Capt. Brad Craft on Castille is fishing with 72 year old Frank who has been fishing the Great Barrier Reef since the 1970’s. They’ve already been enjoying some hot fishing, but yesterday was a day to remember with three big fish released. It was still quite early in the day when I heard him calling in the first two for the day, one that he put at right there on the mark and a second 950lbs. You could have been forgiven for thinking that your day was over and you’d be pretty happy with that. But it wasn’t. Katie tells me they followed up later with another they put at 900lbs. That makes 8 marlin over 800lbs in 5 days fishing – It doesn’t get better than that!
Capt. Bobby Jones on Iceman is fresh back out on a new trip. His previous trip (with Peter B Wright and guests on board) was a cracker. They finished with 15 from 16 fish, the final fish on Sunday being one that both Peter and Bobby put in the 900-950lb range. I snapped this shot above from nearby on Sunday. Back out yesterday, they’d barely put the baits in when they caught a 700lb fish for new guests.
Capt. Ross McCubbin has Bounty Hunter up at the Rock spending some time with his guest on the Bounty Hunter/My Way combo. He fished Hicks Reef yesterday for just the one bite, but it was a beauty with a fish that he put at 950lbs for angler and good mate David Wright (photo).
Capt. Tim Dean on Calypso was another starting a new trip yesterday with Team Wildcatter back on board, all the way from Texas! Not too long out of the blocks for him either, they released a fish that Tim put at 800lbs. He followed up later in the day with a second smaller fish. Great action shot from on board above!
Catch up photos from Iona II who had a great couple of days fishing over the weekend before heading back into port. These shots from Mustard on deck above and below. Underwater shot of a fish they put at 500lbs from Saturday. The other two are the big fish from Sunday that Adam put at 950 (below) and 1000lbs respectively (above).
And another ‘big’ catch up report, this one from Capt. Russell Caphorn on Kaizen who, on his last trip with Gavin Hasset and Greg Caphorn on board – only out for a few days but managed to catch 6 marlin with Gavin releasing a fish that Russell put right up there and over the mark in the Middle Ribbons.
Relay report from Capt. Jared Weir on Shaka fishing down on Opal Ridge and the Bank. Jared says that they managed a smaller fish from a double header and had another bite. Capt. Ashley Wallis on Kalira caught another nice one at 900lbs and Capt. Daniel McCarthy’s Moana caught one as well and Capt. Corey Hard on Askari tells me they caught a solid mid ranger that he put at 500lbs.
Exmouth Betta Billfish Bonanza Results
Results straight from Exmouth GFC – “The Betta Billfish Bonanza was a huge success. Over 3 days 26 boats tagged a total of 30 marlin and 74 sailfish.
Champion Junior was Will Roche who just pipped Kiara Gregory and Riley Smith. They all tagged 2 sailfish but Will won on countback.
Champion Team T & R Sailfish was Pelagic Hooker who smashed all opposition by tagging 30 Sailfish. On Strike was second with 11 sailish.
Champion Team T & R Marlin was The Bear who narrowly pipped Game Fisher. Both teams tagged 4 Marlin.
Champion Team Combined was On Strike who tagged 11 sailfish and also tagged a rare Exmouth Gulf marlin. My Addiction was second with 3 marlin and 1 saifish.
Special mention to Billshit which tagged a credible 9 sails out of a small boat.
And of course big thanks to Matt and Kristie Nikkula and the crew from Betta Electrical for making it happen. ”
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