Pete "The Goatman" Riley

Welcome to The Rodcast! — the unfiltered, salt-crusted fishing podcast based out of The Wild West of Australia!
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For our very first guest episode, Lecca & Rothy are joined by Perth local fishin’ legend & larrikan, Pete Riley a.k.a “The Goatman”
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Goatman grew up in the coastal Perth suburb of Scarborough, and knows the inshore waters around Perth's 3 Mile Reef and Rottnest Island like the back of his hand.
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In this episode we flap our gums about…

• Goatman's viral Kingfish beer at the Rotto pub 🍺
• Getting nicknamed “Goatman” after being pissed on by a Goat at Red Bluff 🐐
• Sailfish blowing up reels at Steep Point 💥
• Hunting a massive scrub bull in the N.T 🐂
• Society being out of touch with where their food comes from 🍽️

Follow The Goatman on Instagram & Youtube
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No filters. No fluff. Just fishing, good banter, and real stories from the people who’ve lived them.
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Hit play, chuck us a follow and share the show with your mates!
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Tall Tails!

Transcript

  📍  📍 Gentleman, this is an absolute pleasure and honor to be in the, uh, presence of two legends. And, uh, I've been, since you mentioned it to me, me, I've been looking forward to this. Get, always, get a bit nervous about this sort of stuff because, um, you know, I don't mind talking, don't, don't mind telling a tale or two, but, you know, with a, a couple of fresh horses like yourself.

Um,

uh, it's been a pretty, uh, wild weekend. I've been, uh, finished a week of night shift working for the Water Corporation. And then, uh, midnight Friday I slept in my car for a bit just so I could make sure I was at Rot Nest, but watched the sun come up and, uh, picked up my mate, uncle Massive at the Servo, and we fueled up and then we got outta town and we zipped across the Otto and we were chasing Spanish mackerel.

But yeah, the Mackeys, the big ones, the Spaniards weren't there, but we picked up some Sharkies anyway, which is, yeah. But, um, hey, well, yeah, I mean the Sharky's indicator of, um, the good warm water. There's plenty of big food around for them and small food. So we also got about 20 kingfish, but they were all rats.

So we let 'em all go.

Yeah,

mate. We, we had, yeah, but I, I switched over to my light gear and I knew, um, I could tell by the way the boils were happening, they weren't the, the kings or tuna. And then in the sunlight, as the, the sun first came up, I saw two of them come out, like pacing. I said, yeah, they're sharkies. So I switched down from a minnow onto, um, the slugs.

'cause I think they were feeding on sardines or not sardines, like the, well, the blue sardines, the little blue. And, uh, yeah, a hundred cast later I got a hookup. Yeah. So you just see all the birds. You had the fairy turns and the bigger turns and a couple of mutton birds sort of diving around, and then they'd blow up.

But the birds were always above them and they'd follow the bait. And obviously the, the bait was the indicator for the birds and then the, uh, the sharkies blow up under them. But if you didn't get that cast away, as soon as they start diving, it was, yeah, they'd be a hundred meters away. They'd bloody Oh mate.

Yeah.

Nah,

yeah. A lot of guys will cut their, their motor up wind, because they generally feed into the, into the wind. If you've ever noticed that. Yeah, they'll generally always push the bait into the wind, whether it's a vision thing or not too sure. But, uh, you can, yeah, you can go up upwind, cut the motor so there's no noise, and then just you'll get a dozen cast away.

Uh, no, we get like a mixture of shifts. We get day shift, which is seven to four, uh, and then we'll do PM shifts, which is what I did last week. We do, um, three o'clock until anywhere up to three o'clock in the morning. And then I've got, you know, x amount of time in the morning if, if the conditions are good to maybe jump in the kayak and hit the reefs or, you know, well no sleep until about eight o'clock.

And then, um, get up and walk the dog, take him for a coffee, and then. Get the kayak off the roof and go for a bit of a bit of a paddle.

Um, my grandfather was a, a professional and semi-professional fisherman in Morton Bay over in Brizzy. And yeah, he, um, he was legendary and I had some uncles who were into game fishing and stuff, but we moved over here, so I didn't really have a lot of contact with 'em. Just probably, I don't know, probably two and just, yeah, yeah.

City Beach, Scarborough. Yeah. So went to, did all my schooling here,

mate. As soon as, if we'd go on holiday somewhere, we'd be on a jetty, I, we'd be on a bridge or something. I. I'd be amongst the rocks picking crabs out and trying to catch things with my hands. And, you know, it was, it's just a, a progression I was always fascinated with, with stuff in the water. So, uh, we had a goldfish pond at the back and even made like, this is me frothing at about year two or three, that little mini bamboo.

And I got a lathe and I made like a little Alby side cast with like half kilo line on it. And I used to catch the goldfish in the, in the pond.

Oh yeah. I, I, I bought about three of them and I hated them. The line, the line twist, and if you've ever tried spinning with them like a, with a, you might be all right with a, there.

But a good challenge. I've seen some guys up at State Point, and if you lose the raffle, you have to fish the whole day with a Albee, but left lefthanded,

the Old Sea hag, you ever seen those mate? And you could wind them about, you know, and know you wouldn't have to wind. They would be perfect for that, and they'd just wiggle along and the Mac used to think they were mullet and they'd just blast them. But yeah, I've, I've seen people fishing with those at places like Steep Point and good luck keeping your fingers clear of that, those spinning, uh, spinning handles.

You get a big macro on that, that's gonna do like 300 RP m Yeah. So, um, that's interesting why I brought that, that reel there in that Abu, I think it's Abu 12, and used to go up there with my mate, Steve Murphy, who nicknamed him, uh, captain Bacon went up there, I think it was six weeks before I was due to get married and I was ballooning, I didn't have helium or anything like that.

And I just had a party balloon, the gardy, and I think the trace was about that long and ballooned this thing out. It was like no one fishing on the rocks. Everyone was having beers or having a sleep and they were hooked up with something on that. And there were 600 meters of eight kilo platypus, pretest on that, like full spool and uh, hooked up with something.

Just had an ugly stick. Uh, yeah, it blew it. Well this thing everyone said, oh, it's a shark. And they eventually all filtered down to say good day and see what was going on. And Captain Bacon brought a couple of beers down. It was a six beer fight. There was good like hour and a hour and a half. And I had this sailfish on that and everyone poo-pooed it and they said, nah, it's a shark.

Until the thing started like jumping. It was about 400 meters out. And I said, the guys, I'll maybe bring your balloons in so it doesn't get tangled up. 'cause it was just tail walking everywhere. Well, you'd like in the back in those days, but all the guys said no. Eight kilo line. You're not gonna get it in.

Anyway. I had that thing right to the back of the spool on the knot like three times. So 600 meters out and it, you know when you pull the line that starts singing in the breeze. I knew what it was then. So like that had probably about 20 or 30 meters of stretch on it, and it was enough just to turn that fish and get it coming back in.

And it jumped all through everyone's lines, wrangled around it, head looked like a bloody macrame. And, um, there was a tiger shark underneath it. It was gonna eat it. So we gaffed it and I brought it up and fed my family for about a month. Yeah, it was good, really good.

But that, that reel, um, as we were getting a couple of photos, I should bring it. They were terrible photos, but

yeah, what happened was I wound the line on three times so tight that when the line and the spool pulled down, it, it, it exploded. It went bang, and it sounded like a going off. It's parted, parted ways.

Yes, that's,

I think it was, that was just before Covid, I think. So. Just to give you a bit of background back before then, I couldn't even text anyone on the phone. Complete technology knot. I can't send a, an email. So I didn't know about social media or any of that stuff. So when I actually went past the pub, um, it was only a natural progression to go and have a beer.

But we'd come into a end of a week's stay at Rot Nest with the family and all the other school families were there. Um, my boys were, I think in high school. My youngest was still at St. John's on Scar Beach Road. There, there's like 10 other families, 12 other families there. We'd have dinner with 'em every night, muck around.

I'd take all their kids out fishing and their dads, I think everyone caught a king fish or a tuna. And, um, a good mate of mine, Dario and his son, they came out for me for a last drive, the dice on the last day and they got some kingfish up to about six or seven kilos and we got some pinkies and it was, yeah, it was really good.

And then my son Morgan, uh, he let everyone else have a turn and I said, righto, the last fish is yours. And I chucked on a live herring and we were trawling it around and this bloody yellow submarine got hold of this herring and it took off. And first half an hour, poor old Morgan, he's only a ski bugger, he's fighting this thing.

And he said, dad, I'm done. Come on mate. I said, you're a Riley. Gotta, you know, show, show some balls and fight this thing to the boat. And the poor guy was flogged. He's like, arms are about this thick. And he's, he's a smart kid, but he's, no, he's no athlete. Anyway, saw this thing come up to the surface and it must have thought, I'll see what sort of pricks on the, on the boat.

