Two Good News.

Hi there,

I wanted to share with you two good news.

First we, in Darwin, avoided the wrath of tropical cyclone Grant.
Grant was the first cyclone to hit the Northern Territory of Australia for this season.
It did beat around at sea for a few days and was supposed  to hit land on Christmas day, as a grim reminder of cyclone Tracy. Even if Grant was going to be much smaller than Tracy, Darwin's people still don't like the idea of a cyclone on Christmas day.
(The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, in Darwin, has a very good and informative display about cyclone Tracy).
But when it did hit the shore, it hit east of Darwin, and Darwin was spared.
Communities on the East of us did suffer, and hopefully will be back on their feet shortly.
So this is the first good news, from a Darwin resident point of view.

The second one, is even more extraordinaire...
It happened on the morning after Christmas, and I was not going to make a post about it, but Ms Frugal Down Under said that I should, so here it is ...

While going to fetch some milk from the corner shop, the morning after Christmas, I saw next to the footpath, what our little Dolly calls "Fairies picnic table"...
So I made a few quick photos with my mobil phone of the place where the fairies had a picnic on Christmas night, to show her once I would be back home.
And look! While we were peering through the photos Dolly and I, we noticed that on one of them I may have actually photographed the twirling made by a flying fairy!

The proof in image...

How exciting is that!
Little Dolly is really excited that daddy finally managed to photograph a fairy.
And she want the world to know...

So this is not yet a photo of an actual fairy, just the twirling made by one that was flying very very fast...
And this post as nothing to do with the piscatorial world...

But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.

Have A Very Happy Festive Season.

Hi There,

Wishing you all a very happy festive season!
Enjoy the break if you have one.
Enjoy your hobbies what ever it is if you can do it at this time of the year.

And here is a little image to stay in the spirit of things:

Ho Ho Ho !!!

Yes, every good angler should have a lure for each occasion...

This is another lure that may never see the water, I know...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

My Blog In The Art Magazine.

Hi there,

Yes The Rambling Expat as been cited in an art magazine.
And not any art magazine, but the very good Art Monthly Australia, which as its name's point out, is an Australian magazine.
Could we deduce from this, that fishing is starting to be recognised as an integral part of the Australian culture?

Now why did they feel the need to write about the blog in the magazine?
Was it for my writing talent?
No.
Was it for my photographic talent?
No.
I think that it was because of a post I did last month about a fishing exhibition being prepared by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, often referred to as MAGNT.

So do you want a proof?
Here is a little photograph of the short piece in which the blog was cited:

Cool, no?

This was a simple, funny and very kind way for the editor to announce the upcoming exhibition. 

This is published in the "Sultry Summer Issue", for December 2011 to February 2012.

Here is a copy of one of the magazine cover for this issue:

One of two...

Yes I did write one of the magazine cover for this issue, and then captioned the image with "One of two"... Why? Simply because for this very issue, the editor choose to have two different cover for the magazine. Depending of your luck you could have this one or the other one when you buy the magazine.

What does the other cover look like?

Just go to the newsagent to find out, or check them out online, they have an electronic version of the magazine available.

And no, I do not get any royalties on the sales or subscriptions to the magazine.

Even if I have to say that yes, this is among the few magazines that I enjoy reading, so this is great.

It is true that after being cited in this magazine, I better have to lift my game in regards to fishing photography. And this worry me a bit, as when I am happily fishing, I do find it hard to focus on the image making thing too... 

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

6 New Lures For The Collection.

Hi there,

Yes I got the very nice surprise to receive six new lures for my small collection, as a present from Angry.
Like me, Angry is a member of both the FFF forum and the Lures And More forum.
But he lives down south and me up north, so we target different kinds of fishes with different kinds of lures.
The lures that he sent me, are all Australian lures, but are impossible to find in Darwin.

Look at the little treasures I saw when I opened the surprise parcel:

Even better than a box of chocolate.

From this nice little lot, only one was from a brand that I already had, the one on the left, it is a Stuckeys. But if you look at this post on this very blog, you will be able to see that it is different, not only in size or colour, but also in the shape of the bib.

A very nice trout colour.

