Ep.23 | Tommy Miller | Marlin, Southwest Kingfish & Tournament Success

In this episode we’re joined by Bunbury local Tommy Miller.

Tommy has built a serious reputation in the WA fishing scene as a versatile angler, comfortable everywhere from jigging deep to chasing pelagics offshore.

Fresh off winning the 2025 Sovereign Blue Marlin Classic with his dad Dusty and mate Sam Colvin, we break down how they did it and what anglers should be thinking about heading into the 2026 comp.

We cover the wins, the lessons, and the bigger conversations shaping fishing in WA right now.

You’ll hear about

• Tommy’s fishing upbringing and influences
• His 28ft Contender centre console setup
• Winning the Sovereign Blue Marlin Classic
• Why Tommy and Sam rate it as the best value game fishing comp in the country
• Targeting new species and expanding your fishing playbook
• Discovering an unreal south west kingfish fishery
• First thoughts on WA’s new demersal closure rules
• The growing divide between recreational and commercial fishing
• Fishing Useless loop in Shark Bay
• & much more!

Plenty of insight. Plenty of opinion. Plenty of laughs!

Sovereign Blue Marlin Classic 2026

If you've ever wanted to have a crack at Game Fishing in WA, the 2026 Sovereign Blue Marlin Classic is one to be involved in!

Running from 28 February - 2 March 2026

Click here to learn more

The iconic Sovereign Blue Marlin Classic is back for its 47th year and it’s shaping up to be a cracker.

Why this comp is a no brainer

• Massive $120,000 prize pool

• Daily marlin cash prizes to keep things spicy all weekend

• Outstanding value for both first time game fishers and seasoned crews

• Early bird entries open until the end of January

• Expecting up to 60 boats and around 240 anglers in 2026

If you’ve ever thought about stepping into game fishing, or you’re already hooked, this is a comp that delivers bang for buck and serious bragging rights!

Key dates

• 28 February – 2 March 2026

• Fremantle, Perth Western Australia

• The 47th running of the Sovereign Blue Marlin Classic

Game Fishing Info Night

Want to sharpen your skills before the big weekend?

• Thursday 29 January @ Fremantle Sailing Club

• Game fishing presentations

• Bluewater fishing masterclass

• Perfect for newcomers and experienced anglers getting dialled for the Classic

TALL TAILS!

Honouring the past & acknowledging the future of Australian Fishing Culture.

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INTRO TUNE
🥩 Red Bellied Black Snake - The Beefs 🥩
Courtesy of Sam Smith
Click here to listen to The Beefs on Spotify

For all enquiries about Tall Tails Fishing Podcast, please contact jakerotham@gmail.com

Transcript

 You can hear through your headphones. What's that? Can you hear through headphones? Fucking Alright, well we're recording I reckon. Uh, cca, you can introduce these boys. One of them we already know. We have a newbie to the podcast. 

Yeah, so, well I suppose the, the best way to intro this one is this year rothi me and you, or next year actually, sorry.

This is gonna be released in 2026. This six released early January. So yeah, so 2026 we are gonna be fishing the sovereign Blue Marlon Classic right here out of Perth. And what better way to lead into that competition than to get last year's winners into the hot seat. So we've got Tommy Miller, uh, absolute guru when it comes to, to fishing and game fishing.

Um, has done multiple comps, but like I said, he won the Blue Marlon Classic last year and we got Sammy Colvin back in as well. So Sammy was in the boat with him last year. Um, so we're gonna pick their brains because we need all the help we can get do, 

mate. We are a couple of wood ducks up. Walking into enemy territory.

We don't know the slightest thing about game fishing, so we're here to soak it up like a sponge. So welcome to the potty boys. Mm, yes boys. Thanks Tommy. We start every episode off, mate. With the last fish caught. I know you just got back from the heavy tackle up at xy, so I'm assuming it's a bill. 

Fucking hope so.

I've got a fucking bill when I left. I know that. Uh, yeah. Uh, 120 kilo blue Marlon, the old man cook. Nice. Yeah. 

How good. So your old man was on the boat as well with, with you? Yep. 

Yep. 

He winds most of him in. Yeah. Yep. So, and you were skipping. Yep. So I, I wanna ask you, we're probably straight into this as well, like, like most podcasts go, but, um, I was gonna ask you where you got into fishing and where it all started for you.

I have heard of a few rumors. Myself and Rothi have sort of heard that your old man's a bit of a gun fisherman as well. I'm assuming that he sort of got you into it. Yeah, well 

the older he gets the fucking better he was. Um, but yeah, he, the old man was always fish game max fish and phen ale. Fish, fish, fish, fish, fish, fish.

Um, guess I was born into it, um, in the blood. Yeah. But I wasn't really pushed into it. It was like, and he'll say that too, like, he's like, oh, you know, if he wants to do it, he can do it if he doesn't wanna do it. Well, so it is, but um, like I was never, I wasn't allowed to go to Game X until I was 16 and stuff like that.

But we fished phac a couple of times and a few other things. 

So. So what, what's your earliest memory then of, of fishing? Is it with your old man, is it? 

Yeah, yeah. So, uh, we used to do shitloads of fishing at home, um, whiting and brim and salmon. All the other stuff, but the tournament side of 

things never really happened until I was 16.

Yeah. Yep. But were you, were you a young lad just itching to get up there with your old boy pretty Oh, pretty 

much. Yeah. Like, um, game X obviously used to be in November for 10 days, and I was always mad keen and the old man was either fishing at a tournament or working flat out, um, so like had Christmas holidays and whatnot.

The old man was always working shut down work. I mean, we're still doing it now. So, um, and then he'd, he'd go a lot buggery and then he'd be off for game X and whatever, and he'd be straight back into work. So any sort of gap we got between their school, holidays, whatever we fish. But life was 

built around the comps.

Yeah. But then. When he was working, I was giving mom the shit. So mom had to take me fishing or grandma had to take me fishing or whatever. So yeah, it was a bit of, you know, jetty, jetty action, whatever, whatever I could get. 

Yeah. Yeah. And I understand you're fishing out of a contender as well these days.

Yeah, so we've got, um, the old man and I went halves in a new 28, uh, oh fuck. We ordered it, it was a couple of years ago, we ordered it, but it was on the RS end of COVID there. So it by itself didn't take that long to build once they started building it. Um, but I think by the end of it was about 29 months or something like that by the time we got it.

Yeah. And how do you rate that as a game fishing boat? Uh, I had one prior 

to that. Um, side note, my, one of my mates bought Your old contender? Mm-hmm. I'm getting that a bit lately in, yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Uh, port Headland Fraser. Oh, as in Headland is, 

yeah. So. Yeah, I think that that little 20 three's done more miles on, on the hard top than it has on the water the last couple of years.

I, I sold it to a fella in Lake Macquarie. I think he was, yeah. 20 hours on it, put it back on the market and sent it back across the country. Yeah. Yeah, right. Sent it to Edlin, so, yeah. But yeah, 

the reason I touched on boats is because, Sammy, you got a new boat that's not far off as well, 

eh? Yeah, yeah. You, you're getting there.

Run us through it. Uh, well it's title Marine 21 Center console. That started production probably start of the year, I suppose i's done. It's just, yeah. Fit out. And the tedious jobs now, um, electrical fit out. All the fabrication work t tops gotta go on. So we're getting close. 

So you guys have fished a couple of comps together.

Understand. When you get your boat, what's the go? Is it competition against, are you 

splitting up? Are you having a fishing breakup? 

No. That'd be like a breakup. I don't think sustain the contender. I think 

we'll do whatever we need to do. That's it. Sticking together. Yeah. 

So lads, um, there's an elephant in the room that a lot of our listeners are wanting us to talk about.

We've kind of avoided it 'cause there's a lot of negativity getting around it. But the Demersal band, I know Tommy, you fish for a lot of s and stuff. Mm-hmm. What are your thoughts around the Demers band? I guess we should probably touch on it first. Let give our sort of thoughts on it. Um, it's such a divisive topic.

Everybody's got like a different, um, sort of opinion on how it should really go. But 

yeah, I mean, I'm ha I'm happy to have the discussion. I'm, I'm probably more interested to see what you guys think because I, I've been talking to a lot of people about it. It's gonna affect a lot of people. Um, a hundred percent.

What are your thought? What are your thoughts on it? 

Uh, fuck. I don't know what to think about it. Yeah, I'm a bit the same. Anyone that can stand there and tell me that pink snapper are critically endangered needs to come, come fishing. I can sit on a stool with three of the other mates like that. They.

It's, yeah, I don't know. It's a 

deep, it's a deep 

Oh, it's bad 

man. Yeah. Complex sort of. Yeah. So, well, while we're talking about, I'll give you my thoughts, like the two year closure, I can, I can cop that and I can wear it. My experience is that, um, the dew fish that we've been fishing for have been getting smaller.

Um, I, that's just my personal experience. We used to go out and get a couple of 1215 kilo fish without trouble, whether that was the fact that I was fishing for 'em longer because I didn't have the education around, you know, trying to catch bigger fish. So, um, and my fishing style changed and I was basically, um, now, or, or when I fish for the Meles, I'll go and catch the first two fish or whatever that I catch that goes in the esky and I go and target something else.

Um, I look at the two year closure, like a bit of a, all, just a reset. I'm more interested to see. What happens on the other side of it, because we're pretty well deep into, uh, I think it was a 20 year recovery plan. Um, and to this point, the management hasn't worked. So you can do what you want, you can close it.

But on the other side of it, we have to come up with a decent, long-term sustainable management strategy that's gonna work. So for now, fish, get a rest. But, um, I'm interested to see what comes on. The other side of it, the, the topic of marine parks and stuff has me a little bit worried because I'm not a big fan of marine parks.

I think it puts pressure on all the other locations. So I think whether it's a three month opening, it's a, however, however you have to structure it. Obviously they've taken the commercials out of it. I have some mates that have got a background in commercial fishing. Um, I would've liked to see a, a sec, a, a portion of it open to commercials.

Um. It's brutal. And obviously I'd like to get your take on that as well, Sammy, because um, you know, I like to see those small towns to be able to provide local seafood. Um, but for me, I'm, I'm more like, all right. Yeah, well, 20 months I can wear that. But what is the 20 year plan, which we haven't really seen to this point.

Mm-hmm. What's your take on it? 'cause you have got a, obviously you work in the commercial sector with the fishery that you are in. How, how is that gonna affect those guys? 

Oh, huge mate. And, and this came at a huge surprise for a lot of the guys, um, especially the, the wet liners down south. Um, yeah, because they lost 50% of their 

quota, is that right?

They can't fish. Oh, down south. Sorry, on I'm, I'm talking south coast, but yeah, down south. 

Yeah, south coast lost 50%. And then, uh, guys in the southwest can't fish as of Jan one. Yeah. That's, and their livelihood. They've all got young families. Can't go to work. 

I read something about one guy that just invested over a million dollars in a boat.

Yeah. Like, yeah, that guy in bu Yeah. Yeah. 

Yeah. So that's the other thing, right? Because there's, we're assuming that they're gonna get a fair sort of renu remuneration for their license. Yeah. But they're gonna get, 

there's a lot of guys that lease licenses too. The guys at lease licenses aren't gonna get nothing.

Guys that own the license will get something back, but they're not gonna get, so someone owns, and then there's boats and gear and all that sort of stuff. Well, out for that. So, 

so someone owns the license and they rent it off, they own all the gear. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But what, 

what's gonna happen to their boat, their gear and all that, you know, like, gonna be hard to 

move on crippling.

Well, and, and that was part of, part of the lead up to this, which was only short. I was in that meeting at Parliament House. Um, I, I, I wasn't a fan of, I, I know Wreck Fish West were out there trying to push, take the commercials off. Which for me, I found that. Not the time. It's like this is a time when everyone needs to come together, stand together.

Hey. Absolutely. They wouldn't 

have a leg to stand on if, I mean, it's probably never gonna happen. But if the wrecks got along with the commercials and the commercials got along with the wrecks, 

yeah. 

Fuck. We wouldn't have a problem. We would. And we would 

And the problem is, is is they don't realize everyone wants the same thing.

They want sustainable fish. Exactly. 

