Chris Rushford

Chris Rushford fishes the remote shelf atolls off Broome, Western Australia, working alongside Captain Ross Newton at Reel Teaser Fishing Adventures. He moves between light tackle, heavy tackle, conventional and spinning gear with equal skill, and his ability as a bait and lure rigger sets him apart from instructors who specialize in only one method. He switch baits sailfish with ballyhoo and garfish, builds stiff rig terminal connections for blue marlin, jigs soft plastics for coral trout and sailfin snapper, and casts giant trevally off reef edges at the Rowley Shoals. Rushford brings Indo-Pacific reef and bluewater fishing expertise built on years working some of the most demanding water in the world.

Instructor's videos

Chris Rushford built his reputation on the water off Broome, Western Australia, fishing the remote shelf atoll systems of the Indian Ocean where few anglers, let alone instructors, ever get the chance to log serious hours. He works alongside Captain Ross Newton at Reel Teaser Fishing Adventures, running long range trips to the Rowley Shoals, a chain of atolls roughly 150 miles off the West Australian coast, along with Scott Reef and the broader Kimberley coast. That geography makes him a different kind of instructor for In The Spread members. Most of the platform's captains built their expertise around a single region or species. Rushford's water forces a broader skill set, because a single day on the Reel Teaser can put him on sailfish in the morning, giant trevally by midday, and coral trout or sailfin snapper by the afternoon.

That range shows directly in what he teaches. Rushford is equally capable with light tackle and heavy tackle, and he moves between conventional and spinning gear depending on what the target species and the conditions call for rather than defaulting to one setup out of habit. He is an accomplished bait rigger, switch baiting sailfish in shallow water near reef edges using a daisy chain of birds and squids ahead of a ballyhoo or Australian garfish belly bait rigged on circle hooks. That approach mirrors what tournament sailfish teams run in Central America and the Atlantic, but Rushford and Newton have adapted it for the shallow reef edges and unique current patterns found off Western Australia.

He is just as capable as a lure rigger. For blue marlin, Rushford builds the stiff rig terminal connections that Reel Teaser Fishing Adventures has become known for, a rigging approach that changes how a lure swims while reinforcing the connection points most likely to fail when a big fish strikes violently or changes direction mid-run. He applies the same rigging precision to swimming plugs with adjustable bibs, tuning bib angle to control running depth when trolling structure like atoll edges and offshore platforms, and wiring leaders to hold up against wahoo, kingfish, and other toothy predators that patrol those zones.

Reef fishing is where Rushford's depth of knowledge is most apparent. He targets giant trevally by casting into the white water where double overhead swells crash against the Rowley Shoals reef edges, a demanding style of fishing that requires reading swell timing and boat positioning as much as it requires a strong cast. He jigs soft plastics for coral trout and other reef predators patrolling the sandy transitions where structure meets open bottom, adjusting jig head weight and hook placement to keep the plastic swimming naturally rather than spinning or diving nose first. He also targets sailfin snapper, a rare and strikingly colored reef species whose camouflage makes it one of the harder fish in the Indo-Pacific to locate, let alone hook and land on light spinning tackle.

What makes Rushford valuable to In The Spread members is not any single technique. It is the fact that he can move from switch baiting sailfish to heavy tackle blue marlin rigging to light tackle reef jigging within the same trip, and teach the reasoning behind each adjustment along the way. Anglers who fish reef structure anywhere in the world will find his approach to boat positioning, tackle selection, and bait and lure rigging directly applicable to their own water. He represents an Indo-Pacific perspective that most sport fishing education never covers in this kind of depth.

Rushford's course library on In The Spread includes instruction on ballyhoo and garfish bait rigging, blue marlin lure rigging, reef jigging with soft plastics, giant trevally fishing from both a mothership platform and off reef edges, sailfin snapper location, coral trout tactics, sailfish switch baiting, and trolling swimming plugs through structure. Taken together, it gives members a rare look at what it takes to fish Western Australia's shelf atolls at a serious level.