| Exmouth News 2008 03 - GAMEX reports |
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It’s a great time of year to be in Exmouth. The weather forecast for the next week is fantastic with clear skies and light winds forecast and fish action aplenty with everyone reporting excellent catches. The water around at Tantabiddi has cleaned up markedly in the last week and as a result the inshore pelagic scene is back to normal with all the usual species back in abundance. Spanish mackerel, shark mackerel and yellowfin tuna are taking trolled minnow lures along the back of the reef. Sailfish and marlin are appearing right in close to the back of the reef too with lots of people reporting hook-ups in as close as 30-40m of water. Exmouth Gulf is starting to clear up also with longtail tuna schools abundant, and with some big mobs of queenfish also being found harassing the baitfish schools. Spangled emperor and blue lined emperor catches are being caught on the bottom out near Exmouth reef with the occasional spanish mackerel taking floating baits in the same area. Last week’s Gamex tournament was a huge success, with 54 boats competing. Everyone who fished Gamex 2008 was a winner, with various fish caught, daily prizes for boats, lucky spot prizes and general all round fun and camaraderie. The official winners for the different sections were: * Highest Point Scoring ( * * * * Heaviest Billfish on 24to60kg line class thanks to Exmouth Smash Repairs. Tom Miller aboard Knot Fore Shore with a 106.6kg black marlin on 24kg line class. * Champion Boat Tag and Release shark thanks to Budget Car Hire. Reel Easy with 11 tagged sharks. * Champion Angler Junior thanks to Toll West and Toll Ipec. Rhys Clatworthy aboard Reel Obsession with six species on five line classes. * Champion Angler Female thanks to Engel. Jan Prince with seven species on seven line classes. * Champion Angler Male thanks to XXXXGold. Ben White aboard Renopegel with five species on six line classes. * Champion Angler Tag and Release Billfish thanks to Hotbite. Brett Hall aboard Freespool II with six marlin. * Champion Boat Tag and Release Sailfish thanks to Taylor Marine. In Deep with four tagged sailfish. * Champion Boat Tag and Release Marlin thanks to Reel Teaser Charters. My Vice II with 11 tagged marlin. * Champion Boat Overall thanks to Caltex Starmart Exmouth. Team Awesum with ten species on ten line classes.
The big glow light at the stern gave away the presence of big fish before any of the baits were taken. Battye was on the rod for the first hookup, and confident that they had a billfish attached, the other lines were quickly cleared - all except the rod Gates was on, which ground to a halt with the second hookup before it reached the surface.
Battye's fish was a handful, clearing the surface at the back of the boat in the lights and showing all the crew that it was definitely a broadbill, before scorching down 100m and spitting the hook. Curses. Gates' fish stayed connected to his 24kg gear, and was eventually boated successfully.
At 45.7kg, that's a new State record claim for a broadbill on 24kg. Gates is the one with the biggest grin!
A couple of other outstanding captures yesterday include a 22.3kg spanish mackerel on three kilo tackle for light-line specialist Jan Prince on Awesum - the fish is as long as she is!, and a 5.8kg queenfish on two kilo for Rhys Clatworthy, also on Awesum.
March 13th - How's this for a big fish from a little boat! Jeni Lerch's 4.9m aluminium Home Run, powered by a 50hp Yamaha, isn't the kind of thing you see featured in Marlin magazine, but she wasn't about to let that stand in the way of her one day's fishing in Gamex.
Angler Rowan Smith was charged with the rod, and tasked with catching his first marlin ever. It was 15kg gear and a proven lumo skirt that was to be the downfall of this black marlin, now a pending State record. While the fight was spectacular with the marlin high-jumping all around the boat, handling the fish at the end of it all was the biggest challenge.
Jeni is a featherweight, but Kurt Decker and the marlin weigh about the same; plus Smith and all the gear made for a hefty boatload for the trip home. After nearly swamping Home Run (seen in the background above), the little Yamaha proved its worth and was still able to get the boat up on the plane so that they could drain the water out.
The fish will be taxidermied by Martin Thompson. There aren't many marlin weighed at Exmouth these days, so not many opportunities to compare estimates with actuals, but Jeni was pretty happy she called this one for 150kg. They radioed it in as 130kg to cover themselves, but all on board were leaning towards the 10:1 figure.
March 12th - Tayla Clatworthy aboard Reel Obsession tagged her first sailfish today! Her older brother, Rhys (aged 15), fishing aboard Awesum, is no doubt stressing that his younger sister may beat him at his last (year) chance of winning Champion Junior Angler.
About 25 billfish tagged so far today, but it an early finish as we have the Bundaberg Rum Pizza and Pasta night tonight. Late start to fishing tomorrow, and the weather looks good, so (EGFC President and Bluewater Exmouth boss) Jeni reckons there will be a few boats broadie fishing tomorrow night. And she's going to fish tomorrow, so look out!
1000 hours - radio troubles back at base are making regular updates a challenge, but we do know there were 30 marlin and five sails tagged yesterday. About half the fleet are fishing for billfish, and the rest did very well yesterday with longtail tuna, and spanish mackerel.
March 11th - 1030 hours: Tayla Clatworthy, a junior female angler fishing Gamex, has just tagged a 40kg marlin on six kilo line class. She caught it on Halco hardbody!!! Sensational... and about a dozen or more tagged already today. March 10th - Gamex is on and it came with a flying start. Tracey Rushford on Reel Teaser had a billfish hooked up seven minutes after lines in on the first day. Hers was one of 27 marlin tagged for day one, along with two sailfish.
Matt Niikkula, also on Reel Teaser, tagged and released this big blue, estimated at 350kg on 60kg tackle, which would have eclipsed the State record but is still swimming.
Jan Prince on Awesum has a pending State and National record for a spangled emperor on 2kg class. Text and pics © Bluewater Tackle World
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