OVER 700 anglers and around 170 boats competed in the 2012 Nautilus Marine Boat Insurance Interclub Tournament which concluded yesterday at Port Stephens on the NSW Central Coast.
Australia’s largest gamefishing tournament, once again efficiently run by the NSW Game Fishing Association, attracted a large contingent of game anglers and boats over consecutive weekends with entrants battling wild sea conditions due to 25-30 knot north-easterly winds over the final two competition days. While conditions largely restricted the aspirations of the trailer boat fleet, competitors on board larger game boats more suited to the conditions found marlin and other target gamefish responsive.
In total for the event, 254 marlin were tagged and released – 41 black marlin, 9 blue marlin and 204 striped marlin – and other gamefish encountered included sailfish, shortbill spearfish, wahoo and yellowfin and striped tuna. The top boat in the billfish tag & release category was Gunrunner which reportedly accounted for a credible 23 billfish over the event.
Fishing World’s Chris Yu competed in the tournament on board In A Meeting and reports the crew accounted for four marlin tagged and released over the weekend – three blacks and a striped marlin – and two billfish on the first weekend. Chris shot the impressive pics you see here over the last weekend.
For all results check out: www.nswgfa.com.au and stay tuned for a feature article on the 2012 Interclub in a future edition of Fisho.
