Billfish Shootout 2011 Report.

I have been watching this comp for a couple of years but decided to line up and have a go myself for the first time. Dampier Billfish Shootout is famous for 2 reasons, lots of Sails, and notoriously bad weather with last year attracting over 30 knots of 'sea breeze' every day.
With this in mind the Fee's were paid up, the crew locked in and boat prepared. The initial plan was for the boys to slug it out and brave the elements in my little rig but as the date drew near and the weather stayed good we decided to add an extra crew member.
Days one dawned with high hopes and we were out at the ships sounding around for the bait. The bait wasnt hard to find but there didnt seem to be too many fish around them.
The first morning heard a few fish called in with it becoming quite apparent the the majority of fish were coming from well wide of the usual grounds. Being in my little Haines meant pushing too wide was out of the question so we made do with what we had.
Our skipping gars failed to attract any attention so the pushers went out and we bumped the revs up a couple of hundred rpm.
After a couple of hours trolling between bait schools we finally had a strike on the rigger. After a spirited fight on the 10kg spin gear a little Sail was wearing a fresh tag and was swimming alongside the boat awaiting a quick release. Couple of happy snaps and it was on its way.




Unfortunately the overcast conditions eems to have shut the fish right down and the 55 boats were having trouble finding anything more than the odd fish.
Everyone was working hard but they were just not firing and this was the pattern for the final 2 days of the comp.


It's times like these that a good crew really makes the difference. I would like to thank Pete and Alyssa for the great company, great laughs (and Alyssa for the great boat snacks and lunch) and will hopefully line up and have another go next year.  
BTW, Alyssa. The outrigger clips go where the line comes out of the rod TIP. Haha.


Final results were 55 boats for a total of 67 Billfish tagged and released.
Champion Male was Kevin Deakon with 3 Marlin
Champion Female was Fiona Jamieson with 4 Marlin
Champion Team was Tourettes with 5 Marlin and Runner up boat was Pursuit with 4 Marlin.

Fiona Jamieson also managed to win the Polycraft/Etec door prize so that was a great end to their weekend.

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?


Brucesta's picture

Posts: 1721

Date Joined: 29/05/09

damm that is perfect weather!

Sun, 2011-06-12 14:14

damm that is perfect weather! cheers for the report Dodgy

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southcity104's picture

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Date Joined: 27/01/09

Nice saily!!

Sun, 2011-06-12 15:55

The patience paid off with that nice saily!! well done!!

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poddyfish's picture

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Date Joined: 01/05/07

weather

Sun, 2011-06-12 16:00

usually the way isnt it dodgy! average weather last yr lots of fish , decent weather this yr and fish shut down lol - looks like ya still had a good time away tho chasing them stick faces!

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PilbaraBrad's picture

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Date Joined: 16/05/07

nice work mate

Sun, 2011-06-12 17:54

nice work mate

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Date Joined: 21/02/08

Nice sail!

Sun, 2011-06-12 18:09

Nice sail!

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Adam Gallash's picture

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Date Joined: 29/11/05

youch

Sun, 2011-06-12 18:10

Thats hard work for the boat to bill return.  Hopefully next year will see the bills return in numbers.

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mullows's picture

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Date Joined: 25/12/08

 Nice sailie there big fella.

Sun, 2011-06-12 18:53

 Nice sailie there big fella. Well done on getting one...I know a past winner who didn't even get a sniff of a fish apparently. He was as dark as Kamahl and sulked for a couple of days I hear:-)

 

Cheers

Mullows

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big john's picture

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Date Joined: 20/07/06

Effort

Sun, 2011-06-12 18:59

Good effort there Dodgy. As Adam said, the stats would agree that it was hard work.

Do you get much bycatch around that area?

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Lucky Tim's picture

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Date Joined: 28/11/07

 at least you got on the

Sun, 2011-06-12 19:17

 at least you got on the board mate. Always next year.

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Date Joined: 01/02/10

Thanks for the replies. I

Sun, 2011-06-12 19:31

Thanks for the replies. I certainly found it harder work than I was expecting that's for sure. You know the fishing is tough when the Bush Pig boys don't see a fish.
Not much bycatch. Had the smallest Wahoo in existance scream through the spread but not eat anything and and that was about it. The live baiting guys seemed to be getting smoked by big noahs and I believe SamC picked up a Dollie on the last day. Thankfully there were not too many Macks deeper than 30m of water.

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Lastchance's picture

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Date Joined: 02/02/09

Bycatch wise, we got a few

Sun, 2011-06-12 19:36

Bycatch wise, we got a few hangovers and blurred vision! Very quiet, Dodgy, got mackied heaps in close, but that was where we were getting the fish in previous weeks...Ahh well, looks like we were tied for 10 or so with the other 30 boats with one fish!

This year was too calm for the bush pig girlz!

Brucesta's picture

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Date Joined: 29/05/09

So we're gonna get revenge on

Sun, 2011-06-12 19:42

So we're gonna get revenge on the Billies in the FeNaClNG comp then? or screwing that and chasing line class?

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Faulksy's picture

Posts: 67

Date Joined: 05/05/10

.

Sun, 2011-06-12 22:30

Was hard work for sure but still had a ball.