And you know, like, oh, the science this and the science that you actually like. Don't speak to the blokes that make a quit outta catching fish and ask them, is it hard to catch a fish? Because I guarantee you, if it was fucking hard for 'em to catch a fish, they wouldn't be doing it.

Mm-hmm. Making it across from it. Right. And they're 

reporting every day, day, qui. Well that's the other, that's the other thing that came outta this meeting that we had Roth in at at Parliament House was the commercials provide a lot of the data. Yeah. Or pretty much all of the data. Nothing. Yeah. Um. I think the only way forward for the recreational sector from here is to be, they have to get more professional with the data that they provide.

So, mandatory catch reporting. For me, it's another thing that Wreck Fish West have pushed back on. I feel like that's gotta happen. 

The reasoning behind that, like too, so I, I did kind of speak to a few lads around that. Red wa um, you know, CEO of rec fish Yep. West had said about that mandatory catch reporting.

And the whole, whole reason that they've said that they're against it is because there's no actual reli like, reliable evidence that it contributes to the sustainability of the, the fish. But for me, the way I think it's like, look, I like the guys at Rec Fish West. Okay. I just wanna say that. Yeah. Reckon they're all great.

But remember those guys are the leaders of, they, they're representing us as recreational fishing. That's right. They, their 

job is to stand up for the recreational sector. They've got no interest in anyone else. 

Yeah. And that's their 

job. That's what 

they're employed to do. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Um. 

So I get where they're coming from there.

I have that empathy in that way. But for them to say that they can't come up with a solution for mandatory catch reporting, I think is not good enough. It's 2025. You've got ai, you can build an app, you can do coding and all that sort of way you, we pay for a phishing license. If you're not gonna pay for your phishing license, you don't get access to the app.

There's like's so many things that go through my mind and yeah, I'm probably ill-informed, but for me, just surface level thinking about that, I think that's not good enough to just say and luck that I can't do it. Yeah, I think there's a solution and as a leader, it's your job to find solutions. It's not to, I, I know there was talks of 

this stuff, um, years ago, probably 10 or so years ago, where pretty certain John O.

Roth put something forward about building an app and doing this and doing that, and it got shut down and no, we don't need this and we don't need that. And uh, now it's done a full 360. It's like. 

It's a, oh, actually, while we're on subject of John O. Roth, I just wanna mention him and give him a shout out because this big billfish we got above our head.

Yeah. Is probably the biggest one he's caught on. Yeah, that's, he's donated that. So, mate, absolute legend. Um, shout big roll down at the, the Roth Rossie number two, probably roughly here. That's enough. Cut. Anyway, back, back to the, is 

another thing that I just wanna throw out there too, is like, I'm with lec, I'm all, you know, if the closure, if it says, science says we need a closure, what do I know?

I'm not a scientist. Just kind of gotta give it the benefit of the doubt, I suppose. Um, but what we, um. What I think really does sort of rub me the wrong way, is you look at what's happening industrially. Yeah. Hundred percent. That affects our fishery. So you've got, um, the, the wind farm down your way, Tommy, that is literally, there's so many people that have actually fishermen are secret if Right.

They don't want to share their spots. But when this comes up and it's right in the middle of their spots, that actually willing to go, Hey, I fish there and I catch catch. Big dewy there you are planning to put a big old bollard through the ground and you're gonna wreck, um, you know, habitat for do fish.

It's definitely environmentally friendly. Oh God. It's, it's, yeah. How can you, how can you dance around core drill on a hole 

in the ground and fill it full of mud? Yeah. Putting a big steel post in it. 

Yeah. It's gonna disrupt. Yeah. The noise, you know, like everything, everything, it's gonna screw it up. 

I think the whole two year band thing, and I've, we'll go back a couple of 

steps.

I, I think what's happened in the commercial sector is definitely unfair. We 

talk about. Like, oh, they need to be compensated and they need to do this. And this is just me personally because this is how I'm, 

nobody gave the charter operators compensation, 

said, oh, you can go fishing, but just not allowed to take anything home.

They didn't give them any money. They didn't give what he's tackle a lot of cash. 'cause you can only sell octopus and sinkers for six months of the year. Whether this is me being selfish, but what's should be good for the goose should be good for the gander one's taken seeking compensation about time you cough up for the other boys that that own shops and boat.

Not to mention the guys that are heavily inve invested in recreational boats. All this gear. We're not making a crust out of it. We're doing it for pure enjoyment, but I'm probably the wrong person to talk about it. We'll just go fish for something else. But. There is people that have got a boat and they've got fishing and gear and they, they demersal they wanna go demersal fishing.

Yeah. There's gonna be, it's, it's, it's such a, it's hard. It's a hard it fucking never ending hole. Like Yeah. Talk lot about it. It's, it's gonna, well it's just 

round, round and ground and goes Well I know that the town that I grew up is gonna be affected. I grew up hundred percent ban during bay the same.

Is that where Fishman down there? It's So, I, I guess, we'll, we could talk about it all night, but we, I want to, we'll shift it to something a little bit more positive. How is your fishing gonna shift? Because I know the, there's been some investment in more fads, all that sort of stuff. Um, what's gonna be your bread and butter species for eating in terms of the quality fish off Bunbury for you?

Uh.

Probably gonna put a bit more time into those things I haven't been able to catch all year. Yeah. Yeah. They got a big pointy nose on their face. Be a little mate over here with Red Airs already caught one. Yeah. And I had about 400 questions for him. He talking about sword because he's here because 

four questions for him.

Just stupid prick that wound. The thing doesn't catch Tommy's. 

Tommy's talking about swordfish. So was lucky enough to go out with the boys on s Ben earlier this year and nail a fucking big one. And Lex's pretty sour about it because he got a call up the day before to actually go on the boat that day.

I'll, I'll, I'll actually lead into this story 'cause I actually want to hear a bit more about this fish. 'cause it was, he owe me another beer. Yep. Was it a, uh, was it too Roth? Was it a record? 

No, 10 kilos. Short of the state record on 37. 

Yeah. So how big was that fish? 

1 

38. 10 kilos too small. 10 kilos too small.

Yeah. Minus 10 kilos. So my take of events on this, on this, uh, fish is I. Obviously the swordfish is like my dream capture and it's, it's the fish that I sort of want to tick off the bucket. It's probably the most important, similar to what you said, Tommy, it's the most important fish out there for me at the moment.

And to see what the guys were doing this year was, or last year was absolutely amazing. So anyway, I'm out in the front yard on the, pretty much on the roof rack of my car around up loading up fishing rods and I get a phone call. Yeah. And it's, Hey mate, we got a, uh, a couple of spots on board, um, with the Send Ben boys tomorrow.

Do you want to come sword fishing? That maxi, it was maxi rang me and, and you stop talking. I was gonna say that wouldn't 

have fucking hour long conversation. Yeah. 

And basically my answer was, mate, how fucking dare you ring me when I'm packing for a family holiday to go to Shark Bay that I'm excited about?

For a week I see. In the morning. And, and it was like, I literally thought to myself, can I push this trip back a day? And I was like, mate, I, I, I'm excited about this family holiday to denim. I don't want to fucking know what happens tomorrow, but I can't go. And then, um, Sammy channel, Sammy seven rang you and said, Sam's just called no.

And he said, oh, Sammy, Sammy's coming. And then I was like, yep, good off. I hope he gets a fish, but I don't wanna fucking know what happens. And then sure enough, um, probably at about Geraldton ding and ding ding ding. And it was Sammy's hooked up and it's a big bastard. And I was just like. Fuck, these bastards are gonna ruin my trip.

And then yeah, sure enough, he ends up landing 138 kilo fish and I'm sitting there taking Whiting off the hooks for the kids at Monkey May just hucking them back in the ocean. Ocean with Ango all perspective. But it was just like, I was, but like for me, mate, I was so stoked to see land that fish like absolute dream fish and to get a metro.

And since then you dropped a bit of the, the fillets off for me and that as well. It was, but it actually goes all right too. Did you give Rothi some or what? It's still in the freezer. He already told me yesterday. But yeah, run us through your version of events because mate, it must have just been an absolute dream, eh?

Ah, yeah, yeah. I mean, uh, as Tommy alluded to before, we've had a fair share of our cracks down south to, um, not even fucking turn a handle on a reel. Well, apart from a drill winded up 500 meters, but, um. Yeah, it was, I mean, full credit to the center, Ben Boys, um, PEX and Crew. Um, they've really untapped that fishery and hit it hard and, and got it dialed.

Um, I was just lucky enough to, uh, to be on the end of the rod to one and um, yeah, it was a good one. So you 

mentioned you've gone a couple of times down south with you two boys did. Were they doing stuff much different? 

Nah, it's all very similar. Yep. Yep. Fish was in the right area at the right time, 

putting in the hours and Yeah, the ground and the pattern.

Yeah. 

Fishing in general, more hours. You put in the water, in more fish you catch. So 

how quick was the bite? 

Uh, we, I reckon we got a bite. First drop. Um, we got a, we got a whack on one of the baits first drop and then we missed it. And then I think it was, might've been three drops later, midmorning. Um, yeah, we hooked up and uh, yeah, it was two hour fight on 37 kilo.

Yeah. How'd you feel after it? Fuck yeah. 

Fucked man. Yeah. Yeah. And it was like a proper fight too. Circle. Hook right in the corner of the gob. Yeah. I got the full power of the. 

How many beers did you have that night? 

Yeah, I was pretty blind. Yeah. Yeah. You were a few rumbles on the way in. 

How were you feeling for him, Tommy, when you got the text through?

Were you, he was on the 

phone. 

Were you on the phone? Oh fuck. I was 

missing out the whole time. Yeah, most of it got the live action text has got fucking Darlin Star link and this and that and everything else, 

so yeah. Well that was part of the other thing I saw. There was fucking Netflix and everything.

Fucking YouTube. The trench. 

Yeah. Well actually no, funny, we were watching Matt Watson catch swordfish in New Zealand on YouTube as we were hooked up. Oh, how It's that, 

that reminds me the tougher, the old skate days when I was younger, like you'd go and watch a skate cliff and go out and throw yourself off a set of stairs and stuff Thing.

Okay. 

How come I broke my arm and knee didn't Unreal. I 

love Unreal day's. An unreal day. Yeah. Yeah. And uh, yeah, it's Fish of a Lifetime, but. Uh, yeah, I think, yeah, just keen to, um, untap more and, and definitely get one outta the new boat. 

Has it got you. It's got your hook now, or you don't feel like I've ticked that box?

You feel like that's No absolute. Wanna 

Yeah. Keep trucking up the coast and looking for new areas and 

Yeah. Well that's the other thing, right? I wanna, you, you, you guys reckon that there'll be up and down pretty much. It's not just this one zone that we've got. Metro was, nah, fuck. 

Not at all. Oh, look at Exmouth.

Yeah. Catch the fuck outta up there. Tommy 

just said something pretty funny. He said they don't get on the fucking bus to go from Exmouth to Sprint to X, same 

as everything They're there. They gotta be 

swimming past some more. Yeah. Yeah. And you need the weather too. Should long way out. So that's gonna take up the majority of your focus next year.

You reckon Tommy? 

I reckon, mate. I, I've never fished so hard for one fucking thing and not caught it. Yeah, like ever. So now it's personal. It is personal. Hundred 39 kilos is no nothing. No nothing like that. No, it's got fucking to do with that. 

It's um, I just wanna see dusty fucking winging on the rod when he is hooked up to a big dog.

Old man and I hook one out of Augusta. Well say that, 

but we clearly don't. Um, 

but you did all the, the right things and, uh, everyone I've spoken to about it, it's like, oh yeah, it was probably a nice one. Yeah, that's fucking good on you. But 

yeah, 

still didn't see it, didn't still didn't catch it. Fucking 600 meters of water all the way to the top fucking, it came all the way up to the top pretty much.

Yeah. Did all the right things. 20 or 30 meters from the boat, couldn't see it, and then just turned around and sw back to the bottom. 

