WELCOME TO THE RODCAST!

WE ARE ON HERE!

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In this pilot episode of Tall Tails Fishing Podcast, Lecca and Rothy dive into their upbringing and how fishing has been stitched into the fabric of their lives. They share the story behind why they felt the need to start the Rodcast and what listeners can expect from the episodes to come.

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In this short & punchy episode, the lads talk about...

• Upcoming guests and some Tall Tails looming on the horizon

• Lecca’s recent beach session with the one and only Goatman

• A nod to the legendary Fishing in the Wild West book

• Each of the lads’ all-time favourite fishing moments

• A couple of tales of sharing the froth -  Lecca watching his son land his very first Barra, and Rothy repaying the favour with a few snapper to his Uncle that taught him how to fish.

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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

🎣  Welcome to The Tall Tails Fishing Rodcast!  🎣
The Mad Men, The Trailblazers, & the Pioneers 

Transcript

Mark Lecras  0:00  
121, go.

Jake Rotham  0:21  
Alrighty. Tall Tales, the pilot. Thank you everybody for your patience. We've been posting about this on Instagram a little bit for the last few weeks. Let and it's actually, to my surprise, a lot of people that are hitting us up want to hear from us. So, yeah, it's good, but we're here. We're finally doing it. How you going? Bro? You good?

Mark Lecras  0:40  
Yeah, I'm going good mate. It is exciting. I would say it's good to finally be here. But we've been actually doing a little bit of groundwork there the past week or two. We've actually got some good, good episodes already under our belt. So this is a good one to knock out, just to give a little intro and a teaser to what we've been doing and what everyone can look forward to. So yeah, Stoke, mate. Love. Been loving doing the podcast. Stoked I'm able to do it with you. I've just been sitting around for the last half an hour watching you said,

Jake Rotham  1:11  
will come, mate, don't worry, your time will come.

Mark Lecras  1:14  
I feel like I've just rocked up on a charter boat, and I'm just about to look at the skipper and say, give me a nod when I should just drop a line and the

Jake Rotham  1:21  
seagull, it is fitting you get all the fish handed to you and all the podcast work. But mate, what should we start with? We've why are we doing this? Like I've come to you and a little while ago, I've had this idea for a little while, and mate, not to blow your trumpet any harder, but couldn't think of a better person to be doing it with. Man, I'm stoked you are here. Doing it with me, and I think our experience with fishing is quite different as well. Yeah, you know, you've been fishing your whole life. You grew up in a fishing family. I also grew up in a in a fishing family, somewhat Not, not as deeply entrenched as yourself, but, yeah. Man, what was it like growing up in Savannah. He's like, this has been a lifelong passion of yours. Tell us about growing up in a in a fishing family. Obviously, everyone knows you for your footy, but I'd say knowing you now you're you're an outdoorsman first, and a footy player second,

Mark Lecras  2:13  
ultimate outdoorsman.

Mark Lecras  2:16  
That's my quest in life. When my wife asked me, What are you doing getting up at 3am I was like, what my quest, like, my my goal is to become the ultimate outdoorsman. Not don't have to be the best at everything or anything. It's just well rounded. That's my that's my hunting, yeah, fishing, hunting and ball driving, camping, the whole lot. But just before I go to savannahs, I will touch on, like, our the difference in our in our styles and our personalities, as to why I think this will be a good podcast. Like, I obviously love it, like you said, grow up Cray fishing family, but for me, I have plenty of opportunity, through some of the work that I do, to get up and down the coast. And podcast, for me was like, Oh man, there's so much that people don't get to hear about and find out about, and lots of people that I get to meet in stories that need to make it to air and need to be told 100% man, lot of these people aren't necessarily, you know, people that love being in front of the camera or whatever, but they dedicate their whole life to one particular region or one particular species. And I just sit there and talk to them and just lap it up whenever I meet these people, and then when it came to us talking about it, I know you've been talking about doing a podcast for a long time, so and I was always pushing into it. I was like, mate, you got to do it. Yeah, you were my biggest supporter. I was kind of sitting there going, imposter syndrome. I can't do this. I've been fishing long enough I don't know how to how to fish very well at this point. But it's not necessarily about that as well. It's not man, not at all. We're not here pretending like we're the best fisherman or whatever it's this. This is stories want to learn along the way. But like said, when, when you were talking about doing one, I thought, you know, great idea. And then the opportunity come for us to do it together. And when I go fishing with you, or when I talk to you, like, we both love fishing, but we've got, like, different styles. I'm probably a bit rougher on my gear. I'm a bit just wing it, whereas you are, like, right into the finer details. That's ADHD.

