Viking II tops the ton

The final day of its Cairns heavy-tackle season saw the Viking II crew with an incredible 98 black marlin on the board. Fishing had been slow and skipper, Bill Billson, told the crew of 'Flash' and 'Jimbo' (Justin Reid and James Bladen) that if they hadn't hooked up by 4.30pm it was time to pack it in for the year.

At 3.20 a 400lber appeared, attacked a bait and once wired and released became No 99.

The cut-off time was extended to 5.00 which all too soon arrived. Five minutes passed before Billson called to pull the lines in. The skipbait and swimmer were reeled in and stowed, and Jimbo was hauling the centre bait to the boat when Bill yelled "Free spool!"

The dark shadow that had materialised behind the bait struck and the after a brief battle, the rest, as they say, is history.

Indeed, with Viking II topping the ton, the 2002 Cairns heavy-tackle season was a record breaker. While only one grander was weighed (by the crew on Sea Baby IV) there was no shortage of action.

Check out John Ashley's full wrap-up of the season starting page 48 of this issue. Craig Smith