Organisers of the 2020 Garmin Billfish Shootout Tournament have been keeping a nervous eye on the weather this week but are optimistic the event will go ahead with a final call to be made today.

Hosted by Newcastle and Port Stephens Gamefishing club out of Port Stephens, the tournament offers over $250,000 in prizes, including a massive $200,000 for the biggest blue marlin over 268kg.

"Wind and waves will be the determining factors," NPSGFC secretary Nigel Rushworth said yesterday.

"I have been taking calls all week - is it on? is it off? At this stage it is go.

"We have to be mindful of safety - some boats are better equipped to handle conditions than others and we have to be fair.

"The organising committee will make its decision based around that.

"But at this stage we have 140 boats and over 700 anglers registered with more coming in now that it looks like going ahead."

The glamour $200k prize has never gone off before although Adam Hoey came close in 2018 (when the weight limit was 236kg and prize $100,000), falling a mere 4.6kg off the cash with a 231.4kg blue.

"This year the prizemoney has doubled and the underwriters have tweaked the weight limit up slightly," Newcastle and Port Stephens Gamefishing Club president Troy Radford said.

Water temps and currents had been very promising in the last couple of weeks, with a many reports of marlin tagged and released. But recent torrential rains and heavy seas will make it anyone's guess what out there this weekend.

The Shootout also offers plethora of other cash and prizes in various division, including separate bounties of $12,500 each for heaviest marlin capture over 150kg, champion boat tag and release, and heaviest shark capture over 350kg respectively, as well as $5000 for champion boat tag and release under eight metres.

The event is structured to encourage tag and release fishing.

"There is a radio system in place that all vessels are tuned into which helps determine fish size," Troy said.

"Only exceptional fish are weighed, the rest are tagged and released."

Along with the big money prizes there is well over $50,000 in giveaways and lucky boat prizes, which means everyone is in with a show, not just the top anglers."

Port Stephens is recognised as the home of gamefishing in Australia and is where the first ever black marlin was caught.

"The tournament builds on that tradition," Troy said.

A briefing will be held this evening at Nelson Bay RSL before fishing gets underway from 8am on Saturday and Sunday.

"The weigh station will be open after 4pm each day and the public is welcome to come on down for a look," Troy said.

"The presentation will be held at Nelson Bay RSL club Sunday night starting around 7.30pm."

This year's event ties in with the Mark Hughes Foundation to raise money for brain cancer research in honour of Newcastle and Port Stephens Gamefishing Club member Tony Conahan, who sadly passed away this year.

"Tony was a dearly loved member of the club and we're going to be selling Mark Hughes merchandise on the night," Troy said. "We're also running a mega raffle to raise money for the foundation with roughly $10k worth of prizes."

A black marlin released by Newcastle & Port Stephens GFC boat Waihora in early February 2018 by keen father and son team Rowan and Josh Nicks had been recaptured in a remote area near Kiritimati (Christmas Island).

The fish was estimated to be 70kg when released and was estimated to weigh 110kg when recaptured on May 2, 2019

The fish had travelled an estimated straight line distance of 2663 nautical miles after being at liberty for 437 days.

It's been rough windy and wet on the water this week.

"Hard" is how gun angler Brandt Archer put it.

But it didn't stop him hitting Swansea Channel last Saturday chasing kingfish.

"It slowed right down with all that weather, but we got a couple of good hook-ups," Brandt said.

"Being rough, unless you have a dedicated driver, you get wrapped up and snapped off so easy.

"Still, we got some good flatheads as bycatch. They were smashing the 30cm live squid we were putting out."

Brandt travels a bit with his work and confirms estuaries up and down the coast are muddy with all the rain, but he thinks there is a definite upside.

"This fresh is going to set up fishing in the next couple of weeks," he said. "I reckon it's going to go off, particularly for jew."

Meanwhile, local angler Ben Hall made a bit of news this week with a post on Facebook of a fish he caught in the Hunter River.

Ben wasn't sure what it was he was holding but Fishing World believes it might be a Japanese sea bass.