Jake Rotham  4:17  
ADHD, I've got

Mark Lecras  4:20  
I've got the opposite. I just got a photo of one of my fishing reels sent back to me that I'd sent in to get service. Then something looked like a fishing reel anymore, looked like it was on the Titanic. So he asked me if it had been submerged, but, but? And I just figured, right? It was like, this is going to be perfect, because we'll balance off each other, you know, with some of the finer details, the stuff that I've got no idea about, you're really knowledgeable. So I think it'll it'll work well for the viewers. I'll touch on savannas. So my childhood was, grew up son of a Cray fisherman. Grandad was Cray fisherman as well. Before that was a farming background, but we just had nothing to do. Other than play footy and and fish as kids and surf and stuff like that. So real coastal upbringing, small town where one road in, one road out, and we ran them up, and I basically cut my teeth beach fishing. I used to get seasick pretty bad as a kid, yeah, like we all do, it seems. And it was herring and Taylor, so that was, that was my introduction to fishing. And, yeah, as early as I can remember, I've always done it. So I know, I know yours, like you said, you've got some fishing in the bloodlines, yeah. But a bit of a different story to mine. Yeah,

Jake Rotham  5:37  
man, yep. So for me, it was kind of started. It was around all the time, so I spent a lot of time. Of time with my grandma and granddad. We call him bat we called my grandma batty and granddad down at their house, babysitting and whatnot. Well, it's a long story. It's actually got to do with a bit of our photographer, who's actually my my cousin. He couldn't say, he couldn't talk very well, but my mom had a boyfriend at the time named Brad, and my grandma got sick of him saying hey, he would always go, hey, hey. And she said, No, you're not saying hey to me anymore. You can call me anything, but hey. And the only word he could say was, was Brad, but he couldn't pronounce the R, so we used to say bad and bad became bad. That's kind of he was the oldest. We just all followed. But anyway, granddad was really into his fishing. So he was a beach fisherman that Alvy, that's sitting right in front of us here, no if the camera can see it, so I'll hold it up. But that Whopper stopper there aluminum, cast iron or cast aluminum, whatever it is, Alvie belonged to him, and he was fortunate enough that when they moved over when my mum was six, so that would have been, I think she's 64 so that would have been 1970 when they moved over. Their next door neighbor was a guy by the name of George Holman that was very well known for his casting abilities and being an absolute weapon beach fisherman. So my granddad was fishing for, like, carp and that sort of thing in the lakes of of England. They grew up in Windsor. Yeah. His dad was actually a guard to the Queen, so he was very busy all the time, and he went away to war a little bit. So, yeah, he he grew up fishing over there, and then he met George, and George kind of took him under his wing in a fishing sense, and they did a lot of trips together. Became past of the part of the surf casters club of Western Australia. They were, they back on the robin reserve down in Sorrento there, and they were casting sinkers around seeing how far they could cast on an oval similarly throw like a javelin or whatever, they'd just be pinging sinkers and a bit of downward that they'd attach onto their rig to imitate a bit of bait. So anyway, grand I got an efficient through that, and I was always around the houses, I was saying, and there was Western angler magazines or articles that he'd pick up from, you know, any type of literature about fishing, and prizes that he'd win in the local fishing comps and stuff. And the thing that he always used to do for us every birthday and Christmas, me in particular, because I guess I took a bit more of an interest in it compared to my brothers, was put a little pack of hooks or floats or whatever, together. So when it came time to go on family holidays, we would go to Moore river every year. And that's sort of where my my love for fishing was birth, just catching Brita Whiting. But I'm sure we'll get to that

Mark Lecras  8:14  
as we, as we move through these parties mate. But yeah, what else we gotta touch on it? Well, what have your transition to now. What are you What have you been targeting lately? Any any fishing or, yeah,

Jake Rotham  8:24  
a little bit. I actually took my little cousin Coby up to, oh, I nearly gave away my spot just now up to my secret spot, been showing him how to sort of catch Taylor on Luis. He's taken interest in it the last couple of years. So we went up to a little secret Honey Hole. And just usually this, this particular spot, turns on mid winter. But it's good to test the waters early. And just know, you know, with these water temps that we've got at the moment, how fish are reacting to it? Yeah, it did pretty well on a couple of tailor on on top water, which was sick COVID, got his new PB. It's only 42 centimeters, but we'll take that start somewhere. He was frothing. Yeah, wicked, yeah. Well, what about you? You've been fishing. I actually

