Congratulations to Team KEKOA!
Team KEKOA’s black marlin was the winner of the 2012 Lizard Island Great Marlin Race! Our fish traveled 1875nm making it a standout winner.
Congrats team, Capt. Luke and the wonderful Mr. Scotty Taylor. It was an awesome fish which gave us a great fight. We said it was released in excellent condition, and it looks like it sure was!
More information on the black marlin tags:
With the assistance of IGFA Representative Bob Lowe, the IGFA Great Marlin Race went to Lizard Island, Australia in October 2012 for the 26th Annual Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic! A total of 5 tags were generously sponsored by Lizard Island Game Fish Club member, Peter Teakle. The first tag was deployed on the sixth day of the tournament, October 26th 2012, on a 900lb black marlin that was released in perfect condition. The fish was caught by Tim Ballantine and tagged by Jack Graham aboard Afishionado. The remaining four tags were reissued to other boats in The Cairns Professional Game Fish Association, also fishing off of Lizard Island, the following week.
On November 2nd 2012, Roger Kuhnel on Moana III tagged a 1200lb black marlin. The angler, Douglas Perry, described his fish as “huge, strong, and healthy”! Three days later, on November 5th 2012, S. Sruat from the Iceman tagged a 900lb black marlin caught by Luke Cefai. Two days after that, on November 7th 2012, the fourth tag was deployed by Ross Finlayson on a 440lb black marlin caught by 16 year old, Harry Davies aboard Top Shot. The black was his very first marlin!
The final tag was deployed on November 11th, 2012 by Chase Hooper from Kekoa on a 800lb black at Spur Reef. The angler, Scotty Taylor, described his fish as being in “excellent condition”! We are very pleased to announce that all of the tags in this race were reported. On December 7th 2012, Tag 4 surfaced 91 nm from where it was deployed. On December 15th, 2012, Tag 2 reported just 6 nm from the starting point. On, December 29th 2012, Tag 3 reported 1,360 nm away from where it was deployed (the second farthest distance). The next Tag to surface was Tag 5 on January 19th 2013, an astonishing 1,875 nm away from where it was deployed (Kekoa’s)! The last tag to surface was Tag 1 on January 25th 2013, with a distance of 356nm.
