Day 3

A slower day today, particularly on the billfish front with a morning bite tapering off quickly to leave most crews having to really search for fish, both on the inshore black marlin and sailfish grounds and out wide towing big lures on heavy tackle for blue marlin. With many of those fish that were raised not coming onto the lures or baits that well, conversion rates were poor.

Billfish stats –
Marlin 47-30-7
Sailfish 5-2-1

Crews focusing on the line class capture sections found some good action on Spanish mackerel along the Ningaloo Reef edge, although getting these fish to the boat on sub 6 kilo tackle before the sharks could intervene was a challenge. Inside Exmouth Gulf, nice queenfish were a feature in catches, boosting points for several teams on 1-4kg gear.

Day 4

Day four saw the billfish again quite sluggish, with crews still reporting a lot of the fish they raised making only half-hearted attacks on lures or baits. However, several nice blue marlin to 200kgs featured amongst the day’s billfish catch.
Billfish stats –
Marlin 50-29-12
Sailfish 4-1-1
The action inshore was a little more torrid, with Spanish mackerel, plenty of queenfish, some big golden trevally and good numbers of dolphin fish encountered by crews fishing inside Exmouth Gulf and around the Muiron Islands. Chief among the line class captures weighed in was Callum Horlock’s pending WA and Australian junior record dolphin fish of 6.2kgs on 1kg tackle. This is Callum’s second junior record claim for the tournament.

With thanks to Onstrike Charters for the photos!