Mark Lecras  9:02  
have last time I went fishing, and this will probably lead into where we want to go with this is was with the Goat Man. Oh, I see, yes, our first guest, yeah. So our first guest on the potty was the goat man, and he so that was the first time I'd met him. Classic story, and obviously the Epps released now. So after this one, if you haven't already listened to it, go and give it a listen. Because he's a he's a different dude, but he is a genius when it comes to fishing mate. He knows these areas we talk. I talked about people that we wanted to really get out there and help, you know, bring a lot to that, dedicate their life to certain fisheries. And isn't he? He's he is it mate. So for Metro, inshore fishing, yellowtail, kings, tailor, all that sort of stuff, we found out that how much he's he's done, and how much he loves it.

Jake Rotham  9:55  
I already know Goat Man too. So for those that don't know Goat Man, that's obviously. His nickname. His real name's Pete Riley. He's a local legend down at trig point where I grew up surfing, and I only really got to know him recently through a video that he posted. We won't touch on it now, but off we can touch on it. He'll tell the story, but he's the guy that basically walked into the rottu pub with a massive kingfish over his shoulder and went totally viral all over the newspapers. I think he even had channel seven come and film a, like, a pretty decent segment on it. It was huge. Yeah, he's an absolute character, and he touches on that on that first episode, which is just, it's classic. It's going to be really hard to top that episode. But yeah, we had Goat Man on, and he just really, really knows his staff

Mark Lecras  10:41  
well. I found out how much he knows because I said, right, let's go. We're going to film an episode for the full drive show that is one of your your, yeah, it's one of my daily jobs. Yeah, it's a bit of a pretty, a real good gig, actually, because, like I said, I get lots of opportunity to travel the coast doing that. And, all right, let's go. And he was super keen to to film this episode. And I thought, oh, loves a camera, doesn't he, yeah, but I think it's, it's always hard when you tee up an episode, because you like, mate, we need to make it happen. Like, we've got a camera, man, we're doing all that.

Jake Rotham  11:15  
Like, there's a bit of weather that comes into it too, like, conditions, yeah, you know. So he

Mark Lecras  11:20  
was like, and then I think his wife said, the night before, you better go make sure there's, there's fish down there. Yeah. So I was busy the night before, and I'll just get this message. I think you might have got the message,

Speaker 1  11:31  
yeah, he's been spamming with every fish he's ever gone two months. Hey boys, I think we'll be fine tomorrow night. And he just holds up this big tailor. And I was like, All right, thanks. Like, he's, he's done the groundwork. Man, I was away at work at the time, and I was actually spewing to get that message, because I got serious FOMO when I got that age. They're good fish too. Oh, mate.

Mark Lecras  11:50  
And yeah, they are. And there's a nice little hole there that we he planned on fishing so we get there. And he was great in front of the camera, but the Fisher was No, not at all. Mate just started flapping his gun. He was wicked. He was giving ideas. He's like, I'll drive up. No, hey you, yeah. Anyway, born for it. So we went down, and he got a nice fish early, so that sort of took the pressure off. And then actually did some ceviche with Taylor. And it was ceviche. Taylor, yeah, it was unreal. Like, why? Really? Yeah, oily. Like, fishy, fish, if, if it was so, like, bled it straight away, and then, yeah, just cut it into chunks, lime, onion, like, avocado. Is that

Jake Rotham  12:35  
the same recipe? We had a shame, gotcha in the

Mark Lecras  12:39  
citrus with corn chips and that come up? That come up wicked. So he's actually made it sense. But yeah, anyway, we ended up getting a couple more Taylor, and it'll be a good little episode. And he's a, yeah, he was just a good character. So that's the last time I went fishing. Do

Jake Rotham  12:53  
you know when that's coming out for people to watch? Then we'll check it out. Yeah, it'll be out this

Mark Lecras  12:56  
season. So it'll be, yeah, probably, I don't know, six to eight, probably an eight week turnaround. So probably in a couple of months time. Where

Jake Rotham  13:03  
is it for anyone that wants to go and check out the

Mark Lecras  13:07  
it airs 530 on Saturdays, sort of in between the footy and the news on seven Oh, Prime Time and seven plus. And I think there's another follow up where it's on seven mate at some time as well.

