Let me share an amusing little story that helps explain just how well the unique camouflage patterning on the Starlo’s Finesse Fishing Wear I designed for Mad Keen Australia actually works: During February 2017, Jo and I competed in the final round of the annual Australian Freshwater Masters tournament series. This round was staged at Lake Mulwala, on the Murray River, with the iconic Murray cod as its target species. The comp’ coincided with an incredible heat wave that saw the mercury climbing well into the mid-40 degree Celsius range on three consecutive days. It was so damn hot that I took to slipping over the gunnel of the boat into the lake and having a soak a few times each day to cool down. I’d leave my clothes on for these dips (including my SFF shirt), as the damp material helped lower my core temperature after I climbed back on board. Besides, it only took 15 minutes or so to completely dry out in that heat! During one of these short dips, I was hanging off the transom of the boat when Jo (who fished on through it all like the trooper she is) let out a shout and announced that she’d hooked another fish. It was a smallish Murray cod and she soon had it alongside the boat. Rather than climbing back aboard, I had Jo pass me the measuring mat so I could measure, unhook and release the fish in the water. Jo snapped a couple of photos of me doing this. Unfortunately, the cod was shy of the legal length, so therefore not a point scorer. With the fish measured and safely unhooked, I cradled it gently in my wet hands and then let it swim free. What happened next...

The Australian Freshwater Masters is a unique tournament series that pitches teams of anglers against each other across a time frame of several months at three very different venues, targeting a trio of iconic native species. Jo and I competed in The Freshwater Masters for the first time in 2015/16, and were fortunate enough to ultimately win the event… Here’s the inside story of exactly how we did it: The Australian Freshwater Masters is an innovative tournament series first conceived by well-known Aussie lure maker, Wayne Lennon, some two decades ago. Wayne successfully ran the annual event for many years before handing the reins to Dave Silva. Later, Dave Shelton picked up the baton and, in more recent times, has been ably assisted by Matt Cunneen, creator of Gangster Lures in Wagga. As of last year, Matt is now running the event largely by himself. The Masters is a brilliant concept, with three rounds taking place on three very different waterways, targeting a trio of our most popular and iconic freshwater natives: golden perch, Australian bass and Murray cod. Teams consist of two anglers, and their cumulative scores carry forward from one round to the next, eventually deciding the overall champions. It’s definitely a concept that rewards versatility, determination and consistency of performance. The Masters is a lure-and-fly only event, with both casting and trolling allowed and, naturally, it’s all about catch-and-release. Live fish are photographed on standard issue Fisheries measuring mats and, where possible, witnessed by another team, although the welfare of the fish always comes first, so if there are no witnesses nearby, a date-stamped digital photo is acceptable. While ostensibly an invitational series, expressions of interest from new teams are invited every year and are generally accepted, at least until the...

The third and final round of the hard-fought Australian Freshwater Masters tournament series was staged in mid-February this year on the waters of Lake Mulwala, a picturesque impoundment straddling the NSW/Victorian border, an hour or so west of Albury. This unique, three-stage challenge targets a trio of iconic Australian native species at three very different venues. The first round of the latest Freshwater Masters took place last November on Lake Windamere, near the NSW regional town of Mudgee, and was devoted to the pursuit of golden perch or yellowbelly. A few days later, round two was staged on Glenbawn Dam, in the Hunter Valley, with Australian bass as the nominated target species. Finally, almost three months later, competitors gathered at Lake Mulwala to hunt the elusive Murray cod. A catch-and-release series devoted entirely to lure and fly fishing, The Australian Freshwater Masters challenges its field of two-person teams to measure, photograph and release up to 10 legal specimens of each target species at each arena over the course of two days’ of intensive fishing. Cumulative point scores (one point per millimeter) carry forward from round to round, ultimately deciding the outcome of the event. This year, the eventual winners were Team Starlo’s Squidgies, consisting of high profile fishing communicator, Steve ‘Starlo’ Starling, and his wife Jo. Consistent performances in rounds two and three allowed Starlo and Jo to hold onto the significant lead they’d amassed on Windamere’s goldens in round one (where Jo was also the individual champion angler), finally giving them an 800 point break over the second-placed Jigheads Team of Mitchell Skeers and Brad Gardiner. A further 1,300 points behind in third place was Team Windybanks, made up of Simon McAlpine and David Dobson. Overall Champion Angler for the Masters was Mitchell...

