WINNING TEAM ON SPOT-X IN THE BAY OF ISLANDS INTERNATIONAL YELLOWTAIL TOURNAMENT 2018

This year saw the 49th annual International Yellowtail Kingfish tournament from the 10th to the 15th of June. Hosted each year by the in Russell, this tournament attracts anglers from all over New Zealand and Australia. This competition targets Yellowtail Kingfish using 6 or 8 kilo line only.

The team fishing on our boat ‘Screaming Reels’ were representing Hamilton Island, Qld, Australia. The team consisted of 4 anglers Grahame Kinnear (Groggy to most), Ted Cullen, Mal McMartin and Stephen Lawrie. Some of these guys have been fishing this competition for 15 years or longer and decided to target the tag and release section of the tournament.

Captains meeting was held every morning at 6am and thanks to Delish coffee that you opened early this week!!! Also thanks to Screaming Reels fish tackle shop who came down to the wharf with a trolley full with ice and burley. Well needed!

Day one was a little trying with the weather not that great and fishing a little slow saw us tag only 3 Yellowtail.

After day one we had a lay day due to the weather conditions, that was not that bad but not safe enough.

Day two had slightly better conditions. It was slow long in the afternoon but then bang, our team managed to get a quadruple hook up with only 15 minutes of fishing left in the day and managed to tag all 4 fish. That takes great team work and lots of experience to manage that chaos that appears in such situation.! Well done team!

Day three was calm and clear and around lunchtime the team was fishing in t-shirts! That was a really nice winter day in the Bay! And the fishing was full on from start and we ended up with 14 fish tagged by the team. The entire day was like a dream!

Day four and the final day of fishing was also a fabulous day in the Bay, calm and sunny! However, the fishing was more challenging with only a further 4 fish tagged. But we enjoyed every minute!

This had the team on 25 tagged and released kingfish for the tournament and clear winners for the team most tagged yellowtail, and Groggy taking out the individual most tagged fish with 11 fish. Great work Groggy!

This is a great tournament with many awesome fishing adventures had by many anglers and crews. Fishing is as always a challenge and it is great to share it with all great crew and anglers coming to our Bay this week every year! It is a fantastic social event with many coming back year after year (some for over 40 years) trying to win the trophy or just enjoy them self in this sublime area and a very well held tournament.

Already looking forward to next years event when the 50th tournament will be an epic event.

See you there!

/Hamish

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