Jake Rotham  13:19  
I actually am a terrible co host here, and I put my hand up, I haven't been supportive enough to actually go and watch that. Just I need to go and watch back a bunch of episodes, because I know there's some bangers in there. Yeah, we've got some. We've had some really good trips. We've got some wicked fish over the journey. It's like four seasons in now. So it's been fun, but we also we won't, we won't bang on too much about about that. Like you said, we'll be plenty more of us doing these pods together and talking about ourselves and what's been happening. But we've had a couple of other you should be pretty good at that, mate. Yeah, we, we've had some other guests as well that we probably want to just give a little teasers to what's coming up. Yeah, man. So second episode, you managed to line up somebody who, I guess you referred to at the time as somebody that's been a fishing mentor. For you. We've all had a fishing mentor. I've definitely had him over the time, but this guy is somewhat of a special fishing mentor, none other than Craig white Whitey from evolution Fishing Charters, and I'd never met Whitey before. What a legend that like is. He's like, big, burly tattoo bloke. You think, oh god, he's like, I didn't know what to take, remember, but he's, he's, he's a big softy, but, and hell, he can spin a yarn man. And he has spent so much time on the water. And for lack of a better term, or, you know what it's, it's actually the best way to put it. He's pioneered certain fisheries around Western Australia. He definitely has, yeah, and, man, he's got some some chats. But

Mark Lecras  14:46  
with that episode, it's like, that was a for me, that was awesome, because it was, like, we spoke a lot about fishing, and then he built up to a couple of All Time Stories,

Jake Rotham  14:56  
Oh, yeah. Like, I it's, actually, it's all in the name, like, tall. Tales. I've decided to call it tall tales, because every fisherman tells you a story, and they might show you a photo of how big a fish was, and then they'll tell you, what was it wait this march or whatever. And you're like, Yeah, bullshit, mate, like, whatever. But when Whitey opens his mouth and starts talking about these stories, you kind of just sit there and you go, Holy fuck. Like, did this actually happen? And we had my best mate come in here. Super supportive. Jeeves shout out to Jeevan. He came and sat in for that episode, and as soon as we stopped pressing record, he showed me his arm, and he goes, dude, I have goosebumps. Like that was the craziest story. And, man, just wait, just make sure you tune in for the next episode with Craig white, because that thing is, I cannot believe it's still some of those.

Mark Lecras  15:47  
I reckon that we just scratched the surface with him as well. I'd love to get him in again, because I feel like there's multiple other stories there where we could, we could get out of him that, yeah, you know, someone who spent their whole life on the water, yeah, probably doesn't even think it's a great story, but for us, we'll be sitting here in awe. So we've had a couple other good guests as well that we have. We have bank that'll come out fairly soon, with Scott Coughlin and Owen Douglas as well, which is the grandson of Malcolm Douglas, who is an absolute ripper. Yeah.

Jake Rotham  16:16  
So I actually posted some photos on the Instagram page last week of Malcolm, thanks to the Kimberley on Instagram. At the Kimberley, I grabbed some of his photos. What's his actual name? Do you know his his name? I'm sure Owen said, I apologize, mate, but yeah, unreal Instagram page. He basically followed Malcolm around during his pioneering days. I love seeing anybody. Yeah, we'd love to get him on. He'd have some stories for sure, but yeah, got Owen Douglas on posted those photos of Malcolm, and they were, they got the most interactions, as far as sharing comments and likes go like that. That one really surprised me. But people obviously really looked up to Malcolm and what he did, and I know you did for sure, so that was a special episode for you. But yeah, his grandson, Owen, my first time meeting on like pretty impressive young man, really, for how old he is and how well he speaks. But yeah, tell us a bit about that one.

Mark Lecras  17:06  
Yeah. So yeah, I'd met Owen a number of times. Obviously, like you said, I grew up watching a lot of Malcolm Douglas stuff, and actually wrote an article in the western angler that's just coming out now, and a bit of it is about how that sort of inspired me to want to get up to that, yeah, to that Kimberly region. And having met Owen through doing the the fall drive shows and stuff that I've done, I realized, Oh, he's pretty, pretty clued on, young kid, and I realized how much he loved fishing, so I knew he'd be a great guest, but he still surprised me with how good he speaks and some of the fishing stuff he did he you know, he grew up in Sydney and then moved up to Broome, so he's got some good stories himself. But he also spoke a bit about his granddad. So if you love Malcolm Douglas, that's a good listen that one.

