The top anglers were honoured last Saturday (March 21) at Kan Eang@Pier restaurant in Chalong as renowned UK fishing personality John Wilson looked presented the awards.
Participants from as far as Canada, England, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States took part in the annual event, which was somewhat of a pleasant surprise for guest of honour Wilson.
"I'm amazed. It's great, the fact that I didnt expect to see so many int'l anglers here and so many people that I know it's been wonderful," said Wilson, who hosted a fishing TV show on Channel 4 in the UK for 20 years.
Phuket Fishing.ru took the overall award, accumulating 90 points, in addition to garnering the Top Tuna (15.4kg caught by Matvey Sumatov) and Top Barracuda (11.6kg caught by Viktor Ivanov) prizes. The Russian team also came runner-up in the Trevally (13.kg, caught by Potapov) and Tuna categories (9.1kg caught by Alex Odintsov).
Meanwhile, last year's top overall team – Fish Darwin – came 4th overall with 40 points though they did take the top prize in the Other Species category with an 11.6kg Grouper caught by Craig Moxley.
Other winners included Peter Goyter of The Extruders team that took the Top Marlin award with a 2.35m beast, Dave Pearc of PGFC with a 1.95m Sailfish, Gordon Little of the Reel Men with the Top Wahoo that weighed 9.6kg. In addition, Mike Wilder of the Oily Reelers won the Top Mackerel award with a 10.1kg fish and a Greg Farrant of The Reel Men won the top Dorado that weighed 5.1kg.
"I've lived here for a year and a half now and I didnt expect there to be such an organised fishing club in southern thailand its a pleasant surprise, great experience been.. the future of fishing in thailand looks very good indeed."
At the end of the event, RBFC President Dave "Flob" Roberts announced that the club would change it's name to the Phuket Game Fishing Club.