So that's the other thing that, that, that sword fish do that's different to any other fish. Right. That I don't know what, what it is with their swim bladder or what, but they can go from 600 meters of water up to the surface, jump and then back all the way back down again.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So like in terms of a fight, you, you've, you've built fish, you've caught everything. It was that like. As hard as it gets or 

what? Uh, I, I think so. Yeah. Personally. Yeah. That think was fucking a tank. 

Yeah. Plus you got the friction of all that water on the line. It's super far down. It's not running out in a straight line either.

Lot of the boys are fishing 60 for 'em too, right. So put a bit more hurt on 'em. But Evan's not so much on big fish that's properly, you can get a lot of fish that are gut hooked and they'll come up easier than others. Um, but yeah, this thing was right in the corner, so didn't let that thing sitting on its side coming up from 500 meters.

They attack the boat and stuff as well, don't they? They or they'll hit the boat. Yeah, I've heard, yeah. Yeah. Gnarly. 

I wanna get in the water with one with my camera housing, but that's kind of scares me off. 

Didn't you say that to one of the boys? And they were like, no joke mate. No way. Yeah. 

Sammy Smith said, I'll get in the water with one if you get one on complete angle.

Netherlands. I'm Brian's boat. And he's like, no man, we gotta put a gaff in that thing first. Fucking I. Yeah. Yeah. Wouldn't wanna copper a bill. But Tommy, I wanna ask you about the Kingfish too, man. If you don't mind. I don't know how much you want to talk about it. Think about too much. 

But mate, you've, you got fucking gallow tails.

Blue front. That's 

it. Do you wanna talk about it or not? You go for it. Fucking knife. Gimme a 

question. I'll answer the fucking, 

but what there's, we got a few questions. Listen to questions that I haven't got on my list. So a lot of people wanna know about 'em, but are you, you catching 'em outta pretty deep water down there?

So 

they're big fish, 

eh, Sammy and I, last few years, we didn't really do too much last year 'cause the sharks were fucked. Yep. Um, but prior to that, it's uh. I'd say it's a sporting aggregation. Um, they're in deep water and you can pretty much piss 'em off all the way to the top and then catch 'em. Yeah. Right.

So 

you're, you're throwing surface laws for 'em too, so you're teasing 'em up with a gi and then throwing surface. 

Yeah. Or trolling 'em up on 'em up, yeah. Right. Yeah. So 

was there any, anything that kind of clicked for you when you were first getting onto 'em or like, how'd you go about follow them? 

Oh, I've quite a few marks, um, out of home and further south that are very similar.

And obviously the more you fish, the more you learn. It's like, fuck this, like this depth is almost to the fucking inch of the other spot. Yeah. Ah, nearly 80 nautical mile away. 80, 65 meters. Is it 65? Oh, there you go. 65. So it's like, fuck. Maybe there's something in that you're like, maybe they spawn on that, that 65 meter ridge.

Or maybe they, you know. Yeah. Whatever. But the spot out, off home, we, we've caught Samson fish. Well, when we, we filmed for, we did the stellar clip last year. Yeah. That Wilson on board and old man drove the boat, put a kingfish and amber jack the Samson fish on, on stick bait the same day in 65 meters of water.

65 meters of water. Wow. Very. All the grand slam. Mm. It's that, and then, but tho those ones further south. Fuck. I've never seen anything like that before. Yeah. But we fish the three kings we've fished, um, the west coast of New Zealand, we fished the East coast of New Zealand. Fuck. There's nothing like what we, what you've got at home.

Oh fuck man. They might not be like those 40 kilo fish, but they're all like 16 to 30. You're kidding. Yeah. Like, wow. Serious fish. Yeah. And what, 

what are you saying separates that from these spots that you've gone to? You'd probably call you Kingfish Mecca, right? Like three kings. Fuck. I honestly don't 

know, man.

Like I only stumbled across those ones. Um, a couple of years ago we're in the Demersal band, um, and I was actually trying to try and work out how to catch those big Skippy. Yep. I like, oh, I've got a couple of nana guy plumps out the back there. We'll just fucking fish around the edges of them. So I'm fishing these little like fucking jigs about this big.

Got a couple of ski is like normal size fucking things. Anyway, so said the old man. I said just shoot in here. I've got a bit of flat ground in there. That's pretty hard. We'll drop some. Sorry. We dropped some, um, like King George gear, so we'd like fish with, um, s smelled three oh hooks and little strips of, um, octopus.

So we'll some real hard, flat shit in air. We'll, um, shoot in a few mile and we'll have a shot. 

I'm driving along. Run over this mark.

We've gone to the wrong spot. Fucking looked in the 

sound. I'm like, well then they're uh, they're not fucking King George. They're about 20 meters off the bottom. Yep. And now I just, fuck we hooked the first fish. I'm like, oh yeah. It's quite a big sambo. Our apprentice at, he's now our apprentice. He Josh, he hooked one old man.

Hooked one. I hooked one. Josh and I got a Sambo. The old man got a kie about 20 odd kilos. 

Hmm. 

Of another go. 

Yeah. 

Same thing happened again. Josh got a kie. The old man got a Sambo. I got a Sambo, whatever. However it worked. And then, um, fuck. This is All right. Put a bit of time in here. Come back the next time.

No fucking Samson fish. It's all kingfish, all kings. Wow. Yeah. So we end up taking a state record off it on 15, that was 23 and 23 point something on 15. Fill in your freezer. Fill in the freezer. Yeah. Um. That was, that was like a 45 minute fight on 15. Yeah. Right. They're, yeah, they're a different sort of fucking animal.

Those things you reckon they 

full of Sambo, backwards of Oh, they're piece of piss. Yeah. Type two of 'em on the back of it. Yeah. Shit. On Sambos. Fuck. All the reason I ask, the reason I'm so interested in is 'cause I've been trying to get 'em off the back of the three mile here. I've seen 'em all the time. I've actually started cheating a little bit and putting the drone up in there.

Air to try and spot 'em. Yeah. You can't get 'em to eat anything live qui. They're smaller. Yeah. Right. Eh? Yeah. 

Live squid reckon. Yeah. 

Might be the ticket 

goat man. Life hearing. Even vegans eat bacon. What?

Well I reckon that'll turn my focus will go to Yellow Tail King. Yeah. I reckon that. Yeah. Cool species for, so that's accessible. Um, you mentioned records. Have you got any other records? Oh, there's a few there. 

Yeah. Run us around. We, oh fuck. I wouldn't even know. What's your 

favorite one? 

Uh, I'll call a 18.1 Kilos Samson Fish off the beach when I was.

It was the day after my mom's birthday. I think I was maybe 12 on eight kilo line of the mouth of the merchant in there. On the Sandin In Calberry. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I know that, uh, still stands to this day. So that's, uh, 

that's pretty good going for the amount of structure around, around there. Two, 

2003. Yeah.

So it's lasted 

20 something years. That sands bit there. That's where I learned to cast. Yeah. Or properly. That's, I remember, I think I've told the story. Yeah. My old man was fi had me fishing there and a old Italian bloke come up to him and said, you're teaching your son a good thing there. Like it'll stick with him for life.

And we would've thought how much I hooked with it. Have you got any records? No, just the, just a record in amongst us of the biggest sword fish. Short record. Yeah. Yeah. Well part of a 

few. Yeah. Yeah. That's the fucking best bit. Being part of it with your mates. Yeah. Fucking oath. Yeah. What fuck it'll do with the fish.

And that's who you do it with? Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Good. If you 

don't have any good company, eh? That's right. 

Well mate, well we got yours in here for a reason, but we are gonna be fishing the, the sovereign Blue Marlon Classic. And me and Rothi know absolutely nothing about billfish. I've hooked a couple and lost them, actually have never, never landed one.

Um, but for you guys, it's, it's, I guess being the, the winners last year. How does it feel to be sitting with, um, the 2026 winners as well? Because I'm on a bit of a, I'm on a bit of a, a competition heater at the moment. A bit a streak. I took out the King of the Pentecost last year up at, uh, up at ra. So back Toback Boys?

Nah. 

Little uh, little birdie tells me you're flying down a skipper from X mouth for the 

Oh, for the, well, we are gonna need every bit of help that we can. I thought you were gonna say he's 

flying back up at the 

Pentecostal Pick's boat. 

It's a bit sick. The boat's making 

its way 

down at the moment on the 

truck.

Uh, in all seriousness, l and I kinda looked at each other when we decided we were gonna fish this comp and we were like, what the fuck are we gonna do? Like, we can't look like a couple of wood ducks. So we've, um, called it. Yeah. So we've gone and called in a secret weapon. We're actually flying Craig White down to, uh, skip of the boat for us.

So, um, the Fremantle Sailing Club have been. Enough to lend us, uh, their, their club boat, um, success. So we're hopping on that. The cray 

boat. So whitey's gonna feel right at home ly skip around that mate. You gotta cut the game pole. He used to train down there, didn't you? Where's that? Success? Success, yeah.

Yeah. Oh, that's the opposition. When, when he went tore. It's not success was what we had at West Coast and they didn't, that's something they didn't, some they didn't have down at the, down at the opposition. Um, yeah. So we've, we're flying the king down. We're gonna get him on board. So, um, but business class, I hope.

Yeah. Um, no, we'll be, we're not on that budget one 

day. Few more listeners. Yeah. 

If we win, we, what is there 120 grand worth of prizes? I think that they're yeah. Responses on board this year, next year. Um, I want, I want to just run us through the bill fishing season that we had last year and how, how the competition was so good because the, we had the warm currents and everything come down.

We know the pelagic season that we had off the metro coast. Talk us through like we are the biggest. Virgins of, of bill fishing. Um, how you went about winning the comp. Um, oh, it was very tactical. 

Uh, so, well you guys probably heard of him. A lot of people probably heard of him. Um, good mate of ours.

Gabriel Gomez has got game time charters. Yep. Um, I've spent a fair few hours on the water with him over the years. Um, so he, I'm gonna say 20 years, but it might not be, might be longer. He's fished out of here every season. The last God knows how many, never once caught a blue Marlon or Marlon in his own boat.

Yeah. Right. He's caught him. But on other people's boats. He's had hooked two in a day, lost both of them. Caught him on other people's boats. He is like, I, I've got no idea how many Marlon I've caught with him personally, like together. Um. The bloke knows what he is doing. So last year, uh wise, finally gets his charter boat.

He is always, ever wanted, goes out with his kids, puts a gear in the water, bang, smacks one straight up Oh oh, first fish. First fish for the season. First fish for the new boat first Marlon, he's ever caught out a Perth on his own boat. Like it just the whole season kicked off with a bang. So, yeah. So that was like the start of the season.

That was the start of it, yeah. And he, he pretty much raised a fish and hooked a fish every trip he fished and then he ended up winning the Perth Cup. Yep. Um, had some good lu on board. Apparently I'll touch 

on that. 

Yeah, he, uh, he, he won that and he, he fished like a, like a real game fisherman. 'cause there was other fish that had been caught and it was the last day and he is like, righto, what's the point score?

And the answer was, oh, you need two fish to win. He's like, no, I don't. What's the points, like how many points has the other team got? Yeah. Oh, they've, they've got two fish on 37. Yeah. Righto. That's all I need to know. Gab goes out there, puts spread of fifteens out, which is for someone who doesn't know what they're doing, it's not something that you could be doing.

Yeah. Especially outta Perth. Especially outta Perth. Like normally they're bigger than, 

are you talking 15 kilo? 

15 kilo line. Yeah. So you're, um, is that a similar, um, sort of theory 30? Yeah. Like you just, you downgrade and tackle, you're more likely to get a bite theory or not so much. You 

just get more points, so.

Gotcha. So how 

does the points work? You get more points for lighter tackle? 

Yes. Yep. Yes. Uh, every comp changes. Um, the, I don't know, the whole Perth structure's a bit different what I'm used to. But anyway, he got shit loads of points for this one fish. Yeah. Right. But he had to halve his gear, if not more, more than halve his gear.

Yep. But he still, he only needed one fish and Got it. He got it and he caught it. Yep. So that's. That's the whole sport. Like go physically catch the biggest fish you possibly can on the lightest line. Yeah. Right. That's the whole aim of game fishing. It's all well and good to say. Oh yeah, we got eight blue Marlon last week on 60 kilo line.