Jake Rotham  17:52  
Yeah, sick. Another guest we had in between Scotty and Owen was Jake Spencer, a mate of ours that we've been fishing with a little bit lately, probably not so much a older head that has all that experience, but he's quite a young guy, but someone that I've got to know through one of my local tackle shops, complete angry Netherlands. But Jace is very, very knowledgeable. Has moved into a career in fisheries. Loves his fishing more than anybody. And again, he's, he's a stickler for details when it comes to fishing, and some we went fishing with him up at Cervantes, probably, I don't know, two months ago now, when the demersal fish were open and mate, some of the science that he was sharing with us, and just backs on fish, and that sort of thing was pretty mind blowing. And we never really intended on having a younger person that was in that sort of fisheries realm in on the podcast so soon. But I just thought it was too good of an opportunity, with the info that he had and our sessions being fresh in our mind, not to have him on. But yeah, we were, we were pretty blown away by him as well, another young lad with with really good chat. He's

Mark Lecras  18:57  
a he's a real impressive kid, especially when it comes I can call him a kid. I'm pretty I'm getting pretty old now. Yeah, he's mid 20s, mid 20s, but it for me, it's just good to see people like that getting a career in, like, the industry and like, he obviously worked at complete angler for a long time, and loves fishing, like you said, but for people like that to then move into the fisheries, yeah,

Jake Rotham  19:21  
it's good stewardship, isn't it? It's a happy medium between, you know, some of, I won't say lockouts, because some of them are required, but just some of the rules that are being put in place. And then, you know, you got somebody like Jace, who's working in that field, you know, with the science and that sort of thing, but he's also a fisherman. So that's handy to know that somebody that is working in fisheries is, you know, invested in this as well. He's got skin in the game. But, yeah, that that was an awesome chat as well.

Mark Lecras  19:52  
Who else we got on? We got Kurt Waterman coming up. That's going to be a good one. He's, we're about to sit down with Kurt Waterman, actually, after this. So. A best talker in the in the land? I'd say, Yeah, I played footy with his cousin, so I might have a little bit of dirt on him. So these will all be coming up over the over the coming weeks for you guys. So

Jake Rotham  20:12  
if you've got any other guests that you want to recommend to us as well, I'd say, reach out. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Like, even through the Instagram page where I've been posting, there's been some people that have recognized some of the photos that have been putting up. So I will just add really quickly, a lot of these photos that we have been posting. I'll just reach over here onto the table. Have come from this book in my hand right here, which is fishing in the wild west from Ross Cusack, Mike Rohn. Felt I spoke about my granddad earlier on, but I actually bought this for you. Lecker, I ordered it off Ebay. I found so that's a gift to you. Stoked to be doing this together, man. So I just wanted to buy that version. Maybe it can be a bit of a family helo that you can pass down to Rex. Definitely. Billy, it's in me condition that one compared to the old one that my granddad passed down to me. But I scanned a bunch of the photos out of out of that book, and I apologize to anybody that I've credited wrong in that book as far as photos go, but lot of people been, I guess, coming across the Instagram page and and saying, Hey, that's me in that photo. That's my father in law, or that's my dad or whatever, and that's been really cool to see. So what I've been doing is reaching out to those people, doing a bit of groundwork in the background. And yeah, hopefully we'll get some some guests on from that. So on the rain and that, that lady that's on the back is actually Michelle Radford, so I went to school with her son and her husband, Craig's a multiple world record holder, or get him on. Yeah, he's, he's pretty keen to come on. Actually, gotta, gotta give him a buzz and have a chat about it. This has still

Mark Lecras  21:47  
got the original price,

Mark Lecras  21:52  
95 the old sticker.

Jake Rotham  21:53  
So it's gone up in value because I paid more

Mark Lecras  21:57  
in northern I was just reading it on the desk thing. And I won't have to get online and try and try and find

Jake Rotham  22:02  
one of those. I don't have it. There's yours, mate. I'm actually going to go home tonight and buy another two copies, because I think once we release this, people want to they'll start.

