The 21st Lizard Island Classic ­ the premier Black Marlin tournament
worldwide ­ was conducted in some of the roughest weather seen on the Great
Barrier Reef for some years. In the words of Capt. Bobby Jones ­ a veteran
campaigner ­ it was 'Fierce to frightening.'

Winds were 25-30+knots each day with waves regularly in excess of 20ft.
Nevertheless, the fishing was good although most of the tags were in the
100-200lb range.



Angler Gary from Michigan, USA, released this one we called 900lb on the
second day for his first black marlin and his personal best fish.



It was a great fight, especially in the conditions.



Congratulations Gary.

Angler Andrea picked up another at 250lb with minutes to go on the third day
and while we had plenty of strikes and hookups and even two more right to
the boat, Lady Luck was not with us this year and we finished with just the
two.

Fishing has been slow all over the reef. We saw a couple and then on our 3rd day we got this nice one off number 10 Ribbon Reef. We called it at 450lb



It was the first black marlin for angler Ian and the boys were pretty pleased.

Grandson Ben Forsythe (4 1/2 months) visited Shaka in Cairns for for his first fishing lesson. He wanted to try out the heavy tackle and we had a few problems getting him set up right.

Once we got him balanced correctly, he really enjoyed himself and showed he was prepared to put in the effort.