Oh yeah. Happy good fish. Oh there are a hundred kilos. Oh yeah. Whoop. You do. Someone goes and catches a 13 kilo golden tri valley on two kilo line. It shit's on 'em. Yeah. Why the ethics of the sport? That's the sport's. When you treating it like a sport's, the points, I'll give 

you the hot tip. There is no way I'm using light gun until I get one on the boat.

Gimme the heaviest tackle we've possibly got. I get one we probably 

shouldn't let too many secrets out. But Sam, myself, the old man, Kurt Wilson was on board. We brought him for his camera and whatnot, which he didn't seem to use 'cause he ended up in the fucking glory shot. Yeah. And Sam's in the water was GoPro.

I was photo, yeah. But uh, so the fish last year was smaller. They'd been smaller the whole way down the coast. They're not gonna put on fucking a hundred kilos in six weeks. So we rocked up there and put the fucking things on light line, but we did. And that's how you took out the comp? Yeah. That was a winning 

recipe.

Pretty much. Sort of. Still had to catch 'em, but, well, I heard your first fish, there was a bit of a, a story. Oh yeah. That one. It wouldn't 

be a Perth comp without a bit of controversy. 

Yeah. So what happened? 

Oh, it was rough. Like, well, the 

only boat left 

out there. 

Yeah. Run it. 

We'll actually talk through the, the structure of the comp as well.

What runs over three days. Yeah. So it's a three day comp, um, March 

long weekend. Yeah. So it starts 28th 

to Feb finishes on the 2nd of March. Yep. And it's based there, there's a night over at Roddo where everyone catches up two nights over at Roddo nights. Yep. Um, in between 

fully paid for which we didn't.

Happened to take advantage of 'cause we were a little bit disorganized and we ended up staying back in Freo, but we heard about that. You were 

swaging it on the lawn at the solo club. Yeah. Yeah. 

We got five star accommodation next year. Apparently Chief is rent in town. Yeah. 

But so you, so, so you were doing extra miles coming all the way back to Freo?

Heading back to REO 

every day. 

Yeah. So we were doing extra 20 something Ks back to free. Eh, so that and then, yeah. Yeah. 

Wow. So, well, we, we left, we left the shotgun start, um, put out the back, got the gear in the water, um, what gear we had left. 

What, what gear we didn't lose over the back. Tell us about Yeah.

So you gotta run, so, oh, it was a bit 

going 

on. Yeah. So, so the shotgun start is everyone's based at Freo and it's basically a race off the line as to. Is it a bit of a, a dick swinging competition as well or is it Go, go back and 

he actually said to us when he came up for his episode, he said that you, you had a pretty heavy hand on the throttle.

Yeah. I'm not 

stop and fucking go. I'm not overly competitive, I just fucking ain't coming second, but, um, well you, 

you'll be beating 

us, but we so go back a whole day. So we just got the boat fucking thing is brand new. I was putting holes in it, putting rod holders in it, doing whatever, rigging the outriggers, doing everything at home.

Literally 

the fucking day before gone. Yeah. 

Like no shit. And the old man got, he was running around like a blue ass fly, getting the boat registered. We had dramas getting the trailer registered. That got registered at four 30 in the afternoon Friday afternoon. And we had to be at Fremantle for the briefing at seven.

Yeah. So. He's got the shits on. I got the shits on Sammy's in Perth. Where the fuck are you like, yeah, yeah. Righto. Coming. Come, come. Anyway, so I roll around home, pick the old man up in the truck. Ready to go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Throws fucking couple of things in the boat. Oh, oh fuck. Whatever. He is obviously fucking got about half to Mandra.

You got a swag? Oh fuck. Actually have you got any fucking clothes? Oh fuck. It was in the garage as well. So we're off to a good start. Anyway, we get there, we rolling in the gate. The guys at Relock, Brian Arnette and Phil Tch and John Roth. All those like the most hospitable people, guys, legends, they've been around, they've been around the traps.

They've fished overseas, they've fished up north. They fished and they would just welcome me with open arms. Yeah. So it's like in you get in the gate, here's a swipe card. Park wherever you wanna park, camp the night. Do whatever you need do. Yep. Sweet. Alright. So. Anyway, we do the briefing. There was a bit of, uh, skullduggery going on at the boat auction 'cause no one knew the name of the boat and we were the last enter and all this other shit.

So anyway, got most of the big boys outta the way and old man sat down the front like a church mouse, didn't say a word. I went around and bought a few rounds of piss and kept everyone occupied. And then we were the last boat up. Bought ourselves fucking 400 bucks or something, which is pretty good. 

Talk to us real quick about the boat auctions.

'cause a lot of our listeners aren't gonna be game fishermen. They've probably never been game fishing before. Yeah. Let alone at comp. How's the boat auction work? So 

it is a lot betting on horses. So, um, all the boats in the comp go into a hat, pull 'em out, they get auctioned off. I wanna buy your boat because you are gonna win round bucks.

Sammy wants to buy it three 50, like round, round, round, round goes. Yeah. So if you wanna buy your own boat, you're still gonna buy it. Right. So. We can all buy each other's boats. Whoever's got the biggest wallet buys the boat. Yep. So, um, and they can, they can get a bit outta hand. Like you get to a, somewhere like Game X, I'd hate to know what you're gonna go for This year boats go for like seven, $8,000.

Some of the charter boats, like boys like Eddie Lawler and Brendan Hawker and those bull, like they're renowned, the proven renowned fishmen and good chance they're gonna win. Yeah. And like might have a shit day here and there, but they'll slug it out and in the end they've still got four fish more than everyone else.

Yep. So anyway, so that's how all that works. But the old man got us for Fuck All and then sort of like, oh what? Anyway, everyone, oh, you fucking cheeky Prince to pick them up because they, yeah, right. Anyway, it was a heap of good old, old mates there and whatnot. And we end up on the piss all night and, uh.

You were still pissed when I got there at seven o'clock the next morning. Oh man. Yeah, it was, fuck, it was typical, really. But, um, anyway, we were running, running late and rolled out the front there and did the whole shotgun start thing, fucking waving at the queen and, um, lined up. Fucking bell goes, off you go.

Was this the video that you, like, the start of the video is you Sammy out in the camera? So I saw a boat like cut straight behind you. Nearly topples over, 

almost gave him a kiss. Yeah, 

it was a bit of distance there, but anyway, plenty of distance. Um, no problem. The old man didn't spill a drop, so it was, but seatbelt on in the beanbag.

Well, I sort of never really fished out there before, so I've just shot Drew West and then realized, fuck, I've got all this reef I've gotta get around. So I've swung to the north a bit more, and, uh, grant Rainer and snipers come on the inside sort of thing. And so that's a ve eh, yeah. Yeah. 2017, he's come on the inside and.

Oh fuck, he's in front of me now, so a little bit more fucking gas. More trim off we went. More unleaded. Yeah, more unleaded. Get out there to put our gear in the water and Kurt's like, where's the fucking dredge rod going? Brand new dredge pole. Brand new beast Master lot straight. Piss over the overboard.

Straight over the back. 

Yeah. Oh no. So yeah, with a brand new set of safety straps in the fucking cab, that brand new, a few grand day, never put '

em on. 

So 

anyway, Matt Gaetz says, you lose anything this morning? Well, yep. He goes, yeah, we seen the fucking thing. Tumble 11 tum back. 

You went 

past. 

Yeah. 

But anyway, but that, yeah, that was that.

But, so there's no prize for winning the the shotgun. It's just a big swing. Just a big swing. And when it's, when it's little, you gotta swing it whenever you get a chance.

And then, so the first fish and the ears. Getting that one in. Yeah. How did that work for you? Because was the first day pretty quiet for everyone, or it couldn't get any fucking quieter? Yeah. 

Um, music was loud. Yeah. Beer was cold. Um, yeah. Anyway, it was a bit going on, but it was blowing its ass out. It's like typical blue Marlon weather up north.

Um, so the, the rules of this comp, you've gotta, which is something I'm not really used to, but thank God I was on my best behavior at briefing. But, um, radio in when you hook up. Yep. 

So for us it was like, yeah. Class action hooked up. Fucking crickets. 

Class action is like an hour 

before with lines. Yeah.

Like, not even like 45 minutes. Like there was Yeah. Sun's in our eyes. But you were, you're expecting a call back. Yeah. Like I'm expecting someone to respond or not. 

Hmm. 

What was that other channel? Change the channel. Pull the pull, John O. Roth, like 

no fuck nothing. Like, oh, fuck it. Catch the fucking thing.

So off we went. We're on 24, so we chased this fish down. Took us an hour or so, 45 minutes, hour. Caught this thing, tagged it, pulled back up just like the report tag. 

Fucking blew Marlon blah blah. Crickets ring C Rescue. 

Um, just like, I know it's got nothing to do with you guys, but I'm just ringing to say that we've just caught a fish in the Fremantle comp.

Um, just so someone knows, you know, 

on the time, yeah. Within the allotted time, we hooked the before lines. We think it might get 

questioned. Eh, well, it was, is that what was going through your mind? Well, it lines out at five o'clock. Gotcha. So 

we didn't catch it until like quarter past five, or by the time we put the tag in it, let it go.

It was after lines out. But we'd hook the thing at. Over time. That's the rule. If you hook up before lines out. Yep. You can fight it for as long as you want. Yeah. Yep, yep. Some, some, maybe the last day, some comps are different. Like last day you got two hours to catch it after lines out or Yep. Lines out.

Lines out what, whatever the rules are. Um, so that was the case anyway, the time we got the fish tagged it, whatnot, the weather was shit. 

So 

anyway, boys in the beanbag, Sammy and I got the Roth of the weather the whole way on, like normal. I've never been in the roddo myself in my own boat. Um, been in there thousands of times with Gabriel, but rolling there, getting dark, getting dark, getting dark, getting dark, getting even darker.

Get in there, get into Thompson Bay. Fuck. Where is everyone? They're all the pub. Yeah, because the, you know, they, the sovereign and them will put the piss on so everyone's at the pub and talking and whatnot. So I drop. Sammy and the old man off a couple of drown rats, the fucking JA 80 ward and allure and tag card and off they went.

So anyway, that there was a few questions asked and this and that and a few photos sorted. But like I said, like the, the REO boys were fantastic. Yeah. They couldn't do enough to help you. Fuck, I don't know what they were doing. They must have been signing autographs or something up there. It felt like they were up there for a fucking hour.

But yeah, they um, they come back down and we end up shooting back to reo. Um, so you went back to Yeah. Obviously to set the swags up 

and go Yeah. Pitch 

Black, pushed 

back. Did you have to call on Sea Rescue to confirm it or anything like that or were they Yeah, they all happy we'd photos and whatnot and no one else had caught a fish that day or 

no, that was the only one.

And we didn't know, 'cause we just thought the radio was playing up. So Yeah, it was, yeah, it's average conditions and I've never 

pushed other before. I know where I got radio reception, so, so when does lines out and lines in sort of, what's the timeframe in this, in the comp? Seven to four. Yeah. Seven to five or something like that.

Seven to times. Yeah. Something like that. Does the 

shotgun start at seven? Yeah. On the first day as you can put your lu in shotgun and start if you want. But that's what, that's what the rush is, right? That's probably a real good idea. You try and talk more into doing that. Yeah, 

we might as well. Because we're probably only going over about 10 knots on the way.

Sorry. You go let Yeah, well just, I was just gonna say, run us through how the rest of the comp went for you. 'cause obviously, 

so that was, that was day one. Um, hot shower and a swag was pretty inviting. Um, day two we were a bit slow off the mark. Much better weather. Yeah, heat. Better weather. Um, but we were fuck was shot.

Yeah. Like, um, we were a bit laid off the mark. We, everyone was already out the rock. We were running from Freo lines. Were in, we're still putting fuel in the boat. Um, anyway, there's lots of fucking shit show. We're fishing, so we we're out there in half an hour. Tommy's behind the wheel anyway. Fucking boot out.

Got outta the back there, just going over the edge. Hear fish get caught. Alright, this is fish around. Good. Talking to Pex on the radio. That was Pex? Yeah. Well no Pex and didn't get one. He dropped one I think. But yeah, he, um, talking to Pex on the radio said, yeah, I'll put the gear in white straight away on that northern fad.