Anyway, it came up about 80 meters away and I saw it was a yellow tile king. And it took off, it took another a hundred meters of line and Morgan goes, I'm gonna let go. I'm gonna let go. I said, all righto. Last call. He goes, nah, you finish it off. So after half an hour of him fighting this thing, I took over and it took everything that I had 15 minutes to subdue this thing.

And I still to this day, you know how on that gear, I don't know how we had it in. So we dancing around and cheering and hugging and it was a, it was a good moment, but um, when all the smoke cleared, we had to get back for a barbecue and it was like one o'clock. So I dropped my mate and my son and his son off at, uh, the, near that inflatable park thing they've got, and I ched around.

I had a, a fuel jetty and basically, you know, I had to tie the boat up, chuckle the gear out. Even as I put the fish on the dock, they're like lifted up right up there. All these people spy me. They're just going, whoa. And it's amazing to see actually how many tourists there are right there. 'cause there must have been Singaporean, Chinese, Malay, Indonesians, all these like Asian people are just going, what the hell's this?

Anyway, they, there was like, everyone started following me and by the time I got up to the dome, I had like 30 or 40 people must have had a hundred photos with people. Took me about 40 minutes to make it. About a hundred meters.

I didn't, I didn't have a wheelbarrow, so, okay. I just get one of those gas trolley in the hockey mask, like in um, who's the science of the lambs?

Uh, we had some luggage scales there and my good mate, um, Lakey against his wife's wishes, he said, let's wait on luggage scales, which went to 28 kilos. Anyway, he was trying, he was trying to lift it up and he pinged a disc in his back and he had to go home four days early because they were staying a bit longer.

So we cut it when I eventually cut in half, it was like a bit over at that time, 30 kilos. So probably might have gone 32.

Nah, I, um, because we were up nappy alley on the, the other side of the pub and I had jetty. By one o'clock if I haven't had a beer on holiday, something very unusual. And, um, don't, don't drink on the boat, you know, just make sure if I'm looking after people, everyone's safe. But I was frothing and I was pretty excited to have this fish, but there was like, by this stage, about 80 people followed me.

I just went, fuck, I'm gonna have a beer. So walked in and the first bouncer at the gate, he just went fucking hell. But it was too late to stop me because it was a swarm and they sort of, yeah, the tide came in behind me. Hey, yeah, everyone came in and then, um, I could, I wasn't gonna go inside. And then I went to the outside bar and they had the stupid buddy cattle gates up so you could line up.

I mean, how un Australian, you go to a pub and you gotta. Line up past this skinny little gate directing you in like one at a time. Like you're at a pie shop. And I said, I'm not gonna line up, fuck that. I'm not gonna line up and get a beer. So I walked around the other backside of the bar and the guy was pulling beers and I said, Hey mate, any chance of getting a beer?

He looks up, he goes, fucking hell. He goes, oh shit, you're gonna have to line up. I said, oh fuck that. I'm, and this guy goes, he was pouring his beers. He goes, fuck, I'll buy your fucking beer mate. Fucking fucking beer. I'm going, yes. And everyone's going, yes. And it, it was funny 'cause there were people like patting me on the back and getting photos and stuff and I'm going, I just want a beer.

I didn't know anything about social media or stuff like that. And then my mate rang me, he goes, you're at the pub, aren't you? And I'm going, how do you know? He goes, belt tower times. You've gone bloody. You've gone viral on Belt Tower Times. I said, I've only had, I've only had half the beer. What do you mean?

And I just went, well, how, how the hell does this work? And um, yeah. Just after the, the Kiwi bouncer came up, this guy was like, you know, could have been MPA from Bloody Willie. Well, he, it's about this big, and he, and he had like, bit challenged with growing beards, but he had like these 10 hairs grown outta his thing, like on a, looked like a ball sack.

And

he just, he goes, you can't bring that in here, bro. I said, I just fucking did mate. And it was booing him. And I went, no, no. I said, no, no. The man's got a job to do. So I stole the rest of my beer and lamb, the, the glass down and, uh. Hitched up the, the fishing rods still had my backpack on the Fisher. I just had two and um, yeah, off, we off I went, I went over the wall and back to the, yeah, there was a, a guy, I've still got his number there somewhere.

But, um, yeah, it was pretty funny. And then we, we, I sort of started processing the fish and my wife goes, what have you been up to? She's up at someone else's house. I said, oh, we caught this big fish. He goes, yes, I can see. So yeah, it was, it was a pretty interesting day. But, um, yeah, a lot of, I got a lot of fla.

Some, some people said, oh, what a flexor, and you know, what a loser. And they, one of the guys that was shit counting me, he on his, you know, Instagram or webpage or whatever, he's got like a picture of a, a dewy hanging off a hill's hoist with a big. A hanging pot hooked through its mouth, gutted and looked like it'd been lying in the sun for about three hours.

And I went, mate, I said, if you had any, that, any decency, you'd look after that fish properly before hanging shit on me.

I, I have hooked them that big off lamb base. And I had one, uh, probably a couple of years before this or before that one, but I was out at West End on radars and I was live baiting a live herring. And this thing came up and inhaled the herring. And then honestly it had a mouth, like a bloody wide leather bucket.

And I. Anyway, I battled that thing for 40 minutes And you fished at the radar, the, the tennis courts mate. It's is. I've been busted off by Salmon and big tailor there. So it's got a big undercut ledge in this caves and stuff. Dunno how this thing didn't, didn't bloody reef me. I, I got it on top of the reef like three times and the reef was like knee deep and every time a wave would come over it would just be whited out with really oxygenated water.

So the king would get flogged out in the, in the water out the front. Then I'd bring it up onto the reef and that's when the fun began. 'cause he'd like, you know, like he'd snore the line of Coke or something. Yeah, just they're amazing. They're absolutely amazing, amazing fish. And I love, I love ics. I don't chase the Meles, but.

IC fish like mackerel and just the streamlined, like you, you get a tuna and you look at it, everything folds in and the eyes are slick with the sides and they're just amazing creatures. Yeah. But yeah, wahoo dollies.

I've hooked them bigger. I haven't landed them.

Yes.

Yeah. I love, um, cut my teeth like fishing with, um, uh, guys like Ian Shortland Jones and Ross Ack. Um, and they would fish, not so much, um, shorty, but Ack and his mates, they were like regulars down at Wombo Drain, and we'd ride our bikes from. City Beach and we'd ride all the way to Swee and we'd be down there at sunup every Saturday morning.

We'd have to take our place at the end of the queue. All the old boys that fish the pipe. Uh, I have, I have, I have seen a guy, I have seen a guy fishing nude there, but seemed a bit interesting if you pull a tailor in or Okay. Oh, oh yeah.

Yeah. So, um, love, like Taylor and, I dunno, they're pelagic, are they? No.

And they're in that sort of, they're in between like a, a salmon and a tailor and, you know, mul away, I mean,

yeah.

A big, big tailor there. Yeah. Any structure. But, um,

mate, whatever works, um, I love fishing with Lewis, love fly fishing, stuff like that. But, um, yeah, I, I've worked out, uh, a live herring and I'll tell you what, they are a savior. They're the savior of our, you know, our beach and inshore fishing because they're not only a food source, but they're a great starter fish for a lot of people.

And they're, and you see a lot of retired people, you know, they're eating caring four or five times a day. Um, sorry a week. But, um, yeah, absolute magic little fish. And there's nothing that doesn't eat them. So mul away

Kings Sambos.

They're tough. Yeah.

Heaps. Yeah.

Um, my in-laws have got one ville. Yeah. But, um, not as much as we used to when the kids were little, but, but um, yeah, take a few people out fishing there. I took out, oh, you must, no Langer. So, uh, I went to a party at uh, or a barbecue or something, his place. And he said, oh, what are you, uh, what are you doing the vo stay for a couple extra beers?

And I said, oh. I said, no, I'm gonna take my father-in-law out in the estro. We gonna get some tailor and whiting and herring. He goes, nah, there's nothing in there. I sent him some, him, some photos next night. I took him out. I think we got 20 Taylor up to a kilo. We got, you know, 20 herring. We got a couple of King George and a snapper.

I mean, there's, you just gotta know how to fish it, right?

No, it's,

yeah.

And they're the, yeah.

It's in really, really healthy shape. And the thing is with, uh, learning about fishing is, you know, the, the conditions change every hour. I mean, you know yourself, the sea breeze comes in, but if you want to catch Taylor and you're on a reef and there's nothing there, the sea, it's perfect for fishermen.

There's not perfect for fish. So the conditions change. The tailor start hunting when the sea breeze starts. And if there's a rising tide, it doesn't mean you'll always get 'em, but it just makes the conditions better for them, whether they, it's a visual thing or it just switches on their hunting instinct.

It's like, you know, you flick a light switch and the way they go.

