Boat Show wrap up

What a week.......

Day 1 talk

Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Melbourne BIAV Boat Show 2012 to get up on the fishing stage and share with the visitors to the show some info on Egi Techniques, Gan Craft and Gosen products and Squid.

This was a real honor and a privilege to be able to get up on the stage and talk about my fishing passion along side some great fishing minds like Lee Raynor, Charlie Micallef, Shaun Clancy, Bill Milonas, Dale McClelland the good folks from fisheries and of course Doug Phayer who kept us on time. I managed to fill 5 spots on the stage through out the week covering everything from squid spawning to egi techniques and correct product use. Was great to be able to get a fair crowd for each of the talks and they were all appreciated as I have never been a fan of talking to myself, I know I got heaps out of it I only hope the punters enjoyed it as much as I did.

Charlie

Being at the show so often I had a good chance to wonder around the show a lot and got to play with lots of new toys and dream about a few new toys like the Simrad NSS12. This unit was like teh hamburger with the lot including a touch screen and easy access menus, only took me a matter of minutes to work out what was what and how it all worked so very user friendly and just to rub it in a mate Brent bought one at the last minute for his Stabi Craft. I have a feeling that I may be spending a bit of time on his boat playing with the unit, I have also managed to borrow a demo unit of its baby brother the NSS8 from Bill at Navico so I can see how it compares with the HDS units I currently have and perhaps convince me to upgrade.

Standing on the roof of the evo

The new Evolution Axis was a pleasant change from the Melbourne mentality of must be a half cab to be a boat. This centre console weapon is based on the 550 Platinum from their current range but with no cab and a well thought out floor plan. Jimmy from Evolution had his work cut out for him convincing the owner of Evolution Paul Junginger to evolve from cab to flat casting deck but after much work the finished product was on display for the show. Speaking of evolution boats, I am not easily impressed with many boats, however, on asking Junginger about how strong his hardtop was and if you could put a Tuna tower on top he told me to climb on top and see. I am no light weight, in fact I weigh just on 125kg and I took him up on the challenge. I took my time at first as I did not want to break his nice shiny 650 Apex Predator but once on the roof I could not believe how strong it was, the roof did not bend flex or move in any way shape or form. Very impressed.

Day 2 talk

Managed to get some new LED lights for my trailer at a bargain price so now have some re wire work to do but well worth the investment.

Massive show with heaps to keep everyone entertained, much bigger in size than last year and hopefully a sign of things to come in the future.

Last of all massive thanks to Ben Scullin for getting me on the stage and also to Dale McClellend for broaching the subject of political threats to rec fishing in Australia.

View from Merrywell restaurant at Crown

Dale on rec fishing

Stage crowds

Lee Rayner

Day 3 Talk

Winger

Doug Phayer

BRP Girls

Final Day talk