Oh right. No worries. Cool. Bit of bait on the sounder. Oh fuck. Put the shit in here off we went. Draw it out the back to where we'd caught the fish the day before. Painted the ocean black for a bit. Come back inside. Ami goes, did you say that here it's again, massive big explosion on the surface. Yep. No, it's over here.

Fuck spun the boat around? No, it's back over here. It's spun the boat around again and then. Number two. Just pauses on the short corner. Short corner. Boy. Fucking great. Up. So, 

so short corner. Before we go on, talk us through what you spread all that looks like. For, for Yeah. How do you set your boat up?

Because why he gonna be looking at us going up, he going right here, there's got doPost. Right? So there's 

two long ones and two short ones. Yeah. Is that where you run? Yeah. So on your outriggers, every boat's different, but on our outriggers, the ones on the furthest of the outriggers, what we call our longs.

So they get run out the furthest. Yep. Um, and then the whole idea is to try and get your lures in the clean. Clean water. Clean blue water. Yeah. So, yeah. Okay. Outta the prop wash. So bigger boats don't have as much prop wash, um, because obviously their engines are under the water already. Yep. Um, little boats need to do their best, so.

Long longs are on the outside of the riggers. We run two lures off each rigger. So we then go halfway up the rigger again. We've got another set of lures hanging off there, so we run two off each rigg. Yep. So the longs are long and the shorts are short. Yeah. So, um, our shorts normally sit on top of the dredges, which is another, like a teaser that we sink under the water.

Yep. Um, but obviously in this scenario we didn't have one of them because we threw it out the back. Yeah. So 

you fished the whole comp without a dredge. You didn't get a Yeah. No drr at all. No tasers, no teasers at all when you won the comp? No, it's four lu, four lures. 

Four sharp hooks. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. Good. Yeah, that's fishing.

And so how many fish did you catch for the whole comp? Two. So two won it for you? Two caught Two. What, 

what kilo were you fishing? Uh, 24 kilo. Yeah, 24. Probably not recommended if you're starting out. Yeah. Um, 

but yeah, 

it's game fishing. That's the name of the game. How, how many fish we caught over the whole comp.

Do you know? 

Fuck, I can't remember. Not normal few. I've got it noted few. I've got it noted down here actually, 2025. So 

42 boats, 160 anglers. Um, 62 Marlon raised, 45 hooked and 15 tagged. Wow. So when they caught our 

second fish, sound like Cox, here, it was 

three fish caught. We had two of them. 

Yeah. Wow. So you're sitting in a good spot.

Yeah. Then we next

just, you gotta take them weekend waiting for everyone to catch up. That's Marlin Fish mate. Is it for a metro comp? That's unbelievable numbers, right? Great numbers. Phenomenal. And this, and it's because of that warm water current that we had. Yeah. And, and 2026 is sort of predicted to be something, 

something similar, isn't it?

I think it's, I was chatting to Gabriel yesterday and he had 23 and a half out there yesterday. So yeah, a fish on the sounder only seen a fish, so, so I 

guess that's something that we wanna bring attention to as well, because if the demersal are off the limit. And you and in terms of, it sounds like it's a pretty accommodating comp as well.

The, the boys that we've met, 

oh mate. There, there is not a comp in the state that has more value for money than this one. Like, whatever it was last year, 170 bucks. And we didn't take advantage of the festivities either because we were fucking useless from Bunbury. Didn't get our shit together. But there's a, there's two free feeds, two nights on the piss, A dinner the following week, like the, it's on the house.

That's the awards night. The awards night. Like I can't go to the service station now. Spend 170 bucks. Yeah. Like it's, you gotta tee, everyone got a t-shirt. Everyone got a, a lure and a catch bag and a. It's, it's amazing. 

Yeah. Like, and you learn a shit load too, right? Yeah. 

Like it's priceless. And or even just sitting around like, like you said at those nights at RO and talking to the best fishermen around.

Yeah. That's what I'm looking for. That's 

what our whole concept of this podcast is, right? Like we, we always say we're not the best fishermen, but the fact that we get to sit with guys like you and some of the guests that we've had on is the best thing. And the whole concept for coming up with this podcast is like, you can sit at a bar and listen to the old guy talk and you shut up and you listen.

Mm. And this, this comp, is that the opportunity to do that? And even when we went and met with the guys at the sailing club and we were talking to 'em, it was like what you said about and being hospitable, like we got that straight away. Mm. But the other thing was they weren't afraid to give us a little bit of info and a point in the right direction, which was the coolest part of all of it.

I 

know other states in Australia probably aren't the same. And I've got some really good mates at Fish around and they've come over here and like, fuck man, it's nothing like this at home. Yeah. All secret squirrels like. They say the same about the states too. If you, this is my view on it. I'm not proclaiming to be the world's best fisherman, but if you can't have someone ask you a question and you give 'em a fucking straight answer, you don't deserve to get one yourself.

Yeah. Like in this sport, the way things are going, everyone needs to be helping each other, like each other out. 

Like particularly with Pelagics as well, because like you said, they're moving through. No, it's not like giving someone a lump and then it getting hammered out is it don't, and they're moving every day.

I don't have a, well, I do have a blue Marlon spots. It's the fucking Indian Ocean. It's just out there. Yeah. Like you do, you do catch, you got Mark. Oh, you've got a, we've got a nice couple of fish here. Three years ago. Yeah. Righto. Okay. Go out there and you, you catch another fish there. Yep. But it's only 'cause you went there.

You fucking turned around, went the other way. You probably would've caught one 

there too. It's 

like 

people that have got a favorite lure, it's because it's the lure that you are using. Absolutely. Redwater. It's the same. It's the same thing. But is it the same principle as obviously, because like you said, they're in sitting in different parts of the water column, currents, everything play a role.

But are you looking for bait or 

are you looking for fish? This is, this is just before you answer that one, Tommy, the thing that stands out to me is Tommy's saying he hasn't fished behind Roddo. 

No, I've never fished there before. 

So you don't know where you're going. You're going and you're having a punt.

So explain into what Lex's asking you. What are you looking for going out to new ground like that for somebody like us, you know, granted we got Whitey there, he's gonna know this stuff too. But for someone who might wanna join the comp for the first time, what should they be looking for? 

So this won't mean anything to you guys, but my old man always says, oh, which, um, Dave Collin's, an old, real old friend of the old man's.

Dave column theory of fishing fish for every other fucker is fishing. That's the first thing. Like look for class action. But 

in saying that, like if you can keep up lot, Rex Rexy 

used to say no point fishing with a fish ain't pretty fucking simple mouse like Yeah, no point putting your gear in and fucking cos and trawling from the beach to the rock.

Like yeah, 

get out there. 

Yeah, get out there and have a crack. But we thought we knew everything. Caught two fish and in Perth there's no, go ahead. This is easy. Not that hard. Throw your fucking teaser in the piss. Yeah. Don't need teasers. 

Catch two fish still catch 'em. Donated a teaser to the guys. This is, that's what gave the fish and then 

stood down and scratched their heads.

Like rather dogs for up 

mark can be very fucking hu. 

Oh man. So how, how much did you win the comp combine? Only just, or there was a, so I think we won it on points, right? Yeah, we won it on points. Yeah. 

But the, so, um, Mark Rich, who's the, he's actually the treasurer, whack that mark. Great guy. Um. He, they caught their first blue Marlon ever in this tournament last year.

Followed by the second one. Yeah. Wow. And by the end of it, I was trolling by Mark Rich. Like, yeah. Like, yeah. He's never, where are these people? Like did 

he have his family on board too? Like he was fishing with his, uh, with his daughter or something? 

Not sure. I think he had some mates on board, but yeah, it was like, I think you did getting call of that man.

You just finished second in like one of the biggest 

Yeah. 

Comps outta like entry comps in the state, like, yeah. Fucking good shit. 

Yeah. Well done. Like, well, we're hoping to get good numbers this year. I, I like, like you said, even just for the social side of it. I can't wait. Alright. So when I've retired from footy.

Seven years ago or whatever it is now. Did you play footy? Yeah. Tell us. We were talking about success, so Yeah, no. Um, yeah, so when I, when I retired and was, my whole thing was like, I'm gonna fish every competition in the state. Like, I'm just gonna, like, I was competitive. That was one of my things with footy and I'd never really fished like that.

And when I finished I was like, I don't want it to ruin fishing for me. I was like, I, I like to fish for a feed. Same thing with hunting, all that sort of stuff. I'm like, I don't want the competitive edge to come out and bring that into fishing. I just enjoyed it too much. Um, but what I have found is, which is why I'm so excited to be doing the, the blue Marlon, is um, there's certain competitions throughout the state and like you said, that have got a good culture.

Oh yeah. Um, the M 10 was another one up at Onslow. That was great. That's a family sort of event. Um. For me, this is my first, first billfish home. Yeah. And I hope it sort of becomes an annual thing for me as well, because like you said, it's right at our doorstep. The mersel are on the outer, so for anyone out there that's got a boat and you're looking for something to do, sign up and hundred percent, hundred off.

If you can't have 

a good time at this fish and comp, it's your own fault. 

Yeah, 

there you go. It's, 

I'm a little bit concerned though. Just, sorry, Rossie to cut you off that we have a. Probably a, I don't know, 40 foot deck on this boat. And he's probably gonna be bringing Swags up and, and we'll be parked at Roddo.

Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna have some bit of a raft up going on. Be a big night. Yeah. Yeah. 

I think Tommy's down to about six beers already. Just sitting here, there. Sams one on their only little

day two. Could be a real, that slow start. Yeah. Yeah. This could be good fun. It's all part of the plan, 

but yeah. For anybody that is listening that wants to give it a crack, um, as l was saying, ERs closure, it's not the end of the world. You can still go fishing. There's plenty out there. This is an opportunity for you guys to get out there, learn how to do something a little bit different, and diversify your fishing skillset.

Yeah. So, um, we're having a crack. 

There's no, there is no stupid question ever. Like with everything. Yep. It's, we're all there to help. Yeah. Like. If you got a question ask, it's any stupid answers. There you go. Straight from the horse's mouth. So the, 

the, the day for that would be the information night, which is I think a hundred percent.

Fucking there's another one, like someone on, that's the 29th of January. The information night. If you're gonna sign up, I'll make sure I'm there because I'll, same thing I'll be picking. Speaking your brains for that one. 

Yep. So 29th of January, there's a blue, blue water fishing masterclass. Beers will be on.

It's gonna be a good time, but, um, wanna be, if you do wanna sign, sign up and have a crack at this comp. Um, there's early bird entry up until, uh, the end of January, so hop on the Freeman of Sailing club web, website, register, come have a crack, have a yarn, we'll have a beer together. It'd be a good time.

Yeah, it's gonna 

be awesome, mate. I can't wait. And hopefully we can land a land a Marlon Roth. How could that be? Oh, mate, I'll be losing my mind. Well, you got the right bloke on board to do. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. For a good time and for a Marlon, before we move on to, um, the next thing, what lures are you using?

Because I know it's pretty close to your heart. Hey. Oh, Kos all s 

Redhead Laser Pro. Yeah. Two tens. Uh, no, I've, I've, yeah, I sort of dabbling. I'm gonna say I'm a lure maker, but I've drawn a few up and I, I get 'em made. Um. 

Few lu in your time, Tommy. Yeah, I've, yeah. Give yourself a bit of credit, man. 

A little, little law company called Current Line Lus.

Yep. Um, I don't know, seem to be working, so 

I'm gonna say it 'cause Tommy too, I'm gonna say it, but some of the best fishermen in the state are using Tommy's Lure. Yeah, yeah. We're getting there. Slowly. They're working. 

I, uh, it was pretty when Gabriel won on, won the comp in Perth and I was pretty happy when we won the comp in Rio.

On your own lure? Yep. 

And Game Andex. Yeah. So what made you get into drawing 'em up? Was it just a gap in the market? You couldn't get what you wanted? I know there's some really, really good lure makers out there. Uh, 

I 

don't really know. I, I used to use a lot of, um, uh, Kenny from tornado lures. He is on the East coast.