Mark Lecras  22:09  
Yeah, wicked. I appreciate that. I actually might just put it right right here. That's my

Jake Rotham  22:16  
prize catch, but that's a really good segue. So we're not going to keep this too long. We want to focus on our main episodes with our guests and whatnot. But I've got a couple of questions to fire at you like. So what is your most memorable fishing moment? It can be a fish, it could be a trip or anything like that. What is the most that when I talk fishing and memories, what's the first thing that pops into your head?

Mark Lecras  22:39  
Oh, I'll give you two real quick ones, because I feel like it's split with me now, because I'll have a real strong split. Too good. Yeah, I've got a real strong childhood memory, and then I've got one more recent so for me, one of my most like cherished memories as a kid was going to Shark Bay and camping with my dad. And for me, it was like our first big trip. We went up to bottle Bay, up towards Cape

Jake Rotham  23:07  
spot. Man, lucky enough to go there last year, yeah, epic spot. And

Mark Lecras  23:11  
so back in the day, we could camp, we could have fires. There's no fires in that there, I don't think anymore, parent National Park. So, yeah, no, I might not have been allowed to have fires then, anyway, but we did, and it was so tense and camping. And we went up there, and there's obviously the red cliffs. And I just remember, like walking down, like a billy goat down these cliff faces, and then flicking out. And I was catching brim up at the point there, yeah, just up right up at the point, just off the rocks, catching these, like big, thick brim, just done the little bait and Bree marno, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I've since been back there and and caught some amazing fish up in that region as well. But for me, that really was like, wow. Like, this is camping. This is fish. This is why I want to go full drive, and this is why I want to go camping. This is like, I want to do these trips. That was so for me, that was one of my fondest memories. This is taking away the beach fishing stuff that I grew up doing, yep. And then most recently, I went up a couple of years ago. I think it was 2022, just around that COVID sort of phase. And I was doing a caravan trip with my family, and I did a day's trip out with burchi. Sam Burch from Bert. She's fishing tours. Yeah, he's ended up being like a great mate, pretty special human I've heard. He's heard his story so and we've fished a lot since, but the first time I ever met him, he took us to the banks of the Pentecost river. I did a day's fishing with me, my son, Rex, and then he came out with his son, Patrick, yeah, and we cast all our live baits off. And I was just sitting back like going, Oh, this is, this is wicked. And then I remember just looking over at Birch, and he grabbed Rex, and he grabbed a bait caster with a HELCO rooster Popper, very, pretty much that, but the blue one, yep. So. And. Color the 80, I think it is, yeah. And he goes, Oh, come on. I'll teach you how to cast this. And I was like thinking to myself, Oh, he's just killing time. Yeah. While the live we wait for the live baits to go off, and anyway, he was casting it out, and then Rex was retrieving it, yep. And I think on about the third cast, I was sitting back just watching, thinking, Oh, that's good by burchi, yeah. And 80 centimeter Barrows just launched out of the water and just smashed the popper. And he saw the whole, saw the whole thing. It was all like, and he, I just watched his face just like, light up, and he just held onto this fishing rod, yeah. And he's wounded in and got an 80 centimeter barrel on the banks of the Pentecost River, on a surface lure for his first ever Barra, no way. And I just remember thinking, mate, you don't know what you've just done. Like, yeah, people go their whole life. Lucky bugger. You lucky. And like, so we still talk

Jake Rotham  25:55  
about that, mate burchi, like traditional owner, was able to take you guys out with his son, your son, you know what? What a special

Mark Lecras  26:03  
and that Emery, and that's where fishing is great, right? So man, Bertie, bonded over some of those moments you

Jake Rotham  26:09  
hadn't met before that. How did you get linked up with Bertie? It was I

Mark Lecras  26:13  
tried to go fishing with someone else, and

Mark Lecras  26:18  
he wasn't around and bloated on you up there, yeah. And he's just said, hit up, birchie, yep. And then, like, said, Patrick, come out. The kids got along. But for me, that's like, my like, I don't think I'll top that for a fishing memory, watching your son do that with such a wicked spot. And then, like I said, now we've, you know, we've been back there and fished quite a bit with burchi as well. So yeah, he's come down and visit you. He stays with me. Comes down to Perth. I've got him under Jews and stuff like that. Yeah, he is sick. Become

