2018 Australian Junior Billfish Tournament

Over two days fishing in magic weather, 9 teams and 24 Junior or Small Fry anglers competed in the Exmouth Game Fishing Club’s 2018 Australian Junior billfish Tournament.

Day one was extremely quiet by Exmouth standards, with just 6 fish raised for the day. Jack White on Teraliza successfully tagged the only fish for the day; a small black marlin.

Day two, however, brought an improvement to the fishing, with most boats having shots at black marlin and sailfish. By day’s end, the fleet had added a further 6 black marlin and 3 sailfish to the scoresheet to round out an enjoyable tournament.

The final results were –

Champion Team Junior – Kajiki with anglers Oliver Smith & Zac Niikkula

Champion Team Small Fry – Teraliza with anglers Max & Mia Grasso, Jack White, Kalvin & Dean Gates

Champion Team Mixed – Seatrix with anglers Eloise Pugh, Lennox Farmer and Lachlan & Jasmine Turrell

Champion Skipper, Scott Turrell, Seatrix

Special mention goes to Oliver Smith, Harvey Mitchell and Jorja Mossman who tagged and released their first sailfish during the tournament, and Jack White and Declan Kabelka who did likewise with their first black marlin.

Some fantastic line class catches were also achieved by the young anglers during the tournament. Seven year old Lochlan Turrell on Seatrix tagged an estimated 60kg black marlin on 10kg, and twelve year old Jaxon Kabelka and nine year old Declan Kabelka fishing on Cin Bin both scored matching 80kg black marlin on 15kg gear.

Well done to all the winning teams, but more importantly, congratulations to all the kids who competed. We hope to see you all back again in 2019!