On 15 January, 2019, I received some very exciting news from NSW DPI Fisheries. It seems that a large dusky flathead I tagged and fin-clipped for DNA analysis on 16th October, 2018 had recently been recaptured and re-released. The fish measured 84.5 cm when I caught it in mid-October, in the lower reaches of Tuross Lake. On 4th January, 2019, when recaptured by Ian “Hoots” Cowie, it had grown to 86.5 cm (that’s 2 cm of growth in just 80 days!) and had moved at least two nautical miles (close to 4km) up the Tuross River. It was also in excellent condition at the time of recapture and had clearly put on weight. The fish swum away very strongly when released the second time. (As an interesting side note, Ian reports that there was quite a bit of weed growth on the tag that had to be scraped off to reveal the serial number.) Interestingly, this fish was hooked quite deeply when I caught it on a big, un-weighted soft plastic, requiring the use of long-nosed pliers to remove the hooks, and it did bleed slightly. It was then held in the circulating live-well aboard my boat for approximately 20 minutes and transported several hundred metres to the boat ramp so that I could meet my wife Jo and John Suthern from the Tuross Heads Fishing Club, who had the fin-clip sampling kit. None of those original handling parameters were optimal or ideal, yet the fish not only survived, but clearly thrived. For me, this is EXCELLENT news and bodes very well for the survival of large flathead that can be quickly unhooked and released with minimal handling at or near the capture sight, as recommended. (For details on how to best handle flathead...

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...