Yeah. Oh, you see some salmon? Did you? Wow. How big? You probably thought you had a bloody herring from Hell.

He's the guy with the curly hair. I was talking to him a little. I always go in and say, nah, he's good.

Oh, mate. Well, you don't need to be invited. You've always, you'll be welcome, both of you. I'd love to. I reckon that'd be a, but what I was talking to you about was we do a session at RO on the boat, and then we do a session on the shore.

Mate, show you some spots there.

Yeah. Yeah. Soon as I.

Down Scarborough. Yeah. I remember seeing this guy, skinny sort of dude, but he was like already well known to me. 'cause you know, he'd get mentioned in the paper and stuff, Mr. Harvey

get like individual double hooks and swim them in the um, overflow drains. The only time I gotta test or I could jump someone's fence and try 'em out in their pool when I'm making a lure and that's how I got to know how. But, um, there's always, they always talking about salmon run and yeah, I was just dying to check it out while I was still at school, cooked my first salmon down at war at Mandalay and that was it.

Were the, the already master. The herring and whiting and stuff off City, beach and Flo growing and around there, and you, we get the odd tailor there. But, um, salmon for me were, that was like the holy grail and completely, um, under appreciated by I think the commercial sector and the recreationally, I would say salmon 50 kilos, uh, 50 cents a kilo for tray bait or cat food as opposed to maybe a $1,000 salmon.

Someone books, accommodation at Dunsborough, they spend fuel, they go there, they gotta eat, you know, it's the on flow effect of the salmon run down there. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's, it's.

They should clean out all the carp and rubbish. But then getting back to salmon, um, you know, we'd get 'em down at Wombo drain and after the tailor run sort of peters out, the salmon would always come in like about half past eight, nine o'clock clockwork. They'd always appear, but they were those really finicky ones and you'd see him swim past and they wouldn't eat anything.

And that's where I started dabbling with live bait. And that was the only way to, to turn the switch on. Yeah. Live herring. And that's how we used to get 'em down there. And then, um,

yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, well the, uh, the funny thing about that is the mullet have just started leaving the river and they come and, and school up and they're really thick against the edges there, just the back of the reef and on top of the reef. And the thing is that a lot of big fish swim with them. So you get big tail swimming with the mullet or just under the mullet.

And whereas they wouldn't need a whole mule, if you throw a couple of handfuls of topped up mules in there, they'll zip around, eat those. If you put one of those on a bit of gamma tsu, lick it out, put some really big tail doing that, lick it into the mullet and hang it, give 'em a little.

And then just whatever you're using as the burley, throw the same size thing in and they'd, they'd hit that. So you on a herring rod, you got a five kilo Caleb barge around the place.

Yep.

Well,

sorry. The, um, this thing here, I think I, I nicked a slat out of my mom's cedar, uh, barbecue chair.

Well, it's, look at it.

I think that one's done a couple of runs down at. Um, but yeah, the, uh, the other ones as, as my lures got more, uh, yeah, that, yeah, that's my, um, think, uh, I designed those ones to swim off steep point right to the face.

Yeah. So we, um, we built a heap of lures on the first trip we went up and I had a series of these lures that I'd made. My other mates made some pretty interesting ones. Yeah, that's a beauty of that one.

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Yep. That's good. Yeah. Little, uh, little, uh, pencil popper, but those, um, uh, floats,

nah, I mean, they, they're, yeah, they're all right and say about three, four kilo gear. But the, uh, the minnow, so the evolution, you can see there's, there's quite a bit of, um, uh, advanced technology there. I've got polycarbonate bib, full stainless wire throughout, and, uh, it was just a passion of mine. I, um, I wouldn't buy lures, I'd make 'em myself, or I'd buy one for a prototype.

There was a, a good macro run, uh, back in the late nineties. And they weren't big fish, but they were off Menari. There were tons of them. And my mate, Damien re said, you know, we're gonna go and try for some mackey's. And they had like a redhead, one of those. It was the, the bigger model. And we caught, um, forget what the bag limit on the boat was.

It was six or 12 or whatever. And I got, uh, only one other fish was caught on a alor CD 14. They all took my lure. And on the last, on the last thing, I felt sorry for this guy Pauly. So I hand him over my rod and he got like a 12 kilo Samson fish. So yeah, and they, um, but off the rocks, they, they're dynamite because steep point, you've got the shade line of the cliff.

That's where about 80% of the strikes will occur. So in that transition of light, obviously, you know, the, the bait fish use that as shelter, but also the macker will use that to come in and, and ambush. Yeah.

Yep. The shade line. Yeah. So, but any, yeah.

Um, uh, he's, um, I had him on the pedestal, but yeah, Hal Hal's a very, uh, yeah, very, um, unusual character I've always found himself. Not, not aloof, but he was that, you know, if he liked you, he, he wouldn't suffer fools. And the more I got to know him, the, the, the more he opened up. But, um, just, I would go to him for advice on gear and knowing that he was a fly fisherman, help me set up my first fly outfit and, you know, for salt water, stuff like that.

But, um, yeah, I, I think I fish with him maybe half a dozen times and quite an odd character if you don't know him

with the, with the cravat.

Yeah. I think his son Jack's still got that. He still runs it. Yeah. That's when he did the, the cravat and, uh, they made him a, a toasted sandwich and Hal's going, Hmm,

I've, I've got every, uh, copy of West Angle it's ever been made, I think.

Well, that's the latest one with the sand. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Testing out the seagull.

Nice.

Oh, good.

What I, um, I find, uh, with this whole thing of technology, and it's great for podcasts and, and music and stuff like that, but, um, I used to write articles for archery magazines, like hunting.

But yeah, so, um, yeah, writing articles. I love magazines and I would never read a, a digital format of a newspaper or anything like that. It's just something about it, it just doesn't gel. But magazines, I've collected thousands of them over my, you know, I've got all sorts of stuff there. And, um, all the Western anglers.

So if you're writing for West Angler hats off to you because it's a, um, I think keeping a tradition of pen to. And it's, it's, you've got shiny, you've got shiny paper, you've got glossy photos, and it's, it's a tactile thing as well. And the new magazine smells like a new magazine, so you're getting a bonus, you know.

Oh, that'd be good. That'd be really good. I

think I've got a suspicion you're gonna do pretty well.

I think the, um. The first, uh, trip we did to State Point, I had, uh, my mate Jumbo, um,

uncle Massive. He's, he's hilarious. He's, um, yeah, he's bloody funny. I was out, he was fishing with me yesterday. But, um, yeah, I got, uh, jumbo, um, chin and the Beast and we went to Steep Point and we had all these like little tackle workshops and we were making jigs and, you know, the white lead head jigs with the, the fire tail.

And I made hundreds of these things. I never caught a fish on one of them, but the minnows. Um, so that's where I, I kicked off first with my, that, that designer minnow. But um, yeah, definitely steep point, uh, unreal. But we went from there. I think we spent two weeks on the rock there, which is a lot of time there.

And we didn't have a, I think we had an army tent, but there'd been like a, a massive swell and all the rock pools had filled up with salt water and those little mosquitoes, you couldn't go anywhere. There was shade, there was like a million mosquitoes. So if you went for a, you know, sneak off for a dump or something, you have to do it during daylight hours because if you went, mate, I went for, you're like got like a bit of sage bush or something like brushing your terries, otherwise you, your balls look like a lamington.

So we went there just as a bit of relief. We went, um, dumped all the fish off at ASCO traders to a freezer and then we went up to the bluff and we were surfing there and do a bit of fishing. I saw these goats coming down off the cliffs and eating seaweed off the rocks. And I love hunting goats. I had my little hornet there.

I climbed, I said, I'm not gonna eat any more bloody, uh, 22 Hornet, little centif fire and beautiful, beautiful. And I was hand loading rounds for that as well. But um, I said, I'm gonna go and drill one of these goats and we're gonna cook it up on the camp oven. Anyway, mate, I'd been eating fish and potatoes for three weeks.

I was like a ru dog. We eaten a raw cooked bloody, I got sick of it, but, and ended up shooting this goat and, um, the beautiful fat nanny goat and the kids I saw eating the sea with. I couldn't find any of those up the top of the bluff. Stinking hot Christmas time. I saw these stinking Billy goats and there was three of 'em.

I shot the smallest one and he was still like. Pretty big old stinky goat and I went to, um, I'd forgotten to take a knife to process any of it. So I had to lift this past onto my shoulders, lent my rifle against a bloody bit of dead Carrara bush or something, point this thing up, fireman's lift. And um, as I was bending over the, get the rifle, I must have pressed on its bladder and it just pissed all over the back of my head.

And you know, the goats, they piss on themselves and they around that sort of, yeah, I've tried, it doesn't work, even help my mates out. I pissed on them, but it didn't help them. But, um, yeah, so I had to stink and we had a no hygiene policy, so for the six weeks we're away. We didn't have a shower. There was no soap, no toothpaste, and we had a pair of jocks and that was it.

