking good for winning it this year. We managed to catch a small sail next before landing another two billfish that day but couldn’t convert.

In the background the Tropic Angler Crew, Peter Stevens and Steven Cheng, were hooking up into everything but with no result. We had made the tragic mistake of switch baiting and didn’t catch any miscellaneous species for the day, which put us right behind. The crew on Short Black (Ian Borland, Paul Rosman and sons) enjoyed multiple hook-ups and caught plenty of dollies, wahoo and the odd shark. Rob Smith from Kingaroy had a good weekend catching plenty of fish but also failed to catch any billfish.

Day 3 started with perfect conditions and Gary’s team from 1770 on the boat Freedom headed out wide to conquer the heavy tackle prize and hooked up into some big yellow fin and had their teaser bitten off the back of the boat by some large marlin.

Mo’s team on Nag Free did well to secure with multiple hook-ups on cobia. Steve Cheng also performed well on Wet Spot but the didn’t tag a billfish all tournament despite nailing every other species. No billfish were caught on day three, which was a little different to last year when teams managed to hook-up over 20 billfish. We managed to tag the most billfish in last year’s tournament and were hoping to do the same again this year.

Mo’s Team on Nag Free took out the teams event this year with Mo’s son Luke being named Champion Hervey Bay Angler and Champion Overall Angler. The Tropic Angler lure team lost on a count back to Nag Free and had a great tournament. We lost out by 200 points or one miscellaneous fish to Wet Spot but were happy to see these guys catch so many fish for the weekend. Sarah Postan won the Junior Angler award up against some stiff competition with the Rosman Brothers and Tommy Wood.

On behalf of all the competitors I’d like to thank Lyn and George Duck who cooked all the food for the boys for the weekend. We’d also like to thank the members of the boat club for their continued support and use of the club’s facilities.

A special thanks must go out to Paul Rosman and members of the tournament committee who work tirelessly all year to make sure the club moves in the right direction.

I would also like to thank everyone who made the effort to travel to this tournament: the boys from Time Out, Short Black, Wet Spot, Freedom and Rob Smith’s team. If I have forgotten anyone, I’m sorry because I know the effort and planning that it takes to get a boat to this event.

We must also thank our sponsors The Hervey Bay Boat Club, WIN TV. Tropic Angler Lures, Pelagic Fishing Gear, Wide Bay Water, Wellsey’s tackle, Mo Wybrow, Shimano,Penn Jarvis Walker and The Anglers Den Tackle Store.

The big winner of this event is Hervey Bay and as Hervey Bay grows this tournament will go from strength to strength. - Robert Wood