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Fresh wild caught premium fish. 
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Chris Bolton Fishing
Whether you are a chef at a 5-star restaurant looking to make every meal special, or a fisherman wanting to have the best chance of hooking that special fish, you won’t be disappointed with the quality of our product.
We bring to you some of the finest quality wild caught fish to ever leave the ocean.
Every single fish we catch is handled with the care and respect it deserves.
Every fish we sell is sashimi grade, the best of the best.
We are a small, family owned and operated fishing business based at Kurrimine Beach, Nth Queensland. I am the skipper and fisherman on every single fishing trip. With help from my partner Kim, my father Wayne at times, and 1 or 2 deckhands, I am hands on with every part of our business. From catching the fish, cleaning boats, taking orders, packing fish, or just having a good old yarn with customers, I am there. I believe this is the only way to ensure everything is up to the standard our customers expect.
Our line-caught reef fish are killed instantly and humanely using the ike-jime method. Fish are bled well and immediately placed into a salt ice brine to bring their temperature down to 2oC. Once this is achieved, every fish is gently hand-packed, one by one into our custom-made fibreglass eskies and covered with flake ice.
Having small, fast boats means we don’t catch large quantities. It means our fishing time is very short – very rarely more than 24 hours fishing before returning to port, with some trips as short as 6 hours.
When returning to port, we don’t unload at the wharf. Our boats are winched onto a trailer, towed by an ex-sugar cane haul-out tractor, and the catch is driven right to the door of our coldroom and packing facility, which was designed and made by myself to suit the way we operate. Our catch is unloaded from the boat and immediately packed for transport, with minimal handling and in the shortest possible timeframe.
Air freight is our preferred method of transport, unless we are supplying to the local area of course.
Premium Quality
We can have any and every fish we catch delivered to anyone, anywhere in Australia within hours of being caught…
All at premium quality.
Wild Caught Fish
Wild caught fish is one of the healthiest foods on the planet.
These fish aren’t fed processed pellets, or had any hormones or antibiotics in their system.
They have lived a life most of us dream of — a life in the clean waters of the Coral Sea, amongst the beautiful Great Barrier Reef.
Every day they are eating delicacies such as squid, sea urchins, prawns, sardines, fusiliers, garfish, crabs and more. Is it any wonder they taste so good?! 100% pure organic, natural food. The way nature intended.
If healthy eating, premium quality, and sustainability are your concerns, be concerned no longer.
Supplying Australia with healthy, sustainably and responsibly caught, premium quality fish is our job. And we take our job very seriously.
Sustainability
Proud to be Reef Guardian Fishers
As a commercial fishing business, we rely on a healthy, sustainable environment.
We believe if we do the best we can by the environment, the environment we rely on will do the best for us as well.
The Great Barrier Reef is more than just a place we rely on for our business, its our life, its our families life, and we want it to stay that way for generations to come.
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A lot of people ask my thoughts on how fast these garfish grow, and how old they are, how fast they breed etc.
I've always thought they grow very fast. At the start of the season there's an abundance of smaller fish. Within a couple of months, the average size has increased quite a lot.
The screenshots are from research done in Egypt, but specifically done on 'Hemiramphus far', which is the black-barred or 5spot garfish.
Yes, this species is caught pretty much worldwide, close to the equator. They are also one of very few fish that have managed to migrate to new areas through the Suez canal!!
The mesh they used to catch these fish was far smaller than the mesh size I use, which would explain the smaller sized fish, and lack of larger gar.
Contrary to popular belief, you won't catch anything and everything in just any net. A certain mesh size will only catch certain size fish. And that goes for any fish- barra, garfish, mullet, whatever.
Anyway, if you look at these graphs, you'll understand why I use larger mesh, and why I catch or sell very few small garfish.
Firstly, at 20cm or less, they may not get a chance to breed. Sexual maturity is reached at around 22cm and just over 1yr of age. Like any fish, take them before they get a chance to spawn at least once and you're headed for disaster.
Secondly, catching smaller fish is a bloody lot of work. Catching 20cm garfish weighing only 40gms means a bloody lot of fish to get any amount of kg when you pull them from the net 1 at a time! Also a lot of work packing 1 by 1! ๐ฉ
The average size we catch when targeting for bait is around 25-30cm, which going by this research is about 3yrs old, so most of them have spawned at least once. For food orders, I use a larger mesh again and the average size is 30-35cm.
Myself, I suspect they possibly grow faster and to a larger size here, but as far as I'm aware, very little research has been done on this species in Australia.
As long as we don't start seeing fishermen using small mesh and catching all the juveniles, I think the QLD stocks of 5spot will remain in good shape. Fast growing, early maturity, prolific breeders, short lifespan. Perfect ๐๐๐๐
Awesome insight into a critical cog of the food chain there mate. Thanks for the read ๐
Cheers for the couple handfuls the other night mate. Hopefully can convert into a few beakys once the weather comes good.
Great info mate! Yet, another thing I had no idea about! Thank you.
I seen a 5 spot up the Torres straits that was easily 60cm long and as round as a beer can. It was huge for a gar
Do you even sleep? ๐ Great read!
Agree very interesting Chris!
Great info mate ๐
Nicholas Jenkins this bloke worth following old mate
ON THE EDGE | Presented by the Cairns Professional Game Fishing AssociationA film bought to you from the Cairns Professional Game Fishing Association (CPGFA) to showcase our historical connection to the Great Barrier Reef together w...
Scott Harrison
Brilliant. Some of the biggest both in and out of the water. What a solid and credible piece of footage. Nice!
Coral trout, 7 days after capture, guts in.
Still seems to be a big belief that fish should be gutted asap.
I don't believe that at all. If I'm planning on eating a fish within 2 weeks of being caught, I'll leave it whole, guts in, basically untouched. But of course it has to be handled very well, and kept very cold right from the second it's caught. It's all in the handling.
If I had control of it all myself, after a week or even 2 weeks if I was to choose between a fish gutted and gilled on day 1, or a fish left whole, I'd choose the whole fish every time.
(Note- I don't recommend freezing fish with guts in)
Quality their for sure .all in the handling ..coral trout best eating .. if handled correctly ..
Sol Van Reyk Anthony Welch
Luke Grimm That's how I cut my wings out, watch till the end of the video
Spiked n straight into the Slurry , still got my fish in the box from Saturday as I can’t be assed cleaning them straight after a trip . Will knock the fillets off this arvo
How long can you keep a whole fish without freezing?
You've come along way mate, Good to see. Hope all is well.
Hey Chris, when you brain spike, do you go from in front of the eyes?
Hi Chris, Did you cut the gills with scissors like you do to bleed it? Or not in this case?
Luv your work Chris !
Mark Deyude this would be the bloke to ask about the ink sack
Do you cut the gills before chilling?
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What temperature is your fridge at?
Would bleeding the fish do any harm in this instance?
Graham Schultz
Shane, check this out. Looks awesome. Well done Chris! Your clips on this stuff is always good to watch.
Depends on the Species? ~ Hairtail (Ribbon Fish) have to have the worst smelling intestines.
Zac Taylor-Smith
Robert Rizzardini
Josh Mullock
Ben Collison
Jared Smeal
Clint Volker
Ian Meadowcroft
Russell Gustavson
Chris Bolton Fishing in the media!