Um, his, his lures. And then I did a trip to China with Temple Reef, um, one of the trade shows. And I met this guy there who he wouldn't know one hand to hook from another. No idea about fishing, but he'd pour resin. Yep. Yep. And, um, got yarning with him and gimme a handful of stuff and brought it home and ran and changed this and did that and played with colors and know, order a box of these things and see how we go and bought fish straight away.

So, um, we did quite well in, um, on Graham Hills boat hall, um, on the A OBT when it was in X mouth years and years ago. And ended up, um, a shot at fishing in a y after that. And that was sort of the start. I was like, oh, well work then. I'll keep having a crack. So yeah, not really, uh, not really money making exercise.

Just enjoy giving me mates. A few lures feel passionate. Passion. Passion. Yeah. 

I a crack. So. So if you've got one of your lures in your spread, which one's it gotta be 

big, bright, green ego buster. Talk 

through the ego buster. What's the theory behind it? 

Uh. 

Face or what's, yeah, so it's fucking, 

fucking easy.

Is that where you'd go as well, Sammy? Same lure, or 

you got, well, it depends on what we're chasing, but yeah. Little black male, like a black and purple free baller. But blue Marlon, then the ego buster for sure. 

Yeah, it's, I don't know, I would, would always brought up fish from a blue Marlon. The big fish.

You've got a big lure and the best bites always come on, big lures. Um, and at the time, and, and still now, but at the time, the bloke I was fishing with, oh, Bobby Whitcomb was running bonds violators, fuck, you'd have four of 'em in the spread. 

They're those huge things. 

Massive things that, that was the lure.

I was like, gonna make one of these myself. I gotta a crack at this. So hence the name Ego buster. That was the, yeah. Anyway, so, um, Gabriel Rules fish out the trench last year with his boys on a bright green ego buster. Um, we caught the first. Blue Marlon ever caught out a shark bay on a recreational vessel.

2019. Yeah. Wow. Followed by the second one on the same day. Both on ego busters. Um, couldn't buy a, couldn't bought a Chinese restaurant the other week. Put the ego buster on the short, kind of fucking bang. Got two fish in two hours. Yeah. Right. But with that comes risk too. Like you've got, it's quite a big lure.

So when these things carry on, sort of, we explain, it's like your Mrs puts a big gold earring in her head on her ear and the other side, she puts a feather and then she runs down the road with the shits on, with you trying to shake her head and tell you off which earring falls out first. The big one, you know what I mean?

Like the heavy one comes out first like that. Um, yeah. So the tension of, so if you can hook a fish on little Lu, that's the one to hook him. Like hooking 

a herring on a twisty, yeah. She's gonna 

start it every time. But if you creek, if you don't get the chance to hook him to start with. You gotta, you so, 

yeah, you gotta piss the misses off and start with That's right.

That's exactly right. Good at doing that. You mentioned Shark Bay as well. Yeah. You lived up there for a while, eh? I spent three years in useless loop. Yeah. What? That must've been an epic experience. Oh, we caught a few fish. Yeah, I've seen you. So what's your Instagram handle? Just Tommy Miller. Tommy Miller?

Yeah. Yeah. Nine one. Nine one. If you haven't had a look at it, that's how old I'm nine one. Yeah. Were you born in nine? One? Fuck you. Yeah. You spent some days on the sea. You love me mate. You got the Oh man. Old man, boy reckons he was born old. Yeah. Yeah mate. So I'm going, I'm actually going up to Shark Bay soon.

Yeah. So, um, by the time this episode comes out, I'll probably be there. So mate, wanted to come Broadville fishing. I would love to come brought. Yeah. Yeah. You've been shark by, just let us know when. Don't tell me that. 

Let us know when you're gonna Sharp bay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll give you a ring the day before.

Yeah, yeah. 

True. Yeah. Sorry. Almost went over my head. Fuck you. Um, but yeah, that, so like everything from the yellow fin tuna. Yeah. That, that big tailor, giant herring scene. The mul away that you had, that you got up there. You must have had a hell time. 

Oh fuck mate. I used to get in the truck with the old boy and we'd be going Game X and you'd look at that limestone sign.

Well probably should go in there one day. The fucking overland just kept driving. Yeah. Like, and then Mrs. Is a teacher. Um, teacher. She entered the remote teaching pool, snagged a job up there at Useless Loop. I was like, oh, sorry. She entered the remote teaching pool. I said. Pretty fucking simply as we left Kartha, I said, you wanna hope there's fucking salt water there, otherwise you can't grow yourself.

So, uh, just so having Sarah's auntie was the principal at Useless Loop, um, not the reader could have done anything about it, but Sarah had to get herself to the position that she could get chosen. So she ended up, she got the job at Useless Loop. Um, fuck, I think I was there like four hours. Oh, we'll give you a, we'll show you around.

Show the salt ponds. Yeah, yeah, no worries. Grab the fucking car and spin rod. Put in the back of the car. 

Drive along. Surely not you can pull up like,

fuck if it must be like 300 Taylor there. 

Yeah, right. Fuck grabbed the rod out, cast and you know, right on. Wouldn't have been there half a day and had a fish. Like, and it was something I'd never caught before. I was personal best fish and it was like. How big was that, Taylor? Oh 7 5800. Just like massive standard model one right there.

Right there. Yeah. And then you get that in Perth, you froth. Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. Like, and it Buck, man, we caught everything from fucking bonefish to billfish. Like Sam whining, brim, mul away. I know that's a big word in this room, but Mark, like, you name it, we caught it. Yeah. Like, and it wasn't until, um, till like, uh, 10, 10, 8, 9, 10 months before I was about to leave, I was building a 23 Bertram in, um, in Bustle.

And there James Kirkland was doing a shit load of work on that. And I was, I'm not gonna get this thing built, like, I'm going to leave this joint without having a proper boat. Yeah. Um, actually it might've been earlier than that. I, I bought a second boat. I bought a little pacemaker and told James fucking.

Stop building that thing. Build this thing. I need this by Christmas. Yeah. So that got knocked out. We, we built that, uh, well, James built it. I'll give him plenty of good ideas, which he didn't use because he's the boat builder. I'm, I'm an electrician. But, um, yeah, built this tough little boat. We caught all sorts of shit out of it, but we were probably pushing the friendship, you know, with 40 odd mile west of steep point and a 17 foot pacemaker fishing for blue marlin.

And it was, 

that's hectic. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, 

the raw bit of 

coast, 

oh mate, it's fucking, yeah, that's the story for later. But I got the point. I'm like, fuck, I'm not gonna have a real boat. So, you know, it's like once you start looking for a new boat, you buy a new boat. So, yeah. So we got down, this contender was over, over East, bought it, got it trucked over.

I think we did like 850 hours in like nine months or something. Yeah. Wow. Like, um, but. Fuck, we caught some fishmen. Like it wasn't until those last like eight or nine months that you're like, 

fuck, I caught 

one of these here about the same time of year last year. Like Elli or what? Whatever we were talking about.

Go back through the phone. Oh, actually two days out from 12 months we caught one out. So the whole place was completely seasonal. Took us three years to work that out. 

That's what sort of what Chris Dixon was saying as well, wasn't he? It's like it's a very like touchy place. Yeah. You gotta figure it out.

With tides and all that sort of stuff. 

We'd, we'd catch snapper on the ship loader catching there every day of the year. Yep. I'd, I'd be out, shouldn't say this 'cause it sounds bad, but we'd be doing our like monthly checks on the ship loader. I dunno if you guys know what Zo tape is. It's this greasy. Yeah.

I I work up north. Yeah. So this greasy ship oil, oily tape. It's the, it's the best stuff for keeping salt in and out. Yep. So if the salt's already in there, don't put denzo tape on. Yeah. But it's this waxy horrible. Shit. So we pig fat. Yeah. So we'd take this denzo tape off these junction boxes on the ship loader and then put new denzo tape on 'em.

I'd roll these balls of zo taper, throw 'em in the water. And these snapper would be fighting over it. Yeah. Wow. Like schools and schools and schools of snapper fighting over this denzo tape. Yet you go there at summertime, fuck you. You catch, you catch 'em on the, like on the plastic or something around the pylons, but those fish weren't there.

You'd go around, the headland might be five mile on a straight line or 20 mile by boat and they're all around there. Like they would just mooch around the coast, catch 'em air in September, catch around the other side in January. Yeah. Wow. But fucking 20 mile away, it's the same piece of coastline. Like So three years it took you almost to figure out Almost.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. But it was that with everything like. Gonna use your favorite fish rothi three days before the full moon bang. Catch byway. Yep. Yeah, right dead on the full moon. There'd be Queensland grope on the pylons. Never seen them rest of the month dead on the full moon. There'd be two of 'em stacked up on each pole on the way out to the jetty.

That's, yeah, 

you keep catch data or anything. It was up here, 

full moon, full moon in August. You could fucking walk to the end of the ship loader on the Yellowfin brim. They'd be spawning at the base of the ship loader, like you couldn't see the bottom through. 

Yeah. Wicked. 

And then as soon as the mo moon went, gone, 

what's happening in January?

'cause that's when, I'll be honest,

borrows bar as much wind as you can possibly get and catch snapper to you. Yeah, that's content. Yeah, we could, yeah, there's, there's always something to catch up there, man. 

So with, with Shark Bay, I will just say, yeah, that's outside of the zone now. A hundred percent. 

Yeah. So we used to get a bit of flack from that 'cause.

And I'd be fishing and trawling. We'd be catching pinkies on deep dors and you know, just around fishing, oh, it's a Demersal band. It's, this is us. Oh man. The whole world doesn't revolve around demersal fish. Like, well that's one, 

we're in a different zone. And two, like, and that's the mindset, right? So I, I would just say these places, and Sammy, you probably back this up, they're, they're gonna get more pressure.

Um, hundred percent. So if we're already getting more pressure, man, already getting more pressure, I, and like we, us talking about it probably doesn't help as well. We, I love the place, but the double-edged sword isn't the cultural shift around fishing as well is like, you, you're gonna have to go to these places and it's not about coming home with the numbers of, of fillets that you're allowed.

It's like, go and enjoy the places. Yeah. Catch a fresh feed. Yeah. Target a few different species that you can't do anywhere else. And let's try enjoy the sport for what it is. Yeah. 

It's a sport. If you, if you think you're entitled to taking 10 kilos of fish home every time you leave denim, you don't deserve to be there.

Like what's the difference between catching a snapper on a stick bait or a soft plastic or going and catching a golden valley? Yeah. All wicked fun. Yeah. No shit. The fight's the same. Catch one snapper and catch 

four of golden tri valley. Catch yourself a fresh feed of fish and Yeah. And keep the place.

Yeah. In a good nick. Yeah. You need to change that mentality. Yeah. That's it. 

A hundred percent. Well, 

what do you reckon, Rothi? I reckon we, uh, well, before we move on to, just, just on that, 

like, I was thinking, I was thinking whether or not to say it, but you, it is, the government manages the fishery, but it's up to us as fishermen, as stewards of the ocean to actually have a bit of accountability and responsibility and like figure out where we can do better, don't you reckon?

A hundred percent. Yeah. It's not all up to them. It's like, make a smart choice. Do the right thing, have a conscience and, and look after that fishery so you can keep fishing it, your kids can fish it. 

He actually fished a heavy tackle with us. Just gone. Um, bloke's name's Jared Osborne living in Salt. I think his Instagram page is, I follow him.

Yeah. He's 

a big fan of the potty. 

Joined the naturalist game fishing club. Only just gone, um, this year. Um, we fishes three or four times a week. He is the only one so far. It's like, oh, fuck it. I just have to learn how to catch something else. Yeah. It's a good shift. It's like there should be more of it.

Yeah. Like, oh, I can't catch King George. Oh yeah. Know whether there's any bull chin. Yeah. Do actually go there. Fucking try that. Yeah. What do you mean try it? Oh, catching in King George. Yeah. You got a couple. It's, it's like you gotta fucking try man. It's You gotta 

try. I remember. Go. So I caught the biggest ever King George I've ever caught.

It's funny that you say that off Savannah's. And I was fishing for Demersal. This is, and I went back there with Whiting gear and caught the biggest ever Baldy I've ever caught on Whiting gear. So exactly what you say is King George and belching Grpa. They're not far off each other. Yeah. Yeah. Broken coral.