This lure is very beautiful, with a perfect and deep finish. There is something special in holding in your hand a wooden lure, that has been hand made. To me they are like little art works.

The lure next to it, is a Deception, and I am very happy about it, as I had looked at them on the internet for a while but was yet to own one.

My first Deception.

And when you think about it, what a better name for a fishing lure, than Deception...

And this one seems to be before Tacspo took over the company, so it would be an original Deception. How cool is that.

All the other lure I had never see before, some rudimentary research made me think that they are Custom Crafted Lures, a maker from NSW, same geographic origin than the two previous lures in this post.

The first one is called the Baby Scud, and has an unusual bib:

The Baby Scud.

Next to it was the Baby Extractor, in green too:

The Baby Extractor.

Then comes the only plastic lure of the lot. It might not be made of timber like all the other, but still have a very nice finish and shape.

The Fish stick.

Yes in green too, this must be a very good colour down south, as it is up north. To give you an idea of how popular green lures are, I have already been fishing with some friends, whose lure tray only contains green lure.

And the last one, I have been told from very good authority that this is a lure from a maker called Australian Crafted:

The Minnow 80.

A very nice colour too, I have myself been lucky on this type of colour, here in tropical north Australia. But are these ones ever going to swim? Not a chance! They are already at the office and wont get out of there before a very long time. 

So does it look like the Christmas spirit is in the air?

Yes to me it does, thanks Angry.

Honestly, I am not absolutely sure about the names or makers of most of these lures, and I could even be totally wrong.

This would not be the first time too...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

A Morning Between The Vernon Islands.

Hi there,

We were very lucky my work colleagues, Gavin, Michael, and I, to be invited to go fishing for a Sunday morning between the Vernon Island, aboard the Barraddiction.
This fine boat belong to a very good fisherman and great photographer called Peter.
This was the third time that I had been invited to fish with Peter, and what a treat this was going to be.

We left just after 5:00am from the Nightcliff boat ramp, and after zooming in the dark for about 45 kilometre, we arrived at destination for day break.

Sunrise between the Vernon Islands.

This was Michael first fishing trip since he arrived in the N.T to work and live.

And on the first drop he hooked a Mackerel!

I think that by then, my own jig had not touched the bottom yet.

This seemed to be a nice fish, and it was taking some nice runs, making Michael work hard for his first fish from the Territory waters.

But then the Mackerel started to jump out of the water, and Peter quickly said: "Free spool it!" And them in a much calmer voice he explained to our new comer that if a hooked Mackerel jumps, it is because they have a shark breathing on their neck...

So Michael did as told to, and the mack started to go on the other side of the boat.

After a while the bail arm was back on the line and the mack was being pulled back toward the boat,  with all of us trying to see the fish or what was going on in the water...

Then some big splashes erupted not very far from us and that was it for this poor Mac, it had been done by the sharks...

Michael reeled in a line cut, he had lost his first mack and his lure...

Welcome to fishing in the Territory!

Was what someone said, and I can promise you that it wasn't me.

Peter drove the boat back to make a second drift over the mark, and told us to drop our jigs.

And this time it was his turn to be on, and he got a nice Queenfish.

Peter's first fish of the day.

This was a nice and healthy fish still full of kick, so it was released.

Then Michael got another Queenfish, which was full of scare all over it's body.

That was a big fish, and it must have been very close to end up Shark's dinner, on one of it's lucky day.

So he deserved to be released too.

Then my jig got hooked, but on the reef, not into a fish...

Peter drove the boat back and the lure un-hooked itself from whatever was holding it. So as we were going back to the mark, I was reeling the lure and could feel its weight in the water, when suddenly, nothing... I secretly hopped that a big fish had taken it and was swimming in the same direction that us, but faster. 

Alas no, I had just been cut at the knot by what must have been a mack.

Yes this also is part of fishing at the Vernon.

Then as we were over a mark again every body dropped their jig and started to furiously reeled them in, when Peter said: " Ho I can see some big fish on the sounder".

Of course, I then stopped to fish to come and have a look at what fishes on the sounder look like. This was captivating but I soon realised that while I watched a screen, my companion were fishing and getting hits or hooked on some fish.

It was quickly time for me to get back into it.