My jocks, the elastic gave up on 'em. So I had, um, like a ade sticks to dial up. So if you wanted to take a shit, you just go, jocks had fallen out. You pull the sticks and then they'd come out. But, um, yeah, so I, I got the name, my mates could smell me and they said, nah, you're not, you're not sleeping in that, in the hut with us.

So I had to sleep out. I think I went down to the cave down the front of the, the bluff there when I was living in that.

Yeah, no, that, that's, there's the cave right on the, on the corner of the, where the cliff start. Yeah. But there was no, yeah, there was no dinghy then. Um, pretty much, well. It was just the old, there was an old shack, I think some of the ERO boys. Um, yeah, yeah. Well we, we, we had that to ourselves. And the first night where you, like we got, we got, uh, in the fireplace, we lit the fire and a bloody king brand came outta the, the thing into there was an old bench seat from a Ford on one side and there was a, a bench seat from a, uh, Kingswood or something.

And this frigging snake went into, into one of those and was certain it was like living in the, 'cause it came out the fireplace. Nah, well by that stage we drunk so many beers, we didn't really care where we went. But yeah, no, we had a fat time up there. But, so I told this story to my mate, uncle Nige and he, um, he started calling me Goat Man.

And, um, then him and I, we started, like, I'd take him over to Rot Nest and, 'cause I'd hop around on the rocks around there with no shoes on. He goes like, you're like a goat, you know, and I'd be like, zipping around. I'd just make sure my feet hard up. But yeah, he just nicknamed me Goat Man. So Thanks. Thanks Uncle Nige

doesn't smell like the one that was on the back of my neck.

It was intimidating seeing it on the, on the, on the hoof.

It's almost as wide as the back of the Hilux. I had struggled to get it in. So, um, yeah, I had the good fortune of meeting a couple of people up in the territory and, um, got a couple of, uh, welcome mats there. So when I go up there, I can hunt these things. Uh, yep. And a couple of guys that work up there as well.

But, um, this guy here was been fighting with another bull over a cow that was in season. I was lucky enough to see the whole fight. And these guys, when they crack heads, I mean, it's like, you know, dropping a bloody bowling ball on concrete.

They're crazy. Yeah. Well, you can, these guys run up from like 20 meters away and they, they put their heads down and bang. But, um, yeah, they're, they're very tough. Um,

yeah.

Well, even, even,

this is the last thing you wanna see if you trip over that's pressing down on you. So I think they weigh like 1500 kilos.

Uh, this guy I think was under 20, it was probably 15 meters. So, um, I think I had an ant nest and that was it. So an ant nest is not very good, not the one I was behind. It was only about that. So I spent about an hour coming in and um, yeah, we, I think, uh, I had my mate, French mate, Laurent, he'd got a nice bull the day before.

Uh, yeah, we, we got in close to these guys and managed to get a beautiful, I mean a relaxed animal, uh, a double lung shot and down he went,

oh, please get me starred on the gun laws.

Yeah, it's resource. Yeah. I mean, these guys in the, in the territory are, um, they do do a lot of damage, but, uh, yeah, I think they're introduced before there were reliable vehicles to utilize, you know, for farming and, and transport, uh, in between the wars or probably pre World War I. Um, and these are the only things that could get around in the foggy conditions.

Water, water buffalo imported in the 18 hundreds to provide milk. Um, and meat and, and just utilizes a beast of burden to get to some outback stations and, and, you know, transport mail, uh, goods anywhere in the Northern Territory because when the wet season comes in, you cut off and these guys could pull a wagon, train or, you know, they could pull logs, move rocks.

They used them like bulldozers and tractors, but, um, now they're running wild

rocks. Crocs will get the, the smaller ones and Bingo's will lead a couple of sick ones, but, uh, these guys have got no, nothing messes with them, but they, the good thing about 'em is they've, it's eyesight is brilliant. Sense of smell is second to a pig. Their ears. They've got these great big bloody radar.

This ears not quite as good as a donkey, but yeah, you've gotta, you earn every single one. You, you chase, I think, um, got about 15 of these so far. So this is one of the, the bigger ones. But I've got some other ones. I think at Downrange. There's a, a set of buffalo horns, uh, that's one of mine there. And there's another one back at home, which is a bit wider than this, but I couldn't get him off the wall.

But, um, yeah, brilliant. And to get, to get the adrenaline going. So if you have a look at, um, I've got some films on YouTube. There's solo Buffalo Hunt, Pete the Goat man,

I'll just, Pete the goat man on YouTube if you wanna see some fishing and, and hunting. I've got Rumble in the Jungle. Solo goat hunt, N nt pigs. I got the search for Big Kings,

but I, I went out, I went out. Um, so last time I went out and I'm outta the phone range. I've got no e and I've got no shoes. So I'm out hunting these guys just barefoot and I've built Smoker and I made the jerky and I was living off donkey in Buffalo for like 10 days. Donkey's good. Better than eating the meat off.

One of these, I tell you, if you've ever eaten a squash ball that tastes like beef, that's this, you gotta hang it for about three weeks. But the donkey, yeah, very good. So a big donkey steak on the bloody char grill and it's just make a little bit of blue cheese up there as well. So you make a bit of, bit of a sauce with it.

But yeah,

mate, your, your dear, I mean, you're in awe of the buff. My, my dear. I mean, I've, I've, I knocked one over at Man Up last year, and I hand the skin, I think we even cut the hooves off and the dogs played with those and ate, chewed them down. But the skin, the meat, the only thing that didn't get eaten, I think was the, I think we got the liver, the kidneys, the heart, and just the engine, the, the, the guts we left out on the ground and the rest of it came home and it was like the best, you know, we made hamburgers and Hamburg.

Yeah. Beautiful roast ribs. Oh, the, the whole thing. And I was like trading venison for crayfish. That's a, it's a good little, you know, I've got guys I bring back Wild Goat for and a lot of European guys and I'll get crayfish for goat. I reckon I'm getting the better end of the deal there.

Yep.

I think.

People have, yeah,

people have lost their way because you look. If I'm hungry, I'll, I'll call up Uber Eats and I'll get KFC or, or I don't have any smokes. I'll get, you know, Uber to get them for me some beer. I mean, nothing. You can't, there's nothing which isn't accessible with a phone call these days. But back in the day where you had chooks in the backyard and you, you'd, Sunday, Sunday was a, a chook roast.

You know, it's only like 30 or 40 years ago that people were knocking off chickens and eating them. And I've got the chook chook cup at home. We eat the eggs and our chooks are our, our mates. We know them. They've all got names, and they're beautiful. They're, they're great. They're, the dog loves them. But when it comes to respecting, um, I respect everything I hunt because like your deer, you've gotta get to, you've gotta get to know the deer before you're successful and you build a respect for that animal.

Like a fish. Any fish is a beautiful animal. Even a, a blowfish, there's. They are, they're very, they're, yeah. They're a unique, they're a unique critter, so, but, um,

it's,

yeah. Scorpio, I love eating and jogging. And disco dancing.

Mm. Any sort of whiting, that'd be one of them. Um, I do love the kingfish sashimi

and the humble herring and tailor, um, on toast in the morning. I, I, I like, like I, I, I've got a big place in my heart for the pink and I don't eat a lot of Dow fish, but I think if I was gonna pick them, um, but any fish you prepare and look after properly is gonna be better than any rubbish you buy in the shop.

So it'd have to be a, like a slice or a lead head. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. More like a bait fish profile. Like the little, like a a, yeah, like a smaller version of that. Like a little blue sardine one. Nothing, nothing. Doesn't eat those. Yep. Best boat snack. Uncle Mass has been feeding me, um, brainwaves. So brainwaves and, um, yeah.

What else is there? No, I, I don't eat much when I'm on the boat. They're good, but you need something to wash 'em down.

God, I'd love to go to Africa and, and hunt. Every pig species. So warthog, stuff like that. Bush pig. I've been to Africa, but yep. Yep. Um, no perch.

Send the, send the dudes they got in the films. Bill the bull.

Think I'm doing it now? Two for one.

No, that's, they're both of you boys.

Um, just respect the, respect your environment. Like look after the place you fish, don't overfish it. And just learn about the environment and learn as much you can about. What makes, what, what brings the fish there? Why? What are they eating? How can I catch them? And what time of the year? Just, just getting tuned a bit more with nature instead of, you know, instead of, there's so much stuff on computers and stuff like that.

Just get back, get your feet in the sand and learn. Yeah, learn. Learn your craft. It's the same as hunting. You gotta, it's a transition from, like you're saying, being, uh, a road down to self-sufficiency. So.

I've got the, uh, I'm still in the fear and loathing thing here, but the first interview I did on tv and these boys called me up and they said, you don't know us, but we're starting a, uh, a clothing company. Uh, the Menace Boys, the womens, and um, and basically, uh, indestructible clothing. And they said, can you wear one of our shirts or a hat or something on the, the TV interview?

