“There have been plenty of billfish up and down the East Coast this year and I put in some nautical miles at Bermagui, testing the new Evolution 650 trailer boat out of Victoria and also a stint at Pt Stephens.
C-Map Australia had their workboat stationed there over the Pakula Friendly Tournament, an event that raises money for kids with cancer and also the NSW Game Fishing Associations Inter Club which is arguably the biggest tournament in the world of game fishing as far as large boat attendance goes.
Son, Damien arrived for five days and managed to rack up his first marlin capture which was a tag and release 110kg striped model.
Peter Pakula himself skippered the C-Map Australia boat Temujin and this fish goes down in piscatorial history as the first official capture on Peter’s radical new lure, the Dojo Peche. This lure is like nothing seen before in game fishing circles and to see marlin climbing all over it was fascinating. Keep an eye out for this soft plastic number and if you don’t have one in your lure bag, your playing behind the 8-ball!

April saw the first real shake down for a new Huckfish work platform that will be based in South Australia with Damien, the now ‘avid’ marlin angler. The new rig is a 7.4m AMM Tournament cuddy cabin. We will be using this boat for fishing the gulfs in South Oz and also trailering it further south next year when the run of big blue fin tuna, hopefully happens again.
At the time of writing this the tuna were full on, wide of Portland Victoria but with a pre appointment with the annual Whyalla snapper tournament, resources and time was scant.
Long hauls out of Whyalla town ramp south 50km to the wreck of the Illusion were done with comfort and speed. While not cracking any huge nobbies, we settled for snapper up to 6.5kg and harassed plenty of snook on Squidgy flick baits over the wreck. While not a prime table fish they made the best snapper bait of the trip once slabbed out and slices pinned with ganged hooks.

This company "Huckfish" has access to a huge library of video footage of all types of fishing. A recent project has been to splice some of this together to make a boat show production to be run on the new C-Map Australia stand on the show circuit, starting with the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show. You can check this production out here on the website but make sure you get ‘the big picture’ at the C-Map Australia stand at a boat show in your state. And if you need a promotional tool that will turn heads and lead them to your product, drop me an email.

Next jaunt into the fishing wilderness will be to the Daly River to film the Palmerston Game Fishing Clubs Barra Nationals. This is the best run tournament I have ever attended and I have been to a few over the years! Following that I will return to the scene of the crime for the Darwin Gamefishing Club’s 26th Barra Classic. Check in to this site soon for the low down on these two big barra comps.

Immediately after the Classic I will be fishing with Darren of Darren’s Northern Territory Barra Safari’s for big fish during the run-off. Along with the following two, this trip is another of Ocean Blue Fishing Adventure’s destinations. I have nearly finished a DVD production for this charter operation and it will be available shortly from Darren and Sharon. Check their website www.darrensbarra.com.au

Other trips happening this year is an arm stretching week in New Caledonia jigging for monsters in reef country there and later in the year we will take you out of Hinchinbrook Channel in far north Queensland on a big Riviera for a mix of fishing which should encompass anything from barra and jacks from its tenders up coastal creeks to mega billfish from the outer fringes of the Great Barrier Reef. Both of these trips are in conjunction with Ocean Blue Sportfishing Adventures and this is the link to their website. It’s worth a look and definitely worth a fish at one of their many destinations on offer. www.oceanbluefishing.com