Fifty sailfish and four black marlins were among 54 fish tagged during three days of competition when teams threw down the sport fishing gauntlet at the 2024 Weipa Billfish Tournament from 5-7 October.
No Bull was crowned the champion team of the event with a stunning 9,300 points, well ahead of runner-up Screamer and third-placed First Step, which both finished on 7,000 points.
In the individual categories, Ahren Mazlin (6,000 points) took out top champion senior male honours, with Tom Hockey (5,300 points) and Ben Bright (5,000 points) claiming silver and bronze respectively.
Sharnell Enoch took the champion senior female silverware with a 3,000-point tournament, with Molly Toomey named as runner-up with 2,700 points and Monica Dalglish the third-placed angler on 2,000 points.
A 4,000-point competition was enough for Chris Bolton to win the annual champion visiting angler title.
Weipa Billfish Club president Ben Bright said the 2024 instalment of the event “went off with a bang”, with favourable fishing conditions close to shore providing competitors with more time for socialising at the end of each day’s competition.
“The bite was predominately around the 20-metre [fish aggregating device] around six nautical miles from Boyd Bay, making for more time for socialising before and after fishing,” he said.
“All competing teams saw billfish, and six anglers were presented with certificates for catching their very first.”
The six first-time sailfish catchers were Andrew Purvis, Jacob Johnson, Dan Tonon and Stephanie Kurz on 5 October, and Monica Dalglish and David Kolfen on 6 October.