I said, no worries at all. And since then, they have fishing competitions. Uh, they've, they, yeah, they, they do the, uh, they support the local junior surfing and surfing comps. They have golf days. These guys are a small business, a local business, um, absolute gems, and yeah,

well, you, you guys versus me and uncle massive or, or whitey

legend. Hey, it's been absolute pleasure and, uh, and the presence of greatness. Thank you, gentlemen.

Time

Flies flies. 

 

 Gentleman, this is an absolute pleasure and honor to be in the, uh, presence of two legends. And, uh, I've been, since you mentioned it to me, me, I've been looking forward to this. Get, always, get a bit nervous about this sort of stuff because, um, you know, I don't mind talking, don't, don't mind telling a tale or two, but, you know, with a, a couple of fresh horses like yourself.

Um,

uh, it's been a pretty, uh, wild weekend. I've been, uh, finished a week of night shift working for the Water Corporation. And then, uh, midnight Friday I slept in my car for a bit just so I could make sure I was at Rot Nest, but watched the sun come up and, uh, picked up my mate, uncle Massive at the Servo, and we fueled up and then we got outta town and we zipped across the Otto and we were chasing Spanish mackerel.

But yeah, the Mackeys, the big ones, the Spaniards weren't there, but we picked up some Sharkies anyway, which is, yeah. But, um, hey, well, yeah, I mean the Sharky's indicator of, um, the good warm water. There's plenty of big food around for them and small food. So we also got about 20 kingfish, but they were all rats.

So we let 'em all go.

Yeah,

mate. We, we had, yeah, but I, I switched over to my light gear and I knew, um, I could tell by the way the boils were happening, they weren't the, the kings or tuna. And then in the sunlight, as the, the sun first came up, I saw two of them come out, like pacing. I said, yeah, they're sharkies. So I switched down from a minnow onto, um, the slugs.

'cause I think they were feeding on sardines or not sardines, like the, well, the blue sardines, the little blue. And, uh, yeah, a hundred cast later I got a hookup. Yeah. So you just see all the birds. You had the fairy turns and the bigger turns and a couple of mutton birds sort of diving around, and then they'd blow up.

But the birds were always above them and they'd follow the bait. And obviously the, the bait was the indicator for the birds and then the, uh, the sharkies blow up under them. But if you didn't get that cast away, as soon as they start diving, it was, yeah, they'd be a hundred meters away. They'd bloody Oh mate.

Yeah.

Nah,

yeah. A lot of guys will cut their, their motor up wind, because they generally feed into the, into the wind. If you've ever noticed that. Yeah, they'll generally always push the bait into the wind, whether it's a vision thing or not too sure. But, uh, you can, yeah, you can go up upwind, cut the motor so there's no noise, and then just you'll get a dozen cast away.

Uh, no, we get like a mixture of shifts. We get day shift, which is seven to four, uh, and then we'll do PM shifts, which is what I did last week. We do, um, three o'clock until anywhere up to three o'clock in the morning. And then I've got, you know, x amount of time in the morning if, if the conditions are good to maybe jump in the kayak and hit the reefs or, you know, well no sleep until about eight o'clock.

And then, um, get up and walk the dog, take him for a coffee, and then. Get the kayak off the roof and go for a bit of a bit of a paddle.

Um, my grandfather was a, a professional and semi-professional fisherman in Morton Bay over in Brizzy. And yeah, he, um, he was legendary and I had some uncles who were into game fishing and stuff, but we moved over here, so I didn't really have a lot of contact with 'em. Just probably, I don't know, probably two and just, yeah, yeah.

City Beach, Scarborough. Yeah. So went to, did all my schooling here,

mate. As soon as, if we'd go on holiday somewhere, we'd be on a jetty, I, we'd be on a bridge or something. I. I'd be amongst the rocks picking crabs out and trying to catch things with my hands. And, you know, it was, it's just a, a progression I was always fascinated with, with stuff in the water. So, uh, we had a goldfish pond at the back and even made like, this is me frothing at about year two or three, that little mini bamboo.

And I got a lathe and I made like a little Alby side cast with like half kilo line on it. And I used to catch the goldfish in the, in the pond.

Oh yeah. I, I, I bought about three of them and I hated them. The line, the line twist, and if you've ever tried spinning with them like a, with a, you might be all right with a, there.

But a good challenge. I've seen some guys up at State Point, and if you lose the raffle, you have to fish the whole day with a Albee, but left lefthanded,

the Old Sea hag, you ever seen those mate? And you could wind them about, you know, and know you wouldn't have to wind. They would be perfect for that, and they'd just wiggle along and the Mac used to think they were mullet and they'd just blast them. But yeah, I've, I've seen people fishing with those at places like Steep Point and good luck keeping your fingers clear of that, those spinning, uh, spinning handles.

You get a big macro on that, that's gonna do like 300 RP m Yeah. So, um, that's interesting why I brought that, that reel there in that Abu, I think it's Abu 12, and used to go up there with my mate, Steve Murphy, who nicknamed him, uh, captain Bacon went up there, I think it was six weeks before I was due to get married and I was ballooning, I didn't have helium or anything like that.

And I just had a party balloon, the gardy, and I think the trace was about that long and ballooned this thing out. It was like no one fishing on the rocks. Everyone was having beers or having a sleep and they were hooked up with something on that. And there were 600 meters of eight kilo platypus, pretest on that, like full spool and uh, hooked up with something.

Just had an ugly stick. Uh, yeah, it blew it. Well this thing everyone said, oh, it's a shark. And they eventually all filtered down to say good day and see what was going on. And Captain Bacon brought a couple of beers down. It was a six beer fight. There was good like hour and a hour and a half. And I had this sailfish on that and everyone poo-pooed it and they said, nah, it's a shark.

Until the thing started like jumping. It was about 400 meters out. And I said, the guys, I'll maybe bring your balloons in so it doesn't get tangled up. 'cause it was just tail walking everywhere. Well, you'd like in the back in those days, but all the guys said no. Eight kilo line. You're not gonna get it in.

Anyway. I had that thing right to the back of the spool on the knot like three times. So 600 meters out and it, you know when you pull the line that starts singing in the breeze. I knew what it was then. So like that had probably about 20 or 30 meters of stretch on it, and it was enough just to turn that fish and get it coming back in.

And it jumped all through everyone's lines, wrangled around it, head looked like a bloody macrame. And, um, there was a tiger shark underneath it. It was gonna eat it. So we gaffed it and I brought it up and fed my family for about a month. Yeah, it was good, really good.

But that, that reel, um, as we were getting a couple of photos, I should bring it. They were terrible photos, but

yeah, what happened was I wound the line on three times so tight that when the line and the spool pulled down, it, it, it exploded. It went bang, and it sounded like a going off. It's parted, parted ways.

Yes, that's,

I think it was, that was just before Covid, I think. So. Just to give you a bit of background back before then, I couldn't even text anyone on the phone. Complete technology knot. I can't send a, an email. So I didn't know about social media or any of that stuff. So when I actually went past the pub, um, it was only a natural progression to go and have a beer.

But we'd come into a end of a week's stay at Rot Nest with the family and all the other school families were there. Um, my boys were, I think in high school. My youngest was still at St. John's on Scar Beach Road. There, there's like 10 other families, 12 other families there. We'd have dinner with 'em every night, muck around.

I'd take all their kids out fishing and their dads, I think everyone caught a king fish or a tuna. And, um, a good mate of mine, Dario and his son, they came out for me for a last drive, the dice on the last day and they got some kingfish up to about six or seven kilos and we got some pinkies and it was, yeah, it was really good.

And then my son Morgan, uh, he let everyone else have a turn and I said, righto, the last fish is yours. And I chucked on a live herring and we were trawling it around and this bloody yellow submarine got hold of this herring and it took off. And first half an hour, poor old Morgan, he's only a ski bugger, he's fighting this thing.

And he said, dad, I'm done. Come on mate. I said, you're a Riley. Gotta, you know, show, show some balls and fight this thing to the boat. And the poor guy was flogged. He's like, arms are about this thick. And he's, he's a smart kid, but he's, no, he's no athlete. Anyway, saw this thing come up to the surface and it must have thought, I'll see what sort of pricks on the, on the boat.

Anyway, it came up about 80 meters away and I saw it was a yellow tile king. And it took off, it took another a hundred meters of line and Morgan goes, I'm gonna let go. I'm gonna let go. I said, all righto. Last call. He goes, nah, you finish it off. So after half an hour of him fighting this thing, I took over and it took everything that I had 15 minutes to subdue this thing.

And I still to this day, you know how on that gear, I don't know how we had it in. So we dancing around and cheering and hugging and it was a, it was a good moment, but um, when all the smoke cleared, we had to get back for a barbecue and it was like one o'clock. So I dropped my mate and my son and his son off at, uh, the, near that inflatable park thing they've got, and I ched around.

