I don’t have the full list of winners (so this is coming from my own notes from the competition) but big congratulations to all the winners and grinners at the Townsville Mike Carney Billfish Challenge that wound up yesterday.  In the Over 8m Category on a quieter day fishing again (only 8 tags for the final day), the Mackay based Emma Kate put their win out of reach in the fishing conditions with an early tag on the first sked to bring it home with a total of 6 (and taking out Champion Skipper, Male and Female anglers as well). On KEKOA we also snuck in a quick tag (literally a 3 minute fight for Mike Carney on a particularly small juvie) to put us into the Runner Up slot with 5 tags.

In a very popular result, in the small boat category (Under 8m), Anthony Florence’s 575 Cruisecraft Flotation took out the win with three tags from another Mackay team on Hardline with two. Anthony is always out regardless of conditions so it was great to see all his (and team’s) hard work pay off.

President Tom Hatrick’s Utopia was third overall with 4 tags and also won a host of daily and first billfish prizes. On three each was Game On, Levante, Deja Vu and Silverback, while The Chapel, Reel Crazy and Castille III were on two a piece – and another tournament veteren Eddie Shi on Castille very happy to take the gong for the last day, with the first fish of the day on the first sked!

In the Under 8m Category, also on two tags on countback were the team on Maximus and Ruffian and Pina Colada, Screamer, Tomcat and Slayer on one each.