And then it finally happened to me.

Something that I had heard of, but never experienced yet, my lure was taken on the dropp, not on the retrieve. The line which was dropping behind the lure in the water, suddenly accelerated and seemed to go more away than down, in an opposite way than the drifting boat. So I gave one turn of the handle, and the reel immediately started to scream.

Someone asked me if I was on the reef again or if that was a fish. It didn't take long to figure out that this was a fish.

Truly enjoying the moment.

(This photo is copyrighted by Gavin D.)

This fish took a first long and fast run, before I was able to gain a bit of line.

But it was a heavy fish, much heavier than what I had got in a long time.

Maybe even the heavier ever...

I had some real trouble to get any line back, and really had to pump the rod to get a bit of line back, before it would go for another run.

This lasted long enough for all the other to stop fishing and look with anticipation at what fish was in the end of the line.

It was heavy enough for someone to suggest that I may have a shark on the line.

But no, I knew it, this was the massive Spanish Mackerel that I have been dreaming for,  since a long time.

It was so heavy, I could not see the colour of it, impossible to get it to the surface.

Then it suddenly came to the surface, and was a bit smaller than I had anticipated for the fight he was giving me. But he wasn't alone, a shark was just behind it, and bitted the mac tail of in one single very clean cut, like if it had gone on a chopping board...

I was then able to get it to the boat before that shark came back for a second serve and Peter gaffed it.

Look: No tail!

Sure, some of you might wonder how come I was not able to reel in a mac of that size...

Well in fact for the truth to be told, it was hooked on the belly and had been able to alway swim away from me.

I had been unable to turn it toward me and this had given him an advantage, as long as the sharks didn't moved in.

Now the positive in that?

Well, for a moment I really did believe that I had just caught a monster fish, and that was great.

Also, it was bled even before being in the boat, this is what I would call efficient fishing.

Of course not long after that, Gavin was to hook on a nice mackerel too and to boat it in full, with a lure firmly placed between the fish jaws.

Someone then said to my address: "Hey you, look this is how it should be done, with the lure in the fish's mouth!"

To this I simply replied that this was so common that I still preferred to hook them in he belly.

What else could I say?

Then on another drop both Peter and Gavin were hooked at the same time, Gavin on a mack and peter to a GT. As Michael had never caught a GT before, Peter handed him his rod.

Double hook up.

Michael with his first GT.

Gavin with his Mackerel.

We then changed from the chromies for fast jigging to some slow type of jig to bounce near the bottom of the water column. Which of course resulted on another nice Queenfish for Peter.

This was interesting to me, as I had alway fished for Queenfish going as fast as I could with chrome slice near the surface, or with poppers. I had then naturally assumed that the queenfish were top water fish. This was an interesting eye opener. 

Queenfish jumps.

And a bit later on, Gavin hooked on something close to the sea floor, which put a serious bent in his fishing rod.

Is that bent or what?

This was a nice Trevally that we all but Gavin, estimated to be around one or two kilo...

Heavier than 2 kilo...

In fact in must have been closer to nine than to two kilo, this was a pretty nice fish.

Then it was time to go back, and I didn't understand why, as it seemed that we had just arrived.

But a quick check of my watch told me a different story, we had already been there all morning. It had just flew by as fast as when you have a great time fishing.

I had been a bit sick in the week prior to this trip, and had to take a bit of time off from work. In fact I nearly canceled my participation in this escapade on the day before the D day, as I was feeling a tad unfit. But I didn't want to let the opportunity to go fishing at the Vernon, and I do not regret going there. This was once again a great time on the water, with some good camaraderie and some great fishes.

We were back at the boat ramp at around 12:30pm and I was home early enough to have an afternoon nap. 

No, not a nana nap, a power nap...

Thanks again Peter for inviting us on your boat, that was a great morning.

So do I have not caught the Moby Dick of the Spanish Mackerel world yet?

No, not yet...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Thanks Ashley for my new hat!

Hi there,

Yes I have to thanks Ashley from the great blog: She Loves To Fish for my new fishing cap.
Not long ago, she had a little caption competition on her blog, and the three top captions would win a fishing hat.
Of course I entered, thinking that me being in Australia, and her blog in Canada, my chances were rather slim...
But hey I won a cap!
Thanks Ashley!
And the good people from Hobbie Fishing, sent it to me directly here in tropical Australia.