I had a, a fuel jetty and basically, you know, I had to tie the boat up, chuckle the gear out. Even as I put the fish on the dock, they're like lifted up right up there. All these people spy me. They're just going, whoa. And it's amazing to see actually how many tourists there are right there. 'cause there must have been Singaporean, Chinese, Malay, Indonesians, all these like Asian people are just going, what the hell's this?

Anyway, they, there was like, everyone started following me and by the time I got up to the dome, I had like 30 or 40 people must have had a hundred photos with people. Took me about 40 minutes to make it. About a hundred meters.

I didn't, I didn't have a wheelbarrow, so, okay. I just get one of those gas trolley in the hockey mask, like in um, who's the science of the lambs?

Uh, we had some luggage scales there and my good mate, um, Lakey against his wife's wishes, he said, let's wait on luggage scales, which went to 28 kilos. Anyway, he was trying, he was trying to lift it up and he pinged a disc in his back and he had to go home four days early because they were staying a bit longer.

So we cut it when I eventually cut in half, it was like a bit over at that time, 30 kilos. So probably might have gone 32.

Nah, I, um, because we were up nappy alley on the, the other side of the pub and I had jetty. By one o'clock if I haven't had a beer on holiday, something very unusual. And, um, don't, don't drink on the boat, you know, just make sure if I'm looking after people, everyone's safe. But I was frothing and I was pretty excited to have this fish, but there was like, by this stage, about 80 people followed me.

I just went, fuck, I'm gonna have a beer. So walked in and the first bouncer at the gate, he just went fucking hell. But it was too late to stop me because it was a swarm and they sort of, yeah, the tide came in behind me. Hey, yeah, everyone came in and then, um, I could, I wasn't gonna go inside. And then I went to the outside bar and they had the stupid buddy cattle gates up so you could line up.

I mean, how un Australian, you go to a pub and you gotta. Line up past this skinny little gate directing you in like one at a time. Like you're at a pie shop. And I said, I'm not gonna line up, fuck that. I'm not gonna line up and get a beer. So I walked around the other backside of the bar and the guy was pulling beers and I said, Hey mate, any chance of getting a beer?

He looks up, he goes, fucking hell. He goes, oh shit, you're gonna have to line up. I said, oh fuck that. I'm, and this guy goes, he was pouring his beers. He goes, fuck, I'll buy your fucking beer mate. Fucking fucking beer. I'm going, yes. And everyone's going, yes. And it, it was funny 'cause there were people like patting me on the back and getting photos and stuff and I'm going, I just want a beer.

I didn't know anything about social media or stuff like that. And then my mate rang me, he goes, you're at the pub, aren't you? And I'm going, how do you know? He goes, belt tower times. You've gone bloody. You've gone viral on Belt Tower Times. I said, I've only had, I've only had half the beer. What do you mean?

And I just went, well, how, how the hell does this work? And um, yeah. Just after the, the Kiwi bouncer came up, this guy was like, you know, could have been MPA from Bloody Willie. Well, he, it's about this big, and he, and he had like, bit challenged with growing beards, but he had like these 10 hairs grown outta his thing, like on a, looked like a ball sack.

And

he just, he goes, you can't bring that in here, bro. I said, I just fucking did mate. And it was booing him. And I went, no, no. I said, no, no. The man's got a job to do. So I stole the rest of my beer and lamb, the, the glass down and, uh. Hitched up the, the fishing rods still had my backpack on the Fisher. I just had two and um, yeah, off, we off I went, I went over the wall and back to the, yeah, there was a, a guy, I've still got his number there somewhere.

But, um, yeah, it was pretty funny. And then we, we, I sort of started processing the fish and my wife goes, what have you been up to? She's up at someone else's house. I said, oh, we caught this big fish. He goes, yes, I can see. So yeah, it was, it was a pretty interesting day. But, um, yeah, a lot of, I got a lot of fla.

Some, some people said, oh, what a flexor, and you know, what a loser. And they, one of the guys that was shit counting me, he on his, you know, Instagram or webpage or whatever, he's got like a picture of a, a dewy hanging off a hill's hoist with a big. A hanging pot hooked through its mouth, gutted and looked like it'd been lying in the sun for about three hours.

And I went, mate, I said, if you had any, that, any decency, you'd look after that fish properly before hanging shit on me.

I, I have hooked them that big off lamb base. And I had one, uh, probably a couple of years before this or before that one, but I was out at West End on radars and I was live baiting a live herring. And this thing came up and inhaled the herring. And then honestly it had a mouth, like a bloody wide leather bucket.

And I. Anyway, I battled that thing for 40 minutes And you fished at the radar, the, the tennis courts mate. It's is. I've been busted off by Salmon and big tailor there. So it's got a big undercut ledge in this caves and stuff. Dunno how this thing didn't, didn't bloody reef me. I, I got it on top of the reef like three times and the reef was like knee deep and every time a wave would come over it would just be whited out with really oxygenated water.

So the king would get flogged out in the, in the water out the front. Then I'd bring it up onto the reef and that's when the fun began. 'cause he'd like, you know, like he'd snore the line of Coke or something. Yeah, just they're amazing. They're absolutely amazing, amazing fish. And I love, I love ics. I don't chase the Meles, but.

IC fish like mackerel and just the streamlined, like you, you get a tuna and you look at it, everything folds in and the eyes are slick with the sides and they're just amazing creatures. Yeah. But yeah, wahoo dollies.

I've hooked them bigger. I haven't landed them.

Yes.

Yeah. I love, um, cut my teeth like fishing with, um, uh, guys like Ian Shortland Jones and Ross Ack. Um, and they would fish, not so much, um, shorty, but Ack and his mates, they were like regulars down at Wombo Drain, and we'd ride our bikes from. City Beach and we'd ride all the way to Swee and we'd be down there at sunup every Saturday morning.

We'd have to take our place at the end of the queue. All the old boys that fish the pipe. Uh, I have, I have, I have seen a guy, I have seen a guy fishing nude there, but seemed a bit interesting if you pull a tailor in or Okay. Oh, oh yeah.

Yeah. So, um, love, like Taylor and, I dunno, they're pelagic, are they? No.

And they're in that sort of, they're in between like a, a salmon and a tailor and, you know, mul away, I mean,

yeah.

A big, big tailor there. Yeah. Any structure. But, um,

mate, whatever works, um, I love fishing with Lewis, love fly fishing, stuff like that. But, um, yeah, I, I've worked out, uh, a live herring and I'll tell you what, they are a savior. They're the savior of our, you know, our beach and inshore fishing because they're not only a food source, but they're a great starter fish for a lot of people.

And they're, and you see a lot of retired people, you know, they're eating caring four or five times a day. Um, sorry a week. But, um, yeah, absolute magic little fish. And there's nothing that doesn't eat them. So mul away

Kings Sambos.

They're tough. Yeah.

Heaps. Yeah.

Um, my in-laws have got one ville. Yeah. But, um, not as much as we used to when the kids were little, but, but um, yeah, take a few people out fishing there. I took out, oh, you must, no Langer. So, uh, I went to a party at uh, or a barbecue or something, his place. And he said, oh, what are you, uh, what are you doing the vo stay for a couple extra beers?

And I said, oh. I said, no, I'm gonna take my father-in-law out in the estro. We gonna get some tailor and whiting and herring. He goes, nah, there's nothing in there. I sent him some, him, some photos next night. I took him out. I think we got 20 Taylor up to a kilo. We got, you know, 20 herring. We got a couple of King George and a snapper.

I mean, there's, you just gotta know how to fish it, right?

No, it's,

yeah.

And they're the, yeah.

It's in really, really healthy shape. And the thing is with, uh, learning about fishing is, you know, the, the conditions change every hour. I mean, you know yourself, the sea breeze comes in, but if you want to catch Taylor and you're on a reef and there's nothing there, the sea, it's perfect for fishermen.

There's not perfect for fish. So the conditions change. The tailor start hunting when the sea breeze starts. And if there's a rising tide, it doesn't mean you'll always get 'em, but it just makes the conditions better for them, whether they, it's a visual thing or it just switches on their hunting instinct.

It's like, you know, you flick a light switch and the way they go.

Yeah. Oh, you see some salmon? Did you? Wow. How big? You probably thought you had a bloody herring from Hell.

He's the guy with the curly hair. I was talking to him a little. I always go in and say, nah, he's good.

Oh, mate. Well, you don't need to be invited. You've always, you'll be welcome, both of you. I'd love to. I reckon that'd be a, but what I was talking to you about was we do a session at RO on the boat, and then we do a session on the shore.

Mate, show you some spots there.

Yeah. Yeah. Soon as I.

