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TOURNAMENT
NEWS
You should
have been there!
Competitors watched weather charts nervously as Cyclone
Marcus loomed to the north, but after a windy opening day, the
fleet of 56 boats and 233 anglers were treated to superb, flat-
calm conditions throughout the week-long tournament.
An unusually hot current subdued the offshore blue marlin
scene prior to the event, so many blue water teams switched
their focus to the inshore grounds along the back of the Ningaloo
Reef where excellent numbers of small to medium black marlin,
as well as sailfish, dolphinfish, wahoo and other species were
found throughout the tournament. However, not all billfishGAMEX 50th Anniversary
The Exmouth Game Fishing Club’s annual GAMEX tournament kicked off on March 16, celebrating its 50th running
as Western Australia’s most prestigious and popular game fishing event. With 27 different prize categories and
35 eligible gamefish species across both tag & release and capture sections, GAMEX is a reflection of Exmouth’s
extraordinarily diverse fishing options.encountered were small. Reel Teaser tagged an estimated
240kg blue marlin, and Stormy fought another of more than
300kg, but lost it at the boat after a two-hour fight. Nauti Bouy
tagged a nice black estimated at 180kg on 15kg tackle.
Champion Boat Tag & Release Marlin came down to the wire,
but Azura with 19 tags just edged out The Wench with 18. Azura
also won Champion Boat over 7m Tag & Release Billfish with 24
tags, beating Our Time with 16 tags. The Wench won Champion
Boat under 7m Tag & Release Billfish with their 20 tags, beating
Nauti Bouy with 10 tags. Champion Boat Tag & Release Sailfish
was won by On Strike with 10 tags, beating Billistic with 6 tags.
Over the week, GAMEX 2018 produced 797 billfish raised, 594
hooked and 307 tagged and released. This catch was made up of
231 black marlin, 63 sailfish, 11 blue marlin and 2 striped marlin.
In the line-class Capture sections, a wide variety of species
were brought to the weighstation, including Spanish mackerel,
dolphinfish, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, barracuda, queenfish,
golden trevally, cobia, rainbow runner and more.
In its 50-year history, GAMEX has been responsible for more
state, national and world records than any other Australian
fishing tournament, and that tradition continued in 2018. Jesse
Sutton lodged claims for five Australian Junior records and one
Female Australian record, including a 1.67kg skipjack tuna on
1kg, a 1.9kg spangled emperor on 1kg, a 7.26kg golden trevally
on 2kg, a 7.61kg golden trevally on 4kg and a 6.6kg wahoo
on 6kg. Jesse also released a great hammerhead estimated at
100kg on 3kg line. Jake Fitzgerald also claimed a Junior record
for his 15.4kg Spanish mackerel on 4kg, and Clinton Damian
landed a 5.42kg bludger trevally on 3kg for a senior record claim.
Harvey Mitchell on Swamp Donkey won the Small Fry division
with captures on five different line classes, while Jesse Sutton on
Got Im On won the Junior division with captures on 11 different
line classes across five species. Anna Passmore on Pullin Skirt
won champion Female with four different species captures on
seven different line classes. Champion Male was won by Kade
Ross on Pussee Galore with captures of 11 different species on
11 different line classes. Champion Boat Overall went to Seatrix
ahead of In Deep.
Dates for GAMEX 2019 are March 22 to 30. For further
information, visit: http://www.egfc.com.au- Ben Knaggs
Once again, the week-long GAMEX tournament held at Exmouth
during March delivered some of the most outstanding game fishing
in the country, with 797 billfish raised and many records broken.
Reel Teaser released this estimated 240kg blue, the largest marlin
of the tournament. Champion Boat Overall was won by Seatrix.