Do you want to see how it fits me?
Here it is:

Hey hey hey!!!

Rather nice no?

In fact I am very happy with it.

And the Hobbie people didn't stop at just sending me a fishing cap, no, they also sent me some little goodies. 

Two stickers and two tube of lips balm.

Thanks guys!

And here is the proof in image:

The full package.

And no, I will not tell you what my caption was, if you really want to know, just go and check out Ashley's blog.

But now you may ask how on earth, a guy fishing for Barramundi and pelagic in the salt waters in the north of Australia came across a blog about Steelhead, pike and mostly fresh water fishing based in Canada? Yes this is about as far as two side of fishing can be.

(But remind me a lot about the fishing I was doing as a kid in Europe, which is why I now follow her blog).

Well it is pretty simple, I found it on the blog roll of another very good fishing blog.

The blog called Xstreem Fishing...

This is a blog about fishing in Fiji, and is a lot closer of the type of fishing that I practice, or at least dream of doing.

I have not been able to fish with this hat yet, as I have had to stay home with a bad cold for a few days now... So I can't show you any photos of the new cap in action...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

My First Ever Blinky Lure.

Hi there,

Today I am going to introduce you to my first ever Blinky Lure.
This timber fishing lure is over 30 year old, hand made, of Western Redcedar.
To say that I am happy to have come across this lure, would be an extremely modest statement.
I had been looking for a Blinky for a long time now, alway keeping and eye out for them, at the op shop or at the garage sales.
Blinky, the maker of this lure has now stopped to make them as a business, and only do a couple of them once in a while, for himself.
This one was made a long time ago, as never seen the water, and will never see it!

So how did this lure came to be mine?
Well it did not fall from the sky directly in my open hands, but nearly...
I had started a thread on the FFF forum about some other lures of mine, when Blinky himself made a reply in which he put two photographs of this very lure and asked if I wanted it?
Golly! If I wanted it? Of course yes!
So I take a bit of time to send him a reply, so I would not look like an impatient spoilt brat, and asked him if he wanted money or another lure for it?
And believe it or not, he said that he didn't want anything for it, that this was just a present...
I had some trouble to understand where this was coming from, but was so happy that I felt like jumping on the spot.
Thanks you Blinky.


Here comes seven images of it:

The Blinky.

And from above.

This is an interesting colour, which has since then be seen on the Spearhead from Nils Master.

The belly, nice and slim.

Eye and tow point.

Wire going through. 

Yes, it is hand signed.

Painted from head to tail.

As you can see this is a robust lure, with a tow point made from a double wire going back in the lure's belly. And a great attention to finish, painted from one extremity to the other.

I particularly like this detail, as I often feel cheated with modern lure. When the tail is not painted and I can clearly see the colour of the plastic it is made of,  as the extremity of the lure is left blank. This is a little thing that I enjoy on wooden lures.

The bib is made of Lexan.

Yes, I am happy...

Thanks again Blinky, this is only the second time that I have a lure given to me directly by its maker, the first time it was a Classic Barra given to me by Rob Gaden.

I have never met Rob Gaden, but it was great to meet Blinky, even if that was a very short encounter during a lunch break, and to have the lure handed to me by the man himself.

Here is a very recent little anecdote about these lures...

I showed the lure to a  work colleague who is a keen fisherman, and he said: "Ho! I had two of these ones, but with some red on them. They were deadly on Barra, but I lost the two of them to some big fish. And I haven't been able to find any of them again"

Well I can tell you that is not getting this one...

This is a lure that I will take great care of, it will definitively stay at the office. As I believe that this is an authentic piece of Fishing Australiana.

So yes, this is another little lure that will never learn how to swim...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

No Billfish but a small Tuna.

Hi there,

So during the week I had a message from my good mate Double Haul from the FFF forum, asking if I wanted to go and try to get something very big over the weekend.
The plan was to hit Fenton patch and North Gutter to hopefully raise some Black Marlin and some Sailfish.
Him and Brooksy set up for the Marlins and I for the Sailfishes...
Guess what I would answer to that?
I am sure that you know by now that I replied: YES!

