No fish on the last day to the New Britain GFC slipped them back into second place on 1762 points, with the Malibu Marlin Club first on 2032 - just one fish on 50 in it !!

This is the best ever result by a PNG team in forty odd years, beating my team's third in 1998. Team was John Lau, Marina Lau, Philip Chan and Steven Chow. 

Malibu Marlin Club team comprised Sam Spinello, Fred Duerr, Corky Reese and Burl Kaska for those who have been before - mostly old hands and great blokes.

Philip Chan's  594lb ( 269kg ) Blue gained him the heaviest marlin trophies.

Very notable that this is the second year in a row that the heaviest marlin has been caught on a Lau lure.

The Madang team of Ron McKenna, Skye McKenna and Chris Tsang finished in the middle with 500 points. Skye lost a 900lb fish after 2 hours on Wednesday.

Not quite as many fish caught this year as last ( last year was a huge one ), but again a great event with 29 teams ( up from 25 in 2005, 17 in 2004 ) and super organisation. There were teams from USA, Oz, NZ, RSA, Japan, Bahamas, Kenya and PNG.

There were 77 billfish ( Blue, Striped and Spearfish ) presented to the judges with five Blues weighed. The heaviest Yellowfin went 191lbs ( 87kg ) 

Next year should be better again with a target of 35 teams.

Also of note was a 1027lb Blue hung on the new Tournament scales on Thursday afternoon by a non competing boat.

 

Regards  to all  

Bob O'Dea

29 Jul 2006