Bluey

Sometimes we forget about the act of fishing – how it is an ancient form of hunting for sustenance ingrained in the genetic memory of many of us.

Pending our visit to his wonderful house on the NSW south coast, one man paddled out through the surf on a kayak and dived knowingly down to catch the red crabs for bait. Back into the kayak, he fished for two hours to catch this wonderful fish, and its mate. Scaled and cleaned on the beach, they rested in the fridge for our future repast.

It is a blue groper, native to, and official State fish of NSW. An iconic, revered species. Caught with dedication, love, joy and anticipation.

That evening, simply cooked by making a foil bag, covered with ginger and shallots and a swig of Chinese cooking wine, popped on a hotplate for about 15 minutes, then opened carefully for final spooning over of smoking hot peanut oil for the final sizzle before serving. With an excellent red, of course, and much fishy talk.

From ocean to table in one day by one man for a feast.

I honestly can't think of a more wonderful meal. An act of generosity, homage to nature, respect for the fish and its environment. Thanks so much, John and Sue.

Bermagui Revisited

I used to spend a lot of time in the Bermagui area, on the south coast of New South Wales. It's a beautiful place with a long maritime history, especially revolving around game fishing. Zane Grey put it on the map in 1936 when he spent several months there, caught a lot of striped marlin, and wrote eloquently about it.

This year, I revisited familiar places and old friends there. The work side of the trip was to monitor the annual game fishing tournament and to take biological samples from any fish that were brought to the weigh station (the great majority of fish are now tagged and released).

I've been doing this for many years, but over the past 7, have had funding to do so. This pays for travel and for training students in this aspect of fish biology. They love it, and, well, so do I.

This is one of only four marlin landed during the tournament. A nice striped marlin that Zane Grey would have been proud of.

Junior ('small fry') anglers had a special category. This is a striped tuna, more correctly known as skipjack tuna. It is one of the most prolific fishes in the world, and is the fish you eat whenever you open a can of tuna.

Striped tuna are very strong for their size, so catching one like this is worth a photo, eh?

Each year, I keep a look out for students who want to pursue a career in fisheries biology and give them some hands on experience in the gamefish fishery.

Karen Scott from Charles Sturt University has previously studied the diet of tiny freshwater gudgeons with tweezers, so being this close to a big marlin was a new experience. Good job, Karen!

And yes, the marlin was then filleted and frozen for future yummy meals.

Best Seller for the Publisher

The first list. I like lists, especially being on top of a list. Not that this is a familiar feeling, but it sure is a good one. This is not the top ten list of bestsellers from the New York Times, or Australian non-fiction titles, but it IS the current top ten list from my publisher, UNSW Press. Which makes me a happy chappy. (Click on the image on the left to enlarge, and see what the fuss is about).

Look what the cat dragged in

... an Eastern Water Dragon. Wes The Cat (Burmese) is generally content to sleep the days away, and yes, we do keep him in at night, but sometimes he wanders down into the garden and brings up something for me to look at. Usually small skinks, but occasionally a dragon!

I'm no lizard expert but from the size of this one, I figured it was a juvenile, but it has a lovely orange tummy which I think indicates male breeding colours.

See its belly? Very alluring. And in case you're wondering, Wes The Cat is remarkably gentle with lizards. He delicately holds them in his mouth at the back of the head and doesn't even puncture the skin ... really. After these quick pics, he (the dragon) was released on top of the rock tier, whereupon he took off like a scalded, err ... cat.

Doonan is not normally this exciting, by the way.

Sydney Game Fishing Club

Family, friends, colleagues and fishers - thank you for coming to the Sydney Game Fishing Club at Watson's Bay on Friday night.  What a great party you put on.

Thank you Alistair for introducing me and 'launching' the book in Sydney.

And to Glenn Wright, President of the SGFC, thanks to you and the club committee for your great organization and generosity.

Otto, barbeque chef extraordinaire. That pork was to die for (a bit different from the usual cheese and bikkies).

And thanks also to Barbara from Oscar and Friends Bookshop who took care of all the book sales on the night.

Top left photo:

That's my dad, Geoff Pepperell, there on the far left with my sister Jennifer and brother Chris.




Thanks for coming one and all. The book is now sailing proudly on the ocean waves.

Brisbane Launch at Mary Ryan's Bookstore

Men, women and children came - and they all love fish! And they bought every copy of the book in the shop.

The book now has a life of its own, having been launched into the wild blue yonder by Tim Simpson, fisher and editor extraordinaire. Thanks Tim.

And thank you for coming everyone.



And thank you Danette from Mary Ryan's Bookstore for hosting such a great event.

Hand painted from Guy Harvey

These arrived from Guy this week ready for me to sign and wing their way down to Launceston for binding.  I'm very pleased with them.  They look great.

They are the book plates that will be bound-in to the special editions. Click on the "About the Special Editions" on the side menu.