It's a, it is a good point and it's a great mindset to have. So, yeah, a hundred percent You 

gotta enjoy the sport for what it is. Whether it's fucking throwing lures into trees when they're two minutes old trying to catch fucking trout and Harvey, or, you know, try something different. Don't take your 

bat and your ball and go home.

No, that's right. 

If you wanna, you wanna to call yourself a fisherman, go and be a fisherman. Go. 

And I'm so glad you said it, not me, like, fucking go and do it. Like 

it's, it's about my old man says it all the time, like you go fucking King George Whiting fishing, and you come home with a blue mar, you've actually fucked up.

Like you've failed, like you've gone to catch whiting. If you haven't caught Whiting, I'm another go at catching 'em. 'cause you Yeah. You know, you might, you know, or your Joeys or whatever. You go on, go on juy fishing and you come home with a swordfish. Uh, probably in the wrong spot. You haven't figured it out.

Yeah. Yeah. It's cool. But you're not set yourself 

a challenge. I want to go and catch with the fuck. Wanna go and catch Garfish for the cast net? Whatever it is, set yourself a challenge and go and do it. You don't do it the first time. Do it next time. 

Metro Blue Marlin. That's, uh, that's uh, with the cast net.

No, that's our challenge, Ross accepted. Well, before we move on to a couple of listening questions, I wanna ask you your biggest, this is a segment. Alright. It's probably my favorite segment. Biggest fuck up. What's your biggest wood duck story? Oh, fuck. There's a few there. I'm assuming you'd have a couple.

Oh, Sammy, you can throw 'em under the bus anytime you like as well. Fuck. Go for it. Be a good start. 

Well actually, um, oh fuck. I don't know. There's plenty of them. 

The worst one, the one that comes to your mind straight away. Oh, 

one that. Still gets a bit of traction. I, um, I fish with him. Um, James Norris, good mate of mine from the east coast owns down under dredge poles.

Um, and my electrical superintendent at the time when we were working at Barrow Island, Justin Clark, when we went to the heavy tackle com, was probably the first or second ones there. And, um, all excited full of, fucking full of all sorts of good ideas really. We had shit loads. It was, it was fucking rough.

'cause that's what it's like. Anyway, Norris had done shit load shit, loads of fishing. He's done shit. Loads of fishing. I dont eat fishing. Justin was fucking trying to keep up. Fucking sure he got hypothermia. But, um, we end up, uh, Justin was, Justin was chronically seasick. It's a few parts to this story.

Justin was chronically seasick. The only bloke I've ever seen sit inside a center console on a toilet for eight hours and look at the fucking wall. 'cause he was warm. Anyway, we Well he was shitting. No, he was just sitting there. He was just sitting there. I was like, fuck. Get outta the wind. Anyway, we, we fucking, well I dunno what happened.

We wanted a fish or something. I dunno, but ba fish on 60 or something. Yeah, whatever it was. It was a, yeah. Anyway, so Justin decides he is coming outta the console and he is feeling like shit. So he stands up and he spews and he hits Norris about fucking tit whore with spew. And it's just fucking running down the side of his body.

Me and him would just fucking piss ourselves. Like I didn't know what else to do, you know? Anyway, so, um. Fuck, turn the deck, push on. Fuck we no fuck, no chance. Anyway, so we finally hosed his shit off. Him and Josh went back at the cot. So we kept fishing, whatever else anyway, come time to pack up. Anyway, he's on one side doing one outrigger.

I'm doing the other one. It was something warm on me leg and I, I fucking look down like this and there's Norris down there with the fucking op rum can in his hand. There's nobody fucking laughs at me and he's just pissing straight on me car. So that, that set the scene for the afternoon. We end up back at the presentation, presentation note at the club, and then we ended up at the pot shot, got fucking cut off, got told we had to drink more water and they, and they wouldn't give us more water.

Told us to fuck off. I end up with a cup full outta the fish pond and I was so fucking a cup full of water 

outta the fish pond, outta the fish pond. I was put 

for fucking two days later and that's probably 

it. Fucking Norris still brings it up to this day. Like, stay away from that fish pond Miller. Oh God, 

been water outta the 

fish pond.

That 

is heavy. 

There's been a few of them. Oh, that's an imaginable 

man. Like you would have quite a few, but I think it's about time we throw you some listener questions, mate. So, uh, yeah, this is an exciting potty because it's the first time that we've actually, um, had di on onboard. I know you boys as shaman boy guys, but uh, yeah, dire have gotten behind us.

They're supporting the Tall Tales podcast for 2026 and, uh, part of, um, what they're doing is, uh, backing you guys into some listener questions. So, um, everyone knows that it's my pet peeve when someone asks a shit listener question. We get some terrible thing is a bad question. I'm telling you mate, there's some terrible listeners questions that come through.

No Nico guy 

said, no problems, just solution. 

So, uh, every episode the, we're gonna pick three listener questions outta the bunch and, uh, the best one's gonna get a little dial a prize back. So, yeah. Sweet. Um, I've, I've earmarked a few here. Lex's got his phone open. He's gonna choose a couple of random, but, um, this episode, the best question's gonna get this little, uh, TD black MQ 2,500.

Um, bit little reel, little budget friendly reel, but, um, they pack a punch. I've used these myself. LL and I both had 'em on this bar trip that we've just been to, so, awesome. Lu mate, you're gonna get for simply asking the question. Awesome 

Lu. Yeah, we've, all these questions always had a few be part of the puzzle.

Yeah. Um, but yeah, um, l and I have been using these on the Barrer trip. Can't complain. They're epic little reels. So just simply by asking a, a good question, you can, um, have a, have a reel or a pack, LUS or Rod in the mail coming to you. So we'll kick it off with the first one. So, um, the first question is from Mitch Palmer, and he's asked.

Most overlooked item for new game fishermen. Hook for. There you go. Yep. Beauty. So you wanna keep your hook sharp. Fuck. Keep 'em sharp and keep 'em wet. Yep. Yep. Cool. Um, how are you going about knocking over Marlin quickly in a comp A few tips or tricks for the skipper That's from Brody's fishing. 

Uh, every fish is completely different.

Um, a bit of talk about drag settings, lighter drags, heavier drags. I think you just gotta, I don't know. Every fish is completely different. Like we caught one in seven minutes or something the other day. Um, and you always say fuck quick. One's a good one. Like you always have the mess, fun and doesn't go deep.

And the man on the leader's doing his bit, the angler's doing his bit and the bloke with the tag pole's getting abused. Hurry up, fuck, there's only about fucking seven lengths outta reach, but hurry up, you should be able to reach and I can see it. Um, what about the skipper? Yeah, a pretty important part to play there.

I think if you can see the fish, that's where you need to go drive at it. Don't worry about the belly of line. Like don't belly. Yeah, like you, if you've got shit loads, just go straight at it. If you've got shit loads of line in the water, you just gotta think of all that line tension. So then you've gotta back your drag off.

You got shit loads of line in the water. Your spool has decreased. So it's like riding your push bike up a steep hill, you know what I mean? Oh, in a 

high gear. I heard bonds talking about that. 

Low gear, high gear you don't like. So like leverage, you don't have the hundred percent, you don't have the leverage on the spool, but when you lose line, your drag's increasing 'cause the wheel's got smaller.

Make sense? Yeah. Comfort. So yeah. So you need to back your drag off. They don't snap the fish off, but if you can see where the fish is, four old angler's gotta wind the line in anyway. You head straight for the fish, let the belly, whether you got slack line or not. You just keep that, let that belly. Do its job, right?

So you drive straight at the fish, you're gonna wind that line up eventually. That's holding tension 

in the Yeah, in the hook, right? Yeah. Because you got all that belly out that through the water. 

Uh, and the lines behind the fish too. So the hook's fucking facing 'em backwards. So, yeah. Gotcha. 

Yeah, that was a great question.

So it's every fish's completely different. Don't be afraid to drive straight at the fish if you can see it. If you can't see it, do what you need to do to keep the line tight. 

Gotcha. 

Um, slack line's. Bad belly and line's good. Yeah, but don't, yeah. Wicked question. 

Brody. I'll be keeping an eye on how wide he drives.

Don't worry about that. Give him a few tips. He knows I would too. Yeah. Doesn't run into 

anything. Last 

one I've written down here, so I kind of have an idea of what he's talking about, but you probably have more, more of an idea. Um, stiff rig or swinging hook when pulling skirts for billfish. That's from pretty funny Instagram name.

John. Kids on Prodigy. 

Oh yeah. This is a touchy subject. Uh, 

so explain to us what a stiff rig is and what a swinging and hook setup is. 

Yeah, so a stiff rig, um, you're gonna go to the letter of the lure. It's pretty much like much heat, shrink and shit as you can get between the rs end of the lure and hook.

Make it stiff, make it literally like a gaff. They used to call Ross Newton and Bernie Bow used to call 'em gaff rig. So in the back of your lure, they run like a rubber grommet. So you, your line feeds through that, comes out the head of the lure and trailing behind. That's your hook rig. So you pull that tight into that rubber grommet and it secures it.

Then you could adjust by twisting it in the grommet where the hook sits. So with a gaff rig, literally like a gaff, like hold the lure up like that. And the hooks 

Yep. 

Stands up. Swinging hook rig, like Eddie Lawler runs, or bonds runs or sene bend runs is a piece of uh, 49 strand harness wire. Um, single hook on the end.

Uh, and then they'll heat shrink halfway up the loop that's crimped onto the hook, and then they'll heat shrink back the other way, halfway up the eye of the hook. But then that hook can only swing a certain way. Like it can only go 45 degrees one way, 45 degrees the other way. It can't tip back on itself.

Yep. Either. Um, and also if you get a bite, you can see that if it's a brand new rig that that heat shrink scuffed up. I don't do either of them. Right. So I run, I don't run a stiff rig or a swinging hook rig. I run 49 strand wire. I've got my hook on the end. I heat shrink the hook, 

the crimp joint back to the wire 

with glued heat shrink.

And then I go from the end of that wire to a loop to loop connection between your, just to say, 500 pound mono to your 49 strand wire. I'll heat shrink that as well so it can't move. So all the, all the action and all the wobble, the vibration, everything comes back through the wire. So when I set my, um, when I 

set my hook in my lure, that's where it sits.

The hook 

can move left and right, but it moves with the wire. There's pros and cons I guess you'd say. So if with the swinging hook rig, I understand the idea about it, um, where. You've got the hook there, sitting there swinging and the bill comes in and, 'cause obviously they hit everything in their bill.

So that comes in and if it doesn't happen to go into the bill, into the mouth, that hook can then roll over and sort of like catch. Um, and the hook's got more movement we'd say to catch. Yep. Um, 

depends on the hook shape too 

as well. Yeah. So I, I run wine the way they are because I want sort of the best of both worlds.

Yep. Um, I want a hook sitting where I want my hook sitting, but then I also still needs to move a bit. Yeah, yeah. Like, um, I dunno, I've always done it like that. I've never had a drama such, I've used to snap a bit of wire in the early days only 'cause I was using too lot of wire. So bit of a best of 

both worlds 

pretty much, mate.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, there's, there's plenty of stuff written up about it. Um, I, so Bernie Vale and Ross Newton probably the. Couple of the biggest pioneers on the northwest. Um, they all run stiff reef. Sounds 

like we're 

gonna have to do a bit 

of research before we can. Oh man. I'm so overwhelmed. It's not even funny.

Glad we got, 

can you imagine if we were fishing this by 

myself? 

You should have seen, you should seen my efforts off on So with Nathan. Um, yeah. Chasing sailfish. Fucking hell. We ended up with like teases and everything and the outboard, like, it was just an absolute classic of fuck dropping fish. It was just a, it was fun though.

But yeah, we didn't get any fish on board. That's what you get for fish sale fish anyway. Yeah. Um, I'll ask a couple, um, Cameron, I dunno what this is. Cameron Farm mess I think. Um, simple question, but I'm interested in your answer. If you could only catch one fish for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Blue melon. Blue melon? Yeah. Alright. Yeah, that was, uh, I thought there might be a, a different answer. Just, just as a, I'll throw that one out there. Um, and the other one is, what's your best, this is Johnny, Utah, 29. I'm assuming you know him. Um, never heard of the bike. There you go. He's up in karate. Good fisherman himself.

