Just a few days prior to Christmas, 2018, my daughter Amy and I undertook the iconic Light-To-Light Walk on the far south coast of NSW. This bush and coastal hiking trail extends from Ben Boyd Tower near Red Point, south of Eden, to Green Cape Lighthouse, overlooking Disaster Bay and Wonboyn. The Light-To-Light walk lies within Ben Boyd National Park. It’s listed at being just over 30 km in length and carries a Grade 4 rating (grades run from 1 for the easiest to 5 for the hardest.) Grade 4 is defined thus: “Bushwalking experience recommended. Tracks may be long, rough and very steep. Directional signage may be limited.” Amy and I began our journey by driving a vehicle each to Green Cape Lighthouse, where I left my old HiLux in the car park and loaded my gear into Amy’s car. We then drove the 40-odd kilometres of mixed dirt and sealed roads back to the car park near Boyds Tower, at the southern entrance of Twofold Bay. Both parking areas lie within the National Park and a day visitation fee is payable. This involves self-registering using the envelopes provided at pay stations to deposit the correct amount of cash into a locked metal container, with a tear-off receipt being displayed on your vehicle’s dash. At the time of our visit, the fee was $8 per night, per vehicle. I have no issue with paying this fee, although I wasn’t especially comfortable with the idea of leaving written notification in plain sight that our vehicles would be unattended for several days. To me this seems like an open invitation to thieves! It might actually make more sense to buy a yearly pass, and I’ll be investigating that option in future. ON THE TRACK Hefting...

Most anglers love catching a new species, and that thrill is magnified when it’s a rare or unusual variety, such as the stunningly-marked, hard-fighting tiger trout. While I was in Tasmania last November shooting a couple of episodes of my new “A Fisherman’s Life” television series (exclusive to Fishflicks.tv), I was lucky enough to re-visit one of my favourite private trout fisheries: 28 Gates Luxury Farmstay, not too far out of Gretna, in the beautiful Derwent Valley. I completely understand that people have mixed views about private, pay-to-fish establishments of this sort. However, in my opinion, they have an important part to play in the bigger picture, right alongside completely “wild” fisheries, those supplemented by occasional re-stocking, and public put-and-take waters. Each has its own special charms and challenges. Classy private fisheries such as 28 Gates and my other Tassie favourite — Currawong Lakes, south east of Campbell Town — closely resemble natural fisheries, but with limited access and controlled angling pressure. Their resident fish behave very much like “wild” trout and are rarely a push-over to catch. As a result, these establishments offer an experience that’s far removed from shooting fish in a barrel. Frankly, they can be as tricky as any other venue. The other attraction such private operations can potentially offer is access to fish that might not be widely available in public waters… such as tiger trout! I was very excited to hear that a small number of tigers had been stocked into one of the lovely lakes at 28 Gates, and I secretly hoped that I might cross paths with one of these fascinating critters. Those who’ve seen the second episode of my “A Fisherman’s Life” series on Fishflicks will know that this dream eventually became a reality on...

Here’s a fantastic new option for mainland anglers planning a Tasmanian fishing trip! The acronym “FIFO” stands for fly-in, fly-out and is most often used in relation to remote mining operations employing workers who fly to the site to commence their week or fortnight of shifts, then fly home afterwards for a break with their families. However, with the advent of fully-equipped “turn-key” hire packages of vehicles and boats, the FIFO concept now has genuine relevance in fishing circles as well! In late spring 2015, my wife Jo and I took advantage of exactly such a business that’s now operating on the island state of Tasmania. The brainchild of Ulverstone tackle shop proprietor, Clinton Howe, Tassie Boat Hire kicked off in mid-2015 offering a single boat rig and 4WD vehicle, but has already begun expanding with the addition of new hire packages. Jo and I were picked up from Launceston airport upon our arrival by Clinton in his first full rig: a 420 Quintrex Renegade towed by a 2011 model Mitsubishi Triton dual cab ute. Clinton drove to a nearby service centre to run us through the rig and complete the necessary paperwork, and then we were off under our own steam for a wonderful week in the Central Highlands chasing Tasmania’s famous wild trout on fly. From the outset, Jo and I were totally blown away by Clinton’s professionalism and the incredibly high standard of every component of the hire gear, from vehicle, boat and trailer to the smaller but equally important stuff like safety gear, battery charger, drift drogue (sea anchor), marine radio and on-board electronics. Everything worked exactly as it was meant to! Tassie Boat Hire’s 420 Quintrex Renegade is powered by a 40HP Evinrude 2-stroke motor on the stern, has...