Down Scarborough. Yeah. I remember seeing this guy, skinny sort of dude, but he was like already well known to me. 'cause you know, he'd get mentioned in the paper and stuff, Mr. Harvey

get like individual double hooks and swim them in the um, overflow drains. The only time I gotta test or I could jump someone's fence and try 'em out in their pool when I'm making a lure and that's how I got to know how. But, um, there's always, they always talking about salmon run and yeah, I was just dying to check it out while I was still at school, cooked my first salmon down at war at Mandalay and that was it.

Were the, the already master. The herring and whiting and stuff off City, beach and Flo growing and around there, and you, we get the odd tailor there. But, um, salmon for me were, that was like the holy grail and completely, um, under appreciated by I think the commercial sector and the recreationally, I would say salmon 50 kilos, uh, 50 cents a kilo for tray bait or cat food as opposed to maybe a $1,000 salmon.

Someone books, accommodation at Dunsborough, they spend fuel, they go there, they gotta eat, you know, it's the on flow effect of the salmon run down there. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's, it's.

They should clean out all the carp and rubbish. But then getting back to salmon, um, you know, we'd get 'em down at Wombo drain and after the tailor run sort of peters out, the salmon would always come in like about half past eight, nine o'clock clockwork. They'd always appear, but they were those really finicky ones and you'd see him swim past and they wouldn't eat anything.

And that's where I started dabbling with live bait. And that was the only way to, to turn the switch on. Yeah. Live herring. And that's how we used to get 'em down there. And then, um,

yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, well the, uh, the funny thing about that is the mullet have just started leaving the river and they come and, and school up and they're really thick against the edges there, just the back of the reef and on top of the reef. And the thing is that a lot of big fish swim with them. So you get big tail swimming with the mullet or just under the mullet.

And whereas they wouldn't need a whole mule, if you throw a couple of handfuls of topped up mules in there, they'll zip around, eat those. If you put one of those on a bit of gamma tsu, lick it out, put some really big tail doing that, lick it into the mullet and hang it, give 'em a little.

And then just whatever you're using as the burley, throw the same size thing in and they'd, they'd hit that. So you on a herring rod, you got a five kilo Caleb barge around the place.

Yep.

Well,

sorry. The, um, this thing here, I think I, I nicked a slat out of my mom's cedar, uh, barbecue chair.

Well, it's, look at it.

I think that one's done a couple of runs down at. Um, but yeah, the, uh, the other ones as, as my lures got more, uh, yeah, that, yeah, that's my, um, think, uh, I designed those ones to swim off steep point right to the face.

Yeah. So we, um, we built a heap of lures on the first trip we went up and I had a series of these lures that I'd made. My other mates made some pretty interesting ones. Yeah, that's a beauty of that one.

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Yep. That's good. Yeah. Little, uh, little, uh, pencil popper, but those, um, uh, floats,

nah, I mean, they, they're, yeah, they're all right and say about three, four kilo gear. But the, uh, the minnow, so the evolution, you can see there's, there's quite a bit of, um, uh, advanced technology there. I've got polycarbonate bib, full stainless wire throughout, and, uh, it was just a passion of mine. I, um, I wouldn't buy lures, I'd make 'em myself, or I'd buy one for a prototype.

There was a, a good macro run, uh, back in the late nineties. And they weren't big fish, but they were off Menari. There were tons of them. And my mate, Damien re said, you know, we're gonna go and try for some mackey's. And they had like a redhead, one of those. It was the, the bigger model. And we caught, um, forget what the bag limit on the boat was.

It was six or 12 or whatever. And I got, uh, only one other fish was caught on a alor CD 14. They all took my lure. And on the last, on the last thing, I felt sorry for this guy Pauly. So I hand him over my rod and he got like a 12 kilo Samson fish. So yeah, and they, um, but off the rocks, they, they're dynamite because steep point, you've got the shade line of the cliff.

That's where about 80% of the strikes will occur. So in that transition of light, obviously, you know, the, the bait fish use that as shelter, but also the macker will use that to come in and, and ambush. Yeah.

Yep. The shade line. Yeah. So, but any, yeah.

Um, uh, he's, um, I had him on the pedestal, but yeah, Hal Hal's a very, uh, yeah, very, um, unusual character I've always found himself. Not, not aloof, but he was that, you know, if he liked you, he, he wouldn't suffer fools. And the more I got to know him, the, the, the more he opened up. But, um, just, I would go to him for advice on gear and knowing that he was a fly fisherman, help me set up my first fly outfit and, you know, for salt water, stuff like that.

But, um, yeah, I, I think I fish with him maybe half a dozen times and quite an odd character if you don't know him

with the, with the cravat.

Yeah. I think his son Jack's still got that. He still runs it. Yeah. That's when he did the, the cravat and, uh, they made him a, a toasted sandwich and Hal's going, Hmm,

I've, I've got every, uh, copy of West Angle it's ever been made, I think.

Well, that's the latest one with the sand. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Testing out the seagull.

Nice.

Oh, good.

What I, um, I find, uh, with this whole thing of technology, and it's great for podcasts and, and music and stuff like that, but, um, I used to write articles for archery magazines, like hunting.

But yeah, so, um, yeah, writing articles. I love magazines and I would never read a, a digital format of a newspaper or anything like that. It's just something about it, it just doesn't gel. But magazines, I've collected thousands of them over my, you know, I've got all sorts of stuff there. And, um, all the Western anglers.

So if you're writing for West Angler hats off to you because it's a, um, I think keeping a tradition of pen to. And it's, it's, you've got shiny, you've got shiny paper, you've got glossy photos, and it's, it's a tactile thing as well. And the new magazine smells like a new magazine, so you're getting a bonus, you know.

Oh, that'd be good. That'd be really good. I

think I've got a suspicion you're gonna do pretty well.

I think the, um. The first, uh, trip we did to State Point, I had, uh, my mate Jumbo, um,

uncle Massive. He's, he's hilarious. He's, um, yeah, he's bloody funny. I was out, he was fishing with me yesterday. But, um, yeah, I got, uh, jumbo, um, chin and the Beast and we went to Steep Point and we had all these like little tackle workshops and we were making jigs and, you know, the white lead head jigs with the, the fire tail.

And I made hundreds of these things. I never caught a fish on one of them, but the minnows. Um, so that's where I, I kicked off first with my, that, that designer minnow. But um, yeah, definitely steep point, uh, unreal. But we went from there. I think we spent two weeks on the rock there, which is a lot of time there.

And we didn't have a, I think we had an army tent, but there'd been like a, a massive swell and all the rock pools had filled up with salt water and those little mosquitoes, you couldn't go anywhere. There was shade, there was like a million mosquitoes. So if you went for a, you know, sneak off for a dump or something, you have to do it during daylight hours because if you went, mate, I went for, you're like got like a bit of sage bush or something like brushing your terries, otherwise you, your balls look like a lamington.

So we went there just as a bit of relief. We went, um, dumped all the fish off at ASCO traders to a freezer and then we went up to the bluff and we were surfing there and do a bit of fishing. I saw these goats coming down off the cliffs and eating seaweed off the rocks. And I love hunting goats. I had my little hornet there.

I climbed, I said, I'm not gonna eat any more bloody, uh, 22 Hornet, little centif fire and beautiful, beautiful. And I was hand loading rounds for that as well. But um, I said, I'm gonna go and drill one of these goats and we're gonna cook it up on the camp oven. Anyway, mate, I'd been eating fish and potatoes for three weeks.

I was like a ru dog. We eaten a raw cooked bloody, I got sick of it, but, and ended up shooting this goat and, um, the beautiful fat nanny goat and the kids I saw eating the sea with. I couldn't find any of those up the top of the bluff. Stinking hot Christmas time. I saw these stinking Billy goats and there was three of 'em.

I shot the smallest one and he was still like. Pretty big old stinky goat and I went to, um, I'd forgotten to take a knife to process any of it. So I had to lift this past onto my shoulders, lent my rifle against a bloody bit of dead Carrara bush or something, point this thing up, fireman's lift. And um, as I was bending over the, get the rifle, I must have pressed on its bladder and it just pissed all over the back of my head.

And you know, the goats, they piss on themselves and they around that sort of, yeah, I've tried, it doesn't work, even help my mates out. I pissed on them, but it didn't help them. But, um, yeah, so I had to stink and we had a no hygiene policy, so for the six weeks we're away. We didn't have a shower. There was no soap, no toothpaste, and we had a pair of jocks and that was it.

My jocks, the elastic gave up on 'em. So I had, um, like a ade sticks to dial up. So if you wanted to take a shit, you just go, jocks had fallen out. You pull the sticks and then they'd come out. But, um, yeah, so I, I got the name, my mates could smell me and they said, nah, you're not, you're not sleeping in that, in the hut with us.

So I had to sleep out. I think I went down to the cave down the front of the, the bluff there when I was living in that.

