NATIONAL JUNIOR RECORD
It was an hour before Blake had his then dogged
marlin near to the boat. It appeared totally spent,
so we were caught by surprise when it launched into
another sustained high-speed run and series of jumps.
By the end of that it really was exhausted, and Blake
was able to lead the fish to the outstretched hands of
deckie Cheyne Sales, who simply grasped it by the bill
and hauled it aboard. At 52.8kg, it later proved just
large enough to give Blake a new PNG Junior record
on 10kg tackle.
Most billfish are tagged and released in PNG these
days, but the few that are brought in are never
wasted. Instead, they are eagerly welcomed as food- in the case of this tournament, by the local hospital.
As we learnt later that evening, the handful of boats
that had ventured to Tami Island were rewarded with
world-class blue marlin fishing, with several hooking
more than 10 fish for the day. Black Labeltagged
another nine, as did Daniel King’s Drug Runner,
including several double-headers!
NO CHOICE BUT TAMI
Tami had proved her worth by the fourth day of the
Titles and boats that wanted to remain competitive
had no choice but to make the run. Departing Lae in
the dark at 5am, it took most boats until 8am to put
their lures in the water, although by 9am many had
already hooked-up.
Twelve-year-old Finn Beirne hooked a 70kg blue on
8kg tackle and fought it with exceptional skill for an
hour before his line mysteriously parted. Considering
the large amount of debris regularly washed into local
waters by the rivers around Lae – including branches,
logs and even trees – we suspect Finn may have fallen
victim to a submarine saboteur.
While the bite was nowhere near as robust that day,
Satisfactionenjoyed great success, tagging several
blues by early afternoon.MIDWEEK SHOOTOUT
The Titles continued for some teams the next day,
while others took the opportunity to fish the one-
day midweek Shootout tournament. With entry fees
and the Calcutta auction proceeds combined, this
offered a cash prize of more than 150,000 kina (overA$60,500) to the boat weighing the largest marlin on
24kg tackle, over the minimum qualifying weight of
four-times line class (96kg).
Several boats hooked blues over 100kg and seemed
in contention, including Keith Kingston aboard
Tsunami. Capt Ben Colvin found two for his team
aboard Osprey, their first caught by 72-year-old
Patrick Seeto, a tournament veteran who showed
the young bucks a thing or two as he battled his fish
without a rod bucket or harness for most of the fight.
A few hours later they landed the winning fish, caught
by Nick Peters and weighing 114.5kg.FISHING CRAZY TACKLE
Thursday, March 29 was my birthday, and I couldn’t
have thought of a better way to spend it than
with teammates Travis Franklin, Andrew Grace and
Tournament Director Dayne Quayle aboard Phil
Franklin’s boatSatisfaction, with Capt Laurie Wright
from Cairns on the helm.
By then, several teams fishing the Medium Tackle
category had already tagged more than 10 marlin. A
number of boats fishing Heavy Tackle had also tagged
up to eight for their two days of fishing, so we knew it
would take either exceptional luck or a different strategy
to achieve a win. That suited Travis and I perfectly,
since our choice was to fish in the Light Tackle category
anyway. However, Dayne and Andrew had never fished
6kg or 8kg tackle for marlin before and were more
than sceptical of the strategy. Dayne continually shook
his head, muttering that we were absolutely crazy and
should come to our senses and put out proper marlin
tackle, like 24 or 37kg. In fact, he sat out the first of his
two days, happy to watch from the sideline and enjoy
his first chance to relax after months of dawn-to-dark
work preparing for the tournament.BABY BLUES ON 6KG TACKLE
I hooked a 40kg blue on 6kg shortly after we arrived
at Tami, but despite arming our lures with needle-
sharp, super-fine gauge hooks, my fish screamed off
several hundred metres and then shook itself free.
Travis hooked a more typically sized blue of 60 to 70kg
“72-year-old Patrick Seeto showed the young bucks athing or two as he battled his fish without a rod bucket.”
Above:The towering
mountains around
Lae provide a
spectacular backdrop
when catching blue
marlin just a few
kilometres offshore.
Above centre:
During the mid-
week Shootout
tournament, Capt
Ben Colvin found
the two largest blue
marlin for his team
aboardOsprey,
including one for
72-year-old
Patrick Seeto.60 facebook.com/BlueWatermagazine
PNG National Game Fishing Titles