Fishing. Yes I am one of those MAD-KEEN fisho, some of my catches are shown here, namely cod, whiting and blackall. I have mainly fished around Hervey Bay (300km north of Brisbane) all my life starting at 7 year old. I am lucky to have an uncle who has lived and fished the waters there for over 45years so he has that "local knowledge" and skill needed. He also has a boat, pictured above, which is something I have not had until very recently. We always fish in May for the winter whiting which school up there, we are lucky usually to catch enough to last use all for the rest of year. We also chase the reef fish that live around the Bay also but these are never plentiful and take much more work. We do usually get a feed though. I am yet to do much fishing around my gold coast home but this will change now I have a boat, mud-crabs abound almost at our door so Tracey has put her order in. Mangrove Jack and Flathead are also on the list of targets. If you are interested in fishing a good site to tell you all about australian fishing that I use often is http://www.ausfish.com.au

While I was in Amsterdam I tried my hand at carp fishing (yes Carp are the target (one and only) for Dutchies). Clog-Heads like my friend William shown opposite take there carp fishing very seriously, deck chairs, electronic line detectors, custom made bait etc etc. Well I confess I didn't catch one of my own, too-slow or something, William did let me bring one in of his. They get up to 35lb and on 4lb line they are a bit of challenge but hardly fight too dirty as they are over feed and fat. They are released (you wouldn't want to eat them after seeing the canal water) and often caught again year to year. I have also ice fished in Finland but do not have a photo, at -15oC it is definitely for the dedicated fishos up there, strong vodka spirits help but. Still on my list to do is fly-fishing for trout, in my visit to the USA later this year I hope to fly fish for Bas which will be fun. Also if I go to NZ again I would like to have a fish there.

My Boat: Well after 22 years of fishing, time has arrived for my own boat, having a father that has a fully equipped engineering works helps because there is nothing we cannot build or modify. Therefore thinking to save money I decided to buy a bare runabout tinnie (see early photos) and get dad to make a trailer and finally buy a motor. Well maybe I saved cash but the number of hours invested so far make it the most expensive tinnie I know, not to mention the amount of trouble I am in with Tracey for spending all my weekends working on it. So my boat is a 4.0M Sea-Jay Runabout named "Harry's Buoy" after my nickname. Dad built the trailer without seeing the boat and did a great job, I have never see a tinnie sit this low to the road and it real easy to lauch and retrieve on all the custom rollers. The motor is a 35hp Johnson 3cylinder with PTT electric start etc so it gets along very smartly. We have customised all the interior as you can see with flooring, seats, live-bait tank, S/Steel fuel tank in the front seat (dad's pet project), slide out bait board (dad again) all electronics (stereo included). Anyway I am very happy with it, shame to get it all dirty and smelly but that's what it is for. To see a photo evolution of my boat from the bare-bones tinny on the right to Harry's Buoy be sure to visit Harry's Buoy.