Check out this great clip produced by the guys at “The Offroad Adventure Show”! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBrTANhJZMQ&w=420&h=315]  

In mid-September, 2012, my wife Jo and I were lucky enough to sample the extraordinary fishing on offer around the remote Cobourg Peninsula, north east of Darwin, as guests of a wonderful operation called Venture North Australia. Owned and run by affable brothers Aaron and Hugh Gange, Venture North has historically been an eco-tourism, wildlife and cultural-experience guiding operation offering a little casual fishing on the side (usually aimed at catching dinner). However, earlier in 2012, all that changed with their purchase of a Darwin-built, 7-metre CustomWorks Eliminator plate alloy sportfishing boat powered by a 225 HP Yamaha four-stroke. To say the boys have made a decision to take the fishing side of their business a lot more seriously would be something of an understatement! Interestingly, my good lady Jo was partly instrumental in this significant upgrading of Venture North’s fishing focus. While looking at the Gange brothers’ website in her role as a marketing consultant, Jo noticed quite a few photos of big fish. She asked why they didn’t place more prominence on this aspect of their operation, and her comments obviously got the guys thinking! Less than a year later they’d bitten the bullet, bought the big boat and significantly ramped up the angling side of the business. As something of a thank-you to Jo for her advice, Aaron and Hugh invited her up to Cobourg for a few days, and mentioned that she might as well bring her old man along, as apparently he didn’t mind a spot of fishing, either! Back to Cobourg As our light plane banked in over the broad, sparkling expanse of Cobourg’s Port Essington, I reflected that it had been at least 25 years since my last visit to this fantastic part of the world… Far...

Saturday, 21st July, 2012 saw the staging of the second annual Barra, Bass and Bream Digest Harbourmasters’ Invitational on the waters of Darwin Harbour. In stark contrast to last year’s event, a cool, windy dawn greeted the 41 keen competitors who made up 21 teams taking part in this year’s BBBDHI, and the stiff sou’ easter continued to build throughout the morning, peaking at close to 30 knots before subsiding a little in the early afternoon. The aim of this unique one-day tournament is straightforward enough: go out and catch as many barra and bream as you possibly can on cast-and-retrieved lures or flies (trolling, bait fishing and berleying are not allowed). However, where it gets really interesting — and very different to any other Top End fishing competition — is in the final scoring process. Only the combined lengths of the longest barra and the longest bream taken by each team actually count towards their final points’ tally. And, critically, one species doesn’t rate without the other. In other words, you could theoretically land a metre-long barramundi (a monster by Darwin Harbour standards), yet still score zero points, simply because you’d failed to catch and record a bream! Unique concept My wife (and fellow writer/presenter) Jo and I devised this unusual event in an effort to effectively force Top End anglers into thinking a little more seriously about the vast schools of bream that frequent our waters, especially during the cooler months of the Dry Season. In the past, most Top End fishos have been quite dismissive about bream and bream fishing. Yet, with my southern background and years of competing on the bream tournament circuit, I know just how challenging these little buggers can be to catch! I wanted a way of sharing that challenge...

In mid-June, 2012, I was lucky enough to capture (on fly!) what may well be one of the largest queenfish ever taken in Australian waters. Here’s the story of how it happened… For keen anglers like myself, the Dry Season is certainly a fantastic time to be living up here in Australia’s Top End, especially when one intense low pressure system after another sweeps across the southern half of the continent, and the incessant trade winds ease a little north of the Tropic of Capricorn. It’s an old rule of thumb that crook weather down south means happy days up top! A spell of exactly such magical Top End weather around the middle of June this year saw my wife Jo and I venturing offshore in our 4.5 metre trailer boat to chase the abundant Spanish and broad-bar mackerel, longtail tuna and other pelagics that were pounding bait schools not far from Lee Point, in Darwin’s northern beach suburbs. The fishing grapevine had been buzzing for a few days with news of everything from queenies to giant herring smashing bait in this area, and Jo and I had been chafing at the bit to get amongst them, but found ourselves repeatedly frustrated by work and family commitments. When we were finally able to get away, it was obvious we’d only just caught the tail end of the hot bite, but we still had plenty of fun on the macks and tuna, coming home with a lovely meal or two of fresh fish for our troubles. Fly rod shot Two days later, I headed out again, this time on my own, and with the 9-weight fly rod rigged in the hope of tangling with a few line-peeling pelagics. However, as soon as I rounded East...