What's your best memory? You've got Fisher with 

your dad? Uh, we oh shit. Loads of them, but, um, we caught, uh, we caught the last two fish ever caught on Sty Barrow the rig. Um, which was, I can't remember if it was a Game X or a Bill Fish bash or something that they had up there. Um, oh, that was the rig off Exmouth, eh?

Yeah, it was out in about 900, 8 50, 900. Um, pretty much the fucking Marlin factory. They, well they made them there. Yeah. Giant fat. Oh, it was huge, man. Yeah. It was one of those, um, FPSOs that sat out there and just churned away. It had a.

On the nose of it, it had a dy of water that was half a mile long and the birds were always there and the bait was always there and spent a lot of time out there on Bob Whitcomb 35 Caribbean. And um, yeah, the, the old man I fished there was the last day this comp, um, had shit run, pulling hooks and dropping fish and whatever if the rest of the comp, um, there was six bites there that day 'cause we were, we'd called pretty big numbers over the week and hadn't really caught a great deal.

Um, and then everyone sort of heading back background in the marina, so everyone that hadn't really caught anything or wanted to catch a big fish was out there with us. Um, we caught the only two fish of the day outta six boats out there. The old man got one that's probably, it would've been two 50 or two 60 kilos.

Um, and there was a bit of banter going on. I fucking not want another one of those fucking things in. Let's have a beer and go home. Another couple of fish here. Surely. Anyway, old Bobby, who he used to do a lot of fishing with, was fishing side by side with us. He'd seen the whole thing and you know, it was only the old man and I, so, um, I think Jason Edwards was there on, um, with John Owen.

Three drops and there's a couple other boats in the area. All group of old mates, really? Anyway, would I not want another one of these fucking in? Well, if we get another one, I'll want it in. I know. Yep. All good. Another can did another lap. Did another lap. Did another lap. Fuck this. Had I fucking bang it the biggest day, but still to this day, the biggest fish I've ever caught.

Um, yep. 3.2 meters, 3.2, 3.3 meters. Short length, which is 300, 3 50 kilos. Fucking big. That's a big, that's a big fish getting up there. Um, we spent a couple hours on it. Fucking thing went past Bob's boat quicker than it went past ours. Like it was, yeah, it was a, it was a fucking hell of a fish. Um, I caught it with me, old man.

Just a 

cool experience. Yeah. Fucking man. Like yeah, we got, we had a shit comp. We caught those last two fish, the of the comp. Um, last two fish at Sty borough. We got back to the fishing club late, um, pulled up in the truck, got out, went to go walk up the stairs, and all the boys that were there having a beer all stood up and fucking clapped their hands and wicked.

Oh, how good. So, yeah, 

that's what we talk about with fun luck, eh? It's like the hard, hard as 

well, like Yeah. The emotion as well in fishing as well, Sydney, being able to do that with your old man and for you to be able to spend that much time on the water with your old boy. Oh fuck mate. Don't You're lucky dude.

I'd like to fucking drown him most of the, yeah, most of the time. But yeah, that's why I bring Sammy. 'cause he needs a, yeah. Gotta put up. Carer 

needs a cold can of export and make sure he doesn't get fucking sunburned and a fucking bean bag. Yeah. And a beanbag. Yeah. With a seed mate. 

Yeah. You're lucky. I mate, some of my favorite days are fishing with my old man.

Oh yeah, yeah. My son. All that sort of stuff. So 

that's good. Now the kids are coming along too. Like 

we could 

Yeah, no, it's good. 

Generational fisherman too. You were saying off air. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me 

granddad de did a lot. He did a bit, but not, not nothing 

like we do now. And like you can tell true fishermen like enjoy the fishing but enjoy the social side of it as well.

Oh yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. I've got all to do with the fishing. I've never 

been around that. So I'm pumped for this comp man to get over there and just have a crack, mix it with everybody and and chat shit about fishing. That's the part of it that I'm most excited for before. We're gonna have to pick a best question outta there too.

Yeah, we do. So. My vote is the one that got, so the idea behind the best question, it gets the best answer, right? So for me, I think it's, um, from Brody's fishing, how are you going about knocking over marlin quickly in a comp? That's that for 

me. I, I tend to agree with, it's the best question and the best. Um, there's a bit of detail in that answer, but I find it hard to go past the best memory with your dad because I, I can see Johnny needs it.

Here's the problem.

He's sham. So Johnny, 

that is my favorite question, Ben, but you can get stuffed as well. But honestly it's the question, the way the question makes you feel as well. Mate, I reckon that was an absolute belt question. That was a 

banger. So you've been saved by the bell there. Brody's fishing. Yep. I reckon you in the TD black brother.

So we will get that in the mail for you, mate. Well done and we'll give a 

few key dates out as well right now before we wrap into. Quick fire 'cause we're gonna wrap it up with that. Um, so Thursday the 29th of January. Freemantle Sailing Club. It's a game. Fishing info night. Make sure you sign up before then.

Get down to there, we'll all be down there. Um, and then the comp runs from the 28th of February to the 2nd of March. So, um, there's a couple of nights over at Roddo over there as well. Same thing, we'll be there. It'll be social. Um, we'll all be having a good time. It's the 47th Sovereign blue Marlon Classic.

It's the Perth Premier and longest running blue water fishing competition. So make sure you sign up. It's gonna be hell time. Hopefully there's heaps of fish court and some warm weather and there's plenty of fishermen out there giving it a crack for the first time. Hey, Rothi can't wait, mate. We'll be tour and if there's not, we'll have 

fucking fun doing it.

That's right. That's, we definitely 

make the social pages. Yeah, that's it. All right. Hopefully not the news. All right, we're gonna wrap it up with the quick fire. So Sammy, you've already done this so you can tell. Yeah. All right. So top three Eating fish as above. That's a 

uh, fuck um,

quick fire. Yeah, no. Fuck because a few before Christmas. Um, 

I dunno, it's pretty hard to go past a piece of dew fish to be honest with you. Yeah. Um, I'm gonna give you four. Alright. So 

Dew fish, blue vela. '

cause they, they always taste better when you fucking have to work harder to catch 'em. Yep. Yeah mate. A hundred percent.

Yeah. Like if you've gotta warn em up fucking 400 meters on a jig, they always taste good. Um, king George Whiting 'cause they're a pain in the ass to catch. Uh, and favorite pelagic would have to be wahoo. 

Right. Yep. A hundred percent. Well, Sammy's obviously not sharing the Patagonian tooth fish. No, that's right.

Makes good bait. Good. Uh, alright. Dialer or dialer? No dialer and tomato. All right. 

Yeah. That's quick fire for you. I know. I'm not even being biased. I, I, um, the old man always had shio fuck lives in the family. Yeah. I, um, yeah, I, a tail day five when I was 10, I think I rebuilt it fucking more times than years I was old, so I just fucked around.

The old man had TD fives that were custom built and this and that, and Johnny Det did the drags and just, anyway, that's all I wanted was a TD five, like the old man. So, yeah. But in saying that, uh, that fish I spoke about earlier, that Sambo, I got off the beach. It was my first Australian record I'd ever caught, and that was on a dial Caple.

Wicked. Yep. No, they both work. It's um, good answer. One lure for the rest of your life.

Probably that fucker that's stuck in the tree and army, it's quite brand new. Nah. Um, if I'm going blue Marlon fishing, it's gotta be that big grain bastard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 16 inch you go buster. Ego buster. All right. Best boat snack. Oh fuck. Cold piss. 

That's one of the best ones we've had. 

Yeah. Uh, cold piss cold.

KFC and those chili noodles that, um,

Olympic fucking foods something. Why Mrs. Old Lady does the books for Olympic foods and those trillion hurdles are pretty good. Yeah. Right. 

What did you say, Sammy, when you did it? Uh, cold Chick took the next day, I think it was. Yeah, 

yeah, yeah. Bucket list 

destination. 

Oh fuck. I wanna go to Madeira. 

Where's Madeira?

Uh, 

I've been 

living under a rock call. It's the, yeah, one of those. Uh, probably on par with Kona and that on the blue Marlon scene. So, yep. All about Marlon. Yep. Pretty much mate. Yeah. Um, pretty picturesque and scenic and from the photos I've seen, I haven't been there, but yeah. Big fish, that ascension island.

I wouldn't mind 

spending a month out there too. If you could have a beer out with any fish. O dead or alive. Who is it? 

Uh, fucking Hemingway. Yep. 

Yep. Um, just cause. Yep. I like it. Any advice for a young fisherman? What is it? Do it as fucking quickly and as do as much of it as you can. Yeah. Yeah. Um, buy the best you can afford at the time.

Keep your hooks wet and just fucking do it. If you get a chance to go, then jetty, go there. Jetty. Oh, I'm on the water. Yeah, just 

put the ass in. Yeah. Before we wrap up, Rossie, there's one thing that we've been asking our guests to do. And can see on there. Oh, we 

nearly forgot that. All right, so wall of fame behind you boys.

So Sammy, you unfortunately missed out on this man. I dunno if you brought it all with you today. Yeah, Sammy's, that's actually, oh, there you go. So I've 

got one here. 

Now that we're in our own studio, we've gotta allocate a little bit of the, uh, wall to our wall of fame. So we basically just, uh, let you guys donate a lure if you want to, to the wall of fame.

Put your little piece of fish, fish and history on the tall tails wall. So, brought a couple of lures there. Tommy, you've brought one. Sammy, you've brought one too. Got one. So what's the go boys? Walk us through these lures quickly and what they mean to you. That's wicked. I, I can't wait to hang that you 

go first.

I've been talking, I bought a couple. You have 

sick 

of it. Fucking hell fall asleep. Um, got it. I bought a couple, there's two lure there. One's an FC, obo two 20, Tommy's F thinking. And there's a Maria loaded, one 70 floating. Both those fucking lure in 2015, a trip to the Montebello Islands and they, those that's been hammered.

Yeah. Those, those lure have lasted the time they've been all around the world. A couple of trips tot ha Tahiti been to Oman. Um, they've caught dog tooth gts. And how's the 

teeth marks outta 

this thing? That, that load's been puncture. That was Ralphie. Yeah. That's been punching and Yeah, it's full of, it's fucked now it's full of water and split it and everything.

But that's caught a lot of fish. That thing 

probably two lures that you fucking wouldn't go anywhere without. 

Absolutely. They got that good 

juju now, huh? And 

the fucking loaded is cheapest chips too. Like when the, when the Spanish you're on a long time or whatever. Like the toothy critters. 

Fucking, 

why don't you call me that?

Yeah. It's not true. And that, uh, yeah, that fcl l's seen a, seen a few fish too. So those, those lurs have been with you a long time. Caught a lot of fish. They've got a lot of memories. 

Are you sure you wanna give 'em away? 

Oh, I want to, I'll give the, give you boys a loaded. 

Sick heap of character. 

Why won't me?

Pink lumber. Hey, the fact that we can hang that on the wall and you've got the, the memories mate. That's what we're trying to do here. So you can see some of the lures that we got hung up there already with some of the gurus we've had. Um, what do you got for us, Tommy? 

Uh, probably I'm a little bit sentimental with me laws, but, um, yeah, this is probably one of the first ones we ever made.

So, um, did quite well in the, in that a RB tournament. Um, been reskilled once. Looks like absolute dog shit at the moment, but it's caught a few fish. So that's 

what you want your lu to look like, mate. It's like someone with a clean boat. You never trust them. So yeah, how good's that? And you're happy for us to hang it on the wall?

Hang it on the wall, mate. You can use it in the comp if you want. How good's that 

wickeds. Epic lads. That's awesome. Well that was a sick episode. Blue Marlon Classic. Uh, 28th to, uh, February to the 2nd of March. We'll all be there. Sign up, get involved. 

All tails, thanks to Diwa as well. Getting behind the potty.

Yeah. Welcome Diwa. Thanks very much. Cheers everybody. Tall tails cheer. Cheers 

boys. Cheers boys. Bye. Rossie.