You see I am yet to boat any billfish. Three times already I had one on the line but every time I lost them before we could tag them.
Billfish is on my fishing bucket list, since a very long time, and even more since I first tried for them onboard Double Haul's boat; about a year ago.

So early we left and we took Brooksy's boat, which is nearly the same as Double Haul's one, but with a centre console instead of a side one.
Also, it is a bright red boat, made me feel a bit like if I was getting in the fire truck...
Another kid's dream.

On my way to work on the Friday morning, I had stopped near the boat ramp from the Ski Club, and the ocean looked beautiful, flat and invinting.
I spend half of the night of Friday not sleeping and hoping for the same condition, and on Saturday morning the weather was just perfect.

We launched from the Night Cliff boat ramp, with not much water, and no wind.
Very quickly we zoomed to the first mark, with the three of us commenting on how the condition seemed perfect. We even saw a booby which is usually a good sign.
Even if we were surprised by the very small amount of Tuna school that we saw on the way.
I was most impressed by the auto-pilot which enabled Brooksy to just type in where we wanted to go, and then we were able to have a chat while the boat took us to our destination, nice and easy.

And soon enough we started to deploy the lines, teaser and outrigger.
They both had these large overhead reel with a swimming queenfish at the end of their lines, while I had and eggbeater with a skipping garfish on the line.
They explained to me that the plan was that my skipping garfish was to distract these pesky Sailfish from the Marlin baits, that they both had at the end of their lines.
Now when they told me that, I started to be pretty confident that we would see some serious billfish action during this trip.
Well as any seasoned angler would know, over confidence is the mother of all deception...
We didn't raise a single billfish for the day, not even a Mac.
Yet I still had a great day, yes as far as fishing goes, I am an easy date...
And unlike a lot of people, I actually enjoy keeping an eye on the baits during the long trolls.

Double Haul and Brooksy.

The long troll started, under a build up sky, hot weather and big clouds in the distance.

We would at time pass a school of Tuna feeding on the surface and would circle around them a few times to see if by any chance a billfish would be with them.

Every time I looked at them Tuna splashing around, and I would think that it would be very cool to throw a chrome slice in the mist of them all... But every time I would as bravely as I could try to remind me that we were not here for the Tunas, but for these fishes with a stick in front of them, the billfish.

I was impressed by the coral spawn that we saw on the surface, it seemed to be immense and in the middle of nowhere. and some little jelly fish like creature swimming in there.

Then out of nowhere, like a bunch of torpedoes some big things came around us, overtook the the boat, and started swimming just in front of it...

They were Dolphins.

Playing in front of the boat.

They did not stay with us for very long, but this was really enjoyable. It is interesting how something as simple as a pod of Dolphin swimming around the boat can bring a smile to everybody on board.

Not long after that we spotted a sea snake on the surface, he was big but dived back before I could take a photo.

A bit further away we spotted a sea turtle that was so big that for a second we were wondering if that was a billfish. 

And no, no one had drank any alcohol on the boat...

When it started to be hot on our head, we put the canopy on, and used the shower/hose to refresh ourself, and we felt renewed and ready for some action. 

Alas, not much was going to happen on the billies front.

Yet the trolling condition were perfect, we could see the storm brewing faraway but the sea was glass.

Some dreams are made of this.

And this glassy sea was about 40 km (24.854848 miles) from the boat ramp.

But with the storm starting to head our way, and the afternoon winds picking up, we decided to turn back and go home.

As we were zipping back we saw some birds diving and sure enough under them was a school of Tuna in feeding mode. 

Brooksy turned to me and said: "Do you want to have a go at them?"

I tried to stay composed and detached, and to give a very calm, posed and intelligent reply: Ho Yes!, in less than half a second.

Didn't even need to think about it.

I was with my spin stick in hands on the front deck before we were even close enough to cast.

First cast: I was thinking that this was a blind cast as nothing seemed to happen but when the lure was close enough to be seen, I could see a few Tunas swimming behind it.

But none were hooked.

Second cast: A few Tunas swiped at the lure on the surface and that was very exciting to see, till one actually got hooked! But I lost it at the boat...

