Few billfish ,tagged in a ,slow Bonanza

This year’s Billfish Bonanza was one of the slowest on record.

In 2015, on day one, there were 48 billfish tagged with the same number of teams as this year.

This year on day one, there were just four tagged.

The fishing was strangely slow for Exmouth standards, but it beats being at work.

There were 14 teams with 49 adults and seven juniors that hit the water, with strong winds, cool temperatures, green water and high enthusiasm.

The afternoons did calm down, particularly in the gulf, and despite the lack of action, there were still 24 marlin raised, 21 hooked and 10 tagged. There were only 10 sailfish raised, four hooked and four tagged.

The 2016 Billfish Bonanza winners were:

Champion boat sailfish: On Strike, with two tags and 800 points.

Champion boat marlin: Inn Keeper with three tags and 1500 points.

Champion boat combined: Winora with 700 points.

Champion boat overall: Inn Keeper.

This is also the first time we recall a boat targeting marlin having taken out the overall section.

There were some big marlin among the results, including an estimated 270kg blue marlin onboard the Winora.

Things are shaping up well for the next big event of the Heavy Tackle Tournament in December.

Fly fishing is a challenging task at the best of times, but we are very lucky in Exmouth to have some of the best fly fishing grounds in the world.

The massive GT pictured this week was cruising in less than a metre of water on the Exmouth Gulf flats last week.

Brett Wolf guides many anglers, but this guy was very lucky to come across such a great fish.

He was also very skilled to hook and land it.

The fish was caught on 40lb tippet and a few quick photos were taken before a healthy release.

It is one photo that has been liked and viewed by many anglers worldwide on social media. The queenfish have continued to show up in good numbers around the top of the cape and south of Bundegi.

November has traditionally been great for queenfish in this area and we can remember big sessions with several crew catching and releasing queenfish on the rising tide in water depths up to fishers’ waists.

We even had dogs in the water enjoying the outdoors.

This year, sadly, the sharks have been heavily present and causing concern for anglers and dog owners along the foreshore.