Here’s my first video review (below) of some of the features I like best about the MotorGuide Xi5 (with PinPoint GPS): a sophisticated, bow-mounted electric motor , or “trolling motor”, as our American friends call them. I also have a thorough write-up and evaluation of this unit coming up in the July, 2015 editions of the three Fishing Monthly Magazines (QLD, NSW and VIC/TAS) and will blog that review here on StarloFishing after it has appeared in those publications. Don’t forget you can follow me on Facebook via my StarloFishing page, and subscribe to my YouTube channel: Starlo Gets Reel. Tight Lines!...

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]  

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...

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...