Third cast: a little Tuna hit the lure and got hooked far from the boat, and a few times I believed that I had lost it, because he would regularly swim straight at the boat, and then blot away from it.

In the end it was close enough for Double Haul to grab the leader, and drag the fish in the boat. Where he was quickly put in the esky, and of we went back on our way to shore.

In fact all of this happened so fast, that I realised only once I was cooking this Tuna that I had totally forgotten to make a photo of it....

So here is what it looked like in our plate in the evening, after going through the magic wok.

Yummy fresh Tuna.

And we were in fact right in doing all this fast, as the wind was picking up and we didn't want the storm to catch up with us.

Once back on Terra firma I was once again surprised that the time had flew by us so fast, it felt like we had just left the ramp heading for the horizon a few minutes earlier. In fact we had just spend most of the day on the water.

And even without billfish, this in my book, was still a great day, and I am very grateful For Double Haul and Brooksy to have invited me.

So yes, there is still some serious blank on my fishing bucket list, and Billfish is one of them...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.  

The Barack Obama fishing lure.

Hi there,

Today and tomorrow the President of the United States of America, is visiting Australia.
Today in Canberra and tomorrow in Darwin.
So what a better reason to introduce you to the Barack Obama fishing lure.
Yes another one which is part of my small collection of fishing lures.

Here it is:

Barack Obama on a fishing lure.

The lure is a Dardevile from Eppinger, an American company that has been making fishing lures for over 100 years.

They have a pretty good reputation in fishing circles, and produce some amusing novelty lures. The Barack Obama Dardevile, is just one of them.

So will I have the chance to meet the President and to ask him to sign my lure tomorrow?

Definitively not.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

A few more lures.

Hi there,

Just a few more lures that I recently received.
First is a lure from unknown maker, maybe Killalure, but not sure yet.
(Yes, if ever you were to know who made it, you are more than welcome to let me know).

From one side.

The other side.

From above.

And the belly.

So, do you know who made it?

All I know, is that it is made of timber and was given to me by Double Haul, who told me that it was an Australian one. And that he has caught  many Barramundi with it, to the 90cm size.

So this must be a good lure for sure.

The second one is a Reidy's, from Australia too:

From the side.

From above.

I am very happy with this one, as I already had one in this colour, but not in the same depth. I love to get all the variation on one colour, specially when the colour like for this one, is not in production anymore.

Thank you Double Haul.

Reidy's is one of my favourite lures, for the good reason that they are a local manufacturer from Darwin.

And then, here comes the 303...

The 303 is a lure that was made by the Australian Soldiers who were stationed in the Top End of Australia, during WWII. They didn't have any fishing lures, but they had some ammunition. So the shell casing of the 303 were used as lure for Barramundi fishing. I have seen some old black and white photographs of soldiers using these home made lures, and they had a great success rate, as fish catcher. 

I had been looking for a while for one of these lures since I had heard of them, but was not able to find one.

Till not long ago...

Well in fact, lets be honest, it is a replica, or should I say, they are replicas, because yes I got two of them!

But very well made with a focus on detail and authenticity.

The man who made them for me is Mr. Rex from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Thank you very much Rex.

And here they comes!

One for the collection.

And one to use.

Yes two of them in one go...

How good is that?

Yes this and the two other lures in this post are some more pieces of Fishing Australiana for the little collection

In fact when Rex gave me the first one, he asked me when I was going to use it.

I of course replied that I was definitively not going to take the risk to lose this lure and that it was going to stay as far and away of any piece of water as possible.

So he quietly left and not long after, brought me a second one to fish with.

Now to say that I felt spoilt, would be a very slight understatement...

I was wrapped with joy!

So did I had the time to test it yet?

No not yet... And I am getting seriously impatient about trying it at one of my favourite land based spot.