I began rock fishing when I was just 12 or 13, casting my line from the wave-washed ledges around Tathra, on the far south coast of NSW, along Australia’s eastern seaboard. From the very first fish landed, I was hooked… I guess you could say it was love at first bite! I moved to the Nowra/Bomaderry area of southern NSW with my family early in 1973, not long before my 15thbirthday. My first visit to the famous rock ledges of Jervis Bay (places I’d already heard so much about) involved a walk into the Outer Tubes with my father one weekend that summer. It was a busy day on the rocks with a good number of anglers in attendance. From memory, we saw a nice mackerel tuna (kawa kawa) landed and a couple of good fish lost, and I marvelled at the quality and calibre of tackle in use, quickly realising that my own very basic gear fell well short of the mark necessary to take on serious land based game (LBG) fishing… But I also knew that was I wanted to do!   By autumn 1974 I was regularly visiting the rock ledges on the south side of the Bay, between Bowen Island and Steamers Beach. My favourite was a location we called “The Pimple”. Reaching it to fish at first light required a pre-dawn walk of nearly an hour and a strenuous rope-assisted climb down some crumbling ledges. We enjoyed fantastic sport there (and at nearby St Georges Head or “Corangamite”, as we knew it), mostly lure casting for salmon, tailor, kingfish, smaller tuna, bonito, trevally and juvenile Samson fish. I caught my first “big” fish here in autumn 1974… an 18 pound (8 kilo) mack’ tuna spun up on an old...

Early November 2011 saw the staging of the Com Fishing Festival off Timor-Leste (East Timor). (Watch this great YouTube clip now!) This is the second time in three years that the government of this fledgling nation, situated just 70 minutes flying time north-west of Darwin, has attempted to host such an ambitious undertaking. Their first effort in 2009 was beset by logistical problems, and some visiting competitors came away unimpressed. However, several Australian anglers who competed this time report a dramatic improvement in both the organisational side of things and the calibre of fishing. The latter was primarily due to the festival being relocated to deep, blue waters off the coastal village of Com, near the far eastern end of the island. Here the currents of two seas split around Jaco Island and the Timorese mainland, producing excellent conditions for both reef and game species, particularly dogtooth tuna, wahoo, mackerel, rainbow runner and giant trevally. Well-known Darwin-based fishing and writing couple, Steve and Jo Starling, were amongst the 40-odd international anglers registered in the four-day tournament, and both gave glowing accounts of their experiences. “Timor-Leste is the most surprising place I’ve visited in 40 years as a travelling angler and writer,” Steve enthused. “While still burdened by poverty and the legacy of armed conflict, it’s a stunningly beautiful country. The people are also amongst the friendliest I’ve met. I was blown away by the experience, and pleased at how well Jo and I fished together as Team Shimano.” The structure of the tournament is unique, consisting of two separate divisions. One caters primarily for international anglers and is fished in accordance with IGFA regulations. The second is intended for local Timorese subsistence fishers who ply their trade from outrigger canoes and other simple craft,...

U.S. president Barack Obama, recently visited Darwin in Australia‘s Top End and media headlines were made when the Northern Territory’s Chief Minister gave the President “crocodile insurance” for the duration of his stay! It may have been something of a publicity stunt, but the fact remains that crocodiles do present a clear and present danger for those of us who spend time on the water fishing and boating in this part of the world… Saltwater crocodiles are a fact of life when fishing in most parts of Australia’s tropical north. Despite their misleading name, these often large and potentially very dangerous reptiles are certainly not confined to our tidal saltwater environments. In fact, they frequently find their way into completely fresh water, and will move inland, even along intermittent water courses, for considerable distances: all the way to the base of waterfalls and escarpments. There’s an old saying in Australia’s Northern Territory that crocs can be found anywhere that barramundi also occur, and it is one well worth remembering! Since their protection by law in 1971 (in the Northern Territory — different dates applied elsewhere), saltwater crocodile numbers have definitely increased across the Top End. Even more importantly, apart from a few really big old-timers, all of the crocs living in North Queensland, the Territory and northern West Australia today have grown up with little to fear from man. This makes them especially bold and therefore dangerous, and a handful of attacks on humans occur every year, some of them fatal. Every now and again (but especially on the heels of another fatal attack on a human) a call goes out to “cull” growing crocodile numbers by introducing a hunting season or allowing well-heeled big game shooters to take selected trophy crocs in return...