Simon George & Sons Wahi Wahi Tournament

With sub 10knt weather, balmy temperature and a water temperature of 28c the Simon George & Sons Wahi Wahi tournament kicked off at Yorkeys Knob Boating Club with 20 skippers and crews attending the briefing with vessels ranging in size from 5 – 15m. All vessels having one thing in common, they would be chasing wahoo and dolphin fish for the next 2 days and the grand prize of $10,000!

Day 1 fishing was hectic to say the least with all vessels getting numerous dolphin fish, however the reports of Wahoo captures were scarce. Most of the action took place on or in the vicinity of Linden Bank and the north Opal ridge area. In addition to the hectic dolphin fish action several boats managed to raise and tag black marlin with some first timers getting their first tags in.

Day 2 fishing was a bit quieter than the first day, however fishing conditions were even calmer, allowing some boats to make the decision to head wide of the banks and fish out in the Coral Sea grounds over 40nm east of the banks.

Reports came in from these vessels of some spectacular fishing action including monster wahoo and other oversized game fish creating havoc with angler and gear alike. Captures were reported however with a ban on size details being transmitted over the sceds it was anyone’s guess if these boats had managed to land the monster wahoo or dolphin fish required to takeout the $10,000 cash!

Other vessels working the banks reported a steady stream of dolphin fish with some wahoo mixed in. From the tower of Hellraiser 11 skippered by Steve Ahlers it was clear that the water was alive with fish and bait, however finding the monster wahoo was proving to be a difficult task with several medium sized fish on board and some good sized dolphin fish only 1 large wahoo was needed.

Stop fishing was called at 4pm with no boats calling hookup or asking for an extension. The fleet returned to Yorkeys Knob Boating Club for the weigh in and presentation dinner.

After the weigh in was completed, it was clear that 1 vessel had managed to find that monster wahoo with the following results,

Therapy                 Champion Boat $10,000 Winner including a 22kg Wahoo

Sea Scorpion       Heaviest Wahoo under 7.5mtr

DEKS                      Heaviest Dolphin Fish under 7.5mtr

Therapy                 Heaviest Wahoo under 7.5mtr

Resolution           Heaviest Dolphin Fish over 7.5mtr

Simon George & Sons Wahi Wahi tournament was a huge success with entries for next year already being taken and certain prizes jackpotting taking the 2016 prize pool to nearly $20,000 CASH already!

Thanks so much to Stuart Vella for the report!