Jake Rotham  26:45  
great mates over over fishing, which is kind of why I love it so much too. Tell me about yours, mate. Um, well, seeing as though you have just touched on something that's special to you as well, I was actually just going to talk about a fish, but my uncle taught me how to fish. So I spoke about my granddad earlier on, and you know, the influence that he had on me. For some reason, his health sort of slowly declining at the moment, unfortunately. But when we were kids, he never really actually took me fishing. It was just he was always quite busy. He didn't have a lot of money. He was a TAFE lecturer as well. Four kids, always kind of really doing his own thing. He always sort of stuck to himself a little bit in that regard. But He taught his son how to fish. Neil, who's been a real father figure to me throughout my whole life, and a really close friend, you know, as I've gotten older, and I was actually able to take him out on my tinny recently, which was pretty epic, and he's only ever fished off the beach, never really done much boat fishing at all, if any. I took him out locally and was just telling him about the inshore snapper that I've kind of sussed out the recipe for it over the last year. And I was telling him about it, and I was like, Look, this is like flicking a switch. All of a sudden when the sun comes up, they snapper are going to the sound is gonna light up, and both rods would probably bend over at the same time. He's like, bullshit, mate. Like, really, actually. And I'm like, yeah, just, just watch. But anyway, he taught me how to fish, and fishing for me has, I won't go too deep in it or get emotional, or nothing like that, but it's really been something that I've reverted to when, you know, maybe times are tough. I'm not having a great week or, you know, I just need a little bit of alone time, and it's really helped me, you know, with just managing mental health, not that I've had poor mental health or anything, but just to reset and things like that with everyone, yeah, it's kind of meditative. And, you know, I don't know what I'd be doing without fishing. To be honest, I've, like I said before, I'm ADHD, I've had a heap of different hobbies, but fishing has always been the constant. And he kind of gave me a gift by by teaching me how to fish. That's the greatest gift that somebody can give you, I think, is teaching you how to fish and catch food for your family. But anyway, I was able to repay the favor and get him on some epic pinkies out from from trig. Recently, he was frothing, mate. It was such a sick session, and we just had some real good chats on the boat that day. And just seeing the smile on my uncle's face, you know, getting him onto a couple of good fish was was pretty epic. But other than that, I'll just say that is

Mark Lecras  29:13  
the beauty of fishing. And what we're talking about here is, like, What's your most special memory? Because

Jake Rotham  29:17  
of us have actually spoken, you know, about a fish, have we our own fish? You don't know when the next moment's coming as well. Like that session. You know, it could have been a donut, but you walked away from that and you were like, it probably hit you at the time. So yeah, what about the next one for you guys? So the other one was, it's a it's either that molaway That's in the frame right next to you, or it's a dewy but I've just touched on getting somebody else onto a fish, so I'm going to go a little bit selfish here. So that mullaway In this frame right here, I don't know if you can see. I'll put up a photo anyway, on the social reels so everybody can see it. But that's my first mullaway called out of the Swan River, which is pretty sick, like you know, grew up in Perth, so Swan River. Has always been a constant thing that you always lay eyes on if you're going over the Narrows Bridge in the freeway or whatever. Never, ever. Once would I have thought that fish that big exist in that river? I just bought my tinny about six months earlier. I was out there with my great mate, Anton, that I've actually learned a lot. He's younger than me, but I've learned a lot about fishing off him. He's a bit of a wizard, and I'd seen on the charts that the wind was going to be good, the moon phase was kind of doing some things that I'd heard mullaway react well to and crazy down the water too. Like I'd heard that mullaway don't like boat traffic, but this day was flat out. There was charter boats going past us. There was like it was full on. Man, it was. It was hectic in the lower reaches of the War of of the Swan, and bouncing a soft plastic along the bottom, and all I had was hope. I didn't have the experience to rely on anything. We were just in a particular area that we knew was pretty hot for mullies, and we'd been there about an hour. Kind of was ready to give up. And bang, bang was on. And Anton turns around. He goes, No, you snagged. And I'm like, No, dude, like, I can feel something pulsing through my rod, yeah. And I don't think this fish had actually woken up for like 20 seconds or so, but on a 4000 ser Tate light gear on a plastic that's wicked and put up a wicked fight. I haven't posted the video anyway, but anywhere but we've got it all on footage? Yeah, there's a few really obvious landmarks in that video. So I don't think that one day, but you and I were actually talking, I think you were fishing with Maxie San a bit, trying to get one yourself. At the time, we had a little bit of a competition. Who's gonna get one first? I think I sent that photo to you first. Like, get that up. Yeah,