Hooked On Hinchinbrook

FROM TOWNSVILLE TO HINCHINBROOK, FROM BIG MARLIN TO BIG BARRA Ryan Moody has been putting his fishing charter clients onto big fish for over 30 years. The inside story... They say I was 3 when my Dad dragged me kicking and screaming into the boat for my first Maggie Island fishing trip. They also say he had to drag me out when the trip was complete. Guess I was hooked from the start. By 16 I was on the mackeral boats and at 18 was rubbing shoulders with the likes of INXS, the King and Queen of Sweden and boxing legend Barry Michaels chasing giant black marlin off the shelf. In 1989 aboard “Rodeway” with well known game fishing identities Dave Pemberton and Greg (Muddy) Edwards, we took out the Sheraton International Billfish Tournament, the Lizard Island Black Marlin Classic and placed second in both the Australian International Billfish Tournament and Dunk Island Black Marlin Classic. I have been lucky enough to see the most amazing things during my career on the water in one of the most beautiful locations in the world, the Great Barrier Reef. 1989 was also the year I started my own fishing charter business – now Hooked on Hinchinbrook – and so far I have had the privilege of assisting over 1800 anglers fulfill their dreams of joining the metre barra club, some lucky enough to catch more than one. It has been a wild old ride, with green zones wiping out my reef business and two category 5 cyclones wreaking havoc, and at times I was so close to giving it all away… but I can’t. I love putting people onto fish. I think I get a little high, it gives me such a thrill. And I am even more excited about the future. It gives me such pleasure to have witnessed the swing away from catch and kill to catch and release. These days very few of my clients even want to take a fish for the table. It seems hard to believe but the euphoria of catching such an magnificent Australian icon, gleaming silver, leaping and shaking, is actually surpassed by the emotional rush of letting her go. So it is with much gratitude that I would like to share some of what I have learned along the way. Thank-you so much for taking the time to visit. I know your time is so valuable. I hope you are inspired to get out amongst it and live your dreams, as I have. Catch you out on the water. Cheers Ryan