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Two Stuckeys Lures

Hi there,

Not long ago I received my first two Stuckeys lures.
These are Australian hand made timber fishing lures.
From what I was told the man who produce them, made only 15 of them per week, so it is fair to say that they are a rare commodity.
They come from the state of N.S.W, (Australia).
I was naturally very surprised and tempted when Angry from the FFF forum contacted me to ask me if I wanted to swap some of my little Rapala lures for some Stukeys.
I told him that I didn't want to swap them all, as they were a present from a good friend of mine, but one or two would be ok, and also reminded him that these Rapala were only 3 cm long.
He very generously replied that he didn't want them any more, because he thought that the Rapala were the 5 cm models. But that he was still going to send me some Stuckeys lures, as I have what he calls the Luresicosis, which is a form of Fishing Lure Collecting illness...

I got afraid that my new found illness was bad, but was glad to see that even some people that I had never met, would be trying to help me with my problem.

So I sent him a 5 cm Rapala that I had since 1985 and very rarely used, so it was in tip top condition. An a little spinner.

After that I waited with impatience...
But not for long at all.

Rossco, another member of the FFF forum was fishing with Angry and brought me back the lures, which were then hand delivered to me.
And Rossco being aware of my liking for fishing lures with advertising on them even gave me a cool little lure as a surprise present.

So what does the stuckeys look like?
Just like that:

With single hooks.

I like the single hooks set-up, I alway found that a better look than the treble ones.

I even sometimes change the treble of some of my chrome slices for a single hook.

With Treble hooks.

And a darker one, so it is nice to have two very different looking lures in the same range from the same maker.

They are about 5 cm long, and I presume from the size of the bib, deep diver.

But I think that I am just going to keep them at the office...

And what kind of advertising lure did Rossco gave me?

Have a look:

The Valvoline rattler.

And this was a great surprise too, as I had heard of this lure but never seen it before.

So this was a very good trade, and I am very happy with these lures.

Even if I know now, that I have Luresicosis...

But hey, it could be worse.

Have a good day,

Me.

Fishing at the Museum

Hi there,

Yes you read it right, fishing is going to enter the realm of the museum institution...
In Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory of Australia, at least.
This past week saw the following media release being circulated to the press, and on some fishing forums.
All I can say is that I am very excited by this project.

So here is the media release:

Send in your fishing picture to be part of Gone Fishin’ exhibition

Territorians are being invited to submit their favourite fishing related photo to be part of an exhibition for fishing enthusiasts at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT).

The best 100 photos will be featured as part of the exhibition to be held at in March next year.

Minister for Arts and Museums Gerry McCarthy and Member for Fannie Bay Michael Gunner said Gone Fishin’…the reel Top End story will showcase the origin of fishing in the Territory and explore the biology, diversity, and impact fishing has had on the lives of Territorians.

“Territorians have a strong history with fishing from the cultural history through to our present day love of recreational fishing which is pivotal to our great Territory lifestyle,” Minister McCarthy said.

“We want to get more Territorians through the door to the Territory’s museums and this is an excellent exhibition that I’m sure Territorians will flock to.”

The Member for Fannie Bay Michael Gunner said the exhibition will include objects that inform the   historic, cultural and scientific fabric of fishing in the Top End.

“A range of public programs for visitors are being planned and will include specialist floor talks and school holiday activities,” Mr Gunner said.

“Territorians can send their photo in for the chance to be part of the exhibition and the chance to win one of 100 copies of the North Australian Fishing & Outdoor Magazine.

“The exhibition will feature representations of fish and fishing from the earliest rock paintings through to the contemporary visual arts.

“The exhibition will chart the course of the development of fishing technology as well as the types of crafts used by different cultures,” Mr Gunner said.

“This exhibition is part of our Territory 2030 target to continue to see Territorians attending our cultural institutions at a very high rate,” Minister McCarthy said.

The exhibition will be open at MAGNT from 17 March – 16 September 2012.

Call for entries for photos are now open and will close on the 31st January 2012. Images can include fishing lures/equipment, favourite catch, favourite fishing spot and fishing trip.

Entries can be submitted to MAGNT via email: museum.magnt@nt.gov.au postal: GPO Box 4646, Darwin NT 0801 at the front counter of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.

For more information go to www.nt.gov.au/magnt

How exciting is that?
The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory is going to present an exhibition about fishing!
I can't wait to see this show.
The only thing... Is that we will need to wait till March 2012 to see it...

But hey, it could be worse.
Have a good day,
Me.