Yeah, no, that, that's, there's the cave right on the, on the corner of the, where the cliff start. Yeah. But there was no, yeah, there was no dinghy then. Um, pretty much, well. It was just the old, there was an old shack, I think some of the ERO boys. Um, yeah, yeah. Well we, we, we had that to ourselves. And the first night where you, like we got, we got, uh, in the fireplace, we lit the fire and a bloody king brand came outta the, the thing into there was an old bench seat from a Ford on one side and there was a, a bench seat from a, uh, Kingswood or something.

And this frigging snake went into, into one of those and was certain it was like living in the, 'cause it came out the fireplace. Nah, well by that stage we drunk so many beers, we didn't really care where we went. But yeah, no, we had a fat time up there. But, so I told this story to my mate, uncle Nige and he, um, he started calling me Goat Man.

And, um, then him and I, we started, like, I'd take him over to Rot Nest and, 'cause I'd hop around on the rocks around there with no shoes on. He goes like, you're like a goat, you know, and I'd be like, zipping around. I'd just make sure my feet hard up. But yeah, he just nicknamed me Goat Man. So Thanks. Thanks Uncle Nige

doesn't smell like the one that was on the back of my neck.

It was intimidating seeing it on the, on the, on the hoof.

It's almost as wide as the back of the Hilux. I had struggled to get it in. So, um, yeah, I had the good fortune of meeting a couple of people up in the territory and, um, got a couple of, uh, welcome mats there. So when I go up there, I can hunt these things. Uh, yep. And a couple of guys that work up there as well.

But, um, this guy here was been fighting with another bull over a cow that was in season. I was lucky enough to see the whole fight. And these guys, when they crack heads, I mean, it's like, you know, dropping a bloody bowling ball on concrete.

They're crazy. Yeah. Well, you can, these guys run up from like 20 meters away and they, they put their heads down and bang. But, um, yeah, they're, they're very tough. Um,

yeah.

Well, even, even,

this is the last thing you wanna see if you trip over that's pressing down on you. So I think they weigh like 1500 kilos.

Uh, this guy I think was under 20, it was probably 15 meters. So, um, I think I had an ant nest and that was it. So an ant nest is not very good, not the one I was behind. It was only about that. So I spent about an hour coming in and um, yeah, we, I think, uh, I had my mate, French mate, Laurent, he'd got a nice bull the day before.

Uh, yeah, we, we got in close to these guys and managed to get a beautiful, I mean a relaxed animal, uh, a double lung shot and down he went,

oh, please get me starred on the gun laws.

Yeah, it's resource. Yeah. I mean, these guys in the, in the territory are, um, they do do a lot of damage, but, uh, yeah, I think they're introduced before there were reliable vehicles to utilize, you know, for farming and, and transport, uh, in between the wars or probably pre World War I. Um, and these are the only things that could get around in the foggy conditions.

Water, water buffalo imported in the 18 hundreds to provide milk. Um, and meat and, and just utilizes a beast of burden to get to some outback stations and, and, you know, transport mail, uh, goods anywhere in the Northern Territory because when the wet season comes in, you cut off and these guys could pull a wagon, train or, you know, they could pull logs, move rocks.

They used them like bulldozers and tractors, but, um, now they're running wild

rocks. Crocs will get the, the smaller ones and Bingo's will lead a couple of sick ones, but, uh, these guys have got no, nothing messes with them, but they, the good thing about 'em is they've, it's eyesight is brilliant. Sense of smell is second to a pig. Their ears. They've got these great big bloody radar.

This ears not quite as good as a donkey, but yeah, you've gotta, you earn every single one. You, you chase, I think, um, got about 15 of these so far. So this is one of the, the bigger ones. But I've got some other ones. I think at Downrange. There's a, a set of buffalo horns, uh, that's one of mine there. And there's another one back at home, which is a bit wider than this, but I couldn't get him off the wall.

But, um, yeah, brilliant. And to get, to get the adrenaline going. So if you have a look at, um, I've got some films on YouTube. There's solo Buffalo Hunt, Pete the Goat man,

I'll just, Pete the goat man on YouTube if you wanna see some fishing and, and hunting. I've got Rumble in the Jungle. Solo goat hunt, N nt pigs. I got the search for Big Kings,

but I, I went out, I went out. Um, so last time I went out and I'm outta the phone range. I've got no e and I've got no shoes. So I'm out hunting these guys just barefoot and I've built Smoker and I made the jerky and I was living off donkey in Buffalo for like 10 days. Donkey's good. Better than eating the meat off.

One of these, I tell you, if you've ever eaten a squash ball that tastes like beef, that's this, you gotta hang it for about three weeks. But the donkey, yeah, very good. So a big donkey steak on the bloody char grill and it's just make a little bit of blue cheese up there as well. So you make a bit of, bit of a sauce with it.

But yeah,

mate, your, your dear, I mean, you're in awe of the buff. My, my dear. I mean, I've, I've, I knocked one over at Man Up last year, and I hand the skin, I think we even cut the hooves off and the dogs played with those and ate, chewed them down. But the skin, the meat, the only thing that didn't get eaten, I think was the, I think we got the liver, the kidneys, the heart, and just the engine, the, the, the guts we left out on the ground and the rest of it came home and it was like the best, you know, we made hamburgers and Hamburg.

Yeah. Beautiful roast ribs. Oh, the, the whole thing. And I was like trading venison for crayfish. That's a, it's a good little, you know, I've got guys I bring back Wild Goat for and a lot of European guys and I'll get crayfish for goat. I reckon I'm getting the better end of the deal there.

Yep.

I think.

People have, yeah,

people have lost their way because you look. If I'm hungry, I'll, I'll call up Uber Eats and I'll get KFC or, or I don't have any smokes. I'll get, you know, Uber to get them for me some beer. I mean, nothing. You can't, there's nothing which isn't accessible with a phone call these days. But back in the day where you had chooks in the backyard and you, you'd, Sunday, Sunday was a, a chook roast.

You know, it's only like 30 or 40 years ago that people were knocking off chickens and eating them. And I've got the chook chook cup at home. We eat the eggs and our chooks are our, our mates. We know them. They've all got names, and they're beautiful. They're, they're great. They're, the dog loves them. But when it comes to respecting, um, I respect everything I hunt because like your deer, you've gotta get to, you've gotta get to know the deer before you're successful and you build a respect for that animal.

Like a fish. Any fish is a beautiful animal. Even a, a blowfish, there's. They are, they're very, they're, yeah. They're a unique, they're a unique critter, so, but, um,

it's,

yeah. Scorpio, I love eating and jogging. And disco dancing.

Mm. Any sort of whiting, that'd be one of them. Um, I do love the kingfish sashimi

and the humble herring and tailor, um, on toast in the morning. I, I, I like, like I, I, I've got a big place in my heart for the pink and I don't eat a lot of Dow fish, but I think if I was gonna pick them, um, but any fish you prepare and look after properly is gonna be better than any rubbish you buy in the shop.

So it'd have to be a, like a slice or a lead head. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. More like a bait fish profile. Like the little, like a a, yeah, like a smaller version of that. Like a little blue sardine one. Nothing, nothing. Doesn't eat those. Yep. Best boat snack. Uncle Mass has been feeding me, um, brainwaves. So brainwaves and, um, yeah.

What else is there? No, I, I don't eat much when I'm on the boat. They're good, but you need something to wash 'em down.

God, I'd love to go to Africa and, and hunt. Every pig species. So warthog, stuff like that. Bush pig. I've been to Africa, but yep. Yep. Um, no perch.

Send the, send the dudes they got in the films. Bill the bull.

Think I'm doing it now? Two for one.

No, that's, they're both of you boys.

Um, just respect the, respect your environment. Like look after the place you fish, don't overfish it. And just learn about the environment and learn as much you can about. What makes, what, what brings the fish there? Why? What are they eating? How can I catch them? And what time of the year? Just, just getting tuned a bit more with nature instead of, you know, instead of, there's so much stuff on computers and stuff like that.

Just get back, get your feet in the sand and learn. Yeah, learn. Learn your craft. It's the same as hunting. You gotta, it's a transition from, like you're saying, being, uh, a road down to self-sufficiency. So.

I've got the, uh, I'm still in the fear and loathing thing here, but the first interview I did on tv and these boys called me up and they said, you don't know us, but we're starting a, uh, a clothing company. Uh, the Menace Boys, the womens, and um, and basically, uh, indestructible clothing. And they said, can you wear one of our shirts or a hat or something on the, the TV interview?

I said, no worries at all. And since then, they have fishing competitions. Uh, they've, they, yeah, they, they do the, uh, they support the local junior surfing and surfing comps. They have golf days. These guys are a small business, a local business, um, absolute gems, and yeah,

well, you, you guys versus me and uncle massive or, or whitey

legend. Hey, it's been absolute pleasure and, uh, and the presence of greatness. Thank you, gentlemen.

Time Flies flies.