Wes Jones

Wes was four or five years old when he started fishing with his dad, cutting his teeth on the famous snapper, KG whiting and yellowtail kingfish from the renowned grounds off Whyalla in South Australia. By age 10, he was perfecting his sport fishing tactics and techniques for the local giant Port Augusta yellowtail kingfish. Over a dozen years, using live bait, poppers and stick baits, he took more than a 100 big kings to 35kg, and did battle with some that were way, way bigger. 

In 2003, he began part time work in the local tackle shop, and between 2009 and 2011, he worked as a crewman on long-range charter vessels sportfishing the Great Australian Bight for snappers, samson fish, bluefin tuna and more thumping yellowtail kings.

After an initial taste of marlin fishing off the Gold Coast in 2005, Wes began developing an addiction  for the sport and, in 2014, he worked his first serious marlin season on the GBR, catching 71 black marlin in a 65 days. The following year, he worked for Eddy, whom he’d met as a client on an Exmouth GT charter, and decided to focus his career on marlin fishing. These days, he spends around six months each year working for Peak, and some of his highlights as a professional crewman include a dozen Australian gamefishing records, a magnificent world record black marlin on fly for Jeremy Block, and the 2017/18 Exmouth heavy tackle season, a ripper that saw clients catching 165 blue marlin in 81 days, including the biggest blue marlin ever caught caught in Australian waters.   

If he is not out working with Eddy in Exmouth, Wes is wading with a fly rod in the Exmouth Gulf, or fishing for swordfish and trout in Tasmania, or lure casting for Murray cod in Mulwala in NSW, or spending his off time as crew in other renowned fisheries, last year working the tournament season in Kona, Hawaii. As it is with all the world’s best crewmen, it’s a passion for the sport that sees Wes at the top of his game, whether on the deck or skippering the Peak Sportfishing Contender.