The Exmouth Game Fishing Club held its annual Billfish Bonanza last weekend.

The event was a great success with 20 boats, 65 anglers, over 150 billfish raised and 49 billfish tagged. The mornings were a little breezy, but the gulf glassed off each afternoon with some magical visions of silhouetted whales breeching as the sun set for boats returning to the marina and Bundegi. Most of the fish tagged were sailfish in the gulf -averaging 30kg.

Team In Deep prepare to trace another sail.

There were several black marlin tagged on the west side of the cape including a 180kg black onboard James Roscic's new boat Apocathery. There was also a 90kg black tagged on 10kg line, which was a fantastic effort by female angler Debbie Snook. This took out the Champion Angler Marlin Section.

The youngest angler in the event, 7 year old Hayden Michaels (below), caught five sailfish and successfully tagged three of them. He won the junior section and was runner up in the champion angler sailfish section too - another wonderful effort!

Simon Prins, a chef from the Novotel, had never caught a sailfish before the event. He ventured out onboard Saxon Raider and tagged eight sails to take out the Champion Angler Sailfish award. Simon, along with Kurt and Jo Decker aboard Saxon Raider took out the Champion Boat for Tag and Release Billfish. The crew on Fully Sic came runner-up followed by On-Strike.

During the event many people tagged their first ever billfish, including the three anglers from Jurien Bay aboard the boat Yogi. There were only two boats that did not catch a fish, and both those teams won a prize too!

The event was very challenging and exciting with baitballs in the gulf that had sailfish, trevally, long tail tuna and queenfish feeding on them. The birds were a good sign for the anglers to find where the action was happening.

There were three sailfish tagged that had already been tagged previously. One of them had been caught in two consecutive days.

The EGFC promotes good fishing ethics and fish handling to ensure the sustainability of recreational fishing through catch and release. It's great to see these fish feeding one day, being caught and released, and back feeding again to be caught the next day.

Congratulations goes to all the participants, while a big thanks goes to all the sponsors, volunteers and committee who helped make it such a great success.

 ***

The 2009/10 Abalone Season kicks off this Sunday, November 1 for the west coast zone here in Western Australia.

Check out your nearest Bluewater store for all your abalone needs - including catch bags, gauges, wetsuit booties, snorkels, masks and fins.

The season runs on Sundays only until December 6, from 7:00am to 8:00am.

Abalone fishers must have a licence, which can be obtained online, at Department of Fisheries Offices or Australia Post offices.

For a full run down on the rules, click here.

 ***

If you havn't checked out Bluewater boss Hal Harvey's Rowley Shoals report, click here for some great pics.

There is some new info and a couple of extra pics as well.

Apart from watching his kids catch some great fish, this nice GT was a highlight for Hal. It took a Black Jack Wahoo 150 stickbait, blind casting into the dark before moonrise one night.

 ***

Fisheries Minister Norman Moore has announced rule changes for recreational rock lobster fishers for the coming season.

The recreational rock lobster season runs from November 15 to June 30. The new rules for the 2009-10 season are: 

• a consistent minimum legal size of 77mm for western rock lobsters all season
  
• a reduction in the maximum legal size limit for female western rock lobsters from 105mm to 95mm, when taken between Green Head and North-West Cape
  
• a reduction in the maximum legal size limit for female western rock lobsters from 115mm to 105mm, when taken between Green Head and Cape Leeuwin.

Mr Moore said the measures would also apply to commercial fishers, as part of a package of measures to contain that sector's overall catch.  

"Recreational fishers must play their part in contributing to the sustainable management of this fishery by adopting the new sustainability rules," he said.  

"I have also decided the escape gap size for recreational rock lobster pots will remain at 54mm for 2009-10, before increasing to 55mm for the 2010-11 season."

The Minister said the new rules took into account the record low settlement of puerulus (juvenile lobsters) in recent seasons, which indicated that in the next two to three years the fishery would experience its lowest catches in 40 years.

"This season, for the first time, the sectors will be managed to allocated shares of the sustainable harvest level," Mr Moore said. 

"The commercial sector is allocated a 95 per cent share, the recreational sector's share is five per cent and the customary sector's share is one tonne. 

"This season, the commercial catch's managed target is 5,500 tonnes, with a likely range of 4,950 to 6,050 tonnes. The target catch for the recreational sector will be 290 tonnes, with a range of 260 to 318 tonnes."

A recreational licence is required to fish for rock lobster. Fishers can buy licences online and a new brochure on rock lobster fishing for the 2009-10 season is available at the Department of Fisheries website  or on 9482 7333.