By now, quite a few anglers have become aware of a new player on the fishing line market called GLISS, or GLISS KG, manufactured by German company WFT (World Fishing Tackle). Some are touting this stuff as the potential replacement for existing braided and fused gel-spun polyethylene fishing lines, others as a cross-over between braided lines and monofilament… while still others are panning it as an abject fail… So, what’s the real story? I first became aware of GLISS after reading this article on the Angling International website during 2014. Since then, Angling International have run several more pieces/press releases about the line, including this one (followed shortly thereafter by this clarification), then this piece earlier in 2015, and most recently, this report about GLISS KG winning the award for best new braided line at the 2015 EFTTEX Show in Europe. (Click on the highlighted links in the previous sentence to read each of the write-ups, or find out more about EFTTEX.) According to these reports and other research I’ve done, GLISS is made from extruded and fused HMPE ( high modulus polyethylene) fibres. HMPE is widely used in high quality marine ropes, tow lines, etc. In a fishing context, it’s claimed to have very low stretch (like braid), to be ultra smooth (like mono), and to have ridiculously thin diametres for its strength… Reading those descriptions, I just had to get hold of some and try it, as it sounded perfect for a lot of the styles of “finesse” fishing I do… Tracking down some WFT GLISS wasn’t easy. Eventually, I ordered a spool of 6kg in the translucent finish on-line from a British mail order business (6 kg was the lightest they had in stock). After waiting several weeks for the line...

It’s not every day that you get to launch a comprehensive range of hard-bodied lures and semi-soft topwaters onto the Australian market, knowing that each lure will retail for $10 or less, yet still be an excellent fish catcher, with a classy finish and better-than-average hardware. However, that’s what I’m happy to say I’ve been able to do with my new STARLO PRO Lures range, designed and selected by me exclusively for the BCF chain of stores here in Australia. Now, I realise from past comments here and elsewhere that not every Aussie angler is necessarily a huge fan of BCF. There’s no doubt that the big chains (including BCF) have led to the demise of some small independent tackle stores, just as the competition from Coles and Woolworths has resulted in a reduction in numbers of local grocery outlets, butcher shops and so on. Nonetheless, for better or worse, I suspect there’s a certain inevitability to this sort of evolution in the world of retail. It’s also true that the better independents (in all fields, including fishing tackle) will not only survive but thrive in the face of such competition. They achieve this by providing the sort of expert advice, individualised customer service and “value adding” that most chains simply can’t or won’t offer. Meanwhile, BCF and their ilk do provide an excellent service to a great many customers, employ a heap of Aussie workers in the process, and don’t, in my experience, indulge in the sort of “crazy, crazy, crazy!” unsustainable discounting that could damage the industry. So, I’m more than happy to be involved with sourcing and designing exclusive lines of tackle for them, just as I have on occasion for other companies.         Anyway, if you’d like...

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]  

Most modern fishing reels, regardless of their style or type, are equipped with a drag or “slipping clutch” mechanism of some sort that allows line to be pulled from the reel’s spool under a pre-set tension. On a threadline or spinning reel, drag pressure is usually adjusted via a knob located on the front of the spool or (more rarely) under the rear of the reel’s body. Overheads and baitcasters either have a star wheel under the handle or a lever on the side of the reel for adjusting the drag, while sidecasts and centrepins typically feature a nut or star in the centre of the spool. This drag is intended to prevent the line from breaking should excessive force be placed upon it. Instead of snapping, line slips from the spool against the pre-set drag tension. When a large or powerful fish is hooked, it usually needs to be “played” using a combination of drag resistance and rod work. The term “playing a fish” means taking your time and bringing the fish in more slowly and smoothly while using the flex of the rod as a shock absorber. If necessary, you will also need to allow the hooked fish to “run”: in other words, to pull line from the spool against the reel’s pre-set drag or slipping clutch. This may happen many times during a fight with a strong adversary, especially on lighter line. A big, strong fish can easily pull the rod tip down and rip line off the spool against the resistance of the reel’s drag. However, if the drag has been set too tightly, the line can possibly snap, or the hook might bend or straighten and rip out of the fish’s mouth. On the other hand, if the drag...

For those who missed it first time around in print, here’s a piece on open water bream luring that first ran in FishLife magazine earlier this year: The art of luring bream has been one of the major engines of change in Australian sport fishing over the past few decades. In less than a single generation, catching bream on lures has gone from being an accident or a novelty for most anglers to a regular pursuit for many. Even those who don’t “get it” and wonder what all the fuss is about must grudgingly admit that the pursuit of bream on artificial baits has completely transformed our sport. Before many of you reading these words were born, that doyen of Australian fishing writing, Vic McCristal, offered the opinion that anglers skilled enough to regularly take bream on lures would tend to find most other species easy. It was McSea’s quietly understated way of doffing his cap to the bream clan as perhaps our most challenging piscatorial targets. What Vic could hardly have guessed in those days was the passion with which this country’s sport fishing community would eventually embrace that particular challenge, and how doing so would completely revolutionise our tackle, our techniques and even our angling mindset. Make no mistake: bream luring has radically altered the shape of Australian fishing, and this significant evolutionary upheaval is far from having run its course. Discoveries remain to be made. For many, open water breaming is just one of them. Middle Of Nowhere For most of us, thoughts of catching bream on lures immediately conjure mental images of structure fishing: accurately casting our soft plastics and little hard bodies at shorelines, rocks, snags, pylons, oyster lease racks or